Pegasys jab

[gilded]

Super nurse jabbed me for the first time , in the stomach area , and demonstrated technique. Now I’m due to self-jab and am nervous of making a hash of it. Advice and tips would be much appreciated!

[hunter5582]

The main tip is that it is not big deal. Very easy to do and painless. With good sterile technique there should be no problems at all. One tip I did learn is that to prevent leakage from the subQ injection, leave the needle in for 3 seconds. The leakage does not happen often, but I did have it happen and looked it up.

[gilded in reply to hunter5582]

Ooh! Thanks a lot.

[JojoWonder]

Hello, I’ve been on Pegasys for 3 years now and like you I was nervous about administering myself but now it’s completely normal to me. My main advice is to make sure you are rotating your injections. When I first started on Pegasys I was doing 2 injections a week and wasn’t rotating my injections well and ended up with quite a few hard lumps. I’d inadvertently been injecting in the same place. They were a bit tender but dispersed with time.Also, don’t draw it out. I make an effort to do it as quickly as possible and not think about it too much. The thinking about it is worse than the practice itself. I have a constantly bruised tummy, not normal bruising in my case but almost more like a stain but as I wasn’t planning on wearing a crop top this summer 😉 it doesn’t matter too much.

Hope this helps x

[gilded in reply to JojoWonder]

Thanks for tips. Much appreciated. Wear your lumps and bumps with pride!

[Otterfield]

I was on Pegasys for a year and I was very nervous at first. I found that the best way was to do all the preparation slowly, even keeping the instructions to hand if you need to. When you grab flesh and have decided where to inject, don't hesitate. If you bleed a little, it doesn't matter - sometimes you nick a capillary. Usually it's painless, but if it hurts a little, it's nothing to worry about. Good luck.

[gilded]

Thanks a lot.

[Hopetohelp]

I was like you when I first started and was quite anxious but it really is easy with practice so you will soon be a fully qualified self injector and have a routine that makes it simple. I will give you any advice I can think of so here goes! Sorry it’s a bit long and you probably know most of it anyway. I invested in 2 good thermometers which I put beside my peg in fridge as I initially stored it at the bottom of my fridge in the pull out draw and discovered the temperature was zero! Should be stored at 2 to 8 degrees. My figures improved a lot once I moved it to the middle of fridge where it sits at 5 degrees. Follow instructions to put injection together then take Liz off and hold upwards and tap syringe to move air bubbles to top and push plunger very very slowly till a droplet comes out. This is the part I completely forgot to do when I first started injecting hence half the syringe was full of air so I only injected half the amount. Nurse had showed me what to do but for some stupid reason I had blanked this bit out. Put lid back on. Place in front of you and sit comfortably. Wipe area to be injected with alcohol wipe. Alternate sides of tummy each time you inject. I have a pink blob develop over the next week where I injected. This is quite normal. Important to press syringe in slowly and then my nurse told me to count to 5. Withdraw and pop plaster on if you want to. Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

[Hopetohelp in reply to Hopetohelp]

Ps I forgot to mention to take injection out of fridge half hour before to get to room temperature

[Wyebird]

I missed this sorry. Have you done it yet? I got a friend to sort the syringe out and I pitched the skin and stabbed. It’s really easy. Haha til you realise you can’t reach the syringe plunger so she pushed it down. It was so funny. Putting an ice pack on site to numb it first might help.

[Buddhability]

Hi Gilded. Maybe you’ve administered your jab now, but just yesterday I got a new tip while I was on the phone to my heamotology team:Don’t squeeze the flesh so much that you are injecting into, okay! My next jab is next week so I’ll try that and the doctor also recommended massaging the area afterwards, saying that helps it spread into our body’s- I’m going to try that as well!

I was surprised how much a thing it is in my head, compared to the actual reality of doing it. Hunter described it. I think it will for me, become less and less an issue and just part of a normal routine. Wishing you the same Gilded.