Blood in syringe

[Skyehope]

Hi all

Just a quick question to those who self inject please. I've just given myself my peg shot, and when I removed the syringe, I noticed that there was blood inside it even though I didn't pull back the syringe in any way while injecting. I did get a bit of blood collecting on my skin after removing the needle and that isn't uncommon but I've never had blood get inside the syringe in nearly a year of doing it.

Does anyone else have experience of this or know what might have caused it? It's not a question I'd want to disturb medical professionals with as it's so minor.

Thanks in advance.

Keep well.

Skyehope

[hunter5582]

I have never had that happen. These injections are subcutaneous and do not typically involve more than a small drop of blood at most. Perhaps there was a small vein where you injected. Physically, there would be no way for the blood to get back into the syringe if the plunger was fully depressed. There would not be a place for the blood to go with the plunger all the way down. I expect this was a one-off oddity.

[Skyehope in reply to hunter5582]

If there's something odd or unusual that could possibly happen, it'll happen to me! I expect it's a one off too and it would only have been a teeny bit of blood in the syringe but was noticeable due to it mixing with the liquid left inside (again a tiny bit in itself). Maybe my finger nudged the plunger - I'll never know. Thanks Hunter.

[gdpone]

There are tiny veins even in just fat. You likely hit one of those. The pressure from hitting the vein is likely what pushed a bit into the syringe. Nothing to worry about but I always aspirate when doing any kind of injection.

[Skyehope in reply to gdpone]

Thank you. I always push for aspiration when getting vaccinations etc but wasn't sure about doing it for stomach injections.

[Emmyroos]

It sounds like you may have experienced a bit of injection reflux due to pressure. To avoid this, after depressing the plunger all the way, leave the needle inserted for 10 secs or so before removing the needle out of your stomach. That should help. I am a drug formulation scientist and this is common for injections in the eye.

Also I have hit a vein once with my PEG injections and I bruised and bled a surprising amount afterwards. I usually inject without incident.

I agree with above that it's likely a one-off event.

[Skyehope in reply to Emmyroos]

Thank you - that's really helpful.

[NCB1983]

Don’t worry, this has happened to me a few times over the years. I doubt you did anything wrong, just hit a small vein the fat. I did ask my MPN team about it and they said it was nothing to worry about.

[Skyehope in reply to NCB1983]

Brilliant, thanks so much.

[AndyT]

It’s happened to me occasionally and seems to be if you hit one of the small capillary blood vessels in the subcutaneous layer. It shouldn’t be anything to worry about but if it happens regularly maybe try a different area.

[Skyehope in reply to AndyT]

Thank you. I'll be keeping a close eye!