EPO - from home first time

[Boxing]

hello

I am taking my first EPO shot tomorrow as my HB is currently 7.8

It will be my first shot, we can do this ourself from home? It’s being delivered for tomorrow.

Thank you

[ShyeLoverDoctor]

Of course. I injected myself for 3 years. Call your doctor’s office for instructions and/or watch you tube on how to do a subQ injection. My doctors’ office gave a me a diagram of where to inject and told me to search out “SubQ injections.” They also demonstrated how to do it.

I am NOT a doctor. This what I learned and what worked for me.

As I said, I did this for years.

Drawing the medicine out of the vial is tricky. It’s terrible expensive medicine so it’s not like you get to practice a lot. Usually helps if you have a little air in syringe first. Put needle in bottle, turn upside down, draw fluid. Turn needle upright and flick syringe to gather the bubbles. Squirt the air out. You’ve probably seen this on TV many times. Injecting air bubble will not kill you but it hurts and you will bruise.

It should be in your abdomen but 2 inches from the belly button. First clean site with alcohol swab. Pinch the skin up, slide the needle it at an angle.

This stuff burns when you inject it! Be warned.

It gave me symptoms of a cold! It is a protein, and your body reacts. So the day before I would take an antihistamine, then the two days after the shot keep taking it. Otherwise I ended up with cold -like symptoms (achy, runny nose)for about 5 days.

[ShyeLoverDoctor]

I want to add I’m shocked they didn’t transfuse you at 7.8. Usually when you reach 8 they talk about it.

Having said that, avoid a blood transfusion at all costs. It gives you antibodies that makes it harder for you to find a kidney match.

[Boxing in reply to ShyeLoverDoctor]

hello

Mine is not because of my kidney it’s because of a medication I am taking. So it’s either take EPO or pause medication to allow the HB to come back up.

[Winner76]

Hi

I injected myself for years, well my husband did . my medicine came in a sureclick pen it was much easier than the syringe and I injected into the top of my leg. I had no side effects , just get your hemoglobin checked regularly and doesn’t get too high.

Good luck

[Boxing in reply to Winner76]

hi Winner

Thanks for the message. I just had repeat bloods since my 7.8 result. As my HB is medication induced I paused the medication just two days and HB already came up 8.9 today. So didn’t take EPO letting the body bring it up naturally hopefully! With stopping medication. I just need it to be 9.0-12.0 as kidney patients I believe

[Winner76 in reply to Boxing]

That’s great , yes they were happy with mine being 10/11 . Maybe they’ll decide to give you the epo once or twice a month when you go back on your medication just to balance things out. I don’t know just a thought.

[Boxing in reply to Winner76]

thanks Winner! Isn’t it true for CKD/transplant etc patients HB they don’t like above 12? So keeping it at 9-12 is good?

[Winner76 in reply to Boxing]

Yes because artificial HB can cause strokes , mine went up to 16 because it wasn’t being checked enough and it caused me to have a mini stroke

[Boxing in reply to Winner76]

makes sense. So would you get EPO if your HB 90g/l?

[Winner76 in reply to Boxing]

Yes, I was on one injection every week continuously while I was on dialysis . It stayed around the 10 mark for a long time until it went high that one time . Still don’t know the reason it jumped so much . If I can remember I think they put me on 2 a week and it was too much .

[Boxing in reply to Winner76]

oh ok makes sense

[ShyeLoverDoctor in reply to Winner76]

You should not be injecting into the top of your thigh. That is an IM, intramuscular injection. Epogen is a SubQ injection, subcutaneous, into fatty tissue just under the surface of the skin. IM is used for drugs that need to be absorbed quickly. IM injections are absorbed faster because the muscle has more blood vessels than fat does. IM injections can cause pain, swelling, redness or inflammation at the site, which is mild. SubQ injections have a shorter needle and causes minimal discomfort. So yes, both will work, but you were doing it wrong.

[Winner76 in reply to ShyeLoverDoctor]

On my prescription leaflet it said I could inject in my stomach , arm or leg ? It worked.

[ShyeLoverDoctor in reply to Winner76]

I stand corrected! I have never ever heard of a subQ injection being done in the thigh. I googled it and some sites say yes. My hematologist, the hospital I went to - all said abdomen or arm.

I think it would do as good as those sites if you pinched the skin up.

And yes, it will “work” by getting into your blood stream. But the advantage of SubQ is that it is less likely to to cause post injection discomfort over IM. IM requires longer needles.

[t0oyoung]

What is EPO and HB?

[Boxing in reply to t0oyoung]

ethryopotein and Hemaglobin

[t0oyoung in reply to Boxing]

Thank you.