Reusing needle?

[claudette]

Hi All - This is the BEST site I've been on and telling my friends about how informative you all are. I am wondering if I can reuse my needles that I have when I inject myself with B12 ? Was wondering...................THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR TERRIFIC ADVISE AND INFO.

[Penni]

Personally I would never reuse any needles. For what they cost I'm more than happy too replace them each time and dispose of them in a sharps box.

[claudette in reply to Penni]

I have never done that and am new to injecting myself, but living in the USA its very difficult to get needles. I guess i'm not searching properly. I will search further to get them without a prescription. Even B12 liquid is with prescription. THANK YOU so much for a quick answer.

[Penni in reply to claudette]

What about a local needle exchange? In the uk a lot of people on here recommend "medisave" but they have now discovered that you can get b12 ampules through amazon. I get mine through my gp and as I get free prescriptions I get my b12 through them for nothing. Good luck with everything

[claudette in reply to Penni]

Thank You again, I will look into these options.

[pvanderaa in reply to claudette]

Ask the pharmacy where you get your injections. Mine was very helpful. You want 25mm 30guage 1ml diabetic needles for Intermuscular injection of cyano. They found me a box of 100 and I got them in a week. I picked them up at the pharmacy. I've now ordered 3x boxes of 100 through them.

[Galixie]

It is possible, it's just not recommended.

Some things to keep in mind are the following:

1. The sharpness of the needle gets dulled with every use. After multiple uses, it can become more painful because the needle is dull.

2. After a needle is used, it is no longer sterile. If you are the only person using it, it's not as if you can infect yourself with your own germs. You can, however, get an infection if the needle touches some other surface before you inject (or re-inject) yourself with it.

3. If you are using a multi-dose vial, you risk contaminating the contents in the vial. Again, if you are the only person using it, and you are careful with not touching the needle to any other surfaces, it can be ok. It's just not recommended.

Personally, when I was doing subcutaneous injections every day, I would reuse the needles up to about 4 times and then switch to a new one. I don't like to do that with the intramuscular needles, so I only use those once, but that is just my personal preference. I was using multidose vials and was always careful about not touching the needles to anything. Since I didn't share needles or the injectable B12, I never had any problems with it.

[Allyson1 in reply to Galixie]

I would be too scared about contaminating the b12 and using an unsterile needle. If you inject pathogens, it's not like you can undo it.

[claudette]

I see now that it was a crazy idea to even think of re-using a used need to inject my B12. So sorry that I posted such a dumb question - shame on me. Thank You all for your responses and sorry I took your time. Thank You All Again.