Painful injections

[Lee1974]

Hi. I have pa and have been getting im injections for a few years. More intensively for the last year. My boyfriend administers into my buttock area. This is becoming very very painful. I got a bad dose of sciatica in left area so am restricted to right area only now. The pain during and after injection is actually putting me off getting injected and my neuro symptoms are slowly returning. Is the hip actually the best area to inject? Is it realistic to think I can self inject there and are subcut injections a viable less painful effective alternative to im? At the moment I am using 23G 1" syringes. This is just what I was prescribed by my gp i have no idea if they are the most appropriate. I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks.

[Rheadster72]

Hi Lee1974, check out the post below about injections from about 6 hours ago. Plenty of pointers on injecting in that thread. Title mentions something about "...making injections more comfortable for my husband"... hope that helps

healthunlocked.com/pasoc/po...

[Lee1974 in reply to Rheadster72]

Thanks that's helpful..I have been thinking about self injecting for a while or trying to get my head around the idea! I think I might look into sub cut. Had read somewhere they are not as effective? So much contradictory info out there. It's bewildering.

[Retren]

Lee1974 you can do it in the thigh ,the arms also subcutaneously in the stomach areas as well.the site being used should not be painful is the person administering your injections going deep enough? I am not familiar with the needle sizes but it is not that important.do you have your medication all ready to inject and are you if having to mix using separate needles?If any medication gets on the needle which is being used to inject a reaction to the contaminated needle may be a problem.hope you can make sense of this.I had severe sciatica and still injected. You have to rotate the site otherwise you will get sore eventually.

[Lee1974 in reply to Retren]

Thank you for the reply. I use separate dose glass vials and he does inject it in completely. I'm really thinking about trying subcutaneous injections. Will talk to my gp. Is b12 as effective going into fatty tissue as into the muscle do you know?

[Retren in reply to Lee1974]

Lee1974intramuscular injections absorbed quicker because of more blood supply.

[Pingo]

I've only recently started SI in the thigh and honestly, it's not as bad as you think. The fact that you're in control makes it much more tolerable. Also all the other points people have made here -- personally, I insert the needle very slowly and inject very slowly. Make sure B12 isn't cold. Relax the muscle. There's a lot of thigh muscle to choose from, which makes it my place of choice. And it's so much easier than I thought it would be.

[Callo56]

This may or may not help as I have injections (always in my left arm) with the practice nurse and as Pingo mentions, if the vial comes straight from the fridge so it's cold the injection is painful (as has happened when a locum nurse has administered my injection!!) The vial only needs to be held in the hand for a short time for it to warm up sufficiently but it does make a difference.