B12 shot pain

[Allanamarieee]

So I just attempted to give myself a b12 shot from home, and I don’t believe the needle went deep enough. The area I did it in is very red and at first it was itchy, but now it’s hurting a lot. It’s a very stinging-like pain. I’m not sure what to do but it hurts so bad.

[pvanderaa]

What sized needle did you use? It should be pushed all the way till the plastic touches the skin.

0.5 inch (12 mm) for subcutaneous

1.0 inch (25 mm) for inter muscular (IM)

For me, the pain appears at the old / previous injection site and lasts about a day. This tells me the B12 is working.

Unless I hit a blood vessel and then it can sting, bleed and possibly bruise or even bump up. The bruise can last two weeks turning a lovely purple along the way.

Are you cleaning the injection site with alcohol swab before injecting?

[bquoss]

Allanamarieee, some PA patients inject deep into muscles (intramuscular shot), some just into the skin (subcutaneous shot). Some doctors prescribe subcutaneous for self-injection because it hurts very little, and patients may avoid or have difficulty with self-injecting intramuscular. The deeper ones may get a little more of the B12 into the blood, but I personally don't believe the pain is worth it, and I am very lucky my doctor agrees. So you may be able to negotiate with your doctor. Good luck.

[01303892663 in reply to bquoss]

You should inject slowly as the B12 is quite thick and takes time to be absorb

[EdE12]

The recommendation is to inject at a speed of 10 seconds per 1ml

[Ryaan]

If you store injections in a fridge hold it in your hand for a while to warm it up. Also depends where You injected......outer thigh is easiest to SI and push the syringe very slowly, I normally count to 20 while injecting. If it’s your first time you will get a hang of it the more you inject.

Also it’s less painful to ‘dart’ the needle rather to push it in slowly.

It will get easier the more you inject so don’t worry if it hurts at the moment.

Inject into outer thigh....so if you divide your thigh muscle into 4 inject into the top right part of your thigh.

Have a look at YouTube videos on how to inject into thigh. The slower you push the syringe the less pain you will have. If B12 is stored in fridge and you inject it cold it will hurt so just warm up by hiolding the injection in your fist for couple of minutes and inject slowly.

After you injected just rub the area for about 30 secs by fast rubbing/massaging action.