IM injection technique question

[cdragin]

When you inject, do you pull back on the needle to see if blood is drawn up? I've seen some advice to do this, but some instructions I've seen skips this step.

[pvanderaa]

No. I just make sure there is no air in the needle/syringe and insert the needle and press the syringe. I think pulling back to see blood is more appropriate for interveinous (IV) injections to ensure the needle is in the vein.

It is not important for intermuscular (IM) or subcultaneous(subc) injections. If I hit a blood vessel, I can get a rush from the B12 and the injection doesn’t last as long. In eight years of self injections, I’ve only done this once or twice. More likely I will bleed under the skin and get a bruise from hitting a blood vessel.

[wedgewood]

In four years of self-injecting weekly , I’ve never done that . I have come to no harm ! I do make sure that there is no air in the syringe , by flicking it to bring any bubbles of air to the top and then lightly press the plunger until a tiny bead of liquid appears on the tip of the needle .Then I’m ready to go .

[JanD236]

When my GP practice nurse was showing me how to si she advised me that drawing back is not necessary.

[deniseinmilden]

I usually do coz I was taught to do it as a standard practice for injecting all types of injectables (some must not go IV, some you are trying to get in the vein) 30 years ago and I've just got into the habit of it but you don't need to for B12 as it is safe to inject IV, as well as IM and SC. If you want to it's not a problem either way.

[Sazntef]

The only reason you need to do that is to verify you found a vein, but as this is a subcutaneous injection it doesn't apply. Don't pull back on the syringe to check for blood.

[Chaka]

Hi. It is not necessary to pull back the needle, as there are no large blood vessels in the deltoid muscle, if using the appropriate sized needle. Hope this helps.

[cdragin]

Thank you all! Getting used to self-injecting is difficult enough without adding another step.

[Annnon58]

Drawing back is a very old fashioned method and is no longer used or thought to nurses now . Good luck

[Galixie]

I don't. My mom is a retired nurse and taught me to self-inject. She told me it was common to pull back to check for blood but, as the color of the B12 is also red, it could be pretty difficult to tell. So I just skip it.

[pvanderaa]

I press and hold a penny on the desired injection site for the count of 10. This leaves a nice ring on the skin that is a great bullseye to aim for. Clean the ring with alcohol swab and inject inside the ring.

[Harvena in reply to pvanderaa]

Thank you for your advice so kindly given many weeks ago, I actually plucked up courage last week and have now done 2 IM, you gave me confidence (although it took me a while LOL). A little annoyed with myself as I had just bought 100 30g needles, but will buy more for IM and probably alternate for a while to check the effect. Thanks again.

[Yellowkangaroo]

I was sent this link in response to a similar post of mine a couple of weeks ago, it's helped my technique immensely! I thought it would be less painful to insert the needle very very slowly then inject very very slowly... realised it's actually the opposite so now much quicker and painless! Its quite in depth but I found it useful.

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