Sub-cutaneous versus IM

[EiCa]

Is there a good reason to have IM injections versus sub-cutaneous?

[deniseinmilden]

Hi!

Not particularly: lots of people do sub cut B12 jabs, usually under their tummy skin, just like diabetics do.

It might be because it's easier to give someone else an intramuscular injection and nurses often do them for people. In theory it might affect absorption rates but in practice I don't think it makes much difference.

I inject into my thigh muscle because I find this easiest for me but we're all different.

[EiCa in reply to deniseinmilden]

I have done sub-cu before and found it painless. I suppose I could get used to IM if I have to. Thanks.

[deniseinmilden in reply to EiCa]

If you're good with s/c then I should stick to that - it definitely works well for lots of people and there's no point in making anything any more complicated than it needs to be!! 👍🙂.

[esteloca]

Hi, yes SC works for some ppl however they did not work for me. It's so confusing out there too! I had to fight for longer needles here in the US even though my doctor prescribed cyano for *IM* inj. The pharmacy would only give me insulin needles stating that SC was fine for b12.

I called my doctor and they said "yea you should be fine". I kept asking at every random appt. & got "Yes that's fine".

I still had this nagging feeling. If it didn't matter, why'd they stress the IM method to begin with. It had to matter. Tiny jab vs huge jab? I thought "they wouldn't tell ppl to use IM if it wasn't necessary" & it bothered me!

So I kept using small needles bc I could barely stick myself at all lol but I read everything I could find online especially when I wasn't getting better & my numbers weren't going up.

At some point I came across an article where a nurse used guided ultrasound (on herself) to prove the need for longer needle length in overweight patients.

She wasn't responding to treatment for b12 deficiency herself & sd that it didn't make sense to her knowing the importance of IM injections for b12 deficiency & when she insisted she wasn't improving bc the needle wasn't reaching her muscle, she sd her doctor blew her off & she wanted to prove him wrong.

She sd she did it bc of the importance of getting b12 into the muscle & how doctors/nurses she worked with repeatedly gave IM injections to overweight patients using the same needle length as the smaller patients & their recovery time was much longer.

She also showed how the 1inch needles (she was using & not getting better) stopped just before entering her muscle. So that tells us how much of a difference the IM inj makes.

Does that make sense? I wish I could find the article but in a nutshell this imo applies to everyone, not just obese ppl because of the fact that she showed how deep the 1in needle went. It stopped rt before entering her thigh muscle and still no improvement. It wasn't until she got a long enough needle that she got better. She used test results to prove her "theory" as well.

Sorry this is so long and drawn out but confusion makes it hard for me to figure out how to word things.

Hope you understand. SC might work for some but is it worth taking the chance?

If it's all you can do (like me at 1st) do it but if you're not improving, get it in the muscle!

I ended up needing to redo my loading dose and start all over.

I still 2yrs later can't do it fast. I touch the needle to my skin at the rt angle, RELAX, look away & pretend I'm not doing anything lol. Then I slowly increase the pressure while trying not to think about it and sometimes I'll look over to adjust a pillow or something within arms length only to look dwn and see the needle is all the way in!

Other times it takes longer bc I can't calm dwn enough to pretend I'm not holding a needle. I know this is crazy and not the best way to go about it but it's what works for me.

In the beginning I couldn't do it. I'd hold it for and hour and sweat and stress and put it dwn and try again & go cry & feel defeated... but I got used to it. I hope it's easier for you but try the pretend it's not happening method if all else fails.

Good luck to everyone who's here looking for answers! 💖