Hey guys, I just want to share some info I got from my doctor recently. So normally the nurse gives me the b12 injections (in the upper arm area) and honestly I dread them so much as the pain can be quite severe. I even shed a few tears! That burning pain seems to last for ages too.
Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone else finds them painful, but this time my doctor said he'd do it, and my God the difference! Didn't feel a single thing. He pinched the muscle and rammed it in there and it was over in milliseconds. He said the trick is to go really deep, that if any of the solution gets under the skin it burns like hell.
So I just thought I'd let you all know, maybe no one else has this problem but it feels like such a revelation for me, hopefully it can help someone else.
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LauraF1
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Yes, if doing IM then you must get the right length needle which will depend on how much fat there is between the skin and the muscle. Here is a good guide to choosing needle length.
oh my goodness - I could have written this post myself. I find the pain so severe I have nearly fainted, and it certainly brings tears to my eyes. I wonder if I dare tell the nurse what your doctor has told you. I am so scared to tip the balance as I had so much trouble getting the b12 injections. Glad to have shared this.
My doc told me to tell the nurse, feels a bit weird telling them how to do their job but at the end of the day we are the ones to suffer if they get it wrong! I think there's no harm in asking even once, if it makes no difference well at least you gave it a shot (pun intended).
Wow I am so lucky I have a B12 Han every week & the nurse is amazing. I find being fully hydrated makes a difference & the nurse does it so slowly it hardly hurts at all
Yes I was dreading it when a gp had to do it as nurse off. Same as you it didnt hurt at all. She squeezed.my arm. I get on with the regular nurse. She last tried putting it in deep and quickly thdn slowly pushed the fluid in . It worked that time. They vary. I'm relieved the nurse that didnt have a good technique has left. They were very painful every time.
Mind you I went very weak all of a sudden today. Due my I jection on Thutsday. . So weak I darnt move at present. An old symptom.
So the sooner i have it the better whether it hurts or not!!
Peoples pain thresholds are different ,I self inject myself and daughter twice per week ,but usually top right of bottom.doesnt really bother us .the nurse gives us injection in top of arm,I must admit her injections hurt more
Thank you for that info. I also suffer that pain. I self inject as well and do it really slowly because of the pain, but I will try the technique you mention.
I have also found the injections painful (burning sensation) until my last one. The day it was done the nurse was telling me about someone who had recently had the loading doses and hadn’t found any of the injections painful. I was quite surprised by that but then didn’t find mine painful. The nurse noticed my lack of reaction and asked if I’d felt it. I asked if they’d changed brand of B12. When she looked at the packets in the cupboard it was different. Unfortunately I can’t remember what the name in it was, I thought it started with cyt but when I Googled I couldn’t find it. I did wonder if they had switched from hydroxycobalamin to cyanocobolamin. Has anyone else had this kind of experience?
Perhaps it is not the difference between nurse and doctor! I asked the practice nurse why some B12 injections were painful whilst others were not. She said other patients had also had the same problem and it turns out to be down to the manufacturer of the medication as patients complained about one brand being painful and a different one being OK. No I have not as yet been able to find out the 'good' brand!
I find it hard to believe that one brand would be more painful than another. Every hydroxocobalamin brand I have used (must be five, or more) has contained the same ingredients - sterile water, salt, vinegar and B12, nothing else (those ingredients may be described differently - sodium acetate, acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid - but they all end up as salt and vinegar).
The amount of salt they put in is always the same (to make it isotonic) and the amount of vinegar (used to maintain the correct pH) depends on the amount of salt. So there should be highly similar amounts of each.
I have a lovely nurse who injects well so I always have her. I keep my arm very loose by my side (a tip from one of the nurses) and she does get it over with fairly quickly. I think also because I know she does the injection well I am not tense, which helps. She doesn't pinch my arm first. It isn't painless but much better than other nurses. I find it worse if they do it slowly and yet some of them told me they were taught to inject slowly. Sometimes if I have had the wrong nurse I can leave the surgery with my whole arm hurting for ages. Sounds like your doctor could do with teaching the nurses how to do it properly.! When I self-inject in my leg it is also painless. I admit I do that slowly, much more slow than any nurse but then I am in control and I don't feel a thing, sometimes a little ping as the needle first goes in.
Yesterday I put the wrong needle on the syringe to draw up the B12. Rather than mucking about trying to swap needles after I'd already withdrawn some liquid, I decided to inject with the needle that had been scraping against the bottom of the vial.
Ow!
I thought I was going to have to use a mallet to get the needle through my skin, the point was so blunt. It was the most painful self-injection I've done so far.
It’s also how quickly you push the syringe whilst injecting.
If you push fast you “can” get a lot of pain but if you push very slowly it’s painless. I used to count to 20 when I first started injecting, now I count to 10.....as in 10 seconds. 😁
Secondly it’s what temperature the ampules are kept at. Refrigerated ampules really hurt.
I now store in a draw at room temperature (below 25 degrees C)
If you keep them in fridge they will hurt. If you have to keep in fridge then hold them in your fist for couple of minutes before you inject so they warm up.
I have had over a hundred injections now and there have only ever been two which have hurt me and I have no reason why, they were so painful from the first touch on my skin I couldn’t tolerate anymore and they just had to stop.
I always inject into the mid third of the outer thigh muscle and slide the needle in gently. Currently I inject with a 25g needle and often feel nothing.
Makexsure the air bubbles have been knocked out syringe AND theres no b12 drip on needle before it goes into the skin....if you dont it sting/burns like {insert choice of profanity lol}
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