size of needle?

[jillc39]

For two years I have had b12 injections which were SO painful. Once I nearly fainted from the pain, and always left with tears in my eyes from the pain. Suddenly, with a new nurse very very little pain. Why ?Why ?Why? I asked. She replied that she uses a thinner needle. I am in a rage for the years of painful injections. Anyone else had this experience?

[Nackapan]

That's sounds ridiculous with the other nurse. I thought they all used the same . Or tour other nurse useless ar giving them. There was one at our surgery that really hurt every time badly. I 2as able to avoid her after the 3rd ond I thought this no coincidence. They can still be painful buf much less so now.

Hope it continues well for you.

[wedgewood]

Ask what size needle they use . 25 G is the recommended size . I use thinner ( I self inject ) but that’s not recommended for safety purposes ( breaking off) . The higher the G.number , the finer the needle .If they inject with thick needles , I wonder if you could take your own along ?Thicker needles are used for oily substances . B12 is watery , so it’s OK to use finer needles . Of course a thick needle means that a substance can be injected more quickly, saving a few seconds .

You can buy a numbing cream , which might help . ( Amazon) Look for “numbing cream for injections” .

[jillc39 in reply to wedgewood]

oh thank you for that tip

[Kazania]

So sorry and angry for you. In my experience it’s down to the competence of the nurse who is doing the injection. I had no problems until I had a run of new incompetent nurses. Now I always book the same nurse, I just hope she never leaves! I’m very sorry you had so much trauma for so long, it should be pretty much painless done properly. Here’s to the future.

[pejka62]

I use #25 one inch--very little pain

[snowbird1234]

I am sad for You... they should not hurt... I pray for You now to have NO PAIN from shot... i give myself the shot and i dont feel the needle at all... i stick in the needle then push in the b12... I never thought I could do that...

[Cherylclaire Forum Support]

Perhaps the first nurse used thicker needles because she didn't warm up the B12 before injecting it- that would mean the liquid would be viscous... thicker so needle would have to be too to draw it up? And that would make for a double ouch, Jill.

Really helps if the B12 liquid is syringed in slowly and smoothly too.

Trouble is that they are out of sight injecting into the back of your arm, so you never get to see what they do or how they do it. For the first 9 months, I never even knew whether they had injected me yet or not - still not sure if that was due to their expertise or my numbness !

If new nurses were made to practice B12 injections on each other, they might rather quickly learn a pain-free method - or they could just read replies to posts on this forum to pick up tips (although I much prefer my first idea !)

Sorry that you had to put up with such poor care.