Hi. I have my injection every 2 weeks as I have a very understanding GP. I’m on Hydroxycobalamin and have been for around 2 years. Recently I get strange symptoms around 2 days after the jab which last a couple of days, itchy face, lightheaded and upset stomach.
I know everywhere I read that you cannot have too much B12 but it seems odd with the timings.
Anyone else get strange side effects after their jabs that subside after a few days and would it be worth trying less frequent jabs, my only concern is getting the jabs back to biweekly if I change them...
Thansk
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ukb12
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There are some symptoms of healing nerve damage that are very counterintuitive. The symptoms arise in the two-three day window because that’s how long it takes for the brain to recalibrate to the stronger signals on the nerves.
Start a logbook of all your symptoms and assess a severity score to each on a daily basis. Reset the day counter to day zero with each jab. When making a comparison, compare the severity of day two to the same symptoms in day 2 in a previous cycle. Day to day comparisons only confuses because it’s like you are on a roller coaster ride.
When they get B12, the cells of the body go into overdrive working off the backlog of metabolism that has built up from the deficiency. This floods the bloodstream with the byproducts, mostly CO2 and water but it takes a while to filter this out. Headache, anxiety, loose stool are some of mine. Increased pain is another.
Balance issues could be the nerves of the ear, but more likely the vagus nerve to the stomach. The upset stomach is from the excess acid brought on by the stimulation on the vagus nerve.
I’ve found from my logbook that the more deficient I became before the jab, the stronger these symptoms were after the jab. It really meant that I needed more frequent injections.
Provide a typed and dated list of all your symptoms to your GP, explain what you are doing and ask for the list to be included in your file. You are providing the evidence that the GP needs to increase your injections.
You will most definitely be fobbed off and treated like a total hypochondriac. Especially if you keep finding more symptoms that are related to the B12 injection or show up just before the injection.
In my case, the GP wanted to treat me for anxiety with antidepressants which just made matters worse and left me with tinnitus and several other side effect symptoms.
If you can think of the post jab symptoms as “good”, and this is hard, the symptoms seem to go away faster as you allow your brain to recalibrate faster. Stress out about them and worry seem to slow down the recalibration and make matters seem worse.
With the logbook, once you know what symptoms to expect, you can tell yourself that it is okay and just log it again the next month (cycle). Symptoms disappear as well and you only realize this when something occurs to set you back and then you realize that symptom has returned but was in fact gone for a while. You monitor progress this way because nerve repair is extremely slow.
Gentle exercises, especially range of motion exercises, can help stimulate the nerves and the brain figures everything out faster. Laying in bed is the natural inclination because getting started is hard. Once you get going, things seem to get easier.
I’m currently self injecting weekly with cyano B12 and take daily methyl B12 sublinguals to fill in.
Are you taking a daily multivitamin and folic acid to support B12?
Thanks so much for the comments. It make sense when someone else says it! I will make sure I document all my symptoms and see if there is a recurring theme and go from there. I am still able to exercise as I go swimming three times a week to make sure I don’t just lie in bed in the mornings and still try to function as normal as possible. Hopefully this is just Paula the healing process 👍
We really do not know the full details of how B12 works - it is clear that those with PA do have some malfunction that is much more complex than science has discovered to date.
The suggestion that these are due to the cells producing floods of CO2 and water is unlikely - if these were produced the body can deal with them very quickly and it is unlikely they would result in any symptoms. The brain does not recalibrate as far as we know and it is likely that we are just getting used to the change - simply a different way of describing the effect.
Sorry to be negative - it is however important that we try and stick with objective facts and not try and guess what is happening. We need to convince the scientists to carry out the research we all need to get better treatment - perhaps one day even a cure - for this dreadful condition.
I'm also on 2 weekly b12 at my doctors. hydroxycobalamin. I'm 16 months in.
I do get some symptoms from the I jection in the from 7 hours to 48 hours
Headache but not everytime now.
Recently light headed . I actually asked the nurse if there changed the supplier.
I might be wrong but I think they can have a slightly different mix.i
I think it's possible if you are sensitive your body might react. Nothing g harmful but different.
I try and log as pvanderaa has suggested to see if thetec is a pattern. O used to get tinnitus worse but not all the time now.
My G p is not interested though
She has put on my notes 2 weekly maximum but if I wanted to try a longer gap which I have a couple of times it doesn't affect me going back to 2 weekly .yours may be the same.
Hope the effects go as quick as they came. It's a strange illness . Strange /odd recovery it seems.
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