Firstly thank you so much for all the advice and information you have posted on this forum. It’s been so helpful and reassuring.
I was originally diagnosed with a B12 deficiency around 15 years ago - I was experiencing numbness down my left side, brain fog and dizziness. I’ve been on 12 weekly injections ever since (I now know from this group that with neurological symptoms I should have been put on 8 weekly injections but that’s not the purpose of my post).
Like most of you my injections have been stopped due to coronavirus. I’ve been trying sublingual drops but I don’t think they have been helping - I’m now 4 weeks overdue for my injection and am permanently exhausted - all I want to do is sleep. So I bit the bullet and ordered syringes etc - I did my first self administered injection yesterday.
Within an hour I noticed some numbness/tingling in my lower left leg, lower left arm and left side of my tongue. This is where the numbness was years ago but I haven’t experienced it in years. It’s still there today, possibly a bit worse. I am leaning towards my mind playing tricks on me because I’m naturally an anxious person and I was quite stressed about injecting. But I wonder if this could be real? That’s my first question.
Second/third question. I’m a larger lady and I used a 1” syringe to inject. I felt absolutely no resistance or pain. Is it possible I didn’t get deep enough to hit muscle, and if it didn’t, would it be a wasted injection, or would I still benefit?
Thanks in advance!
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Jma2
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Where did you do the injection? A lot of people do fine with subcutaneous injection with a short needle, but I am larger also and do not benefit from that for some reason unbeknownst to me. I require a 1 1/2 inch needle and would recommend this to you as well. However with a 1 inch needle I imagine you could effectively give an injection into the deltoid (upper arm) with the needle all the way in.
Well done. Whatever you've done it will go in. I have both. . I think subcutaneous I jections going well. I'm having them more often too. So easy when you set up.
Yes I was really surprised by how easy it was to do in the end. So glad I found this page because I don’t think I would ever have considered self injection, and I’m really happy I don’t have to do without now.
I injected my outer thigh, but will try my deltoid next time and see if that feels different. I have both 1” and 1.5” needles so I will also try the longer needle in my thigh again. Thank you xx
If you didn't reach the muscle then it will have gone into the subcutaneous fat. Many people do a sub-cut injection deliberately. Once it's in the body it will stay there and make its way, slowly, into the blood. So it should be just as effective.
It's possible it may be more effective as it might take longer to pass into the blood than from an intramuscular injection - but nobody seems to have done a comparison.
Well I'm having g both at present .For some reason my last IM one done by a nurse didnt seem to do anything. 6 days later I was so weak I decided to inject sc The following day it turned me round.
So whatever way something goes in.
I've never had a clear Improvement like that before . Alzo never felt so irritable
It usually makes me poorly for a couple of days then less severe symptoms.
I dont 'react' to sc so I wonder if it is because it goes in more slowly? I have Rotexmedica ,Accord and Lannoch and Gerot.
It’s interesting that there isn’t a clear answer to that question. But it’s good to know that I should benefit regardless of whether I hit the muscle. Thank you!
Re the tingling, which I think no-one has so far covered; that’s a good sign, that the nerves in the areas where you first had issues are reawakening.
So your mind isn’t playing tricks on you; but your brain is trying to figure out what these long-missed messages might be, and is (mis?)interpreting them based on its memories of what messages from these nerves used to mean.
It will get the new meanings sorted out over time; but at the moment, just take them as a positive sign that communication is re-establishing itself.
I do subcutaneous and it works well. When I did IM I used 1 inch needle in my leg. You can tell the difference between fat and muscle as there is more resistance in muscle. When I pushed the needle in about half way the resistance changed.
I also have the nerves waking up. It was worse when I did the first injection after 2 months of no injections because of corona. It’s gradually getting less which I presume is the nerves not freaking out as much. It’s mostly on my right side which is where it was worse. I was told it was trapped nerves and was never treated for it but have since read that trapped nerves tend to be both sides whereas as numbness normally starts on one side (which it did).
It’s a pity that there is no info out there about whether SC or IM is better. But it’s good to know that I don’t have to stress about whether I reach a muscle or not. Like you the numbness is just on one side, as it was years ago pre diagnosis/ treatment. So I’m confident it’s not a trapped nerve too. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.
You’re welcome! I have read that IM is absorbed quicker but I haven’t noticed any difference. When I watched a German video of someone who had been to doctor and told she should self inject because her levels were in the grey area she was told to do subcutaneous and said only the doctors do IM. I guess because you need to avoid nerves and make sure you’re doing it in the correct muscle. For some reason it’s only licensed as IM in U.K. but I’m not worried since the recommendations are coming from Germany.
As a nurse, I would say for VitB12 and a beginner with injecting, you did marvelously. Don't worry at all, as others said, it will slowly absorb. In fact I am going to change from a blue needle to a shorter orange to make the process less painful. I think also it's a very positive sign that your nerves are reacting...although I am no expert but others on this site are. Just to finally say, my GP allows 8 week injections but I buy ampules and inject inbetween, so really have 4weekly injections. Wishing you well Jma xxx
Thank you! I’m pretty happy with myself I have to admit! Yeah I’m planning to do similar I think - get my 12 weekly injection but inject myself twice in between so I get an injection every 4 weeks. I’m interested to see whether the more regular injections will feel beneficial. I’m always tired so it would be lovely to not always feel like that. Thanks for replying.
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