Muscle problems associated with long term daily IM injections

[jeremycat_]

Unfortunately I seem to require a ridiculous amount of B12 in order to avoid my symptoms worsening - 2mg of hydroxocobalimin daily (I inject 2x1ml ampoules at the same time). Unfortunately any less and my brain fog, tingling/numbness and fatigue rapidly returns.

I have been doing this for 12 months with a daily 2ml injection into either my thighs or deltoid. Obviously I rotate sites but with daily injections it doesn’t take long before I an injecting the same spot. I have tried subcutaneous injections but these don’t seem to work for me - my symptoms return.

I was just wondering if anyone knows whether daily IM injections could cause problems with muscles over time? Already I am starting to feel like the muscle provides more resistance to the needle and is more painful. Has anyone else been injecting IM daily for a long period?

Many thanks for any advice

[Ajane]

I also would be interested to hear other’s thoughts about this. Thanks for the question 😊

[Pickle500]

I assume you're injecting two into deltoids one day, then two into your two thighs the next day and then back and forth like that?

Can you not find a 2ml solution and inject once? Then you can rotate between four sites.

I've been injecting for 18 months. My muscles began to resist after 2 months of daily and then I moved to EOD. Now it's weekly and I still worry that I've overdone it and I get the resistance you're talking about.

At some point, I believe the muscles will need an opportunity to reform completely. So I'm planning on not injecting at some point so they can fully recover. But with PA that's kind of wishful thinking right?

So long as you give them enough time inbetween jabs they should be able to ride it out, i.e. at least 4 days between hitting the same spot.

You could try pascoe at 1.5mg in a 1ml injection?

[B12life]

I have been injecting daily using this needle: 25g x 1ml.

I don't dare do deltoid so hat's off to you. I should learn.

I'm small. 5'5" 120lbs, so I do IM (intramuscle) vs SC (subcutaneous). When I tried SC, it hurt all day long due to the amount of fluid, 1ml. Thighs didn't work for me because I am small, so I moved to glutes, which can be dangerous with risk of paralysis if you hit major nerves.

However, I knew I needed to do it. I had a nurse friend of mine train me and I have been doing this daily sometimes twice daily for 1.5 years now. I figure that's where the nurses do it in the clinic a lot of times so if I'm smart about it and am careful to do it properly, I can do it as well. The caution is, you must be trained for this injection site. I do well with this site because it is less painful. However, due to the risk I advise people to use other injection sites if they can.

To answer your question, I don't think you will damage anything by doing it the way you are and you seem to know how to rotate through the various sites.

I would be interested to hear people that have been doing long time SC. I just don't have any fat to do SC with, thus the fluid under the skin hurts. Maybe that was psychosomatic and I need to try it again.

and so far, no muscle issues for me, but i'm only ~ 2 years into the injections.

[scnuke]

I do twice daily injections of 1mg hydroxo, right deltoid in the morning, left in the afternoon and have been doing this for almost a year. 2ml is the absolute upper limit of volume that should be injected in the deltoid and may be a contributor to your issue. It is only very occasionally that my wife will remark that the injection has more resistance than usual, but I assign that to needle placement. The bevel may end up against a piece of connective tissue that creates more resistance.