Ermm I was tired this morning, and not fully focused when doing my B12 injection and forgot to clear the air before injecting. I only realised after.
Google is giving me variations of it'll be totally fine and death imminent!
Should I be worried? Site really stings today which is unusual too but I probably went in a a bad angle too?
SI in thigh.
Thanks!
I think you'll be ok it's when you inject air into a vein that is dangerous
Thanks so much! I know I know that really but sometimes it's so helpful to have someone else say it too... thanks!
Totally get it,I've only self injected twice and it's terrifying ! Air is one of the things I worry about, I hate losing one drop of b12 to aspirate! I read that the air just dissipates in your body if its not in a vein but I understand the worry
Thanks! I've been doing it since the pandemic but just really wasn't with it this morning at all. The horror of forgetting that vital step! Honestly I was very anxious about it before I started too, but it's pretty easy in the end thanks to the help on this forum. I've become a bit too blasé about it even but won't ever be missing that step again though!
Don't worry! Its always better to remove bubbles, but it takes a surprising amount of air injected directly into a vein to kill you. The small bubbles injected into a muscle or fat really aren't a problem, as the body will absorb it with no problem. I know where you are coming from though. I'm fanatical about removing small bubbles, even though I know its not a problem. Daughter always thinks its funny, as when she has I.V. drugs, the nurses often leave small bubbles in the tubing and I'm having kittens watching them going into her arm. She's 34 and it hasn't killed her yet and she has them regularly.
Thank you! I am so religious about doing it carefully that when I realised I thought you idiot! I remembered all my research and thought it would be fine. Had a coffee then my mind wandered... should I be worried about this?! Sometimes Google is not my friend lol !
Thanks 😊
I am a retired nurse who went on a course once where a doctor demonstrated how irrational this fear of air bubbles is by injecting 10 mls of air into a vein. I still knock the bubbles out.
just saw your message, yes that’s what I said too…being a retired nurse x
Don’t worry. When I started injecting EOD 15 months ago, I did it without clearing the air first, for quite a few weeks until I read (courtesy of Wedgwood) how to do it properly. As someone else says, so long as you steer clear of veins….
Scientist, not medic. Often in error, but never in doubt.
The fact that you were able to email us with the tale is a fairly good sign. Don't make a habit of it, as that's naughty, but it's fine. Good luck, and I bet you won't forget again.
did the same only once in over 100 jabs.
Thanks so much everyone, really made me feel a lot better about it! Am not likely to forget to do it again!!!
You would never believe but I did the same thing yesterday! After this message as well! The kids came in arguing with each other and I ended up injecting some air. I didn't aspirated at all but I realised my mistake when the injection felt different. I had shoulder and neck pain after must have been the air dissipating or maybe another strange symptom as they had been cropping up lately? Unpleasant but not deadly
Oh no!!! I reckon the neck pain might not be related but easy to be hyper aware after doing something like that as it's an uneasy feeling!! Like me.. you'll probably never do it again though lol !
It was my third time doing it and it made me lose my confidence. I had to put the needle in 3 times because I started worrying about injection site then, used 2 needles and was a lot of messing around. Not looking forward to tomorrow's shot. Going to try not to dither and just do it quickly and without the kids around most importantly!
I dither every time lol and I've been doing it fortnightly since the pandemic (even weekly at one point!). V important to have the time set aside and be able to focus and it should be relatively quick but if you try to rush yourself it'll be harder.
I remembered there's a video someone posted a bit down in this thread link here:healthunlocked.com/pasoc/po...
in case you find it helpful to watch? Good reminder for me as have been slowly gravitating more to the top of my thigh than the side and forgot is supposed to be outer quadrant! 🤦♀️
Basically what I'm trying to say and good reminder to myself in this post or anyone coming across it in future is that the reason everyone recommends SI in your thigh is that it's pretty difficult to completely balls it up or do yourself any harm! Hth x
Thank you that is helpful as I have totally lost my bottle with it all
Ah noo I'm so sorry! 😢. I only made this mistake on Sunday as I was getting so blasé with doing it... so hopefully that goes to show it gets so much easier with time and practise! I was so scared to start SI and had no choice over the pandemic.. Best thing I ever did or i would be in quite a sorry very ill state by now. Also the NHS never reinstated my 3 monthly ones.. !It may be a bit of a faff but I am very grateful to this forum for the support and advice, enabling me to take control of this part of my health journey. Being able to SI when I need it is completely amazing and invaluable so I hope you continue if it helps you.
Yes needs must, I hate doing it but I haven't got the choice to stop, just need to get confidence up again. The illness is 1000d worse than the injection just need to get over myself
You'll be fine. If anything, hopefully this post and all the amazing helpful replies will bolster you to remind yourself you can't really f it up even if you try to LOL!!
I'v found using a smaller gauge insulin syringe for IM on B12 injections reduces the likelihood of air bubbles. For some reason it seems easier to manage and with water soluable solutions like B12 the 29 -31 gauge insulin syringes are fine, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to use a large gauge needle. The larger syringes with the longer needle also seem easier to inadvertently poke oneself. I'd say this certainly true if one has shaky hands from a benign tremor or some other health condition. Not med advice just my personal experience.
Thanks! For me this particular instance, I drew up the b12 liquid from the vial and switched to a smaller needle as usual but didn't clear the air to the top of the needle. At all. So there would have been a push of air before the liquid was near the injection site I just didn't notice and felt a bit of pressure. Won't be doing that again!!!
Be careful switching from the bigger needle to the smaller needle. It seems to me that there is a higher risk of further mis-haps doing that. I had an anxiety inducing experience doing just that. It appeared that the dye on the exterior of the smaller insulin syringe had worn off into the fluid I was pulling up out of the larger syringe which logically would have gone into the injection (not to mention any germs) . I was having troubling pulling the solution out and inadvertently rubbed the exterior of the smaller syringe against the inside of the larger syringe repeatedly.
I used to have a student that was an ink formulation specialist for a major commercial ink manufacturer and he warned me about commercial ink health hazards even in trace amounts. To the extent that with food containers he would not buy any food product that did not have double walled packaging ie. one layer separating the food from the packaging with commercial ink/ labelling on the exterior of the food package. He was a true expert so I found his opinion on it pretty impactful.
This got my mind going quite a bit for a few minutes post injection. Just good to avoid cross contamination and switching syringes would seem to increase the likelihood of that in a number of ways. Not to mention making it much easier to poke yourself by accident.
Just a thought : )
If my memory serves me well I believe you would need about 10mls of air direct into a vein to cause an air embolism so I wouldn’t worry about a tiny amount re subcutaneous and IM. Have a good weekend x
Air bubbles help 
An error I forgot about. 
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