First Injection

[Kreuzfidel]

18-gauge is a bit large for my liking.  My wife's a vet nurse and said that's the gauge they use with horses lol

[Sharky]

Wow.  I've always heard that injecting air is dangerous :/

You would have to inject a lot of air for it to matter.



How much air is needed to kill you? That's debatable and doubtless varies, but generally speaking, a lot. One journal article I saw boldly declared that 300 milliliters can be lethal — three-tenths of a liter! You'd need a bicycle pump to inject that. But much less will do the trick; it's said serious damage can result from as little as 20 milliliters, which still isn't a small amount. In 1949 New Hampshire physician Hermann Sander ended the life of a terminal cancer patient by injecting her with 40 milliliters of air — four syringes of 10 milliliters each. (He called it a mercy killing when arrested but on the stand improbably claimed that he thought the patient was already dead; at any rate he was acquitted.) But people have survived much larger amounts. French doctors reported in 2006 on an 82-year old man scheduled for a CAT scan who was supposed to get 90 milliliters of contrast solution but instead got 90 milliliters of empty syringe. Prompt treatment with pure oxygen saved him.

Despite the uncertainties, air embolism has served as a reasonably dependable method of execution. After public outcry stopped Nazi gassing of mental patients in 1941, psychiatric institutions were ordered to continue so-called mercy killings by less conspicuous means. A program described as "wild euthanasia" began at the Meseritz-Obrawalde hospital in 1942, with doctors selecting the victims and nurses doing the deed. While most of the murders were carried out with overdoses of sedatives, some patients were injected with air, which usually killed them within minutes. Though thousands of patients died, at trial years after the war 14 nurses claimed they were just following orders and were acquitted. Decades later Germany saw another rash of murders-by-embolism when a nurse confessed to injecting an estimated 60 to 130 milliliters of air into the veins of 15 seriously ill elderly patients. All died. So maybe not 100 percent lethal. But lethal enough.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2866/can-air-injected-into-the-bloodstream-really-kill-you

[Caleb]

Doesn't look like air is going to be a problem.

The second injection on Monday went really well. Last time I think I may have had my leg bent in a sitting position, so this time I had to laid out. The spot is a little sore, but nothing compared to how it was the first time. I still had my girlfriend do the injection, which she likes because she feels needed. I'm hoping to have the balls to do it myself next week.

I think I may try the butt next time too. Just to see which I like the best.

[Kreuzfidel]

That's good news, Caleb!  Kudos if you end up doing it yourself - braver than I am!  And wouldn't you know after I went and bragged how mine didn't hurt, the one my wife gave me yesterday is sore as hell today! :p

[GentlemanRDP]

Congrats, man!

So to answer your questions.

Yes, it's normal for it to hurt, even a few days after.
I take my shots on Sunday morning.
That night it's usually fine, but it starts getting sore around Monday afternoon to evening,
Tuesday is usually most sore and than it fades away from there.

And yes, having T leak out when you tug out the needle is normal too.
However if you see it leaking out while injecting, that means that you're not in deep enough, so I'd push in a bit more and try again.
Also, I tend to count about ten seconds out after I'm done injecting before I pull out the needle, it doesn't seem to leak as much when I do that.

I've used 24g and 22g. They both have their up-points. 24g is really thin, so it doesn't hurt as much during or after, but it takes FOREVER to draw the T into it, and FOREVER to push the plunger down while injecting. 22g is thicker, so the initial puncture hurts a little more, but drawing and injecting is faster.

Good luck and enjoy the T!

[Caleb]

That's good news, Caleb!  Kudos if you end up doing it yourself - braver than I am!  And wouldn't you know after I went and bragged how mine didn't hurt, the one my wife gave me yesterday is sore as hell today! :p

Haha... it mus be our women that are messing us up!

And GentlemanRDP: Thanks for the feedback man. Glad to know I'm not the only one who seemed to have those problems. And as far as the T being so thick, you're right. It's frustrating getting the T out. I'm thinking about going and getting a bigger needle from the store and using it for the drawing out. It just takes too dang long!