I take .3ml out of a 1ml vial each week, in my stomach. The place I get trans care from messed up and didn't truly teach me how to do my own shots, so I'm scheduling a review on how to self-inject for next week. However, I'm skipping this week because of how difficult it is for me to get the T into the syringe. Today was supposed to be my fourth shot, third by myself.
I have absolutely zero problems with injecting myself other than getting the actual T into the syringe. Here's what I do, and my issue:
1. Grab the bigger needle meant for getting the liquid out of the vial, which is already attached to the syringe.
2. Pull back on the syringe a bit, or a lot, and push the air into the vial. I've tried pushing it into the vial without liquid, and also tried pushing it into the T/liquid itself. Makes no difference from what I know.
3. Flip the vial upside down and make sure the needle is touching the liquid, preferably the top of it, so it isn't ALL the way into the liquid.
4. Pull back on the syringe to get the T into it.
Sounds simple but for some reason, step 4 always messes up. It usually starts slow and escalates from there... as in, usually, liquid just doesn't come out at all, no matter how slow or how much I pull back on the syringe. From there, it goes downhill the more times I try, and usually gets liquid everywhere. I end up wasting so much T, it's making me so frustrated. I've wasted more than half of how much I got, which was supposed to be 6 shots worth. I don't have enough for this third shot.
I know that isn't the best description of what I do, and a video would be more helpful, but I would just like to ask for some tips for now.
Some other problems I've had with this:
- On the last shot/dose for that vial, when it's about to run out, it is impossible to get rid of air bubbles. What usually works is having a lot of T in the vial so I can pull back on more than my dose, and then pushing down to my dose gets rid of the bubbles. Flicking them doesn't work.
- The second time I gave myself a shot, it had a weird piece of dust or hair in it? That's why I wasted one dose, but the rest of the wasted doses were just failures... Honestly, next time I see something in the T/liquid, I'm just putting it in. Tired of wasting it. I'm impatient.
Sorry for this huge textwall, I'll probably edit it later to be more understandable. Trying to just tell myself that it'll all work out and I'll get used to it soon. I think I feel worse about all of this because of how much I'm wasting when my dad has been buying it for me (very grateful), and how he tends to stress me out more when I ask him for help with the syringe, though he doesn't know what he's doing either. Even the nurse seemed to waste liquid.
TL;DR Really looking for tips on how to conserve T the best with such a small vial, how to get air bubbles out w/o flicking or just taking out more T than your dose. Also wondering if anyone has had a problem with wasting T or not being able to get it into the syringe properly?
I've gotten some tips from other sites but I prefer Susan's, haha.
from what i read, it doesn't look like you're doing anything wrong. maybe you could look at a youtube video or something if you feel you are doing something wrong? when i do your step 3, i actually don't flip my vial all the way upside down. i put it on an angle a bit and draw my T that way, that's how my nurse showed me how to do it. i also make sure my needle is all the way in the T. when i draw it the first time, i always get like half air/half T so i push the air out, leaving the T in then pulling back again (with needle still in the T) and get the right amount/no bubbles. my nurse actually made me do my own shots with her there for maybe 2 - 3 weeks to make sure i was doing it right.
Make sure your needle is firmly threaded onto your syringe barrel (most already on are loose). If a slip-tip TB barrel then a firm quarter turn will have the same affect.
Draw ~0.5mL air into your syringe barrel (always a bit more than your dose volume).
Insert needle and invert vial
Needle pushed above T and Inject ~0.5mL air into vial
Needle pulled back down to neck of vial (well into the T and away from vial air) and...
Pull (and try to do this evenly without stopping and not too quickly either) the plunger back
HOLD the plunger back; let it 'fill itself', ideally a bit over your dose volume.
* IF you stop pulling or pull too fast, you will have a frothy mess to contend with.
* Frothy mess, you will have to be patient and tap, tap, tap and push and pull back more in.
* It is OK to inject it all back in and start over to try again (a perk of separate draw needle use). Just shift your needle back up above the T before you put it back in (don't want it all to froth, right?).
Push excess T back up into vial, if necessary.
Verify you have your dose volume (a little under/over is OK. I mean 1-2 little lines here).
Withdraw needle from vial.
With needle out of vial....
Pull plunger back to clear T out of needle and into barrel.
Swap draw needle for injection needle.
Slowly push out that air from the draw needle clear/injection needle swap.
I personally like to deliberately add ~1/2mL air to my syringe and tap/shake it down to the syringe plunger (while still in the vial; trickier but I can more accurately get my proper dose this way. I adjust it after the needle's out of the vial if necessary). I do this because it pushes *ALL* of the T into my body (with 1mL TB barrels). And at this minute volume it is perfectly harmless (I have also observed that it minimizes it weeping back up/bleeding etc).
I stopped using 3mL barrels because they were very imprecise at this low dose volume. They also "stutter", I didn't care for that one bit. 1mL TB's (slip tip without thread-lock) are better for SubQ. Much more precise and smoother to work with.
P.S. multiple-doses being drawn from 1mL "single-dose" vials is against CDC recs. Your physician/insurance provider should NOT be having you do this. It is a contamination/infection risk (their alleged claims as to why we are no longer dispensed the all around better 10mL vials) and a big, fat lawsuit if it should happen and you (they allege the incident rate is ~50% of self-injectors, so...) should sue over it. Anyway, you should have a new vial for every dose you take (and you didn't hear this from me, but what you decide to do after that with the remaining contents of these vials is your own business. Whatever it is, please do exercise good judgement. Let's just say I haven't found myself short of T since this foolishness was implemented last year and won't for a very good, long while. Ahem).
Oops, I forgot I posted this! Well, since then, I've gone back to my center for trans care and a new nurse taught me how to make shots more efficient... Haven't had a problem since, but I onlu did it once on my own since then, and once with him. However, almost at the bottom of this vial now, which is making me not so happy, as it's impossible to get your proper dose then... My only issue is I had a long line of blood the time I did it by myself. I've never bled while doing a shot yet, so I'm worried I hit something even though I checked to see if I hit something by aspirating (spelling?). Who knows. I had to start doing it in a different spot than usual since I was told the wrong area before.
Quote from: Magnus on April 20, 2018, 06:54:11 PM
P.S. multiple-doses being drawn from 1mL "single-dose" vials is against CDC recs. Your physician/insurance provider should NOT be having you do this. It is a contamination/infection risk (their alleged claims as to why we are no longer dispensed the all around better 10mL vials) and a big, fat lawsuit if it should happen and you (they allege the incident rate is ~50% of self-injectors, so...) should sue over it. Anyway, you should have a new vial for every dose you take (and you didn't hear this from me, but what you decide to do after that with the remaining contents of these vials is your own business. Whatever it is, please do exercise good judgement. Let's just say I haven't found myself short of T since this foolishness was implemented last year and won't for a very good, long while. Ahem).
What you say is very interesting. I've only heard poor things about 1mL vials, but am new to hearing what you've said. My vials are 1mL, in which I should ideally use for 3 weeks of shots. I am given 2 vials at a time, totaling 6 shots. However, the last bit of T for the last shot is usually lower than my dose. Are you in a similar situation then, but you only use one shot for every vial? I have no idea what I would do other than transfer the T over to the next vial... Maybe I'm just too sleepy to comprehend right now. But you sound incredibly educated on this subject and I'm interested in researching it more! Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!