i'll probably save it for after work, since i will get home late at night when grandma is in bed; don't want her lurking around while i do this.  but i'm really, really nervous about taking my first shot.  i was hoping they would have me do it at the doctor's so i could have help and guidance as needed to really be sure of myself... but that is not the case.  at my last appointment, the nurse showed me roughly where to put the shot and gave some guidelines on how to do it in a print-out, but i just don't feel sufficiently prepared.  i've never given myself an IM shot before, nor had the opportunity to watch someone do it in person.  i'm not afraid of needles (i get an injection of a different kind every 1-2 weeks and plenty of bloodwork)... but i am just really scared of doing something wrong.  my usual injections are in a pen, pre-measured and very simple, so i've been totally spoiled.
if anyone has tips, experiences, something useful to share, important things to remember, etc, that would be appreciated. 

You cannot do much wrong, that's why they allow you to do it yourself. Relax the muscle and do it quickly and you'll be all right


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Quote from: elkie-t on October 28, 2017, 09:40:25 AM
You cannot do much wrong, that's why they allow you to do it yourself. Relax the muscle and do it quickly and you'll be all right


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

that's true
idk why i get so anxious about doing anything new.  maybe just my lack of confidence.

I've heard some people practice on oranges...

Quote from: Viktor on October 28, 2017, 12:08:39 PM
I've heard some people practice on oranges...

oranges: not just for tattoos!  too bad oranges don't have thighs.  i think getting it in the right place is the thing i'm most unsure of right now
also debating whether i should go ahead and do it before work anyway, since i've still got about half an hour before i have to leave and i am freshly showered and grandma has left the house...  hmmm. 
to be practical and do it while i have the house to myself and everything is already clean, or to appeal to my nervousness and wait until my friend will be able to talk to me while i take my shot?

ugh ok i was going to do it, but now i can't.  i have no idea how to use this syringe!  this is exactly why i wished they would have just shown me how to do it at the doctor's office...
i put the needle into the vial and turned it upside down and all, but when i drew up, absolutely nothing came into the syringe.  can anyone help?
these are BD Integra with retracting precisionglide needle, if it makes a difference. 

i am so upset right now tbh, of all the stupid things that i expected to go wrong, "don't know how to use the syringe" was not one of them.  i thought those were pretty straight forward, but i guess not.  now i have no choice but to wait until after work, or possibly even a whole day or more, depending on how long it takes me to figure this crap out.  *sigh*

You can find a bunch of instructional videos on YouTube, if you look. Those are probably more useful than just text.

In terms of getting nothing in the syringe, make sure that the needle is below the level of the liquid when you're drawing.

Quote from: widdershins on October 28, 2017, 10:38:48 PM
You can find a bunch of instructional videos on YouTube, if you look. Those are probably more useful than just text.

In terms of getting nothing in the syringe, make sure that the needle is below the level of the liquid when you're drawing.

man i'm dumb.. in my anxiousness i forgot about the length of the needle and the really really small amount of liquid that was actually in the vial.  i had never seen this kind of needle before, and it has some crazy thing where when you press the plunger all the way in, it retracts, so here i was thinking i was just using it wrong.  all i needed to do was not push the needle so far into the vial ;v;

anyway, after a little googling to get a better feel of where i should place it, and a whole lot of fiddling to figure out the whole air bubble removal thing, and forgetting to aspirate and check for blood... i did finally take my damn shot!  no pain whatsoever, so for all the things i've done wrong (and thought i would do wrong), i must have at least got something right lol

i'll remember next time to check for blood, was nervous this time around and my head was going in 50 different directions at once.  but otherwise, i am pretty sure i can get the hang of it now and i need to stop overthinking things.  may be a little more involved than my usual injections, but aside from having to "roll my own", it's not that different.  though now i'm gonna have to ask for another refill on syringes since i wasted my first one in the testing phase.  oops.

i guess now i have an official manniversary date.  surreal af and my hands are still shaking

Quote from: meatwagon on October 29, 2017, 11:16:26 AM
man i'm dumb.. in my anxiousness i forgot about the length of the needle and the really really small amount of liquid that was actually in the vial.  i had never seen this kind of needle before, and it has some crazy thing where when you press the plunger all the way in, it retracts, so here i was thinking i was just using it wrong.  all i needed to do was not push the needle so far into the vial ;v;

anyway, after a little googling to get a better feel of where i should place it, and a whole lot of fiddling to figure out the whole air bubble removal thing, and forgetting to aspirate and check for blood... i did finally take my damn shot!  no pain whatsoever, so for all the things i've done wrong (and thought i would do wrong), i must have at least got something right lol

i'll remember next time to check for blood, was nervous this time around and my head was going in 50 different directions at once.  but otherwise, i am pretty sure i can get the hang of it now and i need to stop overthinking things.  may be a little more involved than my usual injections, but aside from having to "roll my own", it's not that different.  though now i'm gonna have to ask for another refill on syringes since i wasted my first one in the testing phase.  oops.

i guess now i have an official manniversary date.  surreal af and my hands are still shaking

Dude, don't feel bad. My first shot was about as smooth as a sarlacc.
No one had the needles my endo ordered in stock (the four pharmacies I went to) and I was hell bent on having the shot that day because I was so excited. I finally went to a hospital pharmacy that had needles but they were nowhere near what I needed--they gave me tiny little syringes that had no locking system with needles that were designed to screw onto the syringe--even though I took them anyway. I rushed home, couldn't get the needle to stay popped onto the syringe and fiddled for half an hour. This trend continued after removing the draw needle and trying to secure the injecting one. After finally getting it on, the plunger to the syringe got stuck--wouldn't move forwards or backwards--and it broke loose on a push motion, spilling half my already piddly 'starter' shot all over the floor.
Looking back, it's incredibly funny, but at the time it was very frustrating.

tl;dr, first shots suck. But you made it through and congratulations on your manniversary!

Quote from: TransAm on October 29, 2017, 12:58:32 PM
Dude, don't feel bad. My first shot was about as smooth as a sarlacc.
No one had the needles my endo ordered in stock (the four pharmacies I went to) and I was hell bent on having the shot that day because I was so excited. I finally went to a hospital pharmacy that had needles but they were nowhere near what I needed--they gave me tiny little syringes that had no locking system with needles that were designed to screw onto the syringe--even though I took them anyway. I rushed home, couldn't get the needle to stay popped onto the syringe and fiddled for half an hour. This trend continued after removing the draw needle and trying to secure the injecting one. After finally getting it on, the plunger to the syringe got stuck--wouldn't move forwards or backwards--and it broke loose on a push motion, spilling half my already piddly 'starter' shot all over the floor.
Looking back, it's incredibly funny, but at the time it was very frustrating.

tl;dr, first shots suck. But you made it through and congratulations on your manniversary!

oh man, yours was way worse ;v;
is it abnormal to use the same needle for drawing and injecting?  there was no order for different needles; i just used the ones that came pre-attached to the syringes.  so i guess maybe it just depends, but most people i hear talking about swapping sizes between the two.  i wasn't told anything about doing that, so i assumed i don't have to.. maybe due to the size being used or the amount?

but hooray!  and ty
i'm just glad to finally be started on something

Its not abnormal to use the same needle for drawing and injecting... If you are able to change needles then you can it makes the injection a little smoother. but we are only give 4 syringes a month so I can not change out needles when I give my husband his T shots...

Quote from: Ladysabertooth on October 29, 2017, 04:26:58 PM
Its not abnormal to use the same needle for drawing and injecting... If you are able to change needles then you can it makes the injection a little smoother. but we are only give 4 syringes a month so I can not change out needles when I give my husband his T shots...

I'm anxious for my first appointment and shot as well.  I have to wait until my deployment is over.  I never read anything about using different sized needles and will be sure to ask my doctor about it.  I do have a question however, what makes it easier to draw with one size and then inject with the other?  I'm not sure what I am missing but how would you get your T from one syringe to the other?

Quote from: dre_moe on October 29, 2017, 10:00:15 PM
I'm anxious for my first appointment and shot as well.  I have to wait until my deployment is over.  I never read anything about using different sized needles and will be sure to ask my doctor about it.  I do have a question however, what makes it easier to draw with one size and then inject with the other?  I'm not sure what I am missing but how would you get your T from one syringe to the other?

You only use one syringe. What you do is change the needles.

The larger needle is used for drawing the T out of the vial. The fluid is really thick, thicker than olive oil. And thick fluid can be hard to force down a tiny hole. (I mean, it's hard to get ketchup out of a freaking ketchup bottle.) So it's much easier and faster to use a larger gauge of needle to draw.

Then you take that first needle off and put the thinner needle on to inject. By virtue of being thinner and also completely unblunted from going in the vial first, it will hurt less. It will also cause less damage to your tissue, which helps minimize nerve damage and stuff over the long run. You're stabbing the area every few weeks for the rest of your life, after all.

Like others have said, it's not strictly necessary to do it that way. If your insurance doesn't cover it completely, it's cheaper to draw and shoot with the same needle.