I have issues with the "dart method" of injecting, which is how the nurse showed me..it always leaves bruises. Friday was my first day injecting and after trying to inject like that, I gave up and just slowly pushed it in. It didn't leave a bruise at all. But then a day later (and even now on Monday) my muscle hurts with the slightest pressure. Is that normal? How long does the muscle typically stay sore with? There's no swelling or bruise or anything, just pain. Sometimes even when I walk. It makes me glad that I'm not injecting into my butt.

i hate the dart method.  it seems so uncontrolled. >_<

sometimes soreness just happens.  it helps me to inject pretty slow.

Hi, my girlfriend injects me, and she does the stab method, but my last one has left me with a really sore muscle, as we used a smaller gage needle- i think it helps to have a fairly large gage so the t goes in without too much resistance.

I use a #22, slowly push it in, there will be some soreness but if you're going deep enough should not be a visible or "surface feeling" bruise.

I push the T in fairly slowly then just let the needle sit there 10-15 seconds before pulling it out, this seems to prevent leakage.

I use a #21 and just stab the needle right in and don't have soreness. But I make sure that my muscle is relaxed.

How do you hold your leg? Are you sure that your muscle is fully relaxed?

By the way, I inject into my butt and am very happy that way...no pain at all.

Arch - I sit on a chair and make sure my foot's not pressing against anything, and just relax. I can tell a bodypart to relax and relax it. There are relaxation techniques taught to athletes that involve relaxing parts of the body progressively, and of course the Olympic type shooting I competed in was a ton of training in relaxing on demand.

I may not like getting or giving myself a shot but I won't make it harder on myself than it has to be.

I've never heard of this "dart method" before.  I just pinch a couple of inches of muscle, shave a spot (if you've ever gotten ingrown hairs from injections, you'll understand), stab myself slowly and deep, plunger, out.

It's not the fastest thing in the world, I always feel like I've punched myself in the thigh for the next two (sometimes three) days, but that just seems to be the nature of intramuscular injections.

Shooting yourself in the bum supposedly hurts less (which makes sense, the pressure from sitting on it for a few hours at a time, like most people these days, would numb things), but you practically have to be a contortionist to do it right.

I use a 22g 1" needle...the first time I tried, I felt my muscle tense up and it hurt a lot more..so I pulled it out and then tried again and made sure to relax, the actual injection didn't hurt when I relaxed, so I don't know. It finally started to feel better after I went on a 5-mile bike ride yesterday.

I use a 25 gauge needle, 1 inch, on my upper thigh, and push it in slowly. It always hurts during the injection, though only slightly, and once the band-aid's on, I feel no more pain. When I first started T, I remember having quite a bit of pain with each shot, sometimes with an ache or burning at the injection site that could last a few days. Now, however, nothing. Just these mysterious, painless bruises. Weird.

Oh, and I was told by my initial doctor that I should just stab the needle in. No... does not work for me. I hate needles, but I'd still far prefer to see the needle go in slowly and safely than be all haphazard about it.

SD

Quote from: Sebastien on October 27, 2009, 03:16:26 PM
Oh, and I was told by my initial doctor that I should just stab the needle in. No... does not work for me. I hate needles, but I'd still far prefer to see the needle go in slowly and safely than be all haphazard about it.

I'm able to be quite precise in my aim, but I haven't tried injecting on the left side yet. That will take a learning curve. I might need a full-length mirror to pull it off.

Eden, make sure your thigh muscle is not contracted. If you are in a regular sitting position with your knee bent, then the muscle isn't fully relaxed. Better to prop the leg on the bed or an ottoman or something--put a pillow under your knee, consciously relax the uncontracted muscle, and then inject. See if that helps.