After nearly a year of living with the diagnosis of relapsing-remiting multiple sclerosis, today I gave myself my very first interferon injection.
After nearly a year of frightening myself with horror stories about needles (my mother has a huge smallpox vaccination scar; my great grandmother had a needle break off in her leg), I got through it.
After nearly a month of staring at the scary, bell-ringing, vibrating autoinjector wondering how the hell I could trust my injections to a machine that resembles toys produced circa 1982, I tossed it aside and did it alone.
After fifteen minutes of hovering over my leg with a needle trying to convince myself it wasn’t going to be that bad, I convinced myself and did it.
The nurse said I was one of the calmest people he’d taught injection techniques to. The nurse wasn’t there when I was frozen in fear for nearly fifteen minutes. But I did it anyway.
And now I guess I’ll just wait for the possible-but-not-unlikely flu-like symptoms.
Good for you! Is that an intra-muscular injection? If so, even extra kudos!
I have had a needle phobia my whole life. And then I got diabetes. I made my husband do the injections for the first 3 days, then realized that I either had to buck up or accept wusy-hood for the rest of my life. But God, that first injection… talk about scary.
Just a subcutaneous injection. I’ve prided myself my whole life on not having a fear of needles. I got through my training session with utter and unflappable calm. And then when I held my very first syringe over my shaking leg, suddenly I had a fear of needles. I’m hoping the second one goes a little faster. Especially since my boyfriend has a real and horrible fear of needles and probably can’t be talked into giving one.
As for the flu symptoms, so far, I have a mild headache. Not so bad for my first quarter-dose, I guess.
I have MS, too, and I inject Copaxone every day. I got over my fear of needles when I was in fertility treatment, which not only demanded exquisitely timed SQ daily injections, but intramuscular injections after the IVF cycle. Then I had to give myself heparin shots for most of the pregnancy, which bruised horribly - I looked like someone had been beating me with an axe handle. And then I got gestational diabetes and added daily insulin shots to the mix.
I would encourage you to try the autoinjector. I didn’t have one during all the pregnancy-related stuff above, but I use one now for the Copaxone, and I find it a lot easier. I can inject one-handed while brushing my teeth at this point.
Gah, I couldn’t imagine that many needles. I only have to inject every other day.
I think it depends on the autoinjector. The Rebif one looked like a friendly little futuristic robot that just magically spirited drugs into your thigh while happily beeping away. I haven’t seen the Copaxone autoinjector, but the Betaseron one looks like a toy and I fear it for that reason.
I imagine that, at some point, I will be frustrated or bored with needling myself and give autoinjection a try. Maybe it’ll change my whole perspective on the thing. Contrary to most people, though, I think, I don’t like the idea of getting an injection and not being able to see the needle.
Hm, I went out and found a picture of the Betaseron injector, and it looks mechanically just like the Copaxone one, but maybe a little cutesy-er. I find that the autoinjector is better than I am at stabbing the needle straight in at the right depth without wobbling, but if you’re good at it and don’t mind doing it, then there obviously no reason that you shouldn’t.
Congratulations on starting, anyway. Any flu-like symptoms yet?
I had a mild headache which I beat back with an Advil. It’s mostly gone, now. I’m only on a quarter of a full dose for now, so I’m not sure if I should expect worse.
That injector isn’t quite the one I have. I think I have the not-Lite one; it looks like this. Still pretty toy-like, though.
Used to give myself subcutaneous shots for allergies. Didn’t skeeve me in the least. Used to give the ex-wife I.M. shots for infertility. They were deep injections to the buttocks. Apparently that was extremely painful.
I congratulate you for dealing with the fears and taking ownership of your treatment. Your body ! Your treatments ! It’s a very strong step.
What are these autoinjectors? I’ve never heard of them, don’t think they use 'em for Insulin. Why not? What’s different about subcutaneous injections of MS meds that you guys get a fancy machine and us poor Insulin-dependent diabetics have to limp along with syringes or pens*?
*Or pumps… but we won’t mention those wonderful devices that give us injection-free livin’
I hope that your reaction to it is not wholly negative. My wife’s been on Rebif for about five years, and while initially the flu symptoms were bad (but not overwhelming, IIRC), they moderate over time and become more intermittent. I think the worst thing for her is the injection site reactions. A couple of months ago one of her sites became infected, which made them put off her monthly prednisone infusion and she ended up on (I believe) Keflex for a week until it went away.
On the positive side, her progression (she has secondary progressive) has seemingly slowed, with no real new symptoms (other than increasing weakness) and a decrease in new lesions year-over-year to a rate of maybe one per year.
Sadly, she actually felt best when she was receiving Novantrone, but she’s now received half of her lifetime dose, so the remainder is being held off in the event of a significant flare-up or progression.
EDIT: Athena I believe the autoinjector is pretty much like a pen, although I can’t say for sure having never used a pen. It would seem to be a natural for insulin as well, so I’m not sure why it’s not readily available for that use.
There are also autoinjectors available, IIRC, for the various injectable arthritis drugs such as Enbrel, Humira, Simponi, etc. My understanding is that because people with arthritis or MS are more likely to have problems with coordination or use of their hands that the autoinjectors are made available. I’m surprised there aren’t any for insulin - I know there are pen injectors that are basically ‘one click’. There’s a LOT of equipment out there for diabetics, I’d be surprised if someone wasn’t making an autoinjector. Diabetes Forecast does annual reviews of diabetes equipment (like Consumer Reports), I’ll have to check out there and see what’s on the market. I think it’s likely SOME supplier of diabetic equipment is making something, insulin just isn’t offered that way preloaded by the manufacturers.
Strange - i do indeed see many of these devices on Google, but i’ve never heard of
a diabetic using one. My docs never mentioned them to me, nor have I heard someone on any of the popular diabetes boards talk about them. I wonder why? Are they time consuming to set up? That’s all i can think of - when you’re giving yourself 4-10 injections a day, anything that’s time consuming or a hassle to set up isn’t a great choice. I guess I’m assuming MS and other conditions that require injections don’t necessarily need as many per day as diabetes, but I could be totally wrong on that. (for the record, lots of diabetics are on therapies that require an injection just about everytime you eat something, plus one shot of long-acting insulin once a day, thus the 4-10/day number.)
Of the four primary drugs, the one that requires the most shots is Copaxone, at once per day. The autoinjectors are kind of mildly complicated to set up. Sort of. I can see the appeal of an autoinjector if you’re afraid of needles. With the autoinjector, you can’t even see the needle and you don’t have to deal with pushing the plunger or figuring out the correct depth. You just push a button and pull the whole thing away when it dings. But I fear it. I heard someone on an MS board describe it as a gun crossed with a jack-in-the-box, and that was my first reaction to it, too.
Good on you. My wife has MS and has to give herself a shot (Avonex)every week. Hers is a deep muscle shot. I am amazed that she does it every week. I am there to rub the shot afterwards, slap the bandaid on and give her a kiss! We have been doing it every week for about 7 years now. Good luck!
Damn that is an impressive self injector … makes my insulin one look like a baby toy … take the cap off, twist on a microfine needle, twist to get the number of units I need, swab the area, stab and push the button and count 10 seconds. No lights or beeps. I feel so deprived
I was much the same way. I got to be a guinea pig in the live human experiments for Humira. I almost didn’t join because it require a shot a week that I would have to give myself and I am a big pussy when it comes to needles.
Then came the fateful day when I had to learn to inject myself. The shots are given in the upper thighs or waist. I was prepared for utter agony and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t hurt. Well, during the stick part anyway - the medicine stings slightly during the injection process.
