Just curious to know what other people use for their injection methods! I do subq and recently had to reduce my draw needle gauge to 21 since I kept coring vials accidentally.

  • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    5 days ago

    suq in the belly once a week

    I make little baggies so I have all the supplies for a single injection together.

    In the baggies go:

    • a 1 mL leur lock syringes, preferably with reduced deadspace for less medication waste
    • a 21 G (green) 1 inch needles for drawing
    • a 27 G (grey) half inch needles for injecting
    • an alcohol swab to sanitize the vials and the injection site
    • a bandaid for when there is bleeding (I like the Hello Kitty ones)
    • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      6·
      5 days ago

      This is the way, including the baggies so you can assemble a bunch of kits with everything you need for one dose. We use 18G to draw and 22G to inject.

      Needle length depends on where you’re injecting and how far you need to reach to hit muscle (ie: how big yo ass is).

      • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        I used to draw with 18G, but I cored several vials, so I switched to drawing with 21G (so far I haven’t cored any with that gauge, but I’ve heard some chatter that it’s possible).

        and good call out re needle length, like you’ve said, IM requires longer needles for injecting than subq

        I would find injecting into muscle unnerving I think, but my needle phobia is pretty bad. I wouldn’t want to inject with 22G either 😰

        • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          3·
          5 days ago

          I saw a video on YouTube with some techniques on how to not core your vile. I started doing this and haven’t had problems since.

          If I recall correctly, it involves going in at a pretty steep angle, something like 30° off perpendicular to the membrane. Put the attack point of the needle (bevel facing up) right on the existing hole of the membrane and push the needle down slightly to try to reopen that same hole, then slide the needle into it. Once the tip is thru the membrane, you can angle the needle straight in.

          • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            3·
            5 days ago

            yes! That’s the technique I use (even now with 21G, but also when I was drawing with 18G). I still cored vials that way, I think it happened because the width is so great and I was drawing from the vial twice a week back then, and I was using the vials for months, so the rubber got real torn up despite the technique (which does really help compared to just sticking the needle in at 90 degrees).

            Haven’t had issues with 21G yet, even when I was drawing twice a week - but now I only draw once a week (though vials last much longer now, because both frequency and dose were lowered post-op).