[Allie_D]

Hi Ladies, I have a couple of questions about injections that I'm hoping someone can help me out with!!

1) Do you have to 'pinch the skin' to do the injection? I'm not the skinniest of people and don't have that much 'spare skin' to grab hold of around my stomach!! What do people that aren't super skinny do?!

2) I have to start Orgalutran on CD6. My nurse told me yesterday to just treat it like the gonal pen apart from making sure the air bubble is at the back to help push it in. But when I read the info pamphlet last night about how to use it it says that you have to push the needle in and then draw back to check there is no blood. My nurse didn't say anything about this step! Does anyone know if I have to do that step or not?!

3) I've just found out that we are meant to be going to a party next week that will fall right on when I have to take the Gonal. I'm planning on taking the Gonal at 7pm each night but this day we will be gone from around 5pm and back home around 10-11pm. What do I do?! Do I take the pen with me in the cool pack they gave me and just sneak back to the car and do it?

Any help with the above questions would be much appreciated!! Thanks

This post has been edited by Allie_D: 09/02/2013, 11:25 AM

[Bwok~Bwok]

1 - I always pinched because i found it easy to rest my hand on the pinched bit when holding the needle. Also you could put a 50c piece in the freezer and put it on before the injection.

2 - I didn't have to draw back with this drug, just move the bubble. Also go a little bit slower with injecting this, I found it stung a little if I didn't.

3 - I always had my injections in the morning. But you can take the injection with you and pop off to the toilet to do it.

GL with everything chickadee

[sainter35]

Hi Allie! Answers to your questions below:

1. You have to kind of grab a section of your stomach to inject the needle - so not really 'pinch' but take a chunk between your thumb and index finger. Imagine you're doing a skinfold test around your abdomen. Does that make sense?

2. I read that bit in the pamphlet as well and panicked! But I can reassure you, you do NOT need to do that step. Just inject as you would the Gonal F (I didn't even worry about the air bubble - it was sometimes at the bottom where the needle was - how do you move it to the back?).

3. Have you started the Gonal F? Personally I found it easier to schedule my injections at around 9.30pm as I was less likely to be out and about at that time. I've never had to take my injections anywhere; the one night I'd booked tickets to a gig I had to bail because I had to take the trigger shot at 10pm exactly and I didn't want to be shooting up in the bathroom! But if you have to take it around 7pm I'd probably say yes, sneak back into the car...

I don't know if I helped at all, I'm sorry if I didn't! But here's a bit of a tip - I found that the needles hurt a bit less if the pointed end was at the bottom. Hope that makes sense!?

[hillplain]

Hi Allie,

Stay calm!

1/I too am not thin but not huge... I just grab a bit of a handful of around my tummy and hold tight after icing. Relax what you have and do it sitting if you have to but I tend to stand. Here is a youtube video but I hold the skin a bit tighter as I have found that it works for me.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq3KjvWdB-8

2/I too had this quandry. I have never worried about drawing back like you do if you give a needle to an animal and have never had a problem. With animals the reason that you raw back is to make sure tht you are not giving directly into the vein and it is just onto the muscle. Guess it is the same with people. Of all of the needles that I have done I have never had a problem and never drawn back.

3/ I have had this a few times too. I just take the injection with me and discreatly disappear to the car/toilet any old quiet place out of the way. I just did as you suggested and take a cool pack and leave it in the car and go off and do it! Maybe work it so that it is the tail end of a needle too so that you don't have to worry about when you get it back to the fridge if it is hot.

Good luck and you will be fine - I promise!

[Mo2k]

I can't speak for number 2 as I can't remember however for 1 my Dh did all my injections (I am fine with injections so long as I don't look at it). Reading now how everyone pinched a bit of skin makes me laugh a bit as my DH didn't, he just injected me like he was playing darts on my stomach!! Charming! And there was me thinking he was doing it lovingly......!

Like a pp said, I would pop off to the toilet to inject at the appropriate time. Once I forgot to take mine with me and had to turn the car around and go back home to collect it which put an hour onto my journey overall. To me, injecting a the correct time was more important than anything else going on at the time. Good luck

[rosie28]

I can only help with 1 and 3.

1 - yes, but it isn't really pinching, more grabbing a bit of flesh, probably an inch between - it would be harder for a very slim person than a not so slim person I think.

3 - why not work your jabs forward by 15 minutes every night, that should give you some leeway and that's my plan. I did my first one at 9:30 last night, but that won't suit next week, so tonight I'll do 9:45, tomorow night 10pm, and go from there until I get to my usual bedtime of 11ish.

[AmberNut]

1) I don't pinch, I just pop it in left or right of my belly button... I have padding

2)I don't pinch and I don't draw back on it either, just pop the Orgalutran in with the air.

3) Do what you suggested, "...take the pen with me in the cool pack they gave me and just sneak back to the car and do it?....

No panicking, all ok!

[NFP]

I was always told to pinch the area to jab the needle, but to let the skin go and relax Before hitting the button to release the medication.
With the orgalutran i was told to hold it with the needle pointed down so that the bubble stays behind the fluid and to inject with it still pointing down but not to worry if any of the air pushed through.
Good luck Allie, I will be injecting tomorrow night too.

[countrymel]

Never did any pinching - just sat on the couch (it's a very low couch) and the sitting action made my less than supermodel belly squishy enough.

The important thing I think was to breathe out as the needle goes in.

It's a subcutaneous needle so that means 'below the skin' - you aren't looking for muscles or veins - just some fat!
They are very hard to get wrong.


As pps have confirmed cold pack in the car is fine.

[Allie_D]

Thanks for the replies ladies, and no need to worry I'm cool, calm and collected here I just don't want to call my nurse for every teeny tiny thing and I know you wonderful ladies will have answers for some of my simpler questions!!

In regards to the answers:

1) I will try and pinch some skin, but like AmberNut I have padding I didn't think of sitting on the couch to do it. Do many do that? I think I'd have much more success sitting down to do it! I sucked at my practice go at the office yesterday! I held it all wrong, but I think sitting down I will have much more success!!

2) PHEW!!! When I read the pamphlet I was thinking "Oh sh*t I don't remember the nurse saying anything about drawing back". I do get forgetful but not that forgetful!! Thank you for putting my mind at ease that I don't have to do it!

3) I've planned to take the Gonal at 7pm every night because its late enough that I'll be home but early enough that if we're doing anything that night we wouldn't be doing it yet. But of course to throw a spanner in the works the dinner we're meant to be going to next week has turned into an 'afternoon activity and dinner' so will just take my goody bag along! Thank you hillplain for the suggestion of taking a pen with one dose left in it so I don't have to worry about it after injecting

Thank you once again for the advice ladies. Much appreciated!

This post has been edited by Allie_D: 30/01/2013, 08:13 PM