A perfectly nice nurse named Jeremy* came over yesterday to teach me how to shoot myself more efficiently. He arrived just after 10 am and left just before 11:30 am. He was very thorough, and I got the impression he really liked his job.
If you read my post yesterday, you might remember that I wondered whether we'd use live “ammo”. We did not. We didn't even practice on an orange or me. He had this nice little gizmo that acts like human flesh though it's only silicone filled with some type of powdery substance, and that's what we practiced on. If I didn't shoot myself at night, he would have shown me with live ammo, but since it was only about 13 hours after my shot, he thought we'd better not use real medicine.
We talked about my reactions that I've been having, and I told him my goal of not living on daily antihistamines. We talked at length about the difference between hives and the welts from the injections. I explained about my reaction days later where I broke out in hives around my injection site. Actual hives, not welts. He was intrigued. He said he's never heard of that before. I said I was usually glad to be different...but not just then. We'll see what happens because he also told me that where I'd been injecting in my legs was the wrong place. I told him he needn't worry, I'll never do that again. All of my other reactions are quite common. In some people, most reactions subside. There are a few people who always have them. I'm probably gonna be one of those who always has a reaction. He didn't say that, it's just my gut feeling. I hope I'm wrong, though.
Then came time to assemble, load and shoot my weapon of single injection. Once Jeremy showed me how, it was pretty easy. It only took me two times to become comfortable. I probably can't assemble it blindfolded, but I can do it without apprehension.
We talked about the problems you have when you don't rotate sites, what could happen (the stuff I mentioned yesterday). I told him that since my modeling career has long been over (like 40+ years over- I never modeled), I'm not worried about lipoatrophy. He didn't laugh; it's probably because he was thinking, “Damn, if she can model, they will take anyone!” He made me a cheat sheet with the injection sites and corresponding needle depths.
He told me I could text him to let him know how stuff went, but he can't text back specific stuff because of HIPAA laws. He also asked me not to send pictures of reactions at injection sites. I laughed really hard and told him I'd probably never send him a picture of anything, especially an area where I'd give myself an injection.
So last night, full of confidence and fortitude, I used my autoject in my arm. I set my needle depth, I looked in the mirror, found the right part of my arm to shoot, pushed the button, and...nothing happened. I had forgotten to take the safety cap off. I felt a little deflated, but I took off the cap and tried again. As I was counting to 10 to let the injection finish delivering the medicine, my arm started to hurt. Hurt, on top of the burning, itching and stinging. What the HECK? I did everything right, everything I was supposed to do; that wasn't supposed to hurt! I go into the other room where I have my cheat sheet, look it over, and I had used the wrong depth for my arm. Yea. That's a mistake I won't make again.
Today my arm is still letting me know I screwed up last night. It's not exactly painful, it just feels sore. Really sore. Lesson learned, and learned well.
Tonight will be better. I'm sure of it.
*Not his real name
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