Hi, I had my first injection on Monday with the nurse. Using the Rebismart injected my stomach and was so surprised and relieved how little it hurt. Had horrible side effects that kept me up until they wore off at half 5 in the morning and caused a flare up of old symptoms. Have never been that poorly ever even though I followed nurses advice on pain relief. Injected my leg last night, it burned and was stinging and a bit of liquid and blood came out when the rebismart had finished. My leg was still burning 4 hours later but amazingly no real side effects. I felt like i was coming down with something but nothing paracetamol and ibuprofen didn’t take care of. What I am asking is could the drop of liquid that came out after injection have reduced dose and lessened side effects? Also does where you inject affect side effects you can get? Don’t want to get too excited about not feeling poorly if it may happen again! Thanks. Carolyne.
hi
i started on my rebif in may this year and it felt wierd to start with, different injection sites affected me in differant ways and sometimrs there is a little bit of fluid/blood on the skin. its nothing to worry about and the side effects do wear off.
very now and then i have a bad night with i. but stick with it. trust me it gets easier. And tomorrow is another day.
I have been on Rebif for a few years and the little droplet of fluid on the skin is quite common. (You can vary injection depth and speed to try to minimise this - the MS nurse should be able to advise, or the Rebif provider have a nurse/adviser but my line of contact to her is through my MS nurse so can’t give you a phone number).
Can’t comment on the flu-like side effects as they have never been a problem for me, but I understand that is also quite common, especially at the beginning and relieved with Paracetomol.
As for the injection sites - my mantra is:
Week 1 - Left arm, stomach, thigh or bottom - choose any 3
Week 2 - Right arm, stomach, thigh or bottom - choose any 3
This way each site has a fortnight to heal as red blotches are another common side-effect.
As chainsaw miller says - it does get easier.
Hi I started injecting rebif last week and have noticed the same about drop of liquid. I was going to ask nurse about it when I speak to her next, so sorry I can’t help, but you are not alone in wondering. Hope your side effects don 't get any worse. Apart from tiredness I wasn’t doing to bad on side effects until today when I slept until 2pm! I felt so achy but also have a cough and cold so not sure if it is that or rebif making me feel so rough. Had to have my first day off work today. Even when I couldn’t drive earlier in year, I made it into work with help from my family…I hate giving in! Fingers crossed things go well for you : ) Mish x
Oops sorry there was no posts when I started writing. That’ll teach me for watching the tv at same time!
Thank you for all advice, really appreciate it. Mish you sound exactly like me! I love my job and hate being off. When I lost my sight I didn’t miss a day off work, gradually list use of left side in March and school threatened to call an ambulance. I was still saying " I will be fine let’s just wait until tomorrow". I have been off this week tho as was floored on Monday hoping today’s will be as easy as Wednesday so I can go back to work. Thanks again, Carolyne. X
Hi Carolyne I started Rebif early October still going strong with it and have now been up to full dose a 44 mg for a while, I have had a couple days where I have had flu like symptoms (paracetamol sorts it out) but on the whole no side effects other than the very attractive red bruise like marks around the injection sites, I rotate my injection area weekly giving each area 3-4 weeks break between injections, I haven’t noticed any difference with side effects dependant on area injected, but like you mentioned I too have experienced a little blood/liquid spot after injecting usually only when injecting in my legs, but it doesn’t happen every time! And I have been assured by my Rebif rep that its very normal and nothing to be concerned about. Good luck Liana
Hi Carolyne We are similar. I lost partial use of my right side in March, not good for writing, especially as I work in a school too! Just take one day at a time and don’t try to push yourself to much. Sounds like your work, like mine, know you would be there if you could. I turned down two offers from my gp to sign me off! I go upto rebif 22 on Monday, last one at 8.8mcl tonight. Lets keep those fingers and anything else we can muster crossed the dreaded flu doesn’t bother us too much : ) Mish x
Hi,
I have been on rebif since July and I am sure I get worse side effects if I inject in my leg. I have still got a red blotch on my right leg from an injection in July, I decided to try my leg again recently and definitely felt worse it also really hurts and in my arms or stomach I can hardly feel it.
If I were you I would avoid my stomach.
Good luck
Emma