Hello, Does anyone rotate sites to include arms & can you offer advice? My nurse advised holding arm straight out in front of body at 90 degrees, folding forearm back onto upper arm & doing the injection (using rebinject) at the mid point of the underside of the upper arm. This hurts at the time, although no site reaction, but 2-3 days later I feel like my arm’s been battered with a hammer. There has so far been no visible bruising. My arms are slight but I was advised only really thin folk need to adjust the needle depth. Any thoughts? I’m keen not to exclude the arms as am getting reactions on belly & don’t want to inject thighs/bum only. Thanks Anne
Yes I include arms in my site rotation. I don’t get very many skin reactions - just a few faint red marks and no pain later next day - so I’m sorry I can’t be much help. You are injecting in the right part of the arm by the sound of it - where some of us have our bat / bingo wings. Hee hee. Mind you, I only use 22 mg now but it was the same with 44. I hope you get some good answers. R
I use my arms for my rebif although i use the rebismart so whether this makes a difference I don’t know. I had to reduce my needle depth as it was giving me horrific bruises all over the place and I am in no way thin so I’m not sure why you shouldn’t try it.
I don’t bend my arm in any directions I either reach over or get my mum to do it for me with just my arm straight down, the injection itself stings like mad but i’m not left with feeling of being battered days after not since when i first starting using it.
However I still get the rebif bullseye as a site reaction which can include a bruise but I’m used to my red blotches now!
Have you tried looking for answers at this site - http://www.mysupport.org.uk/ i ring them if i cant get through to the ms nurses.
Steph
I don’t do my arms because there just isn’t enough fat to make them pain-free: I would hit muscle.
Maybe this will help you though, if you don’t want to stop using your arms (although it’s fine to just use thighs and hips): I’ve found that it’s least painful to inject if the skin & flesh is not taut so I pinch a good amount of flesh and then inject NEXT to this, where it’s looser, where the skin is coming up into the raised, pinched area. This probably makes no sense unless you try it mind you!
As far as bruising and red blotches go, I’ve found that these are less since I changed the injection speed to fast, but the time to 16s. So faster in with the needle, but slower out with the fluid. It’s worth experimenting.
Karen x