Hope you are all well and keeping safe and healthy.
I was wondering if I can get advice regarding self injecting.
I have been taking Plegridy for about a year now, and even thou I will do it (eventually), I still find it very difficult to do this on my own.
Some times, it takes me an hour to get the courage to go ahead with it, I have on occasions cried for hours before and been full of anxiety.
lately I can not do it unless someone else is with me, this makes me feel awful as I am no longer independent. I fear i am only getting worse as i have also recently started getting anxious about it days before the actually day i need to take it.
I spoke to my MS Nurse but he said I just need practice and it will take time, I am not sure how I can get used to or ‘Practice’ injecting my self.
Was wondering if anyone else had the same issue and if yes how did you cope with it? is there a way to practice injecting your self? Is there anything else i can do that will help with the process?
What exactly is the fear? Is it the thought of it might hurt? If this is the case go to the chemist and get some numbing cream. You apply it about 20 mins before you need to inject. Young child have this magic when they develop Type1 diabetes. So worth a try if that’s your problem.
Mainly though you have to work out what the fear is being caused by and address the fear. If you can not overcome the fear then you need to decide is it worth you carrying on with the treatment.
I used to use plegridy. I found the fact that it was like an EpiPen easier to deal with. Not like seeing a syringe (which I have to use daily now for anticoagulant!).
Hold something from the freezer on the area before you start. It works.
Why not see if you can swap to a different drug? Eg Tecfidera. As it’s an oral therapy you might find it easier. Honestly there’s no need to continue suffering the lack of independence, the fear and worry of an injection.
I started on Rebif and then moved to Copaxone. I really struggled to use the auto injector with both of them but manually injecting Copaxone caused me to almost develop a phobia about injecting due to the site reactions. A Dr friend told me to try Emla cream (my GP prescribed it but I think you might be able to buy it in Boots). Apply it 1/2 an hour before injecting and it numbs the skin. My Copaxone nurse said try anithistamins to calm the reactions down, just the one a day ones. Doing both of these things for 6 weeks was enough for me to get over the anxiety and for my body to get used to it and not react so much. I also used cold and warm packs before and after but |I don’t think they advise to do that now.
If you can try Emla cream first it really does make a difference.
