Week 31 - Tuesday: Panic Over
After a turbulent-feeling weekend I was glad to find myself on a more even keel yesterday - although I didn’t really want to do a lot. Lazy day, I guess.
In the evening I did my injection as usual - #32. Well, almost as usual. Having taken a few minutes to try and clearly remember where I had done last week’s injection (brainfog bigtime) it came to me that this week I was due to inject in my abdomen again. Just as the last of the interferon was being plunged into me I saw some air bubbles in the syringe going into the needle too. Panic. I hadn’t remembered to push out all the air at the top of the syringe first - as I had been taught to do 32 weeks ago. (brainfog bigtime)
I could only remember that injecting air into the body is lethal - oh, yes, that’s intravenously. What about subcutaneous injections? Don’t know what that will mean.
Quick call to Mynurse’s pager and soon Mynurse (trying to get on with her shopping in a supermarket) was on the phone. Reassuring as ever. Not serious to have air in adipose tissue, not lethal like in veins. Probably will be absorbed in time with no trouble. She ended with a wise warning note, however - any problems contact NHS Direct or go to A&E.
Relieved massively. No problems throughout the evening or night with it.
Mynurse called again this morning to see how I am - having consulted with others on the medical team and with the manufacturers about how much air is in the pre-packed syringe. Excellent and reassuring support.
No problems with that today - so I guess I will survive injecting air into my body this time.
The rest of the day has been quiet so far - pottering about on the computer and housekeeping sites, etc. Getting fed up with spammers and viruses.
June 15th, 2005 at 9:57 am
Hi Ron
32 down!!! Brilliant, congratulations!
I think you must have a different syringe system to me. I can’t get rid of any air before injecting as it’s this non-manual process. Do you have the one with the dial on the top that you have to pull out and twist to the right dose? I think I must regularly put air into my skin as there are always little air bubbles that I can’t get rid of. No problems yet…will let you know if I explode…
Lu
June 15th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
once when i used heroin with jm basquiat and lou reed i had some air in my vein… but it was a few.. luckly i’m still alive… and trolling aroun
June 15th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Hi Ron,
Not sure how true it is but my haematologist said that a small amount of air injected into the vein wouldn’t be a problem either.
Jonathan
June 16th, 2005 at 1:46 am
hi ron,
air bubbles……………..lucky whichever way it goes into your system!
have a good dqay
tom
June 17th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
Ron: Fortunately for me, I have had the assistance of a couple of nurses each week with my shots. It makes me feel like a whimp, but it does reduce some of the stress. However, because I will be away from home a couple of times this summer, I started learning how to inject the Neupogen on Saturdays. I’m really not very good at it and I know the nurses wonder, “How in the world did this guy ever do drugs!”
The first time, while pulling the plunger back to make sure I didn’t get into a vein (which they said is not likely), I pulled the plunger all of the way out of the syringe! I immediately got it back in without contaminating anything. This past week, I pulled the needle out twice, before getting it to stay in the skin the third time.
Sheesh! Glad I’ve had all of this help.
As to the mental issues, check out today’s blog. I went to have my blood drawn for the 24-week viral load check and nearly had a meltdown. I have recently realized that my spiritrual disciplines have been lacking and it’s catching up with me.
I can also identify with the ribi-rage. It’s amazing what little things can send me off.
Again, paying attention to my spiritual side is an important part of my treatment.
Guess I better get back on task as I am only halfway through this thing.
Grace and peace to you, my brother.
October 6th, 2005 at 3:23 am
interesting site, and very organized too. good work. rare pieces questioned for a long time: http://www.allucher.com/sato_blog/archives/2005/04/post_110.html , out little pieces of bread and cups of juice