New User Advice Needed Please!

[tejay]

When do you do shots? We feed our pets at 7:30 PM because that seems to be the time when we are most likely to be home. I do my shots now at 7:30 as well, though some variance if you have plans is fine.

Is one location better/worse than the others? You want to inject into fat. I have plenty of fat everywhere else, but I have chicken legs. So the thighs really hurt for me.

Do you use cream on site? What kind? Before/After both? No cream. Refrigerated pack after, for thighs, hot pack before and refrigerated pack after. Those packs are free from Shared Solutions.

Ice? How long? Before/After? Refrigerated pack, I think ice is too cold. And you only need the pack for 5-10 mins.

Vibration to numb area? (my arms don't count, they've been gone for a month, didn't feel IV, won't feel injection)
The shots really don't hurt, it's a tiny needle. It's afterwards that hurts. The medication burns like a scorpion sting for 5-10 minutes after the shot. This is when you use a cool pack.

Do you take an oral med to help with side effects? What?
I don't have any side effects other than the pain right after the shot.

Did it get better/worse over time? No

Pen or manual better? I use the auto-ject. Free from Shared Solutions with doctor's prescription.

What's a gripper? I don't use this.

Lastly, why did you pick copaxone? Fewest side effects. We're talking about pain for maybe 10 mins of the day, then the rest of my life is normal.

Shared Solutions will also send a nurse to your home to show you how to do the shot, talk about tracking your locations, and give you free swag.

[hmarie47]

Probably bad advice...

But here goes.

1. Whenever someone else is at home or I am at school. I had the IPIR once and that happening when I am alone freaked me out. But it wasn't tragic, just scary. So, the timing changes week to week and sometimes I skip a day to reset the clock if I know my schedule/housemate's schedule is changing. Sometimes I end up doing this in a public bathroom, feeling like a ***.

2. My thighs are the worst; I really have very little fat there. So I use some "alternative" sites and just do one leg every three weeks, and still have 7 different spots to rotate too.

3. No cream, back when I was getting really awful site reactions (i.e. itchy bruises and bumps) I used arnica gel, and that was awesome. I'd massage it in the next day, and put a little on right after the shot. Now I just use an alcohol wipe before and after. I'd rather a sting than an infection.

4. No ice. Neither ice nor heat helped, and I don't have time to sit around holding an ice pack to my butt when I'm at work or at school.

5. Vibration? Well, I recently started having a problem with the skin being so tight it hurts/is hard to get the needle in in the first place, and massage was recommended, so maybe this is an excuse to carry a vibrator in my purse.

6. No oral med, although I take klonopin (super low dose) 1/2 hour or so before because I swear (totally psychosomatic, but whatever) that it prevents the IPIR. The one time I didn't take it, that happened, so. Bad science.

7. It got much better, now there is a new problem (i.e. skin seems to be hardening, which is annoying but not tragic).

8. Manual: the autoject thing is terrifying. Tiny needles, not so much. Fortunately I can reach/inject in all the areas myself, so this works for now.

9. Fewest side effects, and the only options my neuro gave me were the interferons or copaxone. Not a hard decision there.