First, wash your hands before beginning.
Take the box to where you inject, open up the box and take the vial out.
Clean the injection site with an alcohol wipe.
Wipe the vial top with an alcohol wipe also.
Now its time to find out where you are going to make a hole. The nursing term
is “clean to dirty.” You put the pad at the spot where you are going to
inject and using a circular motion clean from that point out a few
inches.
Fill the syringe. Pull the top off the syringe. Pull the cover off the
needle. Holding the vial in one hand, have the syringe in the other and
brace both hands together. The reason is to not miss the center of the
vial and nick or blunt the needle.
(This part applies only to the powdered form of interferon. You can skip this
paragraph if you’re using the new pre-mixed, already in the syringe
stuff.) Turn the vial upside down and draw in the IF. If its real cold,
or the syringe is a 29g or smaller getting the stuff in can be a
problem. Let it calm down and push out the air. (vial and syringe still
upside down) Then draw to the full dose, occasionally pushing out air
bubbles. I draw a little more past the fill level, so if its a 3mil dose
instead of the .5cc I go to a couple of small marks beyond .5. Flick the
syringe near the vial with your finger. This makes air bubbles gather and
go out the needle.
Take the needle out of the vial.
Holding the syringe upside down, and push the plunger to the correct level
(e.g., .5cc). This gets rid of any air in the needle.
With one hand pinch the skin/fat layer at the injection site.
As fast as possible push the needle into the layer with the syringe almost parallel to the skin (hold the syringe similar to the way in which you hold a pencil). The faster the needle goes in the less pain there is.
Very slightly pull back on the plunger to check for blood. If the syringe fills with blood, it means you’ve hit a vein and need to start the procedure over again.
If there is no blood in the syringe, you can then push the plunger.
Pull the syringe straight back. You get less bleeding if you don’t play
twister. Drop the syringe in the sharps container.
Syringes: I’ve found that the .5cc ? inch 29 (or 28) gauge insulin syringe to
be the best. Gauges that are numbers like 24 or 22 are bigger and hurt
more.
Things that happen after injection:
Sometimes there will be a tiny bit of blood after an injection.
This just means you’ve probably popped some capillaries or punctured a small
vein. It’s nothing to worry about; just cover it up with a bandage and
let it clot.
The day after a shot, a red area is quite normal. They can range from dime size to silver dollar size and may feel hot and tender.
A small area is fine, but if it gets much bigger and hotter, or you see
something that looks infected, contact your doctor.
Bruising is also very common after shots.
Sites: Most people use their thighs for injections. Some people find the lower
abdominal area (*not* around the belly button) to be the least painful
spot for injections.
Sharps containers: You should be provided with one, either from where you get
your interferon (pharmacy or home delivery) or your doctor’s office. If
you have a problem getting one, puncture-proof soda bottles can be used
to temporarily hold the used syringes until you can take them to your
doctor’s office and ask them what to do with them. If you do this enough
times, eventually, someone might get the idea you need a real sharps
container. If you have children and/or cats, keep your sharps container
locked up. The hole is inviting to small hands and paws.
Some find it helpful to numb the injection site beforehand. An icepack (or a
bag of frozen peas) placed on the injection site a few minutes ahead of
time will make the shot relatively painless.
To help prevent bruising, some people recommend using only half of the diluent
provided (this applies to the powdered formulation only, and not to the
new pre-mixed syringes).
