#self-injection

[queeranarchism]

I'm seeing a worrying post about single/multi-use HRT vials going around. Please read this Queer Doc article instead.

Single-Use Vials: Are They Really One-Time Only Use? - QueerDoc • Trans & Gender Affirming Online Doctors' Office - Curing LGBTQ+ Healthcare

If you use injectable estrogen or testosterone, we're pretty sure that you've run into the single-use vial dilemma. | #nonbinaryhealth, #tra

The most important parts of this article are:

Check the ingredients. Vials without preservatives are intended to be thrown out after 1 use. Vials with preservatives are intended to be thrown out after 28 days.

Wash your hands, clean the table and disinfect injection surfaces (vial stopper, your injection site.)

Don’t let the needle or the rubber stopper of the vial touch contaminated surfaces.

Don’t re-use needles.

I would like to add:

In Europe you may also get single-use vials that are completely glass with a top that needs to be broken to access the medication. There is NO safe way to use these for multi-dosing.

Within the DIY community, you will find larger vials that people use for months. This caries extra risk but unfortunately a lot of people don't have much choice. Be extra diligent about hygiene and safety if you re-use vials for longer, understand that you've got more risk and do not do it if you are immunocompromised. Please consider changing your vial every 4 months if at all possible.

If you do get an infection you need to go to a doctor. Seriously. An infection deeper under the skin can not work itself to the surface and has a risk of entering the blood stream and becoming sepsis. This can kill you. Trans people will tell you that they had an infection and they were fine. They were lucky. You may be unlucky. Go to a doctor.

Normal injections often cause pain and a warm bump or hard spot at the injection site, with symptoms increasing during the first 24 hours and gradually getting less after that. Symptoms of infection are: pain, heat or a bump that continue to increase after 48 hour, oozing of liquid from the injection site hours/days after injection, fever, a rash spreading from the injection sight. If you get these symptoms go to a doctor.

Store your injection bottles, packaged syringes and needles in a dry, clean location, keep them away from food items. The packaging isn't fool-proof. If there is dirt on the package, do not trust the inside of the package. If the package is broken, do not trust the inside of the package.

Check the ingredients of your vial for allergies. Injections are oil-based and that oil can be peanut-oil, soy-oil and other things that people might have an allergic reaction to. If you have allergies, know which oil you're putting into your body.

[mywordstovictor]

So today I did a T shot exactly right for the first time in the 8 months I’ve been injecting weekly. I either waste a needle because I forgot to disinfect my vial before I uncapped it or I pick a mediocre spot so it actually kinda hurts or any other of the other (hmmm if I inject every 4 weeks and there are 4 weeks in a month and I’ve been injections for 8 months then 4x8 is… okay 2x8 is 16 and 16x2 is… okay 10x2 is 20 and 6x2 is 12 and 20+12 is 20+10+2 so 30+2 ha! 32!) 32 minor errors I’ve made. Nothing serious. I get everything sterilized that needs to be sterilized. No mistakes that could cause me any harm aside from frustration. Still. Always something. But this one? Perfect. Didn’t have to go back and repeat a single step. Injection so smooth I couldn’t remember where exactly I injected it by the time I had my supplies put away. Speaking of putting my stuff away, I remembered to put everything away. Not just the important bits: the glass vial, the syringes, my sharps disposal box. Everything. Alcohol swabs, wipe I used on the counter, tissue box I brought over in case of bleeding (which I didn’t even need, because this injection was perfect and even factors that aren’t directly related to my shot execution were just exactly right). Freshly transtaped and feeling good doing it shirtless. Packer in sweatpants. I did my shot before noon. Not ten minutes before bed. Not before noon a day late. It was done on shot day before 12pm Atlantic Standard time. Too early to tell if this is a fluke or a sign I’ve finally mastered this five minute max process but either way, this is a victory. I have won this round of transgender. I’ve been riding this win for hours now. I should get a prize. I might just go grab myself a pride sticker from the drawer and put it somewhere. Where? Doesn’t matter. I’ve earned the right to put a trans sticker wherever the fuck I want. Life is good today. Today is a good day to trans.

[macgyvermedical]

I think I've got a perfect ask lol, I'm ftm too and I just started t about a month ago. I do my shots in my thigh but I can't get the needle deep enough to hit muscle but fast enough to not hurt, if that makes sense? Any tips on doing shots? I'm sure its a practice thing mostly but any best practices or advice would be amazing

It’s a practice thing, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to make it a little easier!

Here are some tips:

Make sure the alcohol you used to clean the site is completely dry before you insert the needle, otherwise the needle will pull some of it in with it and it will sting like all heck on the inside.

Make the skin as tight as possible where the needle goes through- if you’re really skinny, this might mean pinching up the skin before injecting, if you’re fluffier, this might mean pushing down with your thumb and first finger and spreading the skin out.

T is thick and it’s going to take a few seconds to inject. Relax the muscle you’re injecting into!!! This will probably need to be conscious on your part and you might need to think about it a few times while injecting, but it makes the T go in faster and it’s a lot more comfortable. And of course, don’t move it while you’ve got the needle in!

Don’t be afraid to insert the needle slowly- the “dart” method of self-injection is not helpful for me at all. And it can be more painful if you’re all clenched up.

If injecting into the muscle is super unpleasant for you, consider asking your provider if you can do subcutaneous injections instead. They’re a little easier and you don’t have to relax a muscle to do them. Plus you can do them in your belly, which is an easier angle for some people.

[thesecuritysleuth]

Sunday Round Up - 12th May 2019

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Sunday Round up for this week!

Articles:

Basics of Self-Injection Packers (LiveOverflow x OALabs Tutorial)

Exposing Yet Another Currently Active Fraudulent and Malicious Pro-Hamas Online Infastructure

Hack the Box (HTB) machines walkthrough series — Bounty

Finding Registry Malware Persistence with RECmd

Looking inside the (Drop-)box

If you found some other interesting stuff this week feel free to leave a link to it in the comments section. Otherwise feel free to check out the last roundup here.

These round ups are brought to you by PassVult.

[tmitransitioning]

Is it possible to inject yourself w t wrong and have it not work?

nope, pretty much not at all.  if you mess up your injection, say, using the wrong needle, and go too shallow or too deep (going in the muscle when you’re trying to hit the fat, or vice versa), it will still be absorbed, and you’ll still get a similar effect.  if you were to do it drastically wrong, and only get into the skin (meaning, you gave yourself a mosquito-bite shaped dose, right on the surface of the skin) it would probably be unreliably absorbed, but you would STILL get some of the dose (not that that’s in any way a recommeneded route- there’s definitely increased risk involved doing it that way, so follow the recommended technique).  it’s not uncommon for a bit of blood, or even a bit of the dose to leak out--  if you hold the needle in place for a second before you withdraw, that usually decreases the amount that leaks, and the amount that DOES leak out is generally much less than it actually seems- it’s almost never an amount that you need to be concerned about (blood or testosterone).  As frightening as it might seem to have to stab yourself with needles, it’s honestly relatively simple, and pretty hard to mess up, once you have the basics down (keeping the germs at bay).  your body is pretty forgiving, and getting it mostly right will pretty much guarantee success.  if you’re not sure,  you can always make an appointment with your doctor’s office just to go over injection training.   (there’s a special billing code- CPT:  98960 they can use to get insurance to cover this visit so there’s no reason they should have a problem providing you with this training if you need it).  Mod Mayhem

[outforhealth]

PPSFL Transgender Health: Injection Guide

This guide offers transgender patients that inject hormones information about syringe safety, reducing injection pain, how to dispose of sharps, and how to give yourself an intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (SQ) hormone injection.

HEY!! We wrote a thing!! and it’s a cool thing and important thing and we want your help to share it and to let people who may need this info know that it exists!  So, for anyone who may be injecting hormones, this is your updated doctor-approved medically sound factual helpful step by step guide for how to do that either IM or SQ.  Knowledge is power! 

[official-alex-stuff]

I'm real dizzy after injecting my testosterone today. I don't know what to do to recover faster, I have to get to work.

[mari-musing]

Friday's Fruits 11 August 2017 💉🌸 On today's shopping list: adalimumab and Pukka tea. 🍫🍺 Spontaneous indulgences: fair trade chocolate and a stubby of gluten-free beer just because. 🍭👙 Obtuse gratitude: a nice grab of belly roll makes subcutaneous self-injection so much easier. I think it would have stung my drum-tight tum of yore so much more. ❄☔ Tangential thought: I know I am not alone in finding it difficult to motivate myself to exercise when the weather is so cold, wet and miserable. I just want to be curled up, not moving, like the dog. Moving stirs up cold air. I am becoming very good at ignoring my Garmin's commands. I am not a good role model.