Friday, March 5, 2010

Syringe Mission Complete!!

Well, I did it. I used a syringe today to inject my ENBREL dose.

Favorite Lab Man told me that he didn't have first-hand experience with ENBREL, so he wanted to make sure I had the best help I could get. He took me to meet one of the nurses at student health, who apparently gives an ENBREL shot to a student every single week because the student is too afraid to do it herself. Favorite Lab Man had talked to the nurse about my situation and everything. And I was SO grateful that I had him to help me get through this. He was super-sweet about setting up the whole thing, even though it's not his job to do so.

The nurse talked with me about how to use the syringe properly. She told me that, if I wanted, she would give me this shot this week and I could come back next week and give myself the shot while she watched. But, with all the advice and support I have gotten from my amazing readers, and the self-reliant feeling I've been developing in the past two weeks, I decided that I was ready to just do it myself. I need to be able to take care of myself. So, with her explaination, I stuck that needle into my thigh myself, pushed down on the plunger myself, and gave myself an injection - my first time using a syringe.

I'm not going to lie: I was pretty shaky for about a half hour afterwards. For reasons that I can't quite explain, it was just hard hard for me to use the syringe. It involved a lots of adrenaline, and I felt really jittery for a long while afterwards. 

But, in the end, it really wasn't all that bad. In fact, in some ways, it was actually better than the auto-injector. With the auto-injector I usually press the button and then hold my breath during the 15 seconds that the spring-loaded needle sends the medicine into my system. Sometimes waiting for the click that signals it is over feels like an eternity. But, with the syringe, since I was pushing the plunger myself, I was in control of how long it took to put the medicine into my system. And it didn't seem as long. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise? In any event, I have three more tries with the syringes to decide how I want to do it after that. So we'll see how it goes.

After it was all over, I found myself thinking about a blog post that I read recently. It was about how kids get treats when they have to undergo medical procedures, but for some reason grownups don't get any credit for dealing with yucky stuff. The post inspired me to give myself a treat after doing something that was hard for me: I bought myself a wedding magazine and a latte and spent a lovely afternoon in a coffee shop, just dreaming about my wedding day! 

All in all, not a bad day!!! Syringe and all.

11 comments:

Laurie Grassi said...

Way to go!! You should be so proud of yourself!! And the treat thing? That's a good thing – you should do it every time!

:) Laurie

P.S. I honestly think that once my prescription for the Enbrel auto-injectors runs out, I might switch to syringes for the very reasons you've outlined...

Mandy said...

Nice work!!! And good work treating yourself!

~Mariah~ said...

MANDY: Thanks! ~:o)

Sarah Z said...

I hope you went with the whole milk vanilla latte! Love you.

~Mariah~ said...

SARAH: No, I still got a skinny latte. But I did buy myself TWO wedding magazines. ~;o)

P.S. I'm trying those gloves you sent me today - wearing a pair right now! Hopefully I will have the results of this study soon!! Thanks again for sending them. That was super sweet of you. ~;o)

Helen said...

Good for you! I'm glad the first one went so smoothly.

I really do like the syringes. Granted, I've never tried the auto-injector, but I find the syringes easy to handle and, as I said before, I feel more in control.

I'm glad you treated yourself, too. I think we all deserve to do that.

~kelly marie~ said...

Mariah = Bad Ass.

:)

J said...

You are SO fabulous :-)


(I like the skinny cinnamon dolce latte or the skinny hazelnut)

~Mariah~ said...

Thanks, everyone! I REALLY appreciate the support. It means a lot to me. ~;o)

Skye said...

YAY!!! congrats!! =D

~Mariah~ said...

SKYE: Thanks! I've got at least three more tries with the syringe (I get my ENBREL four at a time). If those three go as well as the first one I might honestly stick with the syringe instead of the auto-injector. The first one went really well and was actually a lot less painful!! Like Helen said, I feel more in control. ~;o)