I'm suddenly having a very hard time doing my t shot. It's more than just a sudden unwillingness, it also hurts more. I used to feel little to no pain when I did my shot but suddenly that's gone up to mild to moderate pain every time. This makes me prick myself multiple times before I settle on a place to carry out the shot, when I used to get it in one go. I had an incident a few weeks ago where I bled a lot after a shot, and I think that's gotten me all shaken up. Has anyone dealt with this before? How do I get over this?? Should I talk to my doctor about patches or gel instead of shots?
Can you give me more details on how you do your shots? - Do you do IM or Sub-Q injections? - Do you rotate your shot spot regularly? - What's the process like for you to do your shot (be specific as possible) What I feel helps for me, is that when I'm going to go do my shot, I pinch the spot I'm going to do it. When I'm done, I let go of the spot so the T can disperse and then I pull the needle out. Rarely do I experience bleeding or have the T ooze out. Also, massaging the spot can help reduce any knots and pain I'd run into later. Also, if you do IM injections, consider switching to sub-q. The needles are much smaller (like an half an inch or so shorter), and are less intimidating and they're virtually painless--at least in my experience. Oh, and I forgot to mention something else. Have you tried having some kind of distraction with you when you do your shot? I find that having music on helps me keep my mind off things, so that when I go to do my shot, my mind isn't anticipating for it to hurt.
I do IM and I do rotate! There's really not much extra to my process. I've never tried pinching the spot, so I'll give that a try and see how it works for me. I do distract myself from the needle, but mostly that just means I block it from sight with a tissue/toilet paper as I inject it/pull it out. I'm thinking now that the extra pain may be because of the cold weather and my house being cold. I only just started t this summer. Next time, I'm going to try doing my shot directly after a hot bath when my muscles are warm and more relaxed. If nothing ends up working, I'll definitely look into sub-q because that sounds very appealing to me.
