B12 deficiency - anyone self injecting?

[WeAllHaveWings]

I have have a raft of B12 deficiency symptoms

• Dizzy, off balance
• Vibration in sole of right foot
• Tingling/Burning in feet and hands
• Sharp shooting pains in groin, thighs, scalp, bingo wings, armpits etc
• Numbness across face / bridge of nose and drooping eyelids
• Tinnitus
• Tired during day even after a good nights sleep
• forgetful, fogginess
• acid
• difficulty swallowing at times / persistent cough

I have been ignoring them for years as just thought they were all about being obese (have lost lots of weight), in menopause (started HRT) and being old (can't do anything about that!). But have been working hard to improve my health and still feel dreadful.

I convinced a reluctant Dr to do a blood test and B12 was in the 500's so Dr not interested, but I have since read for an accurate test I would need to be off supplements for 4 months, also because I have been on daily PPIs (Omeprazole) for 7-8 years (which impacts B12 absorption) it is almost guaranteed I have a deficiency and nerve damage and it was a fake result.

Dr says we all get niggles as we get older, but I can't go on feeling like this it is impacting my work and life, so with everything leading me back to B12 in a moment of rashness looking at B12 deficiency facebook groups, I have ordered 100 x injection ampoules of B12 from a pharmacy in Germany (these are freely available in Europe) to see if they help me.

Is anyone else managing their own (probable) B12 issues privately?

Has your GP also checked thyroid, ferritin, folate and vitamin D?

I do have B12 prescribed by my GP but they refuse to inject any earlier than 12 weeks (nice guidelines say can be given from 8 weeks) an I start feeling awful from week 9. I was clinically deficient though, and do have multiple health issues, as well as being coeliac, so I do order from Germany and self inject. I do also inject patients as part of my job.
I only get 10 ampoules at a time though. Won’t yours go out of date before you use the 100? I know PPI’s can cause absorption issue, not just for b12, but If you had absorption issues your supplements wouldn’t be being absorbed so your levels would still be low? that’s why patients with absorption issues need injections, rather than tablets.
I’d be wary of masking serious symptoms of something else by propping yourself up with the injections. Could you not see another dr at the practice, or change surgery? Visit a private GP as a one off or something?

I self inject. I try and do it every month but often put it off because I hate doing it! But it makes such a difference when I do. I buy ampules online.

@OneLastTryToday Ferritin (221) and folate (13.3) she says is also good. Waiting for thyroid and iron results. I don't expect there to be issues there as had them tests a couple of years ago and also fine.

Posters in the forum were talking about using every other day as loading doses until symptoms are relieved before reducing and said dates were ok (if they expire I'll know for next time!)

From what I have read you can get false high readings with supplements and total B12 is very different from active B12. Most seem to inject based on symptoms rather than readings. My current supplements are NRV 800% cyanocobalamin (not the most effective form) so potentially could have given false readings.

@carrotycrumble do you inject intermuscular or subcutaneously?

I am planning to do subcutaneously every other day for 2-3 weeks to begin with, then switch to weekly for 3-6 weeks and see how I go from there?

Do you take folate (or anything else) alongside your injections? How much / how often?

@WeAllHaveWingsIntermuscularly. There’s a very good YouTube video of how to do it. It doesn’t really hurt but neither is it particularly pleasant! Worth it though, just for the increase in energy alone.

I assume you will be doing the loading dose regime - 3 injections per week for the first two weeks?

It can’t do you any harm to try B12 injections, you can’t overdose on it, the body gets rid of any excess in your urine, but it can take a few months to get properly well again, assuming lack of B12 is definitely your problem.

Also, most aesthetic clinics, anywhere that does Botox, will usually offer very reasonably priced B12 injections, if you would prefer this to self-injecting

@Springtime43 I don't mind doing a SC injection as I have done those before, but I couldn't face the longer IM needles. From what I read IM is absorbed faster, but SC is still absorbed but more slowly and can increase the loading dose from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 weeks.

If IM is needed my SIL is a nurse and I could ask her to do for me.

Do you take them? How much folate do you take with them and anything else?

Your supplements wouldn’t have given a high reading if you hadn’t been absorbing them though. You wouldn’t have been getting the benefit of them as there would be no absorption. That’s why people with absorption issues remain deficient, even whilst taking supplements.

A loading dose is a course of 6 injections.
It’s an intramuscular injection.

Only from my reading - my high dose supplements and high blood serum B12 level means I am absorbing the oral supplement, but it doesn't mean it is active absorption that my body can use, it might only be passive diffusion. My Dr won't test for active. So my thoughts are, I have symptoms, my long term omeprazole use can cause issues, and it is very low risk to over do B12 so it is worth a try?

Easier to try injections and if they don't work to relieve symptoms stop (give it 6 months), if they do work then perhaps change to a better B12 oral supplement once B12 recovered and symptoms eased.

The alternative is stop B12 supplements for 4 months, then retest privately, but I am struggling and trying the injections sounds like a quicker way to confirm/rule out.

I buy from Egypt or Turkey when on holiday. Buy 12 and self inject every month

Only from my reading - my high dose supplements and high blood serum B12 level means I am absorbing the oral supplement, but it doesn't mean it is active absorption that my body can use,

Yes, I don’t quite understand it all, but sometimes you can have lots of B12 in your blood stream, but your body doesn’t utilise it properly. So injections bypass this process, and the B12 gets to the right place