Have to inject myself in the stomach- hate needles !

[Dominos21]

I’m 12 weeks pregnant and got told I could have a potential clot in my lung, waiting on a scan. In the mean time I’ve been given injections to inject into my belly twice a day.
I am so petrified of needles. I need some advice/reassurance.
It’s the whole idea of me doing it myself, but I don’t trust anyone enough to do it. Unless it’s a professional. It’s the stinging I don’t like .

I asked them to show dh how to do it. I suppose you will get used to it after the first few?? Would a pharmacist do it?

I had this after my baby was born. I got my husband to do it. After 24 hours the fear wore off. It just got boring

I don't know how big thoes needles are, but give youself extra time. It is ok to be scared. I'm diabetic and my first self administered insulin took me almost 30min. I knew I needed it and was amazed at how great I felt. Next step was to inject myself. After giggling and staring at it, trying few times and stopping. I managed to do it. You can do this. Take a deep breath and do it when you are ready.

I was meant to do this after my CS but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, I agree it’s the weirdest sensation to inject yourself and I just couldn’t physically or mentally do it. my DH is needle phobic so wasn’t much help either. I was lucky enough to have the first 3 days done by the local midwife when they visited me at home and the last 2 days a local nurse, who I contacted through my doctors came to me to do it.

Is that a possibility, getting daily appointments with the nurse?

I had to do this after an operation to prevent a blood clot - important that you do it & it'honestly not that bad once you start.

Try not to overthink it & just do it quickly is my best advice. A pharmacist or a doctor won't do it for you.

I had to inject blood thinners - daily from 11 week to 6 week post delivery due to a pre-existing clotting disorder.

I am not good with needles either at the best of times have been known to faint having blood tests! There is a technique to it to reduce the sting. I was shown how to do it into my thighs rather than my stomach (the thought of injecting near my baby made me go all queezy - totally irrational the needle is like 1cm long!)

Do you have an auto injector? They make it really easy to do it - just pinch the skin, jab and go! My advice is do it fast before you think too much about it! It's not fun but you do get used to doing it. plus it's MUCH better than the potential alternative!

PM if you want a virtual hand hold

Ok, so I had to do this recently for other reasons. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos for diabetics (I’m not diabetic, but they are the biggest community who have to do this, so they’re the experts). I didn’t hurt myself at all.

What I did I the end: Put on some soothing slow tempo music to help me relax my muscles. Cleaned (gently) the injection site with alcohol rub and then waited until it was dry. Get your injection all set up in the meantime. Then you get a hunk of skin and fat within thumb and forefinger of your non-injection hand. You want to get the skin tight so that the needle goes in smoothly. You place the needle against the skin and press gently and if you feel a pain move the needle until you find a site with no pain, just a feeling of pressure. You don’t have pain sensing nerves everywhere, so you just don’t want to hit a nerve. You might have a painless site just millimeters from a painful site.
When you find a place where you don’t feel pain, very quickly stick in the needle at a 90 degree angle from your body (this helps a vapid bruising). Push in the meds (give it at least 5 seconds if not longer to release). In my case, I had to keep the stopped pressed down as I withdrew the needle so that I got all the meds, otherwise drops would escape after I took the needle out. Inject on opposite sides of your belly each day, again, this is just to avoid bruising.
And that’s it! I hate needles, but it gets easier, I promise.

Hi, I am a diabetic (for the last 20 years) I am also petrified of needles. Actually phobic of them. But in your own hands you get used to them. My only advice is to not inject whatever medicine you have straight out of the fridge if it is really cold it will sting more. Leave it out for like half an hour and roll it in your hands before doing it. Inject in the side of the belly furthest away from the belly button as this has more fat and will hurt last. Change the area around as well as you don't want to develop scar tissue! Good luck!

Yes def don’t inject straight out of fridge - I wait until mine are room temp (obviously not saying do this if indicated otherwise)

I also numb my skin with ice first - not just 30 seconds of ice, but minutes - I find it makes it much less painful. Maybe psychosomatic, but works for me.

Hey, I am guessing you're injecting blood thinners and that you're using subcutaneous needles (the really short and thin ones that only go into the first layer of skin). You really won't even feel it (I used to do this as part of my IVF treatment)! Just pinch a little bit of skin 2 fingers to the side from your belly button and go for it. I know it seems scary but it literally feels like less than a mosquito bite. Lung clot is not a joke at all so its really good that it was caught on time and that you can manage it with blood thinners. Good luck!!!

I had to do this every day for three months after my cancer op. Woman up @Dominoes23 it’s really not that bad.

I have hypnobirthing tapes and I find them so calming to listen to. When I have finished I can feel how calm and slow my breathing is. I wonder if some hypnobirthing or meditation might help you feel really calm and relaxed before you start. Might be worth a try?

I found it easier to do on my inner thigh area than my belly.

Put an ice pack on for a couple of minutes first and then 'just do it'. It's much easier that way.

I am currently 14 weeks pregnant and have had to do this since 6 weeks and had to in my 2 previous pregnancies.

The first few are really difficult but it soon gets much easier and you don't even notice it. I have several spots where I don't feel it at all and 2 where it hurts A LOT. Do not rub the area where you inject or it will bruise a lot .

Thanks for all your advice. Luckily I had a nurse come round and do it for me today. As I had a 3 hour anxiety attack. My lung scans are tomorrow , fingers crossed it isn’t a clot in my lung !

If you pinch hard enough you don’t feel a thing with sub-cutaneous injections. Get someone else to do it if you want.

I used to do it first thing in the morning- get it over with. I'd count back from 20 as I did it and it would be over even before I got there. It gets easier after 3 days, it becomes a chore but not a "trauma"

Fingers crossed for you @Dominos21 - I had the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately mine did turn out to be a blood clot in my lung but from all my googling most people who had the scan got the all clear so there’s a good chance you don’t! If you do, it’s not too bad I promise - I couldn’t do the injections myself AT ALL the first few days, but a couple of weeks on I’ve got the hang of it (and no other major problems, just a bit of occasional chest pain and breathlessness).

Update - A minor clot found but the main cause is actually pneumonia . So no injections just a lot of tablets very happy indeed. Baby is healthy also, which is my main priority. Thank you everyone