I was injecting my enbrel and it hurt more than usual, when I pulled the needle out, a large drop of blood formed on the skin. A DARK purple bruise formed.
Does anyone know if this is dangerous?
After I ask my nurse (next appt. is early Sept.) I will let you know what she says, but I was wondering if anyone knew if this was bad. has anyone done this before?
Do you ALWAYS pull back on the syringe to see if you have hit blood? I have never done that, since that is not what I was taught, but I know the Enbrel says to do so in their instructions. What do you think??
The Embrel needles are dulll and cheap. go in on a angle and come out on a angle not to bruise. Nothing to worry about. Erica'sMomYeah, I agree about them being dull. Every one feels different. Sometimes the ends where it tapers off, looks bent. Sigh... I would send them back.... but I need the meds! I can deal with lots of bruising. It is worth it. Thanks for the reply.
Where should the tapered part be pointing. Up or down???
Anyone?
Tapered part up or down?
Oh yeah, it has been a week now and the bruise is still there. This was not just one of my normal injection site bruises, this was THE bruise, the big ol' one! It is still dark purple after a week, but hey, I am still alive, so I guess there is nothing to worry about!
Barb
I have 2 more questions: 1: Do you always pull the plunger out a little to make sure you aren't going into a blood vessel? I have never been told to do this, but the instructions say to do so... 2: When I push the bubbles out, some of it gets on the outside of the needle. I have heard this makes it sting more. Has anyone else heard this/thought of a way to make it less painful? Nothing wrong with drawing back to see if you are in a vein, can save you from a big bruise. It shouldn't make any difference if some of the medication gets on outside of needle, after all its the same med and if it stings will sting whether inside or outside needle. Relax, I'm sure you've been doing it ok. Of course that doesn't make it sting any less.
Barb
I haven't heard of drawing back to check for blood, although if you go in anywhere from a 45 degree angle to straight up and down, you shouldn't really hit a vein, as those are closer to the skin (think about the dramatic 10-15 degree angle used when you get blood drawn). I tend to use about a 60 degree angle, as I find this is usually less painful. Definitely the dull needles will make it hurt more. I also had this experience, with the earlier batches of the 25mg Enbrel being duller than the newer ones. Your doctor can prescribe separate needles and syringes for you so that you don't have to use the Enbrel ones (at least mine did). I would think the stinging is from 1) a sharp needle being forced through your skin
Hang in there and good luck at your appointment. Im 17 and was diagnosed with JRA at 12. I am thinking about starting Enbrel because nothing else seems to be working! of course, the idea of self injection is not so nice.
thanks vickilee! i start enbrel sometime this coming week. i wont lie, im pretty scared. not so much about the needles, but the fact that it may not work. im starting to run out of options. i will continue meth (doctors orders) even though i see no improvement from it. on a better note, i've signed up with some friends to do the jingle bell walk.
hope all is well. Kc
because I tried it in my leg and it hurt really bad. I
will inject in my leg only if I have too. And I have been
on the Enbrel for 3 months now and the other day
when I injected I got a bruise but it was the first time,
but everything is ok. Early in my Enbrel "career" I had trouble with their
needles. I started using Insulin needles size 28 ga. x 1/2 in.
1.cc. cap. They are cheap and your dr. should prescribe them
with no problem. Any smaller than 28 ga. and the drug is
difficult to load into the syringe. A shorter length needle can be
used. The bruising is almost non-existent and pain is a thing of
the past.
I was on Enbrel last year and it didn't seem to work. I was on it
for about 3 months.... The needles are all prefilled, so that's
the good part! If you don't get too anxious, it can be pretty
easy... I injected in my stomach .. one side one week,
other side the next week. It wasn't too bad. But I still
hated the thought of 'today is my shot day'..
The pain and swelling were still there so the doctor had me quit that
and put me on injectable methotrexate... which I really
hated! I had to fill the syringes myself and the medication
really burned (Enbrel did not do that).. After a
while, I told the dr. that I was real bad at staying on the weekly
injections and missed several. So, he put me back on the pill
form of methotrexate, which I take with my other meds. The
prednisone helps alot with the swelling, and excedrin is my best friend
for the pain... of course when it's real bad, vicodin is there for me
too.. but I hardly use that.
Also, try posting on the Rheumatoid page... I think more readers are there and may help you more than I can.
Good luck!
Regarding the injections, the needles seem sharp to me, maybe they're different in the UK. I get either little or no pain from the injection. I inject twice a week, always in my stomach (more fat there from middle-age spread). The nurse at the hospital advised me to insert the needle straight in, at a 90 degree angle. She said it was harder to pull out at exactly the same angle doing it at 45 degrees and so was more painful. I don't pull back the plunger to test for blood and I have only had one which bled and this was bruised for about a week.
I have 2 side effects. One is a dry throat, sometimes making it difficult to swallow dry foods. The other is itching with painful spots on my hands and feet. I have a hospital appointment tomorrow so will query if it is the Enbrel or coincidence.
The injections are nothing to worry about and are no big deal. The side effects I can put up with (if they are caused by the Enbrel) for the pain relief it has given me.
I would recommend Enbrel to anyone with severe back pain and not to get paranoid abou injecting yourself, diabetics have to inject 3 or 4 times a day.
Meggie
Apparently the dry throat isn't caused by the Enbrel so I may have a mild throat infection. If it gets any worse I'll go to the docs. The itching and spots could be caused by the Enbrel.
At the hospital I asked if I could stop taking the Voltarol and the doc said yes. Didn't take it on Thursday tea time so last pill was Wednesday tea time. Yesterday and today pain back to square 1 so maybe trying to push it too fast. I will take Voltarol tonight and see what happens then ring the hospital on Monday.
Love
Meggie
I have been on Enbrel for more than 6 years and primarily inject in my legs.
When I was trained to do the injections, they instructed me to pull the plunger out a brief distance after inserting the needle to make sure you do not see blood (apparently a sign that you are injecting into a vein.) In all of these years, I have only seen blood appear when doing this two times.
I agree with the tips on injecting at an angle - that really seems to help minimize the bruising and makes the injection easier.
Another thing that I have found that eases the pain of the needle insertion is to pinch my skin around the area where I want to insert the needle - this causes the skin to rise up and become very taught. It seems that when I then insert the needle into the taught skin, it hurts less. Worth a try...
I've been on Embrel for over 10 years and take shots twice a
week. only have had minor skin irratation. I take the shots
in the thighs or arms with little problem. I tried it in the
stomach area a couple of times and had large red itchy areas develop
lasting a few days. If you have dark red blood come out after injection
you hit a blood vessel. Embrel has been a life saver. I take
Relafen to supplement the rest of my medication.
I am starting Enbrel tomorrow and I am preety scared. The dr. gave me the SuireClick so I don't know if anyone here knows much about them vs. the regular needles. I am going to the office to do it in the am.. Does anyone have any tips? I am also on Avara 10 mg, every other day but I want to stop that because my hair is fallin gout alot. Does Enbrel do anything to the hair? I also was wondering if people on Enbrel drink red wine? My Dr. said it is more allowed than the DMARDS,
Hope the new medicine helps with little pain and brusing, etc...
I am also worried that what do I do when this stops working?? I felt better after the Avara but in a short two months, not any better. Overall I hope it works and I can stop the Avara.
Does anyone know about those sureclicks? I don't think you actually see the neede in those.
you should be taking it twice a week and it will take about 3 weeks for
you to really feel a difference. If your lucky you will go back to a
pretty normal life in which you can start enjoying. Enbrel should
not make you loose any more hair than a person normally looses.
It may cause some ichy feelings and little brusing at times. But
if it works for you its sure worth it all.
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