A couple of questions here.
1) Have any of you experienced a strong odor in your urine due to the medications? I have and it kind of grosses me out. I don't drink nearly enough water and perhaps that would help. OT...I absolutely love fresh asparagus but don't eat it much because it makes your urine smell horrible.
2) When doing Enbrel injections the insert says that once you pop the needle in and pull back on the plunger, if there is blood discard the syringe and don't use it. Are you kidding me? I'm not about to throw one of those 0 dollar syringes away. The insert doesn't tell you what happens if you inject anyway, anyone know?
Peace & Love...Neasy
I can answer question number one and maybe an educated guess on number 2.
I know for me, that if I do not drink enough water during the day my urine will have a strong odor to it. I see people pop up with UI's and kidney infections around here a lot. So it does make me wonder if we are not more prone to them being on these meds. So I try to keep myself pretty hydrated.
Question 2...I am not on enbrel but I used to inject humira with regular syringes. If you get blood when you pull back on the plunger a little you might have hit a vein. If you get blood in your syringe they prolly want you to dump it because it is now contaminated.
Hmmmm....that makes since but what if I don't pull back and just inject the lil bugger?
P.S. I really don't like water Try flavored water like Propel or something like that. Danny gets me flavored fizzy water from like walmart or the grocery all the time. Gatorade works well too. I am a gatorade addict lol. I also drink gallons of iced tea in the summer time. Always pull back on the plunger and yes, you can hit a vein. I've hit a vein and I'm a nurse.....it can happen. I've hit a vein in my leg and abdomen both. I wouldn't reinject but that's just me. I know that people do but I don't want to take the chance. Lindy.
Why can't you inject it if you hit a vein? Seriously, is there some sort of real danger if you do? What chance are we taking if we do? Besides gramma's educated guess on contamination I'm still lost. If it is a contamination issue, I would simply just not pull back on the plunger so as not to pull blood up into it and inject away. On the other hand, if there is a REAL danger in injecting it when you hit a vein, we need to know what that danger is. Hmmm...might be a question for the RD.
Peace & Love...Neasy
Contamination - mixing blood with medication. Loss of effiacy of drug if not injected in proper manner such as muscular, sub cutaneous, etc. There is always a "real danger" if injections are don't according to instructions. Infections, contamination, loss of effiacy, enough to make me want to make sure that each and every injection is done according to aseptic and proper technique. Delivery of the medication is very important in how well that medication works. I'm sure there are some who hit a vein and continue injecting but why risk it? There can be complications in the best of medical environments much less our home bathrooms.
Please all of you inject your meds according to the directions that were given you. They give you directions for a reason and it's to protect yourself from further complications. Lindy
Hi, for the last few months!, i've been on a lot of different drugs, and YES, my urine changed in color and odor. It is a mystery to me how this all works, but probably lots of liquids would be good. LyndaGramma is correct about the water. Once I started drinking a lot more the odor went down and the urine can also burn after meds if we don't drink enough.
Not trying to be argumentative but my SIL who recently graduated nursing school as an RN said that they are getting away from the pulling back to see if a vein was hit. First of all it can't be done to many children as they don't stay still and can be injured. Also the recent wisdom is that for frequent injections it creates more scar tissue to always pull back.
I myself don't pull back and hit a vein once, big bruise.
Take care
Ewwww....wouldn't the bathroom be the dirtiest room in the house as far asI inject in my living room. I sanitize my coffee table...then grab a paper towel and lay everything out on that. I wash my hands very well and use hand sanitizer between injections.
I'm a living room injector too. Much more comfortable in the living room and plenty of space to lay everything out.
Hey there Bonny, nice to see you and thanks for the post....interesting.
This injection thing will definately be a question at my next appointment.
Question #1. I have smellled a chemical like smell several times I peed. I attribute that to just maybe not drinking enough water. I take mTX and enbrel on the same day so I cant tell which caused the problem.I inject in the living room and you're right Gimp about the bathroom.
They probably are teaching injecting techniques differently now than they did when I was in nursing school. The medication delivery system has changed over the years so I would assume that how you inject would have changed. I just go with what I was taught, my hand is pretty steady so I don't think that I have to worry about scar tissue. Sure makes sense though, especially with children.
My internist and I just had a discussion about urinary tract infections and he said that since I'm on Remicade and MXT that my chances of a UTI increases. We got into this discussion because I was asymptomatic but urinalysis showed an infection and he put me on antiobiotics. It's since cleared up. I have to drink at lease 64 ounces of fluids a day and sometimes more. It flushes the kidneys and bladder. A side benefit is that it makes your skin glow. Lindy
My urine is dark yellow and smells nasty. I started drinking lots and lots of water but it only helps a little. I had to go on long term preventive antibiotics for recurrent UTIs and that makes the smell issue even WORSE. For some reason I find this very disgusting
Laker
I use Humira and don't "pull back" to see if there's any blood. My rationale is the following. If you use the self-injection pen, it doesn't check to see if you hit a vein...it just pumps the drug in...so why is it any different if I self inject? The problem with asking your doctor or nurse is they will always tell you to follow directions...otherwise they could be liable if something happened. Anyway, just my opinion...you, of couse, should follow the directions explicitly!
Alan
By the way, I just gave myself the Enbrel injection about 30 minutes ago and it burned like hell again.
Okay, I'm out....have a great night all & take care.
Peace & Love...Neasy