Enbrel Injection Starting To Hurt. | Arthritis Information

 

 

Hiya! I'm Ni, 24 from Redcar, UK.

I've suffered from Chronic RA for the past 4 yrs.

Ive been on Enbrel injections (2 weekly .25mg) for 6 months now and six weeks ago ive started having sharp pain as more liquid goes in to my leg and i have no idea why its just started happening after all this time?! ( i have been injecting into my thighs, fat helps!).

I've had no explaination from my specialist on why this should happen and i am trying and not succeeding to find a freeze spray to attempt my injections again without fear of the pain BUT my doctors have not heard of any freeze sprays at all! Ive tried the numbing cream and that has been useless.

Ive missed 4-5 injections thus far and i'm reverting to the awful pain i used to be in at the start of all this.

Does anyone know why it should hurt now and is there a brand of freeze spray i can ask for? As my nurse for Enbrel seems clueless.

I'm so glad i found this site!

kel

I've been on Enbrel for almost a year now.  I use the SureClick injectors.  For the first several months, I was injecting into my thighs--and boy did it sting!!!  A few months ago, I finally decided to try injecting in my stomach instead--and it's ALOT better.  I still feel a little bit of a sting, but nothing at all compared to how much it was stinging when I was injecting into my thighs.  I'll never inject in my thighs again!  It did take me awhile to decide to try injecting in my stomach--just seemed kinda weird to me for some reason, but I'm so glad I finally tried it.

Best of luck to you!
dordale

Thank you so much for your help, i still havent had the nerve to try the stomach yet, ive actually asked my nurse at my doctors surgery to do my first injection into the stomach cuz it seems quite scary as i'm a major wuss when it comes to needles.

How long do you hold the ice/icepak on the site for?

I think i need to get over the fear now i have of the injection thats stopping me from even trying again.

Are the SureClick injectors like the Diabetic needles? I hope we have them in the UK!

Thank you again for the advise, its made me feel less alone in all this.

Ni x

I used Enbrel for about one year injecting it in the stomach is a lot less painful then the thigh I did the stomach for almost a year and then I had to switch to my thigh because I starting having bad injection site reactions and I used to cry doing my thigh  but it never hurt on the stomach I guess I have more fat there LOL give it a try I always iced the area for a few minutes with one of those blue gel ice packs and I never felt a thing

good luck and take care

Linda from NJ

Ni--

I actually don't ice the area of the injection site before doing the injection at all.  I did try that when I was injecting in my thighs, but it didn't seem to help much.  Just moving the injections to my stomach helped with the sting sooo much!  It's like night and day.

One thing I do do is take the Enbrel out of the fridge about twenty to thirty minutes prior to injecting.  I've read that letting the Enbrel warm up to room temperature also helps with the injections.

Best of luck to you!
dordale :)
Hi!
The stomach is really no big deal at all...you should give it a try. The way my doctor explained it to me, is that you have less pain receptors in your abdominal area, so you are less likely to feel the sting. He told me I could try the thigh, but I would quickly switch to the stomach, so I never even tried.

Gotta agree with Dordale8--letting it warm up makes a huge difference.

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