aspire when make pegasys injection?

[rexx73]

hello there,

i would like to know if any poeple here do aspire when they make the injection.

i mean put the needle in, and pull back the piston a bit to see if any blood comes back.
i was never told about to do that but i heard that same doctors recommend it.

i just put the needle in and pull the piston slowly down,so without aspiration.

id like to know what your doc or nurse told you about that.

in the description they also say nothing about to aspire.

i thought that aspiration is only needed when you inject i.v.

i dont know if i should advice my nurse to show me how to inject with aspiration,or if i just keep going on like the past 22 shots.

i would be very thankfull if some members can share how they do the injection.

[FaithforHealing]

My trial tx team has never done that when giving me my injections and I was never told to do so.
(flcyclist is too funny tonight!)

[Thistreatmentsuks]

Pull back!!! I just did 16th shot and hit a vien for the first time in my stomach.  Blood filled the syringe.  I never ever put the needle all the way in and i still hit a vien.  Its a subcutaneous shot not intravenous for a reason,  it probably isnt made to be shot into a vien.  May make you sick.  It hurt like hell.  Also you use another shot you never re hit with a shot that has blood in it.  It could clot or whatever.  It scared the hell out of me and i am now scared to do any more shots.  The directions say if you hit and get blood ALWAYS THROW it away and start fresh with a new one.  So thats what you should do.  I just got a call back from an RN on pegasys help hotline and she said ALWAYS PULL BACK TO BE SURE YOUR NOT IN A VIEN because it could be bad if you inject into a vien and if you do get blood take out immediatly put into sharps container and start with a new one.  Just call pharmacist and doctor and explain what happened and your now short a shot so it can be replaced.  Honestly i had enough for a night and i am not doing another shot tonight,  im shaking and freaked me out and it hurt like hell, i'll hopefully get the courage tomorrow.  Please dont risk it just because its uncompfortable or awkward be safe and pull back,  if you dont or havent been you've been lucky although its rare you never know and definately dont want to find out the hard way.

[mythoughts]

A few drops of blood means that you either hit a capillary or went clear through a vein. What you have to worry about it when the barrel fills up with blood. Artery blood is bright red and foamy, wereas vascular blood is dark red. You WILL know right away if you hit an artery and inject - you will get swelling,  ringing inyour ears, hot flashes, itching, etc....Very unpleasant.

There are some but fewer veins in the belly, but many shallow, small radius veins in your thighs. Are the needles a higher gauge than 28? Is the barrel 50 or 100ccs? If the needle gauge is higher than 28, then your chances of hitting a vein are less, but any 100cc needle usually has a lower gauge and a lower tip.

[rexx73]

Thanks alot for all the comments.
I will go on without, aspiraton.
the nurses at two  transplant centers told me they tell the people doing the injection without aspiraton.

[Advocate1955]

We had the same experience as most of you.  The instructions say, I think, to pull back if you see blood.  We asked the NP about it when she was doing the training, and she said that since the needles are small and the injection is subcutaneous, it wasn't really necessary.  We stopped trying to pull back and check for blood because it was so difficult.  Most of the time, everything was fine.  Once or twice there were a few drops of blood when pulling out after the injection.  Nothing bad ever happened.  Some were preloaded syringes and some were syringes that we had to draw medication up.
Advocate1955

[can-do-man]

Pulling back must not be to important since they allow the use of the redi-pens which you can't pull back.

[orphanedhawk]

I was told to pull back, if blood entered, pull it out and begin with a new syringe.
It's tricky to pull it back, and once you get the hang of doing it in the correct place, it's unlikely you'll hit a vein.

[BoceprevirGal]

OHHH, I thought you just needed a new empty syringe, to draw the Interferon up with, because I always get my Inf shot at the clinic I go to, from the nurse...so I guess they are pre-loaded  then.
   I bought the syringes for my Procrit injections, they come in a little glass vial. I was surprised that a 12 pack was so affordable...of course, I also happened to get the wrong size...sigh. And now, reading about blood and veins, I am thinking I might just wimp out, and continue getting both my Procrit and Interferon shots at my clinic...I use my belly, andd the nurse told me close to the navel, or out about 3 inches were good spots, but about an inch and a half past the navel on either side, there is a vein there, and to be careful of that~

[dontworry_behappy1]

Wow....now that good to know....and something they don't tell you.
Thanks

[shayne50]

Me syringes are spring loaded. I push down hard enough for the red spring on the end to disappear, then push a button on top. The internal spring pushes the needle in and the plunger down. I hold it there till the fluid in a glass lens disappears. So, I do not aspire.

[mythoughts]

Again, I used for many years and can tell you that there ARE many veuns that are right under the skin. That is why you can see blue through the skin. I have hit many, many veins after the needle slid just under the skin.

[nygirl7]

.i just wanted to ad that with the pegintron an aspiration is not even possible,so i think i will go on without aspiration. ."

Pegintron does not just come in the ready pen, I got tired of them and they sent me regular old syringes and switched.  Just FYI.  

Rexx you will be just fine.  I took pegintron and never did it for 72 weeks and never had one single little problem ever. I dont think there are arteries or anything when you pinch the skin that small and hit the skin, it's not like you are slamming it into your arm or something. Its just subQ.

[flcyclist]

I would think its not likely to hit a vein, but you might hit the arterioles or capillaries.  I visually avoided what I could see under the skin.  I never aspired during my 48 injections, but I did inhale deeply often before each jab.  I was never instructed to pull back and never had a problem.  I also didn't have a shotgun wedding, so guess I got lucky. :-)

[mythoughts]

If it fills with blood you hit a vein, and as someone who was an IV drug user for many years, YOU CAN hit a vein right under the skin. Yiou CANNOT inkect blood from a vein into a muscle in another spot, or you will get an abcess/infection.

Also, who knows how the meds will effect you if taken IV instead of subQ or IM. And yes, it was called "getting a register" back in the day! :)

Also, if you hit an artery, you will get major swelling in your extremities, hot flashes and fear like you're going to die for about 10 min. So I would HIGHLY recommend checking for blood.

[ceanothus]

I'd be awfully surprised if was that cheap or easy – we're talking about a pre-filled syringe of Pegasys. My insurance covers all but $70 for a three-month supply, which is 12 syringes, but I think my insurance is being billed mega bucks. I looked it up once a long time ago and promptly forgot, but I think it was somewhere near to $8,000.

[rexx73]

i just wanted to ad that with the pegintron an aspiration is not even possible,so i think i will go on without aspiration.

[slideman]

I was told to press the plunger and when its all injected, count to 5. This was to be sure all the medicine was out of the syringe and none would go into a capillary if I had gone through one on the way in. I had no problems.

[belle19]

i was never told to pull back.  i just pinch a part of my thigh and inject.  i've been in tx for 46 weeks now and no problems with it.  good luck.  belle

[BoceprevirGal]

"Aspire"....I thought it was called "getting a register", back in the day, or an "issue"...I better get out of here while I'm ahead.
     The blood that goes into a syringe, quickly thickens and should be disposed of in the appropriate fashion....but so far, I have always gotten my shots at my clinic, I am a wimp about all this stuff, but want to learn how to inject my own Procrit.
  @Ceanothus: you can just bring your (pegasys) prescription to any pharmacy and they will be happy to sell you a 12 pack of syringes, for 3 bucks, I just found this out~

[ceanothus]

I'm on my third tx, and have faithfully followed the instructions that accompany the Pegasys, to draw back and check for blood before injecting. In total of all my treatments I must have injected this stuff at least 120 times. My most recent injection shocked me - for the first time it really did start to fill the syringe with blood! It turns out that if you do get it into a blood vessel there is WAY less resistance to pulling back on the plunger, and I had a lot of blood before I even realized what was happening. It was painful to throw away the syringe and get out a new one, but I did. Now I'm wondering how much hassle it will be to get one extra syringe so I don't end up cutting tx short by one week.

[nygirl7]

I did it the first shot and after that forgot about it. For subcutaneous injections (just under the skin) you may go in thru a small capilliary ,however this will not affect absortion advesrely. "

I never even bothered to do it the first time.

[Ironpony]

She just said rehit...and I never thought of asking because it was a 3 hr training on all 3 medications....it was tooooo much info at once. Too much to take in. Scared the *hit out of my husband....hearing all the potential sides , dangers, to do's, needles etc.

I thought his head was going to explode.

[pooh55811]

I know the Pegasys instructions say to aspirate to see if there is blood and I did do that the first 2-3 times. I found it difficult to do. A person is already in an awkward position and the syringe is very small. Also, my syringes have a red barrel. Plus most of the barrel is covered with white that has information written on it. So it is really difficult to visualize and also awkward. I asked my case manager and she said there was no need to pull back and that she has never pulled back when injecting Pegasys into her patients. Since then, I have not pulled back. I have just injected it.

The important thing is to pinch up some of the skin and fat and hold it between your thumb and index finger. The needle is very short and this should keep you away from the possibility of hitting a vein (which is unlikely anyway). You may get a little bleeding after the shot but that is from hitting a capillary.

[rexx73]

for me the most important thing about this is,
that IF(i know the chance is very very small)i  hit a blood vessel,the interferon is still doing its job.