MY FIRST INJECTION

Hey look, this is what I did.

Felt like a total druggie on my bed with all the needles and vials and stuff. Haha, but seriously, it wasn't bad at all! Let's start from the beginning though.

So my insurance rejected the injectable methotrexate. I'm assuming they want people to take the oral tablets because they are cheaper. However, there are plenty of reasons why people may need to inject, including the GI side effects. Anyways, I was prepared for a fight. But then the pharmacist is like "but we just ran with the group discount card and it comes up to $8.64 without insurance." So one month of the tablets, covered by insurance, was $15. One month of injectable, not covered by insurance, was $8.64. Our healthcare system in a nutshell.

Anyways, I also had to buy some needles and some alcohol swabs. Both are really cheap, so all together it is cheaper than taking the tablets and with no insurance help. Anyways, at the doctor's office they gave me a quick demonstration of how to inject myself. It seems easy enough, so I was pretty confident I could do it when I got home.

I was a little scared, I'll be honest, but I just started doing all the prep and whatnot without trying to think about it. Swab my thigh with the wipe, swab the top of the bottle, insert syringe and inject air into the bottle to replace the medicine I was going to take out. Draw the medicine out. Tap the syringe to get rid of air bubbles, push until I have just the right amount, remove needle...

...shove needle in leg. Okay, so I paused a second. Palms sweaty, Mom's spaghetti. I had my left thigh pinched (plenty of real estate to work with there). I knew I just needed to shove it in there at a 45 degree angle. No need to hit the muscle or a vein, you just inject into the fatty layer. Honestly the easiest injection possible. I did pause a few seconds though and then just grimaced and plunged it in. And honestly, I felt nothing.

Instant relief. That didn't hurt at all. I honestly didn't feel anything. Maybe that's why they have you pinch your big fat fucking thigh up? Idk, but anyways, I then just slowly pressed the liquid in. It burned a little, but not bad at all. I just did it nice and slow. Once it was all in, I quickly removed the needle. No pain there either. Not even a drop of blood, just a microscopic red dot where the needle went in. Honestly, super painless and easy. And today none of the nausea I would often get with the tablets. Haven't had the fatigue yet either. So I'm feeling good about this method of delivering the methotrexate.

Now I just need the results I'm looking for! It'll also be interesting to see next week how much I freak out. Because even though it was pretty dang easy this week, I know next week I'll probably be freaking out again.