Guess what?

I did my injection this morning LIKE AN ABSOLUTE BOSS!!!

Katrina, if you are reading this, you are my hero, your tips were an absolute lifesaver!!!

So when they told me how to do my injections initially, they just sort of demonstrated it with the needle, without actually doing it. They told me to hold it away from my body and plunge it in like a dart. This gave me so much anxiety – what if I got the angle wrong? What if I stabbed it accidentally into my finger which was holding the skin pinched? And getting the courage to plunge a needle viciously into your stomach is bloody scary. So I did 18 of them at the beginning, but after that, I couldn’t take it any more and had a massive freak out about it. Thankfully I had someone to step in and do it for me. But even then I couldn’t look at the needle going in… I’m not a fan.

Fast forward to now, and it’s up to me to do it myself. Which you know, I’m ok with because I am super independent and don’t like to rely on anyone. But there was still that absolute fear. I didn’t know how I would overcome that. The thought of poising it over my skin, getting ready to plunge it in… My heart is racing just thinking about it.

Enter my fellow sarcoma friend Katrina, who I was so lucky to run into when I was in Ambulatory Care last week, and who I happened to whine about the injections to. She’s a smart girl. None of this plunging stuff, just pinch your skin with one hand, place the needle above your skin where you want it to go in, distract yourself – look at the tv, breathe out, calmly push the needle in, push the liquid down, remove.

This technique is revolutionary. I was a little scared at first, but without looking at the needle, and without having to plunge it in from great height, it made ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

Sorry all for a potentially boring post about self-injection techniques. Maybe this information will help someone else out one day!

But I am feeling EMPOWERED. The sun is shining, it looks beautiful outside my window. My toe hurts because I managed to smash it on a table shortly after doing my injection. But hey, ONE OUT OF FOURTEEN DONE! I’ve got this!