• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Pre-Lyme Treatment (Week 1 Day 3)

I had a 2nd appointment with the nurses at the GP's office yesterday, and that went well. They'd tried to ask my GP how/where to inject the 4ME (Nexavir), and she'd given me a call, sounding a bit frustrated because they were asking her questions about something she hadn't prescribed. :rolleyes: I agreed that we could figure it out ourselves, since "subcutaneous" seems obvious enough to me, and that precise location probably doesn't matter much if it hasn't been specified. I asked if I should cancel the appointment with the nurses, but she said I should probably keep it if I thought it would be helpful.

INJECTING

So I went to the appointment yesterday afternoon, and it was indeed helpful because the procedure is somewhat complicated and precise, and I'd missed a few things the previous day. Basically I tap out most of the liquid from the top section of the ampule, then grab it with a little cotton square and snap off the top.

Then I open the syringe reservoir package, without touching the tip area, and open the packet for the sucking needle without touching the needle, and attach it to the syringe reservoir. Basically the sucking needle is a special filtered type for drawing liquids out of glass ampules, to make sure no glass is sucked in. Then I hold the needle on with a finger nail and use my other hand to remove the needle cover. Next I hold the ampule with one hand and pull the plunger of the syringe in the other hand, which is a bit tricky. The needle opening should be pointing down when doing that, I think because then you get all of the liquid out easier.

Once I've got all the liquid into the syringe reservoir, I push the plunger gently until the air is out of it (maybe with some tapping), but liquid isn't going up into the needle. The I remove the sucking needle while holding the syringe pointing up so liquid doesn't spill out. Next I attach the injecting needle, remove its cover, and gently push the plunger until the air is out of the syringe and a drop of 4ME drips out of the needle. I made more of a squirt than a drop doing it this morning :oops:

I then grab a chunk of outer thigh flesh and slide the needle in at about a 45 degree angle, with the opening in the needle pointing up so that the sharp bit slides in nice and easy. It goes in until there's just a little needle left - as my fiance explained, if the needle does break off, it's good to have a bit sticking out so it can be removed :vomit: The I push the plunger very very slowly, while being careful that I'm not pulling the needle out. Slower = less pain. Once it's all out I need to stop squeezing my thigh, then slide the needle out. I usually lose a few drops of blood and maybe a drop of 4ME when the needle comes out, so I put a little band-aid (plaster) on it to avoid making a mess.

Then I make sure my needles have their covers back on them, and put them in my fiance's needle disposal bin. Then I trash the other stuff in the regular garbage, being a bit careful of the broken glass edges. The injection site doesn't hurt after I'm done, but I get a hot little circular area around it for about an hour.

It's mostly the same for the intramuscular hydroxoB12, except there's a longer injecting needle and it goes straight down almost all the way into my outer thigh. Again, slow injecting since it's a lot of fluid. The B12 injection site from Tuesday is sore, and looks a little bit bruised except it's more pink than purple.

STATUS

I'm doing better today than I have been for the past week or so. My pulse pressure was 34 this morning, which is practically normal. The past two days it's been 24 and 22 first thing in the morning, which is when I'm usually at my best. So hopefully things are improving a bit, though I can't really attribute it to the stuff I'm taking. I've had two bed-bound episodes (1 and 3 weeks long) before which seemed to resolve spontaneously, so this one might just be resolving of its own accord now.

I do seem to react to the soy in the liposomal vitamin C. I got swollen after taking it on Tuesday, then the swelling went away when I skipped it on Wednesday. I'll take another dose today and see what happens, then figure out what I want to do if it is indeed the culprit. The Glucaplex isn't causing me major problems, if any - the yeast extract might not be equivalent to free glutamic acid, which is what yeast extract is used for in food. If I were getting much of that, I'd get a migraine, and I haven't had any symptoms. Maybe a little trouble sleeping at night, but nothing major.

Due to delays in getting started on pre-Lyme treatment, we postponed my followup appointment with KDM until May 6th. Otherwise I would have been going in two weeks, after less than three weeks of being on the protocol.

Comments

Hi Valentijin! I recently had found this medical center for the treatment of lyme disease and thought you would enjoy checking out some info on it! They have similar therapies in Europe as well, and another doctor who practices a similar treatment named Dr. K!

The practice does not focus on lyme though but rather the state of "dis ease" in the body, they also treat many other chronic health conditions including CFS.

http://hansacenter.com/about/ I would highly recommend checking out the book which has a protocol you can practice on your own as well!
 
Hi Valentijn, I'm have my Nexavir and HydroxyB12 on order. Any reason for injecting one at an angle and the other straight in? In the past, I've injected MethylB12 into my hip/buttock, but the thigh seems like it would be easier. Also wondering if it matters what part of the thigh (lower, upper, middle)? Thanks! Brent
 
The B12 is supposed to be intramuscular, so I'm supposed to do it straight down with a longer needle to get it into my thigh muscle. Whereas the 4ME/Nexavir is supposed to be injected subcutaneously, so with a shorter needle and at an angle so it doesn't go too deep.

For injecting in the thigh, it should be the upper outer part. Otherwise you risk hitting bigger blood vessels. When showing me, the nurse basically "drew" a line on my leg while I was sitting there, from the top center of my knee through the top center of my thigh, and said the injecting needs to be outside that line (away from my torso). Middle or upper thigh is supposed to be better, but upper thigh seems to be the least painful. So I end up injecting fairly close to the butt region anyhow, just somewhere I can easily reach for several minutes while sitting down.
 

Blog entry information

Author
Valentijn
Read time
4 min read
Views
607
Comments
3
Last update

More entries in User Blogs

  • Daily doodal dandy
    Just testing this out
  • Covid day 75
    Well since my last few updates I started to suffer from exhaustion and...
  • Pray
    If you pray, will you pray for me please? I have covid pneumonia and...

More entries from Valentijn