Intramuscular Antibiotic Injection

[Uno]

Hi

Has anyone ever injected themselves with an antibiotic?

I won't explain all my story here as it's loooooong and complicated but I suffer from chronic infection which keeps going into sepsis. I am in the UK and my doctor wants me on an IV antibiotic but the local microbiologist keeps blocking me and refusing me the drug. I have a doctor in America who has sent me the meds but I can't find anyone to administer them other than myself. It doesn't look that hard.

Maybe the Lyme folks would know more about this?

 

[GracieJ]

An intramuscular shot, no, they are not that hard. I used to give myself IM shots twice a week.

You do want to be aware of a few do's and don't's. Is there anyone who could give you those pointers? I am not comfortable sharing that, not being a nurse.

If it is not meant as am IM shot, you are best off finding someone to administer it. I used to get IV pushes that required someone else knowing how to put a needle in a vein.

 

[minkeygirl]

@heapsreal can help you with this. In fact he posted on a thread somewhere on how to give injections but it might have been subcut. Maybe search around here and see if you can find it.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

You should not attempt IV injection on yourself. You may have an anaphylactic reaction and not survive. If you inject into an artery instead of a vein you could lose an arm. Drug addicts teach each other to inject into veins but there are lots of disasters. Apart from anything it is a pretty tricky thing to do manually.

Intramuscular injection is reasonably safe and easy to learn but you need to be trained by a nurse. If you do not give it deep enough it will not do the job. If you go too deep you may hit a nerve if you are not in the right place.

Basically, it is a question of 'do not try to do this at home'. It needs proper training. No doctor with any sense of responsibility would have put you in this situation.

 

[ukxmrv]

The company Healthcare@home could possibly supply a nurse to do this. You could maybe contact them and see if they will liaise with your USA doctor. It's not a free service of course.

https://www.hah.co.uk/services-and-treatments

 

[Kati]

Just a comment here, it is pretty sad when patients resort to this, having to do self-medicine because the local physicians are so hostile in believing they are sick and deserving of treatments.

It is disconcerting that day in, day out, year in, year out, patients with ME/SEID are being excluded from their health care system they have paid into all of their lives.

Since the IOM report came out, comments from news articles, including the medscape article shows the contempt, disdain and disrespect of patients, of the disease, and of the IOM organization.

Add to this the layers of despair, appalling levels of disease, poverty, the lack of support, the suicides, it is quite telling.

 

[Gingergrrl]

@Kati I agree with you fully and also agree with Dr. Edwards fully that it would be dangerous for @Uno to attempt this himself. But what are people supposed to do in this situation with no doctor support? I would not attempt it myself if it was me, but I equally don't know what I would do!!! These situations make me feel so hopeless (and angry.)

 

[minkeygirl]

Tons of people give themselves IM injections, its not a big deal once you have someone show you.

 

[minkeygirl]

 

[Sushi]

I've given intramuscular injections to myself after a nurse taught me how. It was not difficult. An IV push is a whole different story though--not something to do at home!

Sushi

 

[South]

I give my husband an intramuscular injection routinely: his doctor said I could and never required me to visit to take any type of lesson. Be aware though, that the location of the injection I give is in my husband's gluteus maximus (butt muscle) which is supposedly the most foolproof location on the body. Also, the prescription I'm injecting is oil-based, and I don't know if other forms of RX injection liquids are more difficult somehow or not.

All I know is my husband's doctor said "have your wife do it like this", gave a verbal explanation to my husband which my husband relayed to me. I followed those instructions. It isn't hard for me to do it.

 

[Sushi]

Be aware though, that the location of the injection I give is in my husband's gluteus maximus (butt muscle) which is supposedly the most foolproof location on the body.

I do yoga--I can inject myself in the butt!

Sushi

 

[Gingergrrl]

Sorry I think I got confused when Dr. Edwards was talking about an IV injection b/c I had a bad reaction to IV and was rushed to ER from infusion center. So in my case, I would never attempt any part of an IV at home without a nurse or doctor present.

If you are just talking about a needle injection, my husband gave me B-12 shots in the arm per my doctor's instruction with no problems. Is that considered IM if it is in the arm?

I ultimately did not tolerate the dose of B-12 & folate but it had nothing to do with the injection itself. Sorry if I added to the confusion.

 

[Uno]

You should not attempt IV injection on yourself. You may have an anaphylactic reaction and not survive. If you inject into an artery instead of a vein you could lose an arm. Drug addicts teach each other to inject into veins but there are lots of disasters. Apart from anything it is a pretty tricky thing to do manually.

Intramuscular injection is reasonably safe and easy to learn but you need to be trained by a nurse. If you do not give it deep enough it will not do the job. If you go too deep you may hit a nerve if you are not in the right place.

Basically, it is a question of 'do not try to do this at home'. It needs proper training. No doctor with any sense of responsibility would have put you in this situation.

I told them I had an agency nurse coming, which I did but when she found out the script was from America and not a UK GP she refused. I have no choice. I nearly died in November and my local hospital STILL refused me antibiotics, I almost went into sepsis. I lay there thinking I was going to die then remembered that I had some oral antibiotics from America left in a draw. I took them and I was better thank God but that's the second sepsis attack I've had, anymore and I WILL die as my local hospital have gotten it into their heads that I am putting it all on for attention or something, when I was in pre sepsis after my gallbladder operation, they said to me "it's just your M.E making you feel this way" despite a white cell count of over 35 and a CRP of 200. You can't make this stuff up!!! Again my GP rigged me up to a drip and got me better but he was told off by the hospital - the microbiogist there has something against me, I don't know what. I go in with an infection, refused meds, even basic pain medication for pancreatitis, I'm vomiting and vomiting and the nurses are forcing oral medication down me which makes me vomit even more and refuse me basic IV painkillers.

 

[Uno]

@Kati I agree with you fully and also agree with Dr. Edwards fully that it would be dangerous for @Uno to attempt this himself. But what are people supposed to do in this situation with no doctor support? I would not attempt it myself if it was me, but I equally don't know what I would do!!! These situations make me feel so hopeless (and angry.)

Don't worry this is purely IM. Not IV!

 

[Uno]

Just a comment here, it is pretty sad when patients resort to this, having to do self-medicine because the local physicians are so hostile in believing they are sick and deserving of treatments.

It is disconcerting that day in, day out, year in, year out, patients with ME/SEID are being excluded from their health care system they have paid into all of their lives.

Since the IOM report came out, comments from news articles, including the medscape article shows the contempt, disdain and disrespect of patients, of the disease, and of the IOM organization.

Add to this the layers of despair, appalling levels of disease, poverty, the lack of support, the suicides, it is quite telling.

Yes Kati - it's sad, desperate and it breaks my heart that I have to do this. I am taking legal action against the hospital that did this and did it to someone else as well and she died two week ago.

 

[Uno]

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Uno]

I told them I had an agency nurse coming, which I did but when she found out the script was from America and not a UK GP she refused. I have no choice. I nearly died in November and my local hospital STILL refused me antibiotics, I almost went into sepsis. I lay there thinking I was going to die then remembered that I had some oral antibiotics from America left in a draw. I took them and I was better thank God but that's the second sepsis attack I've had, anymore and I WILL die as my local hospital have gotten it into their heads that I am putting it all on for attention or something, when I was in pre sepsis after my gallbladder operation, they said to me "it's just your M.E making you feel this way" despite a white cell count of over 35 and a CRP of 200. You can't make this stuff up!!! Again my GP rigged me up to a drip and got me better but he was told off by the hospital - the microbiogist there has something against me, I don't know what. I go in with an infection, refused meds, even basic pain medication for pancreatitis, I'm vomiting and vomiting and the nurses are forcing oral medication down me which makes me vomit even more and refuse me basic IV painkillers.

Just to add I have severe immune deficiency because of ME - my IgG levels are all over the place. I can't fight ANY infection which was just recurrent shingles then I developed a liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis which I was told I had when I was very ill overseas (we lived in Cape Town when all this happened and the care was just excellent). I get infections in the bile ducts and when I came back to doctors in the UK they just laughed and me and said nonsense. I got ten minutes of their time and was out the door. Then I went under the Royal Free for a year and they did NOTHING about these attacks, no care plan, they REFUSED to admit me into the liver ward and I lay on my bathroom floor vomiting bile and crapping bile out for five days. They didn't believe I was sick either so I'm being taken under a new doctor but it doesn't change the fact that if I get another attack of cholangitis - I have no hospital to go to and cholangitis can kill you and probably will kill me.

 

[Kati]

I am so very sorry @Uno it sounds terrible.
These physicians deserve a taste of their own medicine.

 

[JamBob]

So sorry Uno - that sounds like a terrible situation to be in. Regarding your needs in an emergency - is it possible that you could get someone to take you to some other A&E like at Worthing or Eastbourne? Maybe if you started somewhere fresh - you wouldn't get such bad treatment.