How to Administer Your Multiple Sclerosis Injections

Once you have been properly diagnosed with symptoms of multiple sclerosis, it is now time for you, your family and your doctor to decide what is the best therapy for your specific stage of multiple sclerosis. The multiple sclerosis I have is called Relapse/Remission and has the fewest problems. With the Relapse/Remission MS, I am still able to walk, talk, clothe myself, talk without slurred speech and my vision is not impaired. When you are diagnosed with this disease, there will be several therapies for you to choose from. I chose the one with the least side effects and it was Copaxone. This is how I administer the injection every night on my body.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Copaxone injections
• Hot/Cold Pack
• Alcohol swabs
• Cotton balls
• Container to throw away used needles

How to Inject Yourself with Copaxone

1. When you first begin injecting yourself with the Copaxone injections, have a nurse or two to come to your home or office and show you how to inject yourself in each body part in a clockwise manner.

2. Each night, inject yourself, going right to left, beinning two inches above your knee, the fatty part of your knee. The next night, inject your stomach. In subsequent days, inject your hip and your arm. The injections will be administered like this every day or night, until all your body parts have been injected.

3. 

   To get ready for your daily or nightly injections of Copaxone Therapy, open the auto injector for the glass syringe. It should now be in two pieces with the syringe removed from the paper container.

4. 

   With the auto injector in two pieces, place the syringe with the gray top down into the bottom of the auto injector until you hear it click.

5. 

   Before you screw on the top of the auto injector , turn the red screw to the number best suited for the body part needing the injection. Let's say you will be injecting your knee. Well, there is not a lot of fat in this area so the red screw will probably have a setting of 4, not a 6.

6. 

   Before injecting yourself, take the red screw off the auto injector. This is extremely important. To take off the red screw, hold on to the bottom of the auto injector while firmly pulling up on the red screw and turning the red screw over as the gray syringe top falls out.

7. 

   To warm up your blood, heat up a hot/cold pack either in a pan of warm water or in a microwave. Place the warm pack on the area getting the syringe.

8. 

   Now, open an alcohol swab and rub the swab on the body part and let dry before injecting yourself.

9. 

   Finally, with the red screw pulled off the auto injector, place the injector on the body part where the injection will go. Right here, I am putting the auto injector into my stomach at a 6, not a 4. My stomach is pushed out to show you what it looks like injecting the syringe into my skin.

10. 

    With the auto injector removed from your body, turn the auto injector over into a plastic container for safe syringe removal.

11. 

    The last and final step is to place a cotton ball on the area where the syringe was injected without rubbing the cotton swab. Never rub the cotton swab on area where injection was administered. You may see a bump appear after the injection as this is one of the side effects.

12. Repeat these steps every day or night on a new body part and you will be fine. With all these steps completed, injecting yourself should be easy. Especially when you do not have to see yourself sticking the syringe into your skin. It is nice and clean.

Tips & Warnings

• Follow the steps above or given to you by a nurse and you should have no problems.
• You will have slight side effects like a bump at the injection site and possibly diarrhea.
• DO NOT FORGET TO TAKE OFF RED SCREW before actual injection takes place.

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Resources

• Copaxone Injection Demonstration

[momoftwingirls]

on 2/24/2008 Yeah, I too have never been a fan in needles. But, for the time being, this is the drug of choice I use to help me walk, talk, hold my babies, see all around me and well, live without a wheelchair. Praise the Lord!

[CCrock]

on 2/24/2008 Good information. I hope I never have to do this, I'm really bad with needles. Growing up, I couldn't watch my sister get her insulin injections.