Just to report, I had an injection of 3cc of blood last Thursday and there was no negative reaction to it. Not even a little bruise. My backside did hurt a little bit for a day, but at the end of the day it was poked by a needle. Apart from that there were no negative symptoms whatsoever.
In the meantime, I translated a large part of
Gaby's article for the nurse and my mom, and since their own health issues are listed in the article, both of them are now interested in doing it themselves! My mom's husband is considering joining the club too.
I made arrangements to meet up with the family member this coming Thursday. She'll oversee me doing it myself so I can learn it and continue the therapy when I go back to London. I will increase the dose to 5cc. I showed them the video I posted
here and that's exactly the method and equipment we are going to use on Thursday.
To be afraid of your own blood causing an infection strikes me as a bit over-the-top, assuming one is using normal sterile procedures as nurses are taught to do; at least they were taught such when I was in school. I don't think Poland is that different.
If I described the nurse as a person, her resistance and worrying without reason would become a bit less surprising. But beggars can't be choosers and I didn't have anyone else to turn to. I'm happy and grateful she agreed in the end though.
Those are your best options, but I would try to get a 21 Gauge of some 40mm in length. 18 gauge is too too thick for intramuscular injection and if this is something that you'll be doing regularly, you don't want to hurt yourself unnecessarily. For venopunction + intramuscular injections, something between 20-22 gauge is better.
This was posted after I had the injection done and the needle they used was apparently size 7. When I called to discuss my next injection I said I wanted to use the sizes Gaby indicated but I was told 7 should be enough and that 20-22 may be too big. The above description reads like size 18 is bigger than 21. By that logic, 7 should be even bigger so I'm confused, especially that the size 7 needle they used was very thin. Or maybe there are different ways of describing sizes? Like metres and feet for length?
Also, I have a Leiden V Factor mutation discovered as a result of a bad reaction to some meds a couple of years ago. The mutation makes me prone to blood clots. I don't know to what extent this would affect blood clotting tendencies in general but if it does have impact, maybe a larger size would be better? I got the impression the nurse did have to force the blood out of the syringe a little so I suspect it might have started clotting quickly - or the needle was a bit too thin.
Although I am quite skinny in general, my body shape is such that fat tends to accumulate exactly around the point of injection (to describe it diplomatically) so the needle doesn't need to be super thin for me to be able to handle it.
I'm asking becuase I have an opportunity to stock up on supplies of all necessary accessories here in Poland and I would like to choose the best possible size. I'd be grateful for some guidance on this.
