I bruise easily....

I should have known that it was too good to last.  Months of absolutely no problems with my weekly injection, and then four weeks out of the last five, I've hit a vein and then had to scrabble to mop up the sudden gush of blood from my thigh that wells up as soon as I withdraw the needle.

It seems to be the luck of the draw: although I alternate legs each week, I always inject myself in about the same spot, about a hand's length down from my hip, right on the meat of the muscle.  On a good day, I shove the needle right in, inject the drug, withdraw the needle and everything is tickety-boo.  On a bad day, I hit a nerve (which has the effect of making me reflexively jerk the needle out of my leg) or scratch a vein and bleed out.  On a really bad day, I hit a nerve AND a vein.  It's a barrel of laughs.  My MS Nurse told me that, when I stick the needle in, I should draw the plunger back a bit to see if blood flowed into the barrel of the syringe, meaning I'd hit a vein and should try again.  Hmm.  That all seemed a bit Pulp Fiction to me.  I'd rather just get on with it without making too much of a song and dance.

It's not really that big a deal.  Well, what can you do about it, eh?  The only other choice I have is NOT to inject, and although I will never know for sure that the drug is slowing down the progression of my MS, I'd far rather roll those dice than do nothing at all.

There is another drawback to hitting a vein though.  Apart from the sudden gush of deep red blood, that is.  You bruise as you bleed out into your thigh muscle.  Again, not too much of a problem unless you happen to do a lot of exercise, in which case you will feel the bruise deep in your thigh every time you flex your thigh muscle.

Ah.

The bruises take a couple of weeks to disappear.  I currently have one on each thigh.

Meh.