Well, that was unexpected!

This is gonna be another long one.

One of my readers left a comment on my blog regarding the ingredients that make up Rebif.  I'm not sure why I never looked this up before.  I never look up ingredients on other medications I take.  I guess I mostly concentrate on what the medication is supposed to do for you, or what the side effects are.  Well - you learn something every day.  Rebif is made of Chinese Hamster Ovarian cells.  Yup.  Furry little critters.  Now, I didn't take this person's word for it.  I looked it up, and sure enough they were right!  It's not that I didn't believe them.  Perhaps it was that I didn't want to believe them!!!  Oh well, I'm too far in to go back now.  I just have to shake this overwhelming urge to store food in my cheeks and run on a wheel.  I shall survive!

Tonight was interesting to say the least.  My confidence was at an all time high since my past two injections were perfect!  No pain, no mark, no anxiety - I did it!  So naturally, I assured my boyfriend he didn't need to be here tonight and that I could handle it myself.

I had originally designed a routine for myself so that I would not forget any of the steps I needed to take on injection night.  However, because of the horrible anxiety I had been experiencing, my boyfriend was responsible for setting everything up while I stayed in the other room.  This worked great - however since I hadn't done any of the set up this week, I totally missed a few steps.

It has been more than 7 days since I last injected my leg, so I decided I could inject again in my leg as long as I choose a different area.  I totally forgot to clean the area.  Nicceee.  I put the needle in the machine and to my surprise the light started flashing red and the screen said "Check Needle."  Fine - I took the needle out, and put a new one in.  I didn't get any error messages, so I assumed it was fine.  I was feeling a little on edge, so I called my boyfriend and put him on speaker so I could talk to him while I did it.   I was confident, I was ready, and I hit the button.  No pain going in... but holllllllllllllllly did it ever hurt comin out.  I was just happy it was over, I lifted up the machine and was greeted by a quarter sized puddle of blood which promptly rolled down the side of my leg just as the machine decided to squirt a small stream of Rebif up my leg.  I immediately freaked out, grabbed a Kleenex to wipe up the blood and thought I was going to throw up.

SERIOUSLY!!!  Of all the nights for this to happen, the night I'm by myself was NOT THE TIME.  When I looked closer at the injection site I could see a small but very purple/black lump forming.  Because I'm a spaz who thinks I'm dying when I stub a toe, I grabbed some water, Advil, an Ice Pack and called Multiple Support.  The messaging service took down my information, and a nurse called me back within 5 minutes.

Multiple Support is only open during business hours on EST.  Anytime you need to talk to someone out of those hours, they have nurses on call.  I'm assuming these nurses work from home outside of those hours, and as such I feel horrible.  It's 1am there!  I told her what happened, and she stated that the needle was most likely crooked or bent inside the machine.  By this point, I had already discarded the needle in my sharps container and had no way of knowing what it looked like.  When the needle was pulling out, it probably twisted and ripped some tissue.  I told her that I thought I hit a vein, and she said that was rare and while I may have hit something that I shouldn't worry.  It was most likely just an issue with the actual needle.

Nurse's orders:  Ice pack for 5 minute intervals, and Advil for swelling/pain every 4 hours.

She let me know that I would most likely have a nasty bruise and that I need to pay close attention to the colours etc.  This was not a fun night but the nurse assured me that this was most likely a fluke accident, and it won't happen again.  Needless to say, I think I may be on edge when Monday rolls around and it's time to try again.  I'm curious to know if anybody else using the Rebismart has experienced a similar situation??

I think it's time to go to bed.  I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow - OH AM I EVER!

~Sarah