Panic after injecting.

I never bled that much with Humira, and the needle is teeny tiny, so it does not make a big hole. I'd have enough to fill a BandAid from time to time. I do remember bleeding more on my thigh than the abdomen (plus it hurt a heck of a lot more), so I completely avoid the thigh for injections and just use the belly. I have plenty of belly to rotate the site often enough.

But, if you take anything that has anticoagulant properties, you may bleed more than typical (aspirin, ibuprofen or other NSAIDs, fish oil supplements, garlic supplements, the list goes on.

Another suggestion is the ice the site before injection next time. That should help close down the small veins and capillaries. And, of course, you should avoid injecting over any known veins that you see.

Jan

Did you draw back on the plunger after inserting the needle, to make sure you could not draw blood into the syringe?

I'm sure the doctor or his nurse instructed you on proper technique for IM injections.

IM (intramuscular) injections are designed to be absorbed through muscle tissue. It's very important to make sure you don't inject IM medications into a vein.

Do you normally bleed a lot when you are cut?


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Humira is a subcutaneous injection, and if you use the autoject pen, there is no drawback of the plunger. With my Simponi, even without the pen, I cannot drawback on the plunger because of the syringe design.

With subcutaneous injections, this is less of an issue.

Jan

Ahhh... I pictured a standard hypodermic needle.

You wouldn't think there'd be big enough blood vessels near the surface, on the top of the thigh, to cause such dramatic bleeding.



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There's blood vessels all over the place, but no major ones in the sub-q. Plus those needles are very thin, like insulin syringes.

But, if you hit a little vein, you can't just put a BandAid on it and forget about it. You need to apply pressure for 2-5 minutes.

Jan