newtoed wrote:I started with manual injections and it was painful to me. I dreaded every injection. Autoject is 99% painless and 100% predictable for me. I would never go back to manual.
All the best.
Interesting! This just shows how different we all are! I've had to be able to inject myself for various reasons since age 39. (I'm 63 now.) The first reason was having gone through Cushing's Disease for 16 years (defined as having a pituitary tumor that caused hypercortisolemia, excessive weight gain and major depression.) Spent two months of research at the National Institutes of Health followed by surgery (transsphenoidal pituitary adenomectomy.) My discharge was dependant upon being able to do an emergency self-injection if ever I should go into Adrenal Insufficiency. Granted, the injection site was my upper thigh and was pretty much a breeze for me, but I knew other patients who struggled for days before being able to stick a syringe into their leg. (To show just how this tumor affected my weight, I hit my peak of 225 lbs and a 44-inch waistline just before admission to the NIH. At 8 months post-surgery I had lost 89 lbs... no diet; no exercise... and I was able to buy my first pair of 29-inch waist jeans since high school! Also, my major depression went into remission for years.)
Unrelated, years later I went into Wasting Syndrome from a medication that caused nothing but unwanted side effects: insomnia; anorexia; and ultimately loss of most of my muscle mass. Had to give myself weekly injections of the steroid Nandrolone Decanoate (aka: Deca Durabolin) in the butt. Again, no big deal. Within a short time, my testosterone was added to the same injection.
When it came to ED, after exhausting all the oral meds, I went on to Caverject injections in my dick. After the first few, I can honestly say that they too became no big deal. Sure, they never got to be absolutely, 100% painless but it got to where I described them as a "tiny prick in my not-so-tiny prick!" To me the pain was negligible. These were always done manually... never used an auto-injector.
Coming full-circle back to injections in my upper thigh over the past 4 months, I now do an auto-injector for Enbrel to treat Psoriatic Arthritis. I'd honestly prefer if I could do them manually! To me, it's those barely-few seconds from having pressed the start button to the actual moment I feel the syringe enter my leg that are the "unknown variable" for me. Within those seconds, it's "out of my hands" (so to speak) and no longer under my control. Plus, I can't SEE a moment that I choose to have that syringe hit! It's all up to the "opaque mystery cylinder" at that point! (I'll survive. I've already done 18 of them and don't intend to stop!)
