Weak hands and self injection issues
I’m wondering if anyone has thoughts regarding problems with weak hands making self injections difficult? I’m taking Actemra every 7 days, but my hands start losing strength and becoming painful after 5 or 6 days making self injections on the 7th day a struggle. I somehow got off the schedule by a day a week ago, and had a very hard time with the pain and lack of strength injecting on the 8th day, but this week I went back to my original schedule that meant I was in the unusual position of injecting after 6 days which was so easy. No struggling at all. Any ideas how to make self injections easier when hands are weak and painful?
I take it Actemra isn't an autoinjection pen? Any chance you can switch to Humira? This would be easy to self administer as you just hold the pen against the skin and barely push a button that activates the plunger. Easy.
But I understand your problem. My dog has to have SubQ ringer's solution every five days. It's normally an easy process but over time I was having difficulty inserting the needle. Rather than take her to the vet and make her anxious, I pay a vet tech to come to my home and administer.Thank you for your response. Mine is an autoinjection pen, but some force with the thumb is necessary to start the process. The problem is when I don’t have enough strength in the thumb (hand, wrist) to apply sufficient pressure due to needing an injection! Seems like there must be a clever solution that someone has devised…
I am not certain (you will want to ask your doctor) but I believe Actemra comes with an autoinjector option. This is the website I am looking at:
https://www.actemra.com/ra/treatment/sc-injections.html
This might help a great deal if it is available................ rickThank you. Yes, I have the autoinjector type that I’ve been using for over six months, and I used other similar meds for a year or two before that, so it’s not an issue with experience or type, but rather the problem is that sometimes I don’t have the strength in my hands to push the button easily and struggle quite a bit. I was hoping someone here might have the same experience and a way to deal with it. I’ll talk with my doctor.
