(rebif inj hurting)

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

I am sorry that you are having such a hard time with your rebif injections. I did as well!! Not everyone does... and with my short experience of 5+ months.. I found that not every shot hurt as bad as some.

Some folks say that the pain is felt by folks with a certain PH level. The rebif is very acidic. A pharmaceutical sales rep with Serono told us that it is more acidic than your stomach acid. So... imagine.. the stomach acid destroy's the meat we eat!! I also have heard rumors that it would burn if you put some on your skin. But... I don't know about that one.

Here are some things that helped me:

I gave up arm injections. Honestly I heard this one on a Serono website out of Australia! They actually stated that most pts don't do as well with arm injections. Here is the site: http://www.msaustralia.org.au/msinformation/rebif.htm Very interesting that they don't recommend the arms in Australia huh? The site is very nice and informative!

I used emla cream to numb the area injected. This is applied 2 hours before and covered with an occlusive dressing. This only helps with the stick.. not the burn of the rebif.

I massaged the area for a couple minutes before... and then after for as long as I could. (the first pressure to the site after the injection was sometimes as difficult to deal with as the injection itself) I used heat after rather than cold.

There are more tips, but these are the main ones that helped me. That is the key... helped me. Some things help some folks and some things others.

But it is a complete shame that something that can burn so terribly.... (sometimes like several hornets stung.. for up to 2 hours after) should be what we are paying tons for to inject into ourselves. (be sure to check out the $$ on the Australia site) I used to say over and over " this should not have to be like this". I don’t get it! The folks say they are coming out with a new rebiject (I never tried that auto injector fearing more pain)... the new one will allow for some different adjustments and put the drug in slower. They also say that they are looking into doing something where you would have to mix some dulutent with the interferon. This should cut down tremendously on the pain. But this is a ways off.

I wish you the best..... if I had relapsing remitting I would be con tinuing that therapy. l honestly feel that it is the best. But, I also realize that it is not tolerated by everyone.

Martha