Meeting my injector

It was the Friday directly following the Monday of the official diagnosis. This Friday I was going to grab the train up to Sydney, check into a hotel I had booked for Alexia and myself, then head to a great little pub in Glebe for my (pre) 30th Birthday celebrations.

But before all that exciting stuff, I needed to wait for the Rebif nurse to arrive at mum's to show me how I will be injecting myself with the disease modifying drug for, potentially, the rest of my time on this Earth. A very different kind of excitement.

Karen rocked up with a bag full of stuff. Rebif stuff. Tea was made, as was small talk. Then it was down to business.

I met Rebismart. The machine that would do lots of things for me. Now, when I say 'machine', it's no larger than the size of my hand. Here is a pic taken from the www.

Now, to explain. The large thing is Rebismart's home. The home also has pictured the needles on the left. The thing in the middle is the machine. And finally on the right is a month's worth of the drug itself, Rebif.

Karen said the needles used are very small and are barely detectable at airport xray thingy machines. Phew! But I was more concerned about the pain of the thing going into my body.

Karen took out a bit of fake skin. It felt weird, but very realistic. She then showed me how to put the Rebif cartridges into the machine. Easy peasy so far. The Rebismart machine basically prompts you along the entire time. It would be very hard to screw it up.

She then showed me the skin senors on the bottom of the machine. The machine will not inject unless on skin, and it will stop injecting if contact with the skin is lost. Okay cool.

Then it was time to inject the fake skin! Oh geez. Here we go.

I pressed the inject button, located at the top of the machine which lights up green when it comes into contact with the skin signalling to go go go! I pressed it. Some noises happen - nothing offensive though. And yeah, that's it. A few more boring parts where the needle comes out and I out it into my very own needle disposal container - one piece of equipment that really made me feel right at druggie home.

So after my training, it was my turn. BUT I mentioned that I would be heading up to Sydney for an organised birthday do. Because of the possible side effects of Rebif, Karen recommended that I wait until the following week. It was all a bit of an anti-climax. It meant that I would have to do my first injection alone. Hmmm. I can do it!

Karen gave me some pointers to avoid possible side effects:

- Cool the area where you plan to inject.
- Let the Rebif come to room temp before injecting (it otherwise must be kept cool and away from light).
- Gently massage the area after injecting, then place a cool pack on the injection site.
- Wipe over the site with Witch Hazel after injecting.
- Inject in the evening.
- Take panadol after an injection.

All of these tips were to avoid injection site reactions and avoid cold and flu symptoms. So many new things to remember. I was glad I had mum there to also hear everything, in case I forgot. But looking back, I think I did a pretty good job of absorbing all this new information. Go me.

I made my way up to Sydney and met up at the hotel with Alexia. I was exhausted, so I attempted to have a nap while Alexia went for a little shop.

My nap was quite unsuccessful. Too much going on in my head. An overload of information mixed with waves of horrendous negative emotions. And on top of that, I knew I had to go back to D-Town in a few days time and I did not want to. I wanted to stay in the safe surrounds of Sydney with my friends and family.

With the unsuccessful nap, I still managed to try and look like I was ready to celebrate.

It was a great night and although I deeply missed M. But it was almost mid April now, and he was due home soon.

After all the fun, and a few more other social activities, it was time to fly back to D-Town and face term 2, and to use my Rebismart for the first time, proper.