I'm needing to rotate my copaxone shots a bit more lately, so I asked my dad to give me my shot in the back of my arm tonight.

My dad is a nurse anesthetist and so he's a professional shot giver. (granted, a lot of what he gives people goes in an IV port...)

So, he picks a nice fat spot on the back of my arm (not difficult to find fat back there, I have a lot of arm apparently) and he started to give me my shot very slowly.

Almost immediately after he put the needle in my arm, and he had barely pushed the plunger in, my arm hurt really really bad! I made him take the needle out. I had pain going down my arm, and my index finger felt like there was water dripping on it. It felt like he'd hit a nerve, and that's what he thinks happened too since my middle finger felt like someone was dripping water on it.

My dad thought it was really strange, because he said the area he was injecting into was a fat spot. He said that he didnt think there should be a large area of nerves there. It was really weird.

Oh, and the stranger thing about it. My left hand has been numb off and on (mostly on) since Xmas. Today my index finger was pretty numb. Most of that numbness in the index finger and some that was in my middle finger went away after the failed attempt at the shot. (weird, but cool) I can kind of feel that creeping back in (darn!)

Anyone else ever have a similar thing happen?

My dad was glad that I made him stop the shot. He was afraid that he'd damage a nerve if he'd continued trying to give it to me. I guess the back of my left arm is off limits for shots for now. Oh well, but I have plenty of space on my backside to do shots for now.

Strange... but nothing surprises me here.
Hope you're ok.
just blame the nurse

Yep, done that! It HURT! I made my husband pull the needle out and stop. It took a few days, but my fingers came back to normal. The MD said some capillary beds are so embedded into the rich nerve supplies that surround the underarm, and the lower arm, and with the lymph system so close, it can sometimes be irritating. OUCH! I found my arms gave me tons of trouble, and stopped using them for a while. Gave them a rest.

I hope your feeling better now.

I just woke up and noticed that I have a ginormous bruise where my dad tried to give me that shot. He barely got any C injected into it last night, so I'm wondering how much bigger the bruise would have been if he'd been able to finish giving me the shot.

I think I'll be staying away from that arm for now.

My dad will probably freak when he sees the bruise. He was upset last night that it hurt me so much when he tried to give me the shot.

sounds like you smacked a capillary bed. You cant always tell where they lay, you just have to take your best guess. Hang in there. I found um on my bum bum, my thighs, my arms, and even hit a belly bunch.

Its great that you have your dad to help you.

I like that my dad can help me with the shots. He's usually pretty good when he does the injection for me. Most of the time it doesnt hurt at all. (yay!) They usually hurt when I do them, so it's always nice when my dad can give me one that I barely even feel. Dont even get the ginormous itchy hive sometimes when he does it. It's good to have a professional shot giver in the house.

If I didnt have my dad, I'd probably be asking my aunt (nurse practitioner) that lives across the street for help.

I'm pretty sure it was a nerve in an odd spot that got hit last night, my dad thought it was since my knuckle on my index finger felt like there was water dripping onto it.

I skipped the shot last night after that, I'm going to try to do my stomach or a thigh tonight, hopefully I wont get a bleeder from that (my stomach and thighs like to bleed on me when I do my shots for some weird reason)