My First Enbrel Shot

So today was an important step forward for me, I had my first Enbrel shot. I had the Enbrel Sureclick auto-injectors delivered to my work today because I was there 8am-4:45pm today so i wouldn't be home to wait around for it to come to my house. This all went smoothly, as there is a pharmacy inside my work. I work at a Super Target. So my pharmacist is a sweetheart and told me there would be no problems having them deliver it there for me and i could pick it up after work! Fantastic he called me in my department to let me know it had arrived which was around 11am. So during my lunch i picked it up and took it home to put away in the fridge. I just couldn't wait to get off work so I could have my first shot!!! So i will be during this every Friday from now on. Which works well because my vacation out of state I leave on a Friday so i won't have to take my Enbrel with me on the plane :)

So finally I got off work, and yesterday I called my Uncle to ask if my Aunt would help me with my first shot because she is a RN. They said yes of course so after work I put my Enbrel in my travel cooler and headed over there. I was superrrr anxious but kinda nervous too. Well we read all the instructions together and then I let her give me the first shot because I wanted to know what kind of pain to expect. Well we let it sit out for a bit so it wouldn't be so cold because I had read that it stings if it's to cold. So after that followed all the steps and this is where I got really scared!! I hateeee needles (yet i have lots of tattoos-- how ironic) just something about drawing blood and putting medicine in me freaks me out. Anyways then we used an alcohol wipe on the area which was my left thigh & before I knew it, it was all over!! I got a cute hello kitty band-aid :) and it didn't even hurt like at all!!! I'm sure I can do this on my own next friday, the pain was almost non-existent.

Now I don't see my rheumy till the end of april BUT I really wanna cut back on the prednisone so i'm going to cut back to 1 pill a day at night starting tomorrow and see how this effects me. I'm totally getting the "moon face" my aunt noticed so i'm not CRAZY! finally someone else besides me can tell! That was a relief haha.

Overall today was a success, I can't wait till next friday!! and I can't wait to start feeling better! :) & my aunt even gave me a microwaveable comfort wrap thats cute w/ lavender & chamomile. :) it feels gooood on my sore joints!