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I am starting Rocephin IM shots next week. I was on Rocephin IV for 15 months and stopped in December because of a bacteria infection. Since then I have been on orals and this last round of levaquin and Doxy put me back into a relapse.
I thought I was just herxing, but my blood work came back with a CD57 of 40 (most healthy people are around 200) so my doctor told me I had two choices, either go off all antibiotics and start herbs or go on IM Rocpehin. Since I am starting a new job we opted to go with Rocephin since the herbs can make you herx too.
Any thoughts, help, or insight you can give me on IM Rocephin would be great!!! I really don't know anything about it so I am very anxious to start.
Thanks, Lindsay
Posts: 484 | From Burlingame, Ca | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
The kind I had needed to be mixed w/ an ampule of sterile water that came with it.
It turned orange colored. Since it was water based, the injection hurt a lot. It was a stinging sensation that turned me off of giving myself the shots...but I did it anyway...for about weeks. Then I ran out of it.
I was also on 2 kinds of orals. I did 500-1,000 mg day. Made me a little sicker, but not too extreme.
I wish I had more.
Posts: 269 | From Valencia, CA | Registered: Aug 2007
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I did IM Rocephin for a few months and did better on that than most other meds I have tried.
Yes, the injections are somewhat painful, but my LLMD had me mix the Rocephin powder with Lidocaine to numb it a little. That really helped. Mine came in small vials with white powder in them, which I reconstituted myself. It does turn kind of yellowish.
I was too wimpy to give the shots to myself and had my husband do it for me. We had a home health nurse come over and show us how to do the injections and where to do them and how to mix the medication.
I would make sure you rotate injection sites. Sometimes I got little bruises, but overall it was very tolerable. Easier on the stomach than orals.
Good luck. I hope it helps.
Posts: 24 | From East Coast | Registered: Feb 2006
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It is hard to say how much the shots hurt because I never got one without the lidocaine. Sometimes I still got a burning sensation when the Rocephin was injected. I think the level of pain to some degree depends on how much medicine you are injecting too. I was always on pretty low doses.
As for the needle, the ones I used were pretty small. No big deal. My doctor had me use one needle to mix the Rocephin and draw it up into the syringe and another smaller one to inject it. My home health nurse said that using a new sharp needle helped make it less painful.
I was instructed to do my injection either in the buttocks or the thigh. The buttocks could be a little tricky unless you have someone else that can give you those ones. I am sure that someone will show you how and where to do the injections.
Personally, I don't think IM is a bad way to go. I would do it again.
Posts: 24 | From East Coast | Registered: Feb 2006
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