How to give yourself a subcutaneous injection

Here’s what you need to have ready

• Your pre-filled syringe from Range — your dose is already measured
• An alcohol swab
• A cotton pad or gauze
• Your sharps container

• Take one syringe out of the refrigerator and let it sit for 15–30 minutes. Room-temperature medication is more comfortable to inject.
• Wash your hands with soap and water.
• Check the label: your name, your medication, your dose.
• Look at the liquid. If it is cloudy, discolored, or has particles in it, don’t inject it — call us.

• Stomach: at or just below the level of your belly button, and about two inches away from it in any direction. The easiest spot for most people, and the one we recommend starting with.
• Front of the thigh: halfway between your knee and your hip, and slightly to the outside. You should be able to gently pinch one to two inches of skin there. Never the inner thigh.
• Back or side of the upper arm: halfway between your elbow and your shoulder, anywhere you can gather one to two inches of skin. This one is easiest when someone is helping you — it’s hard to pinch your own arm.
• Rotate spots each injection — give each one at least an inch away from your last — and skip any skin that is bruised, tender, hard, or scarred.

• Clean your spot with an alcohol swab and let it air-dry — wet alcohol stings.
• Pull the needle cap straight off. Don’t touch the needle, and never re-cap it.

• Pinch an inch of skin at your cleaned spot.
• Insert the needle into the pinched skin at a 45-degree angle, all the way in, with one smooth motion.
• Release the pinch, then press the plunger down slowly and steadily until the syringe is empty.
• Pull the needle straight out. If the spot bleeds a little, press your cotton pad on it — don’t rub.
• Place the used syringe directly in your sharps container. Done.

Tips to make it more comfortable

• Let your medication come to room temperature before you inject.
• Let the alcohol dry completely before the needle goes in.
• Break through the skin quickly — hesitating is what stings.
• Don’t change the direction of the needle as it goes in or comes out.
• Relax the area. Tension is what turns a non-event into a sore spot.

Normal: a tiny drop of blood, a little redness, or mild soreness at the spot — all of it fades quickly.

Call us if a spot becomes increasingly red, swollen, warm, or painful — or any time something doesn’t feel right. There is no silly question. Every injection gets easier; by week three this is a ten-second habit.

Call us if you have

• A lump, swelling, or bruising at the injection site that does not go away.
• Redness, warmth, or pain at the spot that increases over the next couple of days instead of fading.
• A fever after an injection.

Call 911 or get care immediately if you develop a rash, itching, shortness of breath, or swelling of the mouth, lips, or face after an injection.

Storing your medication

• Keep your pre-filled syringes in the refrigerator until the day you use them, in the bag we gave you, away from light.
• Never freeze them. If a syringe freezes, don’t use it — call us and we’ll make it right.
• Each syringe is single-use: use it once, then it goes in the sharps container.
• Follow any storage note on your label — a few medications have their own rules.