This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hello everyone.

New to this world of fun! Just started Copaxone and hating it. But what is there to like?? Keep thinking and hope for the possible benefits.

Since I would like to try my best to avoid injecting the same site too often, I really liked someone's (maybe jimmylegs) idea of using a map and marking it each day. I ended up taking it a bit further and cut out full size perforated plastic sheet pieces of injectable zones. I put it down my body and can mark my skin through it for the selected area. Ialso mark injection used that day on the plastic. Gives me a real fast idea of the sites less used.

As I was making those 'life size maps' I was wondering why the butt area is not suggested. Looks like a nice fatty area to me!! Anyone here know or is using it?

it seems like most people do inject in their butt area. if you look closely at the chart it shows the butt area...at least that is how i look at it. it's kind of vague imo...below the waist is the verbiage states and that is a little different for everyone. most of the upper area of that zone would not work for me as i have no fat at all, so yes i inject in my butt with no issues.

initially i was tracking my sites, but now i just go clockwise around my body. by the time i get around to the same site i have pretty much healed, but i can usually still tell about where i injected last, so i just move slightly within the zone and inject. in doing so i've eliminated as much time as possible dealing with this pia thing in my life. my stomach is by far the worst place with the most reaction.

good luck!

Hi Sophie-I think it depends on where in the butt you inject. I try to steer clear of where I directly sit and aim more towards the hip region. That way if there is a skin reaction, you won't have to literally be sitting on it. There is a lot of trial and error as to where good places are on your body to inject. I had to remove the thigh region, as I was always getting bruised and had a lot of pain with it. Copaxone is also notorious for causing major skin reactions, which I hope you're not suffering from.

I would also recommend keeping a journal with your injection sites. That way you can track the good and bad areas. I tend to know the bad areas, but the journal is a helpful reminder.

Thank you for the replies.

I had another meeting with the Shared Solutions nurse. She says like both of you. Butt is fine, maybe just not where you sit. Stomach is also for me the worst of all. Ouch, feels like the pain takes forever to go away. The rest is not so bad except for bruises. I am switching to manual injection hoping it will help with that.

If it doesn't bother you, manual injections are definitely less painful. It gives you a lot more control of how fast the medicine goes in. Since I am fair of skin with a lot of surface veins, I have to watch for capillary beds, which are not always easy to see. Hitting one of those can be quite painful. I find that warming the syringe for about 10 minutes before injecting is helpful too. Good luck!

Umm, sounds like you are talking about my skin!! I'm not crazy about injectinng manual, but it does feel better than autoject. I still get bruises, but I seem to be getting smaller ones.

I remain very concern with lipoatrophy and hope it won't show too soon. I will keep track of used sites with the perforated plastic maps of my injectinon zones I cut out. I even use color coding. Red, then blue and green the week after in each of the seven zones. When it is time to go back to red, I change the color of the last red mark to black. I must sound nuts

Maybe I can ask if anyone has had true success in avoiding the indentations? I don't have much fat to start with (weight is 115 for 5'5''). I hope to keep injecting every day for 6 months. After that, I plan to switch to EOD of even twice weekly if 40 mg syringes become available.


Anyone is welcome to add their 2 cents!!

I keep track of injection sites by writing dates on copies of the SS 'map', but I've also been using an Android app (phone or tablet) called MedNotesPlus. It's easy and quick, and you can also use it for med- and symptom-tracking notes. I'm probably going to quit the paper tracking soon....

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... plus&hl=en

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RRMS dx 3/3/11; Copaxone since 12/1/11