#subcutaneous

My shot was pretty easy today, my very first practice injection was super easy but every shot since then has been a bit difficult.

Tips:

Most guys I've seen in videos say they shower right before to warm up that skin, I take it a bit farther and keep a heat pack on my belly for awhile. I always lay down when I do my shot and usually listen to a video or music.

Don't pull the syringe out just cuz it doesn't seem like it's going in!

Getting it through the skin is the tough part. If you've poked it in, just push harder until it pops through the skin layer. It'll hurt more the slower you're going, but it's definitely tough to stab yourself quickly with the fear there. If you can get the needle in quickly, definitely do cuz it saves u the pain of slowly pushing that needle through. You want to get through the skin as fast as possible.

I leave the needle in for a few seconds after injecting to avoid leaking, but it leaked a bit today regardless. This works for me usually tho.

This turns out to be controversial—the most recent research I’m aware of showed no statistical difference in actual blood levels, but those don’t necessarily correspond to changes that you see. Subcutaneously-delivered T is absorbed slower than intramuscularly-delivered T (there are a lot of blood vessels in your muscle) which translates to less extreme peaks/valleys and a more stable internal hormone profile. Think about it like a gas pedal: If you keep tapping it, you’ll keep jumping forwards and then slowing down, versus if you press down smoothly and accelerate forwards. So, for some people, this can translate to a lower effective dose. It is genuinely a great method, and those are benefits for a lot of people! I think it’s just less commonly used than IM injections because it’s a little more fiddly and can be more anxiety-provoking for people with certain kinds of needle issues (hello).

-- the skin

Epidermis -- outermost layer -- two layers      -- germinal layer      -- stratum corneal

Dermis -- middle layer -- contains      -- blood vessels      -- nerve endings      -- sweat glands      -- hair follicles

Subcutaneous -- innermost layer -- fatty tissue -- above the muscle layer

The large swelling under the wing of this baby robin is a case of subcutaneous emphysema and this bird developed it after being caught by a cat. Subcutaneous emphysema occurs when the tissue overlying the air sac is compromised and air rushes to full the subdermal space.