Red, irritated skin after injection
Hello everyone, I've started my first test e only cycle about 3 weeks ago. So far so good, feeling great and noticing some slight changes on my body.
I've encountered a problem this week, about 2 days after the injection the skin around the injection site turned red (as you can see in the picture) and is itchy. Also my buttocks hurt like hell, I couldn't walk straight for 2 days after injection 'cause the PIP was insane.
My question is, what exactly did I do wrong? Is this something that needs medical attention? It's been like this for 3 days now.
Here's how i usually inject:
First, i use some ice for a few minutes to numb the site, then i take an alcohol swab, clean the top of the vial, and with another alcohol swap the skin. I draw with a 21g 1-1/2" needle and inject with a 23g 1-1/4" needle, always making sure I haven't hit a blood vessel. Then i put some mild pressure with a cotton swab for a few seconds and after that, I use a heating pad and massage the site for a few minutes. I inject 360mg of testosterone enanthate a week split into 2 injections, tuesday night and saturday morning.
I also wanted to know if your body get's used to PIP. I've injected a total of 6 times now, the first time in my right buttock, second time in my left one (both sides hurt for a few days) the third time in my right shoulder, which hurt for a whole week so I won't do shoulders again, 4th time right buttock again (which this time didn't really hurt that much), 5th time left buttok which led to the irritated skin, and the last time (yesterday) in the right buttock once again, and it hurts just a little now.
So how long should I wait until I can inject on the left buttcheeck again? Also, what other injection sites should I use? I was thinking of quads, but I'm just afraid that i can't properly train my legs because of the PIP, I neglected my leg workouts way too much this past 3 weeks because of that.
Any help would be very appreciated.
- Bookmark
- 0
- 0
Is this the first time you're using these injection sites? Or the first time you're injecting this much at one time? If so it's not a huge surprise you're sore. It takes a while for a new site to get used to making room for all the oil. Over the course of a few weeks it will get less sore after each injection and eventually barely get sore at all.
You should def warm the oil before injecting. I have a small heating pad i set on low and wrap the loaded pin in while i shower. When it's warm, not hot, it tends to flow in better. You're using a freaking harpoon to pin yourself. I use a 25g to draw and 27g to inject. A pin that large is going to lead to a larger/faster build up of scar tissue than a smaller one would. Also a pin that large will allow you to push all the oil in really quickly. Doing so will cause way more soreness than if you take your time. The general rule is about 60 seconds for 1 ml of oil. So if you're putting in .6ml that should take something like 35-40 seconds. You should also massage the injection site after you inject. It will help spread the oil out throughout the muscle faster which can help reduce the pain.
I use quads on my rotation of sites. It would get sore after the initial uses and when i upped the oil i used per shot. It never got so sore i couldn't do legs. I actually found working the muscle helped reduce the soreness. The redness could be from how big of a wound those massive pins are giving you. Or there's a possibility some of the oil leaks into the subq area or maybe you're having an allergic reaction to something in the oil. It's hard for anyone to say for certain what it's caused by.
Thanks mate! Pinned my quad for the first time on tuesday and used a 26g needle, injection didn't hurt at all, got some PIP but nothing too bad. They only had 7/8" needles though, do you think I can get away with that lenght? After all I'm a very lean guy with low BF%.
For a while I was using 1/2" tips and just really pushing them in there. Now I use a 1" that I put almost all the way in so I'm sure you should be fine.
Allergy. Some tend to give that reaction.
Honestly bro you are doing too much … warm up oil if if it’s too viscous but for 23ga I can’t imagine it would be… swab the tops wait a little bit, swab injection site, wait for it to evaporate. Draw with a 18/21ga, inject with whatever length and guage you feel is appropriate…
I’m a 25ga 1” man myself and I adjust how deep I go depending on site.
Insert, z track inject if you want and take a nice warm shower. Done and done.
After 13+ years of doing this, keeping it simple is the way to go.
Your irritation could be a variety of things such as oil seeping back into subcutaneous like other posters have advised, your body might find the suspension oil irritating (it happens, everyone reacts differently), or the brew it self could be higher than usual solvents which can cause irritation. Or it could be the compound itself or hell the brew might not be clean (worst case).
Also your sterile technique, and all the things you do after might be causing the oil to seep into your subcutaneous . I’d keep an eye on it.
If the redness continues to spread to a wider circumference, it gets streaky, it’s very hot/warm to touch, and you just aren’t feeling well (potential fever) then it might be time to possible run a course of antibiotics.
I've had symptoms that resembles yours but never to a point where it was full blown infection with a fever, spreading cellulitis, etc etc etc …
I had lumps that went away, debilitating pip where I couldn’t walk right from a quad shot, oil seeping down to my knee from gravity?? After a quad shot gone wrong (I’ve retired quad) the knee thing was the worst, the oil and compound just collected at the top of my knee and it felt insanely painful. I couldn’t walk for days until someone suggested I pop 800mg ibuprofen.
Just keep an eye on it and if you keep getting continuous irritation after injecting that compound. Just stop and consider changing labs.
/.02cent rant
Most Important, make sure you are warming the oil up before injection. Making the injection site cold by ice is exactly what is causing your issue. Clean the top of the vial with alcohol before inserting the needle to draw. Clean your skin at injection site with alcohol as well. After injection rub the hell out of the area of injection site. Then take a hot shower. All of that prevents PIP and bumps and soreness. I use a 25G for injection and you hardly feel anything.
Thanks a lot. Honestly numbing the injection site with ice was never really necessary for me cause I have no problems with injections, normally they don't hurt, I just used it because I read it on here that it should help with PIP.
Going to buy some 25g needles today and see how it goes.
KonstantViktoryYou may have leaked "Sub Q" ; this happens when the oil leaks back through the injection point and settles under the skin. Not comfortable, no doubt.
I have had several issues pinning glutes, specifically with lower gauge, larger needles. I concluded that it happens when I sleep on my back, and I noticed the leaking always spreading to my lower back as well. I prefer not to pin glutes often because of this, and if I do it ends up being ventroglutes, with a small amount and in a smaller gauge.
Do you have someone else to administer the injection? The medical technique known as "Z-Tracking" is used specifically to prevent "SubQ" leaking damage. Easy to perform on a quad injection.
In the mean time, get some massaging in (hurts like hell, but is well worth it), have a few hot baths, take an aspirin, and tough it out. Consider using a smaller gauge for injecting, and try rotating different injection sites.
I prefer a 25g pin. Do you warm the oil prior to injecting? That always helps for me. Also, do you rotate the pin as you inject? That’s also important because I prefer to distribute the oil, and not bank it all it one spot. You could also be allergic to the carrier oil that lab is using. It happens. It’s important to identify it, and switch labs. How many mg is your Test, what ester?
Yes I do, after drawing I hold the syringe under some hot tap water to warm the oil.
What exactly do you mean by rotating the pin?
I use enanthate, 300mg/ml so I use 0.6 ml for every injection.
I have considered trying another lab, I've read some reviews about the one I'm using and everyone seems to have the same problem with PIP with this lab.
Looks like a snake bite?
It does lol but we ain't got snakes here where I live