Injections as convenient as possible
As with all medications, a balance is struck between the desired positive effects of a treatment and any unwanted effects (so-called side effects). The following tips and hints can help you to manage these unwanted effects which may appear as part of your Betaferon therapy.
For your convenience, in the second part of this chapter we have also re-listed a range of tips regarding the actual dissolution process.
Starting your Betaferon® therapy
During the first few months of your Betaferon treatment, you may experience some side effects, such as flu-like symptoms or skin reactions. On the following pages we give you some hints how to manage these.
- Ask your doctor for an appropriate titration schedule.
It is a known fact that starting therapy at a lower dose and gradually increasing to the recommended dose helps to reduce many symptoms.
Managing flu-like symptoms
It is important for you to know that most new Betaferon users experience flu-like symptoms at the beginning of their therapy. These symptoms usually disappear within the first three months as your body adapts to the therapy.
- Try injecting Betaferon in the evenings before going to bed because it may help you to sleep through any possible symptoms.
- In addition, taking analgesics such as ibuprofen or paracetamol half an hour before injection and then four to six hours later as needed may help. However, make sure you consult your doctor before starting any co-medication.
Avoiding skin reactions
The occurrence of skin reactions can be minimised by following a range of tips outlined below:
- Always wash your hands before starting the assembly process.
- Never use a needle that has touched anything but clean skin (do not wipe the needle with anything – not even with an alcohol wipe).
- The needle should be dry, i.e. no solution on the outside of the needle tip. The best way to do this is to push all the air bubbles back into the vial before twisting off the vial adapter.
- If you see a small air bubble in your syringe after you have twisted off the vial adapter, don’t panic. It won’t harm you because it is not injected intravenously. Be more careful next time you prepare your Betaferon
- Use an alcohol wipe to clean the injection site and always wait until it dries before injecting.
- Make sure you never inject Betaferon into sites where you currently have a skin reaction, i.e. red spots, hard or sore areas. Leave out those areas and rotate to other injection sites until they become less sensitive again.
- It is very important to always inject and remove the needle at a 90° angle to the skin with a quick, firm motion. Because we know that self-injecting might be uncomfortable for some of you, we have designed special autoinjectors that will help you with self-injection. Ask your doctor or nurse for more information.
- Make sure you practise injection site rotation for each injection using the rotation map available in the Betaferon Patient Diary. Always write down the date and injection site of your last injection. It will help you to keep track of where you’ve injected and ensure that all possible injection sites were used before re-injecting at a particular site.
- Pressure build-up or pain are most likely caused by the needle not being deep enough, so ensure that the needle is injected to the proper depth. This problem is quite common with manual injecting. Autoinjectors are designed to help you avoid this problem.
- Pressing a cooling pad on the injection site as long as it feels comfortable before and after each injection can also help to relieve skin irritations. Never use ice cubes directly on the skin; there should always be a barrier between skin and ice. Therefore it is much easier to use cooling pads.
- Redness, itching or swelling at the injection site can be treated, so make sure you ask your doctor or nurse for advice!
Recommendations for dissolving Betaferon®
If you experience initial difficulties with some parts of the dissolution process, you really don’t need to worry.
They will go away with practice and you will soon be able to prepare your Betaferon without any problems.
- Remove the cover from the blister pack completely, otherwise you will have problems removing the vial adapter from the blister pack later on.
- Remove the little plastic cap from the Betaferon vial before you try to connect the adapter to it.
- Twist the orange tip cap when removing it – don’t try to pull it off. It would not work. The new system works on “twist motions” and it will probably take you some time to get used to it.
- When connecting the syringe to the vial adapter, you need to push the syringe in and twist it with a 3/4 turn. Without the twist motion, the prefilled diluent syringe will NOT be connected to the vial adapter. Do not overturn as the system is not designed for constant turning.
- After you push the liquid into the vial, the plunger might return to its original position. This is OK as it is caused by normal underpressure in the system.
- If there is too much foam in the vial, let it stand for a while until the foam settles down. If there is a bit of foam left, don’t worry. It will not harm you.
- To start with, you might not find it very easy to push the foam back from the syringe into the vial. Take your time and keep trying it until you feel confident. It will get better with practice. Don’t forget that you will not be able to remove foam AFTER you have removed the blue adapter with the attached vial.
- As mentioned above, you need to remove the blue vial adapter with the attached vial before the actual injection. The best way to do it is to hold the syringe in one hand and twist the blue vial adapter gently to the left with your other hand. Make sure you twist the blue adapter in the right direction. Otherwise it will not separate from the syringe.
- When removing the protective needle guard from the needle just before the actual injection, don’t twist it – just pull it. That way you will not get pricked. It is the only pull motion during the whole process. If you have any other questions, please call your doctor or nurse.
