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Imitrex Question


ClusterHeadSurvivor
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I was watching Dr.Goadsby lectures and there was menton of injecting the Imitrex into the leg...

I have always injected it in my arm above bi cep. In the meaty part.

But I read your not supposed to????

Why??? To me...in my way of thinking...my arm is much closer to my head than my leg meaning faster responce to the medication....Can anyone enlighten me?

thank you

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Standard advice is to inject imitrex in the thigh or shoulder. It takes about one minute for all the blood to circulate through your body, so it's hard to see any likely difference in speed of action whether you inject it in your thigh or your shoulder (could be that blood from the leg gets to the brain a little bit faster).

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It's a sub-cutaneous injection, meaning it doesn't go directly into the bloodstream. I can't imagine a human being able to perceive the difference with a sub-cutaneous absorption rate anywhere on the body. It's why it takes 5-10 minutes to become effective.

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Yip, it is a subcutaneous injection and any area with a reasonable blood supply would be fine. Distance from the head does not matter, it gets mixed with the venous blood and sent back to the heart to be pumped out into the arterial system, no matter where it starts. I have used sc sumatriptan myself and use my belly!

It may be slower to act if you injected into a cold extremity, exposed to cold, where the body naturally reduces blood supply.

BostonHeadacheDoc  ;)

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After having initially tried arms and legs, I'm a strong proponent of the belly site BostonHeadacheDoc mentioned for injection, and have used it exclusively for years (although I haven't had to use it recently thanks to busting and lengthening remissions).

I learned about it at ch.com years ago where many CH vets have adopted it. It's certainly the most accessible injection site, and I've found it tends to be significantly less painful, especially when NOT using the auto injector. Win/win.  8-) I find that injecting to the side of he navel works well.

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