Subcutaneous Infusion Made Easy: Step-by-Step Tutorial

I give myself subcutaneous infusions of immunoglobulin (SCIG) for the treatment of my primary immunodeficiency every other week. My particular primary immunodeficiency is Specific Antibody Deficiency (SAD). In this video I give you a tutorial on how I give myself these infusions. Subcutaneous infusions are a great alternative to intravenous infusions of immunoglobulin (IVIG).

I rely on plasma donors for my antibodies so I can fight off infections. Please consider becoming a plasma donor. You can learn more at: https://www.plasmahero.org/

You can watch me take you through my infusion in this YouTube video.

Below is a timestamped transcript of the video:

00:00:00:07 – 00:00:34:08

It’s infusion day! On a biweekly basis I have to give myself subcutaneous infusions of immunoglobulin. So I’m going to show you how I do that right now. First, I’m going to clear off this counter, so hold please. I just generally clean the space. I’m gonna tilt you down a little bit. You want to make sure that the countertop is free of any sort of dirt or soil before you start this, the sanitization process.

00:00:34:14 – 00:00:35:09

Or I’m disinfecting.

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Technically.

00:00:36:12 – 00:01:05:29

So I personally like this product. It is EPA registered to kill a ton of different things. So I’m going to spray this on and then I’m going to wait 10 minutes and we’ll be back. My infusion buddy is hiding in the background. Now, I gather my supplies: sharps container, bag full of everything I need for the infusion, this is the freedom infusion pump.

00:01:05:29 – 00:01:17:18

Fun. So before I set everything up, I’m going to wash my hands for at least 20 seconds. So I’m actually going to show you how I wash my hands, because I don’t think a lot of

00:01:17:18 – 00:01:19:00

people wash their hands really well.

00:01:22:15 – 00:01:24:03

Speaker 3

Soap, lather.

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Ring your hands

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Speaker 3

together. Make sure you’re washing the backs of your hands. In between the fingers.

00:01:31:13 – 00:01:43:18

Both sides, alternating, back of the hands, in between the fingers, other hand same thing thumb, twist it. Claw them together like this, other way

00:01:43:27 – 00:01:49:15

Speaker 3

Fingertips I swirl on the palm of my hand one more for good measure and I rinse everything off.

00:01:53:02 – 00:01:54:13

I know I left the water

00:01:54:13 – 00:02:07:01

running to those of you that are like, Oh my God, she left the water running. But that’s because I don’t want to touch the handle, because I need my hands to be as clean as possible to do the infusion.

00:02:07:28 – 00:02:33:19

Okay, So now that I’m done at my little sink, you’re actually sitting in my big sink, which is the reason why I didn’t use my big kitchen sink. I have a random small one. I didn’t design it. Okay, Now I’m going to put on the gloves. And I know that this is a very odd angle, but it’s because I’m exceptionally tall and I want you to actually see what I’m doing.

00:02:34:08 – 00:02:50:09

Gloves on! So now I’m going to start taking everything out. I’m going to put it here. So I have the syringe, alcohol prep pads, I have, those are the dispensing caps. You’ll see those again later. I have the medication.

00:02:50:18 – 00:03:07:20

I’m currently on Hizentra. I specifically asked for the pre-filled syringes because I have arthritis and the vials are really hard for me, so I’m currently on five grams every other week.

00:03:08:28 – 00:03:13:03

Now the towel drape, that’s important, these are bandaids, those will come in handy later. I’m going to put those aside.

00:03:14:00 – 00:03:16:09

And I have two more things for the infusion, the precision flow flow rate tubing,

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and the high flow, these are the actual needles.

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This is how I set up my infusion.

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Those of you who are different and we’re not all taught the same way. This was how I learned it. If you see that I’m doing something wrong or it bothers you, just comment down below. I totally understand that I am not a doctor, I am not a nurse.

00:03:42:24 – 00:04:02:24

I’m just doing what people told me to do. All right, drape, okay. So I open that and then I’m only going to touch these little tiny corners because I need to.

00:04:02:24 – 00:04:03:16

Open it.

00:04:04:02 – 00:04:25:00

And have the internal part of it that hasn’t touched anything. Be my sterile field. All right, We see that. Fantastic. I’m going to discard that trash. All right. I’m going to open the boxes.

00:04:26:00 – 00:04:41:08

I understand that these are needed, but they’re really freaking annoying. Okay, so this is the medication. Now I’m going to take it out of its little box. So immunoglobulin is actually a blood based product.

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It’s it’s antibodies that are.

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Put together after people donate plasma.

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So if you’re a plasma donor. Thank you. I very well could be getting your antibodies this week.

00:04:55:01 – 00:05:11:09

Okay. I’m gonna screw that together now. I will place it in the field. I got to keep the box though because I got to do something with the box later. I have to log it, but I can’t show you how to log it because I have to use a phone app and you currently.

00:05:11:09 – 00:05:13:28

Are my phone, so I’m.

00:05:13:28 – 00:05:35:23

Not going to be able to log that for you. You just have to understand that that’s something that I have to do because sometimes these lots are recalled or maybe they have a higher incidence of blood clots. So it’s really important to keep track of when you infused and what you infused All right, here’s a little baby one

00:05:36:05 – 00:05:42:03

All right, Now, the syringe I’m going to pull open that.

00:05:44:24 – 00:06:15:19

All right. Throw that down there. I’m going to take the needles and tegaderm, which is the stuff that is used to attach it. I’m going to throw that in the field, I’m gonna open this, which is the tubing that attaches to the syringe. And these are how I get my infusion, my from one syringe to the other.

00:06:16:13 – 00:06:17:06

Is these little things.

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All right, So syringe, little dispensing cap.

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Syringe, little cap I have to put on like that. And then I just took off the top. Right.

00:06:38:04 – 00:06:46:18

So now I’m going to take this little itty bitty Hizentra syringe and I’m gonna pull off the top, you do not want to touch.

00:06:47:18 – 00:06:59:19

When you’re pulling off the top either of those things so that they can be sterile, so that you can screw them together. And then I slowly plunge the liquid.

00:07:00:18 – 00:07:16:26

Into the syringe. Now you take that whole thing off, you don’t reuse the same one. So dispensing cap on, I know this is kind of going in and out of focus. It’s because I’m utilizing.

00:07:17:08 – 00:07:33:28

Cinematic mode because it looks cooler. But now I know not to do that next video, but I can’t change it now where we’re going with this now I have the second syringe and I have this other one that I again took the top off, but I did not touch. Now I have to take the top off the other one.

00:07:35:10 – 00:07:42:26

All right. So now I’m going to attach to that and now I’m going to slowly put.

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Medication from one to the other.

00:07:50:27 – 00:07:58:19

Please focus. There we go. Cool. Right. So this is all my beautiful liquid that I love and that I appreciate.

00:07:59:02 – 00:08:14:05

Anybody who is a plasma donor for. So now I’m just going to tap it a little bit because there are bubbles in the top. No, we’re not going to focus. Cool beans. There’s tiny little bubbles in the top for subcutaneous infusions.

00:08:14:05 – 00:08:34:25

The bubbles are not that dangerous. It’s just air. It’s uncomfortable because it goes underneath the skin. So it’ll get absorbed. So right now I’m holding this because I can’t lay it down. The medications in it. I can’t recap it because all my caps they’re all over the place. So I’m holding it but making sure not to touch the top.

00:08:35:13 – 00:08:40:00

Now I’m going to attach the first part of the tubing so, ta-da

00:08:42:12 – 00:09:10:21

Tubing, Yeah. Now I’m going to set that down because it’s totally fine and it’s all encapsulated now the needles. Okay, so now I have my needles. So I got my needles. I got my other one that it needs to attach to. So now I’m going to attach them. See? Voila. Okay, so now I have everything done. What you have to do next is prime this fluid down just until you’re almost in the needle.

00:09:10:29 – 00:09:22:00

You don’t want to get it in the needle because that can cause a lot of irritation when you’re trying to stick it into your skin. Blah, blah, blah. So hold, please, while I.

00:09:22:13 – 00:09:30:06

Put my weight into this and actually focus. So now, I’m gonna take all of this?

00:09:32:02 – 00:09:35:07

Speaker 3

I’m gonna throw it away because now you get to go to the next step.

00:09:35:12 – 00:09:50:08

I put you up a little higher just simply because I’m going to end up moving the camera around. But I want to tell you that after I get everything ready, I utilize the Hizentra

00:09:50:08 – 00:09:51:24

App and I’ll scan.

00:09:51:24 – 00:10:14:18

These barcodes into the app. I know that it’ll take about 90 minutes for my particular infusion to happen. And so today I’m going to do the infusion in the upper portion of my abdomen. I only have to do two sites. Some people have to do it four, some people have to do eight, maybe even more than that. It all depends on how much fluid you’re actually infusing that’s what I’m gonna do now.

00:10:14:19 – 00:10:30:22

If you do not like needles, then thank you so much for joining me. I’m going to show you that last part because I know a lot of people are kind of hesitant as to like how long the needle is and like exactly what’s going on. I am going to take a cinema mode so that it’s easier to see if you don’t like needles.

00:10:30:22 – 00:10:55:09

Trigger warning needles next alcohol. Wipe tegaderm and needle That’s all you need. I’m going to show you how to do one. Then I’m going to do the other one off camera because it’ll just be easier. And after that I’m basically done and I’ll just sit around for 90 minutes. I’m going to take this little part here.

00:10:55:21 – 00:11:22:05

I’m going to start in the center and I’m going to go out. All right. Now I’m a little dry, a little, so the needle doesn’t sting so much going in. Also, the drying is really the thing that gets rid of the germs. It’s not just rubbing it on there. Why I okeydokey, now I’m going to take off. So this is the needle.

00:11:22:20 – 00:11:55:28

It’s tiny. It’s a little baby, little tiny baby needle because it’s only going subcutaneous. So now I’m just going to pinch the area and I’m going to put in the needle and I’m going to be a big girl about it. And a voila tand put the tegaderm over it and then I’m going to take off this portion because I don’t need to date it, this is coming off in like another hour.

00:11:56:19 – 00:12:30:29

And there you go. Now, I’m going to do to the one over here. Okay. So now you can see that I have the two needles in my tummy. Awesome. But before I put this into the pump, I need to pull back on it to make sure no blood comes through. No blood. Awesome. I have the freedom pump, so I’m going to take this with the numbers up and I put it in there and then I’m going to turn it.

00:12:30:29 – 00:12:34:26

Speaker 3

On and I’m going to forget about it for 90 minutes.

00:12:36:24 – 00:12:39:16

Think how it engaged it just ow

00:12:39:26 – 00:12:41:15

ow ow

00:12:41:18 – 00:13:07:29

It’s just shooting a little bit of the air that was in the rest of the needle into my stomach. I just pat it and then it goes away and then I don’t have to worry about it. So then I put this in this lovely, stylish bag, see, put in stylish bag, zip it closed and it has a thing that you put around your waist.

00:13:07:29 – 00:13:42:27

So that’s what I’m going to do. And look, it’s super fancy. So thanks so much for joining me. In this biweekly occurrence, infusions are not that difficult to give yourself. So I would highly encourage anybody that needs to have them done to think about the fact that it will allow you a lot more freedom because I can at least stay at home in my PJs if I want and watch a nice television show for an hour and a half while I’m infusing every other week instead of going into an infusion center or having an infusion nurse come to my house.

00:13:43:11 – 00:13:44:24

I absolutely.

00:13:44:24 – 00:13:49:16

Love it. I highly recommend. Thanks so much and I’ll see you next time.