I say this because I am a big chicken. Last Monday, no lie, I sat on my couch for just over 2 hours before I finally gave myself the shot. For probably the first 45 minutes, I didn't even set it up. I kept waiting for the next commercial (which I would then forward through with TIVO). Finally in the last 15 minutes of show one, the shot was in the Rebiject II and ready to go. I wiped the side of my leg, pressed the auto-inject next to my leg, and did nothing. The first show ended, so I put on a second show. And then the whole wait until the next commercial started all over again. At 45 minutes or so into show #2, I realized I had to press the button. It was 12:45 am at that point. It was at this time that I thought I should probably re-apply the alcohol. But the thing was dry. So off to the kitchen to get a new one and oops, show 2 was now over. So then I put on Jon Stewart. And I waited for his first commercial break. Finally after the break, I pressed the button. One second - hey this isn't hurting. Two seconds - NOW IT IS. 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 aah, No more sting. That wasn't so bad. Actually the whole not stinging part for the first second was what finally got me to press the button that time. But oh how that does sting. Does this tale sound at all familiar to anyone?

A nurse from Serono (maker of Rebif) called me the next day (talk about good timing) and gave me a tip. Make it smell! Put it under the arm for 10 minutes or so (or an hour in my case) till it gets to body temperature. Then it doesn't sting as much. Sounded good to me so that is what I did. Except, after I took it away from my underarm and set it up in the Rebiject, I waited for about 1 hour before I actually pressed the button. So my bringing it to body temp had already started its way back down to room temp, and it still stung. In addition to the nurses suggestion, I had something working in my favor to actually push the button - my husband. He was sitting on the couch next to me. And he kept saying he was going to do it if I didn't. Finally, he started counting - 1, 2,2 ½ and I did it. He was actually a big help, peer pressure and all. He had given me the Avonex shot for ~ 8 years and I think in a twisted way, he misses it. So the threat of him giving me the shot was what finally got me to "shoot up" that day. Not because I wanted to deprive him of giving me a shot, but because I wanted to do it. I only gave myself the Avonex once in 8 years (and I fainted right after). So the fact that I am doing this is a big thing to me and I need to get used to it myself, sting and all before I let anyone else do it.

Now my final injection of the week (6 injections at 44 mcg over two weeks) was last night. And I am proud to say, it only took me about a ½ hour, all said and done. And it took less than 5 minutes from when I set up the Rebiject to actually pressing the button which to me is a great achievement. I did what the Serono nurse suggested, except this time, I didn't let the shot return to room temp. And I think it worked better. It took a couple more seconds for the sting to kick in after I pressed the button. And the sting stopped before I made it to 10 seconds so I think this might work. At least until this summer when my nurse said Serono would be releasing a non-burning version of Rebif. So maybe I won't need to work for KFC after all.