Raw

Kenacort 40mg.

Caroline was up before me, opened the bedroom window. Half-an-hour later my nose is streaming and my eyes itching like mad. Hay fever season has arrived. I've had a little eye-itch the past few days, but nothing really troublesome even yesterday when when I was clearing the garden while Federico was mowing grass opposite.

Late season last year the usual antihistamine pills didn't quite do the trick so I went to the GP. Gave me a Kenacort injection (triamcinolone acetonide, a corticosteriod). Worked wonders, cleared the symptoms almost immediately, lasted the remainder of the summer.

A trip to the doctor's means at least an hour out of the day, more likely two, there's usually a queue. I've got several vials of the stuff and syringes so decided to bite the bullet, or rather needle the buttock. Unfortunately we ran out of the best sized syringes with the cat illness before last, not got around to restocking. Got some tiny diabetic syringes but they don't really have long enough needles (only tried them once with the cats, whatever the medication was it was too thick to get through the needle without extreme effort). So I had to use one of the elephant-sized ones that always make me feel a little guilty when treating the cats.

The instructions with the stuff said it should go profonamente nei muscoli della region glutea. I've never done intramuscular before so had a quick hunt to see if there were any tips online ( this was probably best). It was easier than I thought to grab a chunk of my own backside (not something I'd tried before, curiously). But it did take three or four psyching-ups to get the courage - like at the swimming pool, one-two-three-jump!...nope. Didn't hurt particularly although it did make me rather shaky. Aches a bit now, which is what it was like last year, so that's probably a good sign. Hay fever symptoms virtually gone, but hard to say whether that's medication or distraction.