Vaccines can be delivered through the skin using ultrasound. This method doesn’t damage the skin and eliminates the need for painful needles. To create a needle-free vaccine, Darcy Dunn-Lawless at the University of Oxford and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny, cup-shaped proteins. They then applied liquid mixture to the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound – like that used for sonograms – for about a minute and a half.

      • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        I’m sure there are some people that would help, but I went from blood draws making me nearly pass out to self injecting meth(otrexate) once a week after my RA diagnosis.

        • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          A blood draw ruins my week (not exaggerated). If I were diagnosed with diabetes I would end up dead. For me, anything that avoids a needle is worth it.

          • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Exactly. For you it’d likely be worth it. For people like me it’d be a waste - the answer was to nut up. I also require hour-long transfusions every two months. I’m not sure they could do anything but maybe put you under anesthesia for something like that.

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Yeah, I really can’t imagine. My wife (who works in the medical field) tried to help me “get used to” needles and I didn’t make a single lick of progress. With my kind of issue, it’s common that the issue gets worse and not better if you get shots more often. Something about my subconscious forming a feedback loop with my reactions to create worse reactions over time. I didn’t stop breathing from shots when the symptoms started when I was 8 or 9, just got dizzy/lightheaded and passed out.

              • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                That sounds insanely distressing. I won’t recount my bad experiences. None of them were harmful, but some nurses aren’t as gentle as others.

                • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  Yeah. I half-mentioned it elsewhere. I was in an ER and needed to have blood drawn. I was just barely staying conscious by leaning back with an ice pack, but they needed the room so a nurse came in and said “yeah you’re fine” and lugged me from the blood-draw chair into a wheelchair. My wife wanted to hit her (lol) but it took the 2 of them to keep me from hitting the floor instead of the wheelchair because I started to black out from suddenly standing.

                  Some nurses are idiots.

                  • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                    11 months ago

                    Jesus. I had a nurse accidentally throw a vial (one of like 11. It was my first RA blood draw) in the biohazard bin. She took one look at me and ripped that box off the wall to carefully extract it, risking herself in the process.

                    Recently they moved half the infusion staff to another location and a nurse I’d never met, who’s a super nice guy, just isn’t as careful when he’s finishing up as the women have been. First bruise I’ve gotten from them in like two years. My arm looked like I was shooting up heroin or something. No real damage, but it’s unsettling.