I know this may sound like a really stupid question, but ..how careful do I need to be concerning bubbles in the syringe? I have been doing this twice a week for nearly 2 years, and I always seem to have some bubbles that I can get rid of, once, I thought it was nearly bubble free( very tiny ones could be seen) but just as I plunged the very last of the solution into mu skin, I noticed a fairly big bubble. I know that it is an 'under the skin' type injection, and that no veins are involved, but what if I did hit a vein? Just curious, and I don't want to ask my doctor or his assistant because I am kind of embarrassed.

Get what you can out of the syringe. Flick it with you finger. That usually brings trapped air to the top. If you only have small ammounts of air with injection, that is ok. You body absorbs the air.

As Wildflower said, small bubbles are safe.. you can't get any air bubbles in blood veins (of any consequence) in a subcutaneous injection if you are doing it correctly as (the veins are located below that level). That is why you do not aspirate (pull back on the plunger to check for placement) with SubQ injections.

I've had IV's that had fairly long air bubbles in them - I remember looking at one in horror!
But - 14½ years later - I'm still here to tell about it!

even if you were to hit a vein, the small amount of air injected would be of no consequence (unless you happen to have a heart defect of a certain type!)

I was told of this in nursing school about air bubbles in an IV. My dad is still convinced that an air bubble killed his friend. It takes a lot of air to fill a chamber of the heart to cause a problem. Air bubbles in the IV line cannot possibily cause this. We use pumps that detect any air in the line and beep like crazy. They don't even run when they detect air. Even an open drip shuts down when no fluid is going in.

You only have to do a draw back with IM (deep muscle) injections, not SC. The SC is only supposed to go as deep as the fatty layer of skin, which is not a danger at all if some air is injected. You cannot hit a large vessel as you can with deep muscle injections either. That is the reason you draw back on the syringe. If you see blood, do not inject. You will be putting the drug dirrectly into the bloodstream that can be lethal.

SC injections are either done with insulin type of syringes or a regular syringe at a hard angle to inject the drug in the skin fatty tissue. You may find bleeding from hitting a small vessel. It will not take in air you are injecting. If it happens to, it is not a dangerous ammount by any means.

The danger with injecting air is filling a ventricle of the heart causing improper pumping ability. Think of how much air that takes, pretty much. A few air bubbles in an IV and air injected with SC injections are no danger at all. The body will absorb it.

With a SC injection, make sure you are only going as far as the skin layer and not hitting muscle. There are parts of the body that are more fatty than others. You have probably been taught where to inject, otherwise you would even be asking about injections in this post.

You do not have to worry about small amounts of air. Do the best you can to get it out. Flick it with your finger and push it out. The worst you can do is leave a lump assuming you are injecting in SC fatty areas and not into the muscle or large vessels. You don't have to draw back. At times there will be some bleeding from hitting small vessels. Don't worry about that. It's unavoidable at times and is no danger to you.

Thanks, everyone. I fell kinda dumb for asking, but you have reassured me that all will be okay.

never feel bad for asking!