Mounjaro is an injectable medicine used to handle blood sugar ranges in folks with kind 2 diabetes.
If that is your first time taking an injectable drug, you will have questions on the place and the right way to give an injection.
This information will educate you every little thing you might want to learn about injecting Mounjaro.
Desk of Contents
Get to know your Mounjaro pen, prescription, and dose
Earlier than you inject your medicine, you need to be acquainted with the pen and pen needle, your prescription, and your dose.
Mounjaro is available in a single-dose injectable pen, which many individuals refer to easily as a “pen.”
Mounjaro pens are about six inches lengthy with a hidden pen needle on one finish and a small plunger button on the opposite finish that may mechanically inject the medicine.
There are six completely different pens obtainable, relying on the dose your physician or different certified healthcare skilled prescribes.
Learn extra in: Mounjaro Dosing Information: How A lot Ought to You Take?
The producer designed every pen to ship just one dose, lowering the chances of somebody overdosing on the medicine.
The pen needs to be thrown away in a sharps container after a single use.
For those who’ve by no means used a pen, your physician’s workplace or pharmacist can provide you info on the right way to safely use your Mounjaro pen.
The producer, Eli Lilly, additionally has a web site describing the right way to safely inject the medicine.
What does a dose seem like?
Your dose your healthcare supplier prescribes will differ relying in your weight, top, way of life, and well being targets.
Mounjaro is run subcutaneously (beneath your pores and skin) as soon as per week.
The completely different dosing choices obtainable are:
- 2.5 mg per week (for the primary 4 weeks as a beginning dose)
- 5 mg per week
- 7.5 mg per week
- 10 mg per week
- 15 mg per week
Please be aware: Every dose is available in a single-use pen designed to ship the complete dose in a liquid quantity of 0.5 mL.
Your physician will decide the suitable upkeep dose for you, which may vary anyplace from 5 mg to fifteen mg per week.
By no means take extra of the quantity of Mounjaro than your physician prescribed.
Learn extra: Mounjaro Dosing Information: How A lot Ought to You Take?
The place is the perfect place on my physique to inject Mounjaro?
At all times rotate (or change up) your injection websites to forestall the buildup of scar tissue.
Mounjaro is finest injected into fatty tissue, resembling areas across the stomach, higher arms, higher thighs, and hips.
It’s not advisable to inject into lean or principally muscular components of the physique.
Injections in these areas are typically painful, might bleed greater than regular, and might trigger the medicine to be much less efficient. (Injections into fatty tissue might trigger slight ache or discomfort.)
Mounjaro ought to by no means be injected right into a vein or artery.
How one can inject Mounjaro
It is best to inject the quantity of medication your physician prescribed below the pores and skin into fatty tissue not more than as soon as per week, ideally on the identical day on the identical time.
The time of day in your injection often doesn’t matter — select the time that works finest so that you can be per the method.
The steps to comply with for injecting Mounjaro are outlined beneath.
Get your provides prepared
For finest outcomes, use a 28- to 31-gauge needle greater than 2.1 millimeters (mm) lengthy that may ship the 0.5 mL dose of Mounjaro that your healthcare supplier prescribed.
Get your Mounjaro pen and an alcohol swab prepared.
Examine your dose to be sure to have the right pen.
Take away the cap from the entrance a part of your pen and look by the pen’s plastic window to verify the liquid contained in the pen is obvious.
If the liquid is discolored, cloudy, or frozen, or has particles floating in it, don’t use it.
Discover a great place in your physique and put together the location for the shot
Select an space in your physique with fatty tissue, resembling your abdomen, hips, higher thighs, or higher arms.
Put together the location in your pores and skin by shortly rubbing it with an alcohol swab and letting it air dry.
Injecting whereas the alcohol continues to be moist might trigger stinging.
Injecting Mounjaro
Make sure that your pen is locked and don’t unlock your pen till you place the bottom of the pen in your pores and skin and are able to inject.
To unlock your pen, take away the grey cap by pulling it away from the clear base. You’ll then throw away the grey cap. Notice: You do not need to discard the cap in a particular container. It’s OK to discard the grey cap within the family trash.
Now, the needle can be uncovered. Don’t contact the needle or you’ll contaminate it.
Place the clear base towards your pores and skin, and unlock the pen by turning the lock ring.
Press the highest of the pen. This can launch the medicine.
The primary click on you’ll hear is when the injection is beginning, adopted by a second click on just a few seconds later. This allows you to know that the injection has completed.
Maintain the pen towards your pores and skin for as much as 10 seconds to verify the entire medicine has been dispersed.
You’ll know the injection is full when you may see the grey plunger by the glass.
Take away the pen out of your pores and skin.
Wipe away any blood or medicine that has bubbled to the floor of your pores and skin with a clear alcohol swab.
Discard the Mounjaro pen safely
Since Mounjaro pens are solely good for a one-time use, you’ll then discard the pen in a sharps container.
Don’t throw the pen away with common trash. Don’t recycle your pen.
How do I do know if I injected Mounjaro accurately?
You’ll know if you happen to’ve injected your medicine accurately if you happen to hear two clicks (one initially of your injection and one on the finish).
Don’t take away the pen till you hear the second click on. These clicks are loud and detectable to most individuals.
Some folks might hear a tender click on proper earlier than the second loud click on. That’s regular.
Don’t take away the pen out of your pores and skin till you hear the second loud click on.
Additionally, you will see the grey plunger in case your dose was administered accurately.
If you don’t see the grey plunger, contact Eli Lilly at 1-800-Lilly-Rx (1-800-545-5979) for additional steerage.
What’s the finest time of day to inject Mounjaro?
The perfect time of day to take Mounjaro is whenever you’ll bear in mind to take it.
There isn’t any official finest time, however folks often pair their Mounjaro shot with different routine actions — resembling consuming breakfast or making their morning espresso.
You possibly can take your weekly dose at any time of day, however it is best to plan to take it on the identical day every week.
What do I do if I miss a dose of Mounjaro?
Don’t panic — that is OK. Lacking one dose won’t drastically enhance your insulin resistance or make you acquire weight.
Nonetheless, the medicine works finest when it’s taken persistently.
You can even take your dose just a few days late. Simply be certain to then change the day of the week that you just routinely take your shot to repeat on the identical day every week.
Additionally, when altering the day you are taking your subsequent dose, by no means take the subsequent dose lower than three days (or 72 hours) from the time of the missed dose.
For instance, if you happen to at all times take your Mounjaro on Sundays however didn’t take your shot till Tuesday morning, it is best to wait till the next Tuesday to take your subsequent dose.
Nonetheless, if you happen to missed your dose greater than 4 days (96 hours) in the past, simply skip that week’s dose and take your recurrently scheduled dose on time.
How do I correctly retailer Mounjaro?
Retailer your pen within the fridge between 36 levels to 46 levels Fahrenheit (2 levels to eight levels Celsius).
You might also retailer your pen at room temperature as much as 86 levels Fahrenheit (30 levels Celsius) for as much as 21 days.
By no means freeze your pen. If the pen has been frozen, throw the pen away and use a brand new one.
Retailer your pen within the authentic carton to guard it from mild publicity and warmth.
The pen has glass components. Deal with it rigorously.
Last ideas
Mounjaro provides a handy and efficient solution to management blood sugar ranges by a once-weekly injection. Its user-friendly pen design makes it simpler so that you can handle your blood sugar — even if you happen to’re new to injecting drugs.
The important thing to success when utilizing Mounjaro lies in following your physician’s directions as carefully as potential by taking the drugs on the prescribed dosage and injecting it utilizing the right approach.
It’s important to grasp the assorted elements of the Mounjaro pen, choose the suitable injection website, and comply with the step-by-step course of for administering the medicine.
Remembering to rotate injection websites and correctly retailer the medicine can be essential for sustaining its effectiveness and minimizing discomfort.
Advised subsequent article: Every little thing You Have to Know About Mounjaro.