1. Ice. Just a single cube wrapped in a small paper towel square. Avoid ice pack because you want to keep the surrounding area supple. Tape ice to the target with medical tape. A stretchy waistband helps to hold it in place. See picture.

2. Heat. While the spot numbs, warm up heating pad (on high) and prep your syringe.

3. When the feeling is gone and ice is starting to melt down, you’re ready. Place filled syringe in heating pad and enclose it like a taco. Let the PIO warm while you get in position.

4. Lie on your side with head propped up so you can twist and reach your injection site. Remove ice and wipe spot with alcohol pad. Let the alcohol air dry!

5. Grab your warmed syringe (feel it to make sure) and uncap. With free hand do the “z-track” method, pulling skin tight to one side and... dart! Pull back on the plunger slightly to check for blood (I forget to do this half the time and nothing bad has ever happened).

6. Slowly inject while concentrating to keep your hips relaxed. Stare at anything but the solution in the syringe 😜 When it’s done, remove quickly and release skin at same time.

7. Slap on a cotton ball and massage the spot well for a few seconds, until your ready for a bandaid. Should have no more than a spot of blood. Warming site with heating pad afterwards feels nice.

Hope this helps! I’ve never had any pain doing it just like this, just a momentary icky feeling at worst. The needle never hurts going in, so just go for it! (Sorry that was kind of a long post.)