Q: Whenever I inject, I always pull back to see if any blood is in the syringe. I was told to do this when I first started. I did actually pull some blood the other day, but pushed it back in and gave the injection at that site. What is going to happen? Also, is it better to inject slow or fast?

A: Well, first of all, if you’re going to be painstaking about injections and pull back to see if you have blood in the syringe, why would you push it back in? That seems to be defeating. Also, when you pull back, do it slowly so that you can just see the blood barely come past the pin. But the good news is, if you see just a little blood, it’s really okay. You can feasibly see a tiny amount of blood and it’s okay. But if you pull back and see a ton of blood, that means you hit something more substantial and have cannulated a vessel or vein. If you did, that makes going slowly even more important. You don’t want to contaminate your gear. As for injecting fast or slow, a steady pressure is best. This is particularly true in muscle groups other than the glutes.

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