Zorothamya

Ah I'm stupid. XD

Thanks!

I haven't been paying attention to the news lately. What is going to happen in 3 days?

Even when watching the tapes, you get too distracted with the ugliness of the tie to be able to focus on the face of the suspect.

I thought it's ok to still use the vial as long as it remains sealed (does not leak) and the liquid is checked for discoloration and foreign particles.

Yeah, if it's leaking definitely don't keep using it. If it is still sealed I don't know if it's fine to continue using it, it's just something to really avoid IMO.

I sent you the link now.

For the actual vials I'm going to send you a PM with two website that links to E sources. Note that that is only for E. I don't know where to get T. You don't need antiandrogens, if you inject large enough doses of E as you body will just stop producing T. Do get bloodwork though to see if the dose is correct.

For injection supplies any online pharmacy store will do. You will need alcohol wipes to disinfect the stopper and the skin before drawing. Use 70% isopropyl non-woven alcohol wipes. You don't want anything else as it may not disinfect properly or leave fibers on the stopper. If you are doing subcutaneous, I would recommend fixed needle insulin syringes as you won't be wasting too much E on deadspace with those. Do not use any needles below 23 gauge as that would increase vial coring risk (higher gauge is thinner and better). If you are using MCT oil, you can even go as far as 30 gauge and have no problem drawing. (use a different oil if it turns out that you get allergic reactions to the MCT oil. other oils have the disadvantage of being thicker, but will still work. For subcuraneous, needles should be half-inch or third-inch (in the latter case inject at 90º instead of 45º). The syringes depend on the concentration of the vial and how much you are injecting. I'm using 0,3 mL syringes, with my Estradiol Enanthate of which I inject 5mg weekly (0,10 mL at 50 mg/mL), but I could also use 0,5 mL or 1 mL syringes as those are generally easier to get.

The website recommended by @awth13@hexbear.net has some issues in regards to their anti-coring article. However I noticed a few things:

They state you should always use the same hole for drawing. I don't know why you would do that. If it's a sharp needle that's just going to increase the coring risk as the likelihood of a piece of rubber being cut off is increased. Just use a different spot every time with shap needles. You probably won't be able to see where you pierced the rubber if you used a thin needle anyway.

Do not use the 45-90 technique. Just insert at a 90º angle. The 45-90 technique can be messed up and isn't needed if you are using thin enough needles.

They state that coring is not necessarily dangerous but best avoided. I disagree, if your vial is cored, it no longer is protected against the outside world and you should assume that it's contaminated and that you can no longer safely inject its contents. Do not continue using a cored vial. Use thin 23+ gauge needles to avoid coring.

Note that when looking at tutorials, that some advice is given with a hospital setting in mind, where you aren't using a vial continuously for more than a year, so please do not listen to people who say you should use 18 gauge for drawing. That's going to core your vial very quickly.

I also recommend to get involved in a DIY community with a knowledgebase where you can ask questions and see the answers to previous questions.

If you use discord, I can provide you a link to such a community.

I don't know what it means but it's on the emblem of the PLA

Wikipedia says this:

The PLA's insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the two Chinese characters "八一"(literally "eight-one"), referring to the Nanchang uprising which began on 1 August 1927 (first day of the eighth month) and symbolic as the CCP's founding of the PLA. The inclusion of the two characters ("八一") is symbolic of the party's revolutionary history carrying strong emotional connotations of the political power which it shed blood to obtain. The flag of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is the war flag of the People's Liberation Army; the layout of the flag has a golden star at the top left corner and "八一" to the right of the star, placed on a red field. Each service branch also has its flags: The top 5⁄8 of the flags is the same as the PLA flag; the bottom 3⁄8 are occupied by the colors of the branches

I didn't know the air lock thing had a name but that's how I do it at work and for myself!

(it refers to the act of injecting air after the substance, not the act of clearing deadspace when switching needles)

I think it is called airlocking because one of its uses is to prevent the liquid from escaping through the tunnel made by the syringe, but I don't really see a difference in leakage (perhaps it's an IM thing) and just mainly use it because I like the idea of avoiding loss from deadspace.

A 27 g needle is like a fifth of a mm for its inner diameter. The benefit of squeezing out that little bit of E

I may be mistaken, but isn't most deadspace not from the metallic part of the needle?

With the syringes I use, according to the diagram, a third of the E drawn would be lost to deadspace with 0,1 mL injections. That to me sounds like a significant fraction.

You could use the airlock technique. That's what I use with my luer-slip syringes (and other people I know also use that technique). Once you've drawn your desired amount of E, withdraw it from the vial, point the needle up, pull the plunger to draw around 0,2 mL of air in, switch needles now if you want to use a different needle for injecting, and now point the needle downwards and let the air accumulate as a single bubble at the top with the plunger. It is now ready to inject. Inject the E together with the air (E first, then the air). What happens is that once all E has been injected, the air in the syringe will push all the E that's stuck in deadspace out, so the loss from deadspace is reduced.

Before you panic with the idea of injecting air, know that small amounts of air like the one mentioned are perfectly fine to be injected SQ or IM (I think you can theoretically also inject a whole mL and be fine). But absolutely do not inject any bubbles when administering substances intravenously though.

Note that you may want to adjust your dose now, as you will now be injecting more E than you did before.

Make sure to do bloodwork when at trough and also wait an adequate amount of time for E levels to stabilize after changing dose before doing bloodwork (I think 1 month is a minimum, but I don't know if that depends on administration method). Also stop taking vitamin supplements (I think ones containing biotin are the most problematic ones) 3 days prior to the test.

(Disclaimer: Not my field of expertise, just something I heard in other trans spaces) Isn't weight cycling a myth (and a potentially harmful one if you overdo it)? Because I think the fat redistribution depends purely on how fast your old lipocytes die (to be replaced in other parts of your body), which can't really be sped up AFAIK. Losing/gaining weight I think will just reduce/increase fat deposits across all your body, with no regard to location.

The path to fat redistribution is a healthy lifestyle and time.

It's supposed to be a day off, but as a prank they keep you working.

(not sure if this counts as discussing current struggle sessions, so freely delete this if it does, I just assumed since it happened months (or years?) ago, that it isn't current anymore)

I'm sorry for digging the issue up again, but I really forgot what happened. Since when are we federated with blahaj.zone again? Or did we never block them and it was only them that defederated us? I find it sad that we are separated from each other, but I also really don't remember what happened anymore. My brain tells me it had something to do with one of !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone's mods?