How do you actually read a protocol if you've never pinned before

Question

Ok so i've been lurking for a while and i'm finally getting brave enough to ask some dumb stuff. I've never injected anything in my life and the protocol pages still kinda read like a foreign language to me. Like i get the idea of the stacks looked up the glow and wolverine ones, but when it says "500mcg bpc-157 daily" i don't really know what that means in real life terms. How do you figure out how much liquid to draw up? Do people just use insulin syringes? And where do you even inject something like tb-500 subq, stomach fat only or other spots too. The reconstitution math with bacteriostatic water makes my head spin a bit. Also kinda nervous about the first stick honestly. Any tips for someone who's squeamish about needles, like specific spots that hurt less or is that just a myth. Not trying to rush into anything, just wanna understand what i'm reading before i pull the trigger on a stack.

fasted_scientist · Accepted Answer

Ngl this is a fair question and you're not dumb for asking, the dosing language is genuinely confusing until you've done it once. Quick rundown since i remember being where you are. Most research compounds come as a lyophilised powder in a vial a small glass bottle with a rubber stopper. You add bacteriostatic water into the vial to dissolve it that's "reconstitution", then draw the resulting solution into an insulin syringe. Insulin syringes are standard because they're marked in units 30 or 50 unit syringes, where each unit = 0.01ml. The math: say the vial is 5mg of BPC-157 and you add 2ml of bac water. That gives you 2.5mg per ml, or 250mcg per 0.1ml on the syringe. For a 500mcg dose you'd draw to 0.2ml. That's it really, just divide total mg by the ml of water you added. For subq, stomach fat works but you can also use love handles or upper glute. Pinch the skin, go in at 45 degrees. Honestly the first one is the worst in your head, after that it's a non-event. Probably worth chatt

engineer_midwest · Answer

Yeah the unit/ml thing trips up almost everyone at first, no? Once you see it on the syringe in front of you it clicks though. I would just add: a little 1ml syringe is way easier to handle than the bigger ones, especially when the dose is small. You don't want to be fumbling with air bubbles in a tiny vial, trust me 🤓

recovery_frugal · Answer

Yeah the 1ml syringes make sense, that's actually super helpful cause i was picturing something way bigger in my head. Quick question though, what do you mean by "see it on the syringe", like the markings actually tell you units and not just ml? Cause some of the ones i've been looking at online have both and i get confused which one to follow for mcg dosing.

recovery_frugal · Answer

Yeah that actually clears up a lot, the units vs ml thing was where i kept getting lost. So if i'm doing 500mcg of bpc-157 a day and i reconstitute a 5mg vial with 2ml of bac water, that's 2500mcg per ml right. So 500mcg would be 0.2ml or 20 units on the syringe?

How do you actually read a protocol if you've never pinned before

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