ORLANDO, Fla. – Patients administering medicine through self-injection have a new training option in Orlando.
Four-year-old Aniyah Jackson has grown accustomed to her daily shots, but it wasn't until her 20-month checkup that her family learned Aniyah was born with Turner syndrome.
"At 20 months she was wearing, like, eight-month clothes, so she was itty bitty," said Anne Marie Jackson, her mother.
An Army wife and mother of four, Jackson has been giving her daughter growth hormone shots once a day for about a year and a half. She said it's part of the routine now, but initially she wasn't on board.
"I thought, 'How am I going to do that? I can't even take my kids for a flu shot without a battle,'" Jackson said.
The decision was made after Jackson learned from the family pediatrician that, over time, girls with Turner syndrome typically experience anxiety, are unable to have children and reach a height of 4 feet 6 inches.
She admitted that giving the shots was a challenge and said teaching her husband and the grandparents how to use the autoinjectors was an added stress.
Joe Reynolds, the research manager for a company in Orlando called Noble, rolled out a new line of autoinjector training devices for families like the Jacksons.
"It talks patients through the injection experience," Reynolds said.
The goal is to provide a better experience for patients who need to build confidence and muscle memory with their self-injections.
The training includes patients who need insulin injections, learn to use EpiPens, or, like in Jackson's case, kids who will one day learn to administer medicines to themselves.
"I think a device to teach them, so they're not anxious about it, would be amazing," Jackson said.