This segues out of the previous post on Peg needle guards. I have had nothing but grief from the prefilled syringes for the past 42 weeks. Over here in NZ we use ones with a red plunger and a clear needle guard.
There is always a significant amount left over after each shot. And yes, I depress fully, and I leave it in situ for 10 secs before I withdraw the needle to prevent leakage from injection spot.
I brought this up once before and had two conflicting opinions presented to me. 1: There is extra added to compensate for the plunger mechanism. 2. There is exactly the amount you need in each one. Huh? Clearly, no one really knows.
I also checked with my NP and she seemed to think there was extra included.
Anyway, since tx has brought the OCD out in me I decided to run an experiment. I got all my 'left overs' and syringed them back into one syringe. It took me 16 shots worth of left overs to get a full syringe. Over the course of 48 weeks, that equals 3 extra 180mcg shots. Or 3 less shots, depending on which way you look at it.
It equals about 8 drops per syringe but each syringe only 0.5ml. So approx 8 drops is A LOT!
I would like to think this is extra but who really knows, maybe I'm 3 shots down. And I wish I had figured this out earlier as I could have saved the extra in the fridge and used it to taper down at EOT.
Any thoughts or experiences?
Thanks, Epi.