Fun with Drugs & Needles.

My Neutrophil count is borderline Neutropenia. My Doctor is being cautious. How can one, outside the insurance industry, complain about that? So he gives me the "revolutionary" new drug called Neupogen, developed by Amgen. It's a Recombinant Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor (rG-CSF) derived from E. coli.

So, Correct me if I'm wrong, my Science Geek friends:

I inject myself SubQ and this crap worms its way to my Bone Marrow where it stimulates production of Neutrophils. I might have to look into this. Very neat "trick". Very revolutionary. Wonder what they did before this development. Anybody????

Unfortunately, the syringe SUCKS ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone who has done injections, or seen a syringe, knows what a classical syringe looks like. This ain't it!

It's a 1ml syringe with a 27 gauge needle. it's tiny. I only need .5ml inject. The syringe comes prefilled. The syringe has an obnoxious orange "needle guard" around it. The guard makes the syringe rectangular, not round. Each syring, has the drug information in it, a big fat label. The volume does have to be adjusted, there is air in the syringe. the label and the Guard make it difficult to see anything else. Like to make sure you have no air in the syringe or that the right volume is prepared. you know, the kind of important stuff. All this also makes it difficult to see if you are in a blood vessel before you dose yourself.

One checks for blood by sticking it in and then pulling back on the syringe. No blood, no vessel. No vessel, you can inject.

The guard moves easily. If it moves over the needle and locks then your done and the dose is wasted. I guess this was developed for the mentally challenged that stuck themselves in places they weren't suppossed to. The Syringe plunger seems to have been developed for people with...............hand/coordination difficulties, perhaps?

Overall, If Revolutionary means "Awkward as Hell" then this is one Revolutionary Syringe.

All in all, I would kill for a simple TB needle and a bottle of the drug.

I'm supposed to stick myself in a different place each day (5 days total). I can choose from thighs, abdomen (2 inches from navel), upper butt, back of arms.

First day:Left thigh. No biggy. Hesitated at first but then plunged right in. didn't feel much.
Second day: Right thigh. It sucked! Don't know why but it was more awkward. I know I could do this with a nice, classical syringe. I got it on the 3rd try. Third Day: left side 'o' abdomen. Awkward again but got it on the 1st try, conditionally. I had to hold the syringe while Dani pulled back to see if I hit a vessel.

You know what hurt through all this? Not the sticking. The needle slowly coming out before dose delivery hurt quite a bit. Even the 3rd day, when I slowly inserted the needle into my abdomen, didn't hurt. The Fuck ups hurt. Interesting, no? Might have something to do with muscles tensing up as I realize I'm gonna have to stick myself again.

For my last two doses Dani may have to do it. I mean, If I decide I need to go into Virgin sights. She thinks it'll be no problem. I trust her. Wonder what happens if I deliver it into my blood stream????????