Help with Pegasys dose, Shot #11

Help!!  I messed up tonight and am not sure how much I injected.  I was supposed to do 135 mg tonight.  What I forgot to do was push off the extra medicine before I started.  By the time I did my injection, I pushed the plunger all the way up to 90, before I realized it.  I left the rest of the medicine in the syringe and put it back in the fridge because I didn't know what to do.  Did I inject to little or too much?? (I am no good at numbers when I am freaked out)  The marks on the syringe are:

180
135
90

The syringe comes filled past the 180 mark.

[JasmineT]

Bee, I went and took a look at one of mine.  There is extra med in the syringe.  There is also air.  It looks to me that the combination of air and meds takes up enough space to equal another 90, about half of that is air. So 90 + 45 is 135.  I think you are pretty closet to 135 and may wish to stay with what you did or call the pharmacist to double check.

[scoleman]

You got 90 mg and need to inject 45 mg.  

Take care, Sherry

[BigDaddy_59]

I use the dry but if I had to say:
You probably underdosed.
Look at another unused syringe and estimate how much is in it.
How far is it filled past 180? this will be your starting number.
Then subtract the 90 that is left and that is the dose you gave yourself and it will tell you how much more you will have to give yourself.
Say you estimate there is 185 in the syringe, then
185 -
90
----------
95 would be the dose you gave yourself
you would need to give yourself 40 more  95 = 40 = 135 (mcg not mg)

I am sure you didn't overdose if you stopped at 90.

here is the website for Pegasys: http://www.gene.com/gene/products/information/pegasys/pdf/pi.pdf

Someone else who uses the pre-filled have some input on this as well?

Hope this helps and remeber to breathe - ahhhhhhh

Chris

[BigDaddy_59]

Yeah, what Sherry said!

[Livinontheedge]

Bee you have 45 more to use that half of the 90 thats left in the syringe.   It will be ok, just do it !   and it will be perfect  

180-90=90      So 90 +45 = 135  

[beeblessed]

Thank you both.  I am still not sure.  I did take the syringe out and look at it again.  It seems to me that the excess medicine is about the same distance from the 180 mark, as the med is from the 90 mark to the end of the syringe.  I think I injected too much.  But I am so confused.  Thanks for your input.

[JasmineT]

Bee, I went and took a look at one of mine.  There is extra med in the syringe.  There is also air.  It looks to me that the combination of air and meds takes up enough space to equal another 90, about half of that is air. So 90 + 45 is 135.  I think you are pretty closet to 135 and may wish to stay with what you did or call the pharmacist to double check.

[JasmineT]

Little over half is air but the air is probably still in there too so still think you are ok.

[frijole]

Bee
It sounds to me like you still need another 45mg.  I would redose today and push the plunger in to the 45 mark.  It is not going to hurt if you do too much, but I sure would not want to underdose (I am paranoid that way).  It will also not hurt that you are splitting your dose into two parts.

I can understand the confusion.  I use the Redipen and did shot 12 last night without the instructions out and I messed up a couple of the steps.  Evertime I think I know what i am doing, I wish I had followed the instructions again.

I hope today is a calm one
frijole

[flcyclist]

My preloaded syringes have a needle tip that twists on/off.  I'd replace with a new needle tip prior to re-injecting the remaining amount (45?).  Hopefully yours is the same.  

It's too bad they provide a preloaded syringe with 180 mg and 45 mg of this expensive medication goes unused.  Considering the cost, I don't understand why they can't provide you the proper dosage, rather than just squirt it out.  For every three 180 mg syringes, you would have enough left over for the fourth shot.  Seems like a waste.

[beeblessed]

Good morning and thank you everyone!

Sherry -- Thanks so much for your message.  I am going to have to page my nurse, as much as I hate to do that on a holiday/weekend.  Not sure if the specialty pharmacy is open on the weekends, but I guess I can call my regular pharmacy and see what they think too.

Thanks so much everyone.  I am inclined to agree with Jasmine.  My dilemma is this......I started out (week 1) on a full dose.  Once I became Anemic to the point I needed a transfusion, I was dose reduced.  Last night was the beginning of my dose increase.  My worry is that if I took too much, it may drop me right back into Anemia.  If I took too little, I do not have extra needles to reinject.  Where would I even get 'extra' needles anyway?  Thank you all for your help.

[scoleman]

My local pharmacy has needles.  I would take one of mine in and have them pick out one that's the same.  You could use one you have on hand and go to the pharmacy later for an additional needle.

Sherry

[beeblessed]

Yeah, I wondered about the expense of wasted medicine too.  But this is the first time in life I have ever done injections, and I wondered if other medications were set up the same way, with a little extra.  I'm sure there's some medical logic behind it but I dunno.

I don't like being confused, can you tell?  LOL.  But I am just not 100 percent convinced, either way, so I'm gonna bite the bullet and page my nurse.  And this time, I WILL send her flowers or something.  She has helped me through this so much already.

Thanks again for your input!

[beeblessed]

Oh, thanks Sherry!

[beeblessed]

Just got off the phone with my nurse. You guys were right!!  Since I did Not 'prime' the needle, she thinks I injected a bit more than 90, somewhere between 90 and 135.  So I'm good.  Next week will certainly be better.  I'm breathing/exhaling now (thanks BigDaddy).

I also told her I was a bit more distracted than usual because my Aunt just had a stroke and I went to see her last night.  So even though I thought I was doing my shot as usual, I missed the 'prime' step.

Once again.........you guys rock.

[scoleman]

I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt.  I'm glad you got to spend some time with her.  

Sherry

[FrontRangeMom]

All: the Pegasys syringe is a single dose unit, not multidose. Once you have removed the gray cap off the syringe, no matter how carefully you have handled it, you may have introduced some contamination. Do not use any drug leftover in that syringe, even with a new needle.