tapering Interferon-end of treatment

[merryBe]

My pharmacist just called today because she is concerned about my request for 6 syringes.
I explained first that I was coming off of my pegasus with the tapering off method to avoid relaspe and allow the spleen time to come back on line...she was fine with that...

but then called back saying look, we aren't even allowed to mix this drug under a sterile hood...so I'm concerned you dividing one peg syringe into several other containers will open you up to possible contamination or infection.

Ideas here?  I could throw out the extra...but that's going to get spendy when I get down to needing 1/8////
could ask for interfergen...not very familiar with it's use..
chances are either way INS may not approve....she says these are manufacturer standards...
I trust my pharmacist, but is this just the manufacturers way of getting more $$$$

my method for dealing with the 3/4 reduction was to inject 3.4, pull the needle out of my skin, then remove quickly the needle, then and ONLY then, to back the syringe up a smidge, reattach the plug and put back in fridge promptly.
I feel I was very careful in removing the needle, so that no contamination from blood product could have backed up into the syringe....Also I DO NOT try to pull some blood into the syringe like they say to....because I have a very LARGE supply of FAT on my thighs I am not worried at all about hitting a big vein in that mass...

so I think I'm ok so far....but I cannot see how I can get down to 1/4 or 1/8 dose with this method...I need a more accurate sysringe with more delineated meeasurements.

I'm open to any ideas, but hoping to avoid buying 2 more boxes of interferon to complete this process.

mb

[geterdone]

You of all people should know that by drawing for one sterile syringe into another the risk factor is very low or none existent. It is nothing more than drawing from a vial. The last shot you were going to use is the “vial” with a rubber cap just as a vial itself. The only thing that is different is that the rubber cap is thicker. So, if you buy 12 syringes and you only need 6 syringes to complete the taper it leaves you with 6 needles attachments to draw from your last shot. If you were thinking a head, as you were, (its all in the planning mb) you could have saved the caps from previous shots and sterilized them and reused them to replace the caps after each additional draw. The interferon itself would not be contaminated because after each draw with a new needle, a new/reused/sterile cap would replace the now punctured old cap and the refrigeration of all would keep the sterility risk very very low if any. Side note, after you have drawn from the syringe make sure the syringe chamber has no air left in it. Meaning push the plunger until the interferon fills the tip before capping.

geterdone

[merryBe]

thanks for all you remarks....my plan was to draw my last vial into 6 syringe...2 would have 1/4 dose, 4 would have one 1/8...
I had no idea this would be a sterility risk.

As far as HR's reasoning goes, when I taught anatomy...admittedly long ago, there was evidence of glands not coming on line right away when a substance replaced by a drug was withdrawn. Chief amongst these that I knew of were the thyroid and pituitary, which rarely begin to ever function again once they have become dependant on a hormone.
The spleen is not like that, but according to HR it is slow to come back on line.
HR worked in Hapatitis research. He saw thousands of labs, and invented the machine that detects the virus today.
So if anyone has observed how soon the spleen may return to normal, it would be him.

Please read the thread I gave above, where he explains his thinking.

I think one might think of this like going from a hard cast, and a crutch, to an ace bandage and a cane, to finally going to just a supportive shoe as a broken foot is healing...you need some support in the beginning....but eventually will return to full normal strength.
The immune system will have to return to making millions of it's own interferon molecules to fight not just HCV lingerers, but all the other viruses we are exposed to all the time...but because it has not been required to produce this INF on it's own for a year and a half....it just doesn't fire up to full strength all at once....
actually, we are lucky it returns to function at all. Most glands don't, once you need insulin, or thyroid, you are stuck needing it for life...

mb

[geterdone]

LOL! just a sloppy drunk talking nonsense.

geterdone

[geterdone]

I can not really comment either way about the tapering off the interferon or the ribavirin either separately or both together as it is an individual choice to do so. “Most” who did not go this route went on and have indeed achieved SVR, but at what price physically and then there are also many who have not, only to look at another 48 weeks or 72 because of it. I do agree with Jim on one point and that is if you were a slow responder and are going by their doctors treatment plan it may be advantageous to them, just as you did and to bring up and discuss this issue with him or her. It is not for everyone, for there are those who have and have not had any autoimmune problems from tapering that I’m aware of and can not do any more harm to a now toxic system. Unless someone who has tapered off the interferon and or ribavirin and has had the many problems as those here, they are just going by their own silos thinking. Common sense has to play a part in ones treatment plan instead of the heard mentally such has played out here on this site about this topic and it does not matter if there is “NO” present research data. Then again, the medical community, insurance companies and big Parma have no vested interest in the patients out come only that they were svr at the 6 month mark and are considered “CURED”, not!  Until that changes it will be status Quo or until there is some well pumped “new” drug such as on the horizon but even that has interferon and ribavirin attached to it but everyone will buy into it just the same. Some many get to this point but very seldom go over the edge, for it is a good whipping post to get their frustrations out on because of the could have, should have but didn’t follow through only to second guess themselves if treatment should fail. Good Luck!

BTW, HR was one of the greatest researchers to visit this site, but I am sure there are thos who walk upon the water is some eyes, jmo.


geterdone

[lalapple]

bc of natural disaster from last year, i had to have 2 weeks of Pegasys replaced, so Roche sent me vials instead of syringes.  they were more dilute but the same concentration.  

also, i was told that common drugstores sell needles and syringes but you have to ask a pharmacist.

[evangelin]

I can't think of any opinion I'd rather have than HR's.  If I remember correctly, he discussed the whole idea of tapering with St. George who had just relapsed after 72 weeks.  He didn't tell anybody to do it but he thought the idea could have some merit.  
My husband was not expected to ever be well enough to treat again and was basically told to go home and wait until he was bad enough for the transplant list.  (this was at a major teaching hospital that does lots of trials)   HR's "opinion" on safe and possibly helpful supplements put my husband back in the game again .  I wish HR would come back and share more of his "opinions" because Joe has been treating with Alinia in the mix since the first of last June and as of last month, he is still  detectable.  My only comfort at this point is that if he has to stop treatment, we will go back to HR's supplements which helped so much.
My humble opinion is that HR's opinion is very valuable.  I know he isn't God but I personally consider him a genius and I'll be forever grateful that he shared his ideas with us.