Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Instructions to retrieve overage in Gonal-f Pen

FIRST-I am NOT a medical professional--this is just how I do it and others will likely have better ideas!

I try to get pens in small doses (like 300) b/c then I get more overage b/c there's some in each pen instead of the overage in one 900 pen.

I use the pen until it would not let me dial any more doses (when you pull back the plunger it doesn't click), but you will still be able to see liquid in the pen.

Open a new syringe (like you use for Lupron, diabetic)

Insert the needle into the gray top of the pen (without the tip on it.)

Draw back on the needle until you have all of the liquid in the syringe.
{In my limited experience (I've done 3) each pen has about 150iu in it, which will take your syringe up to the 25 mark.}

The 25 mark on the diabetic needle is 150IU of gonal-f; the 50 mark (full) is 300IU.

I also do not 'prime the pen' as per the instructions. I dial 37.5 and the just barely push the plunger to see if liquid appears on the tip of the needle. If there is no liquid, push a little harder, if there is still no liquid push till it clicks and start again. I have only had to push it all the way in 2x in 4 cycles of meds. This saves what you would've used in the priming.

NOTE : I am only sure on the conversion for gonal-f. It is 1:6. If you take something different call a specialty pharmacy like BioScript or Scraff's for the conversion.

The three I have done have saved me $360.00 in meds!!! WOO HOO

Amy

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As Martha Stewart would say: "And that's a good thing"!!!

Thanks for sharing!
Best of luck

Anna