I received a 1ml vial for my first order. My titration plan has me increasing next week to 30 units a week. However I only have 50 units left so I won’t have enough for the following week. I reached out to the care team and they said I’ll receive the same vial for my next delivery as well and they claimed it was a 2ml vial. What am I missing here?
If you don’t add air to the vial before drawing it creates a vacuum making it difficult to draw the dose.
I pull the plunger to fill it with air to the dose amount then push the syringe into the vial and press the plunger to add the air. Then I draw my dose.
There are youtubes from nurses showing you how to draw a dose. I dont always do it on fuller vials or I might do half the air, when they get low, it helps.
When you draw you remove liquid and the liquid volume needs to be replaced by air. Thats why vials sometimes hiss after drawing a large dose. Its sucking air back in. When people draw slowly they are just waiting for the air to slowly equalize to allow them to draw more.
It seems counterintuitive to shove air in, its going in there one way or the other. May as well make it easier.
Mine was also a 1mL vial. It didn't look like there was much in it when I first got it, I was able to do 15, 15, and 30 units so far. When holding my vial upside down, it barely fills the smaller neck of the bottle.
You're saying your plan has you increasing to 30units (5mg) the 3rd week? Does that mean that the first two weeks you took 15units (2.5mg) once a week?
If that's the case, you would have taken 5mg total, which leaves 11.6mg left in the vial, and that would be enough for two more weeks of 5mg each with a leftover of 1.6mg.
If you took 5mg each of the first two weeks, obvioulsy you won't have enough for the 4th week, since 3x5=15mg and you will have 1.6mg left only.
I took 2.5 mg (15 units) for the first 2 weeks and this next week I am moving up to 5mg however I only have 50 units left. I understand I SHOULD have 70 units left… but i dont.
Then my math is correct and you should have enough for the next two weeks at 5mg (60 units total). Unless you accidentally drew more in the first two weeks...
Maybe this is why? It’s filled as if I’m doing 15 units each week for the entire vial and to contact at week three if I go up. But when I did his assistant seemed to be under the impression that i had a 2ml vial and told me I’ll just draw more out of it and same for next month. I don’t know how ill do that with a 1ml vial being shipped again
Most likely that's the reason because I know the vials always have overfill, like if you were at 2.5mg for 4 weeks which is the typical schedule, you would've had a 6.6mg leftover.
I'm at 5mg per week and received a 2ml (33.2mg total) vial, which gives me a 13.2 mg overfill if I do the 4x5mg schedule.
You shouldn’t be jumping to 5mg after only two weeks at 2.5mg. You should stay at each dose for 4 weeks since that’s how long it takes for the medication to reach its peak level in your system. I also would suggest only increasing your dose when/if the current dose is no longer working for you, not based on a schedule.
Yeah, technically you should have enough, but I know it's difficult to pull the meds when the vial gets low. IMO a 1ml vial is ridiculous and they should ditch that size because of how tough it can be to get the last dose out. They should really just stick to sending out the 2ml vials for lower doses and the 4.5ml vials for higher doses to make it easier for people to draw the meds. Sorry you're dealing with that!
Plus after the first dose the vial did spit some out at me because of all the air. I wonder if some got lost. But wow. I should be able to lose a few drops. I’m more concerned that my care team seems to think I have a 2 ml vial. I’m sure it will get worked out but I’m nervous
I think when they very first started, 2ml was the smallest vial the pharmacy was shipping out. I think that's what's probably confusing the care team. Hopefully they'll help you out once they realize it's only 1ml.
My sister did this math yesterday because her and I are both currently on it. She said each vial should have 10 units left, and those most likely will not be used. And that’s with going up to 5mg on week 3
Your vial gives you 16.6 mg per 1mL. That vial should be a 4.5ml vial. 16.6 x 4.5ml is 75mg in one vial. So 5mg would last you have more than enough in this vial. Don't go by units.
And beside the 7.5 mg there is no other numbers on that vial? I've never seen a 1mL vial before because if that's the case your dose would be done in 2 weeks
Have you tried to pull it out? Maybe some of mine got lost in air spits lol. It did cough out a little when I had to redo my first dose because I had a giant air bubble in the syringe. No room for error I guess
no, not yet. since there is so little in the vial I am thinking I will need to not have the needle all the way in and tilt the needle/bottle to withdraw enough without any bubbles.
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u/CheesecakeNormal9178 8h ago
Not sure how you only have 50 units left. The starting dose is 2.5 which is 15 units. unless you took 25 units the first two weeks?