Posted by Q (198.64.206.92) on September 07, 2000 at 13:51:30:
In Reply to: If you missed Monica Hall's messages below... posted by Bennie Sue on September 07, 2000 at 12:48:35:
I keep asking my pharmacist and doctor about the vials, as I clearly remember that Glaxo offered that packaging at least early on in, in say 1992.
I have found that 1/3rd to 1/4th of a 6ml statdose injection is entirely sufficient to knock out a CH attack. If I believe that I will have a subsequent attack within 12 hours I will follow the injection with a 50 mg tablet. How do you know if an abortive prevented a future attack? This method seems to work but is of course expensive.
I have found that the rubber stopper in the statdose injector is threaded and is in-fact the same stopper used in the "old-style" statdose injectors. I had a few of the "plungers" from the old-style kit and now use them to "push and pull" the stopper in the new statdose kit. I imagine that you could go to the hardware store and get a machine bolt to do the same thing.
The major complaint that I have with this partial-dose multiple-use of the statdose injector is that the needle looses its sharpness with each use. That causes the needle to be more difficult to use each subsequent time. By the third time it is somewhat painful due to the dullness of the point.
The bottom line is that, with me, the alternative dose and delivery system is appropriate.
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As an aside, I have wondered if a compounding pharmacist could convert the 50 mg tablets into injectable doses. This should not be too difficult and would seem to be MUCH more cost effective for frequent users, such as the chronic CH seem to be.
Any pharmacy students have ideas about this?