A few days ago I was pulled aside after my full body scan at the airport.
It showed up something on my stomach so they wanted to know if I had a belt on. No I didn’t. I lifted my top and pulled down the waist of my trousers. All that was there was my bruise and mark from my Pegasys injection.
She said she still needed to pad me down and that was fine. In the end all good and move on.
Later I was thinking about it and I remembered the same thing had happened some months ago with a previous site of my injection.
My daughter asked me if there was iodine in the Pegasys 🤷♀️ I don’t know tho I wondered if something in it might trigger the scanner?
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Pachena
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Hi Andrew8… I am not a chemist or pharmacist, I simply copied the ingredients from the FDA Data sheet, and didn’t see anything metallic that would set off an airport scanner.
I had a detailed post on the Bes ingredients. My Chem E schooling was a bit helpful. I was seeking whether "preservative free" Besremi had preservatives. Turns out it does, by common sense definition. It is mostly benzyl alcohol. which is common in meds and the source for the strong odor.
Benzyl alcohol is benzene but with one of the carbon locations of the ring having a tail as seen here. This transforms it from a high toxin to a common medicine ingredient.
A more familiar analogy in alcohols is methanol vs ethanol vs isopropyl. The former has one carbon group and is highly poisonous ingested, and is used in low concentrations to "denature" ethyl alcohol (make it toxic) for the common solvent we can buy. Ethanol (enthyl or booze) has two and is not so in normal doses. Isopropyl, rubbing alcohol, has three and is in between, ok to rub not to eat.
The bigger idea is small changes in chemistry can make big changes in effect. I agree, I suspect aromatic (ring shaped) compounds like benzene were a reason for my MPN.
Another much more complex example of a small change making big trouble is v617f, an f is where the v should be and we get our Jak2 type MPN.
Benzyl alcohol is not carcinogenic and does not metabolize to benzene, which is carcinogenic. Benzyl alcohol metabolizes to benzoic acid that, at neutral pH, is principally in the form of benzoate, which has been used safely as a preservative for decades.
Was the scanner flagging the exact area the IFN went in? One thing they look for is unusual difference in density. Maybe the bruise is of very different density from surrounding areas. If you ever get an ultra sound, CAT or MRI in that area it might be interesting to do it right after an injection (if Dr agrees) to see what shows up.
I had lumps at injection site, was sent for CT, will look the result up later The lumps disappeared after less use of injection by massage and hot water bottle, but another one now, being persistant The joys Think it was density mentioned on scan EP
I am so sorry for this inconvenience at airport. We have to remember that Peg is slow realise medicine and it sits on my belly in a form of bruise. I never had that problem at the airport even they scanned me. However, last time which was only last year at the airport I was told official who operate scanners, that some airports have very old type of scanners and they cause problem for lots of people, since they don't work well. Wishing you well.
Yes, when I was having Pegasys weekly I could end up with 6 large pink circles on my tummy highlighting each injection site. However, now I am 3 weekly, I tend to just have the last pink spot hanging around, along with the new site.
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