How do you only take part of your Metoject?

[Karen77]

Mmmmkay, so my liver enzymes are quite elevated according to my recent labs (17 in Nov, 35 in Dec, 60 in Jan) and my rheumy has already reduced my Metoject pre-filled syringe from 25mg to 20mg and doesn't want to go as low as 15mg just yet. She wants me to reduce to 17.5mg using the 20mg pre-filled syringe, but how the heck do I do that?? And why oh why doesn't Metoject come in the in-betweeny amounts?!?

For info, I continue to take Humira bi-weekly, 200mg Hydroxy daily, and 5mg Folic Acid 3x/week. I have been off pain meds since mid-Nov and pain free since late Oct. My CRP is 0.6.

[helixhelix]

If it's the syringe, you just stop. I think 20mg will be 4ml of liquid - can't remember but it should say on the packet - so you aim only to inject 3.5ml. When I used to have syringes they had marker lines all the way down the barrel of the syringe so you could see where you are. if you have the pen type then I have no idea how you can stop midway.

But the syringes do come in all the sizes - or they certainly used to because I had 17.5mg. I'm on pens now.

[Karen77 in reply to helixhelix]

Thanks. It's a syringe and there are numbers, I'm just having math difficulties the 20mg is in 2.0 ml, so I guess I just do 1.75 ml? Also not sure if I dump the syringe with leftover meds in the sharps container or squirt it into a napkin or sink...

[helixhelix in reply to Karen77]

Well 1.75ml works for me. As for what you do with the rest, can you ask your pharmacist? But if not, probably safest is to put the syringe containing rest of the contents in your sharps bin.

[Karen77 in reply to helixhelix]

Thanks. I feel silly that I didn't think to talk to the pharmacist straight away. Almost ever conversation with my rheumy leaves me flustered and frustrated - and evidently not thinking clearly! THANK YOU!

[Hidden]

Hi Karen77,

we recently had a meeting with a representative from Medac who make the Metoject pens. The latest information that we have from them says that there is a 17.5ml size pen. I have also looked online and found it. Since the pen is an auto-injector, once the button is pushed, the needle automatically descends to deliver the required amount. From the demonstrations that we had it would seem to be very difficult to do what your doctor has suggested. I think that you should go back and see if they will prescribe you the lower dose pen. I think I can probably guess why they asked you to do it that way though.

regards

Beverley (NRAS Helpline)

[Karen77 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks. I'll ask my rheumy. When she tried to reduce the Metoject from 25 to 22.5, I was told by te pharmacy that they didn't come in that dose and was given empty syringes and vials of mtx that I had to figure out myself, and I'm just not there yet!

Three years ago, when I was diagnosed, if you told me I'd be injecting needles into myself weekly, I'd have thought you were nuts! One of the reasons I chose humira was so I could use a pen and only biweekly!

Thanks!

[Jo58 in reply to Hidden]

I've been on 17.5 for 2 years since switching from tablets to injections.Have been using the new Metoject pen since last Autumn and so can assure you that it is definitely available in 17.5 in UK.Having used the pen for this period I agree that it would be very difficult to dispense less than the full amount.

[Karen77 in reply to Jo58]

Thanks Jo. I'll follow double Helix's suggestion of talking to the pharmacist for now, and when I next see my rheumy I will see about switching from the syringe to the pen.