Theoretically my 10 mL (200 mg/mL) vial should yield 20 doses at .5 CC. It looks like I’m going to come up ~3 doses short. I’ve been measuring exactly to .5 CC every dose. What I found is that I’m losing about .1 CC in the needle cavity. BD makes their Integra series which minimizes waste like that but it will cost more to purchase them than I’m losing in T.
Is there anyway to minimize the waste?
Are you using insulin needles? Not a lot of room for waste in the tips of those.
Otherwise, this is just a cost of doing business.
Yep. I’m sure I lose some in the needle, but have 2cc bottles of the stuff (sucks, will have to change that). I get my two doses out of there, with a little waste from the needles and the dregs in the bottle I can’t get.
My dose is 1cc, so it’s a bit easier to measure.
Are you using 3cc syringes or something that is easier to be accurate with (especially with 0.5cc doses!)?
What sort of cave man needle is involved? Hopefully finer than, say, 27G.
I’ve been using 3 CC syringes with 23G 1.5" needles (what was included from the compounding pharmacy). I have ordered BD Integra syringes which are designed to minimize medication waste. I should recover 2-3 doses with these syringes on the next 10 mL vial.
Thanks for the replies guys! I’ll update this post with how the new syringes do as I get to the end of the next vial.
Bottles usually contain a little more fluid than their labeled capacity. I usually end up with about .2CC - .3CC extra when I’m at the bottom of the vial. I use Nipro brand 25g 1" syringes and I draw with 18g needles, making sure to draw back the fluid before switching needles. I get Watson Brand Testosterone Cypionate. I don’t get how you can lose 1.5CC of fluid. That is a ton of waste!
[quote]TSloper wrote:
I’ve been using 3 CC syringes with 23G 1.5" needles (what was included from the compounding pharmacy). I have ordered BD Integra syringes which are designed to minimize medication waste. I should recover 2-3 doses with these syringes on the next 10 mL vial.
Thanks for the replies guys! I’ll update this post with how the new syringes do as I get to the end of the next vial.
[/quote]
You inject TRT with a 1.5" 23 gauge out of a 3 cc barrel? lol…wow
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
[quote]TSloper wrote:
I’ve been using 3 CC syringes with 23G 1.5" needles (what was included from the compounding pharmacy). I have ordered BD Integra syringes which are designed to minimize medication waste. I should recover 2-3 doses with these syringes on the next 10 mL vial.
Thanks for the replies guys! I’ll update this post with how the new syringes do as I get to the end of the next vial.
[/quote]
You inject TRT with a 1.5" 23 gauge out of a 3 cc barrel? lol…wow[/quote]
lol. That’s what I had. Talked the compounding pharmacy into 29G. Used the last rock banger one this last injection, looking forward to the smaller ones.
When I first started with the big ones, it seemed they sank in through the skin within reason… but recently I’ve had to haul off and punch them in (else it’s like getting through elephant hide).
I just did my injection today and noticed that .06ml, or 12 mg, gets wasted with my 27g 1" needle on a 1cc barrel. The 29g slin pins I use for my HCG look to waste next to nothing, and I will have my doctor write the next script for the slin pins for the test injections as well.
Unfortunately as far as I know in California you need a prescription for needles making just ordering online through a diabetes supply house a no go without the doctor sending them the prescription, otherwise I’d order up the slin pins and dump the 27g.
I’m very surprised you needa script for slin pins in Cali…I figured they are very liberal as far as that oes…try going to your pharmacy and asking htem…if you bring your T bottle with you, it may help (some pharmacies around here require the bottle as “proof”, others dont…it is company dependent and certainly not the law).
VTBalla34, as I said this was my first go around with injections at all. I used what was supplied. The 23G needle doesn’t bother me one bit. My quad injections are pain free and the oil goes in smoothly without having to use much pressure on the syringe. The only issue for me was the waste factor. I did order the Integras at 23G 1" though as well as 18G fill needles.
Ptownmike, Thanks for the datapoint on the 27G / 1CC. As you found even on the smaller gauge needle and lower volume syringe the waste can be considerable if you are doing 2x/wk injections.
Here’s a link to BD’s chart on the Integras…
http://fluready.mckesson.com/resources/vaccines/BD_Integra.pdf
Tim
“Unfortunately as far as I know in California you need a prescription for needles making just ordering online through a diabetes supply house a no go without the doctor sending them the prescription, otherwise I’d order up the slin pins and dump the 27g.”
You don’t need a script for needles in CA. The law is that the pharmacy has to ask you if you’re going to use them for medical reasons and you have to say “yes”. But that said, nearly every pharmacy (at least here in the Bay Area) still requires prescriptions even though they aren’t required by law to. Covering their ass or something. My compounding pharmacy where I get my hCG has always offered syringes even though I don’t have a script for them, but I order all my stuff online in bulk anyway.
I don’t know what “slin pins” are, but I get all my syringes from http://www.healthwarehouse.com They have the 25gX1" I use for IM, and the 29gX0.5" I use for hCG. It’s funny, when you go to add syringes to your cart you have this question pop up: “I will be using these syringes for: A) Insulin Use; B) For Prescribed Medication; C) For Pet Use; D) Non-Medical Use”. How many people pick D?
Are “slin pins” just high-gauge needles? Or are they a specific brand or thing?
Slin pins = street name for insulin syringes
Tsloper: I understand that is why you ended up with the 23 gauge one and a half inch (holy shit that hurts me just typing it) but now that you know better, you should certainly consider other options…
I have found 28 gauge half inch needle, 0.5 mL barrel insulin syringes (from BD) to be the absolute best for TRT purposes. They cause very little damage to the muscle tissue, injection times are quick, and they are nearly pain free. Only drawback is it takes a while to load them (couple minutes for 0.5 mL)…I usually just hang mine upside down in my toothrbush holder before getting into the shower and by the time I get it its ready to go.
[quote]ctastrophe wrote:
“Unfortunately as far as I know in California you need a prescription for needles making just ordering online through a diabetes supply house a no go without the doctor sending them the prescription, otherwise I’d order up the slin pins and dump the 27g.”
You don’t need a script for needles in CA. The law is that the pharmacy has to ask you if you’re going to use them for medical reasons and you have to say “yes”. But that said, nearly every pharmacy (at least here in the Bay Area) still requires prescriptions even though they aren’t required by law to. Covering their ass or something. My compounding pharmacy where I get my hCG has always offered syringes even though I don’t have a script for them, but I order all my stuff online in bulk anyway.
I don’t know what “slin pins” are, but I get all my syringes from http://www.healthwarehouse.com They have the 25gX1" I use for IM, and the 29gX0.5" I use for hCG. It’s funny, when you go to add syringes to your cart you have this question pop up: “I will be using these syringes for: A) Insulin Use; B) For Prescribed Medication; C) For Pet Use; D) Non-Medical Use”. How many people pick D?
Are “slin pins” just high-gauge needles? Or are they a specific brand or thing?[/quote]
VTBalla answered the Slin Pin question. I’ll try your online source. I’m in the Bay Area as well and I guess it’s just Pharmacy policy to not sell needles without a prescription.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Slin pins = street name for insulin syringes
Tsloper: I understand that is why you ended up with the 23 gauge one and a half inch (holy shit that hurts me just typing it) but now that you know better, you should certainly consider other options…
I have found 28 gauge half inch needle, 0.5 mL barrel insulin syringes (from BD) to be the absolute best for TRT purposes. They cause very little damage to the muscle tissue, injection times are quick, and they are nearly pain free. Only drawback is it takes a while to load them (couple minutes for 0.5 mL)…I usually just hang mine upside down in my toothrbush holder before getting into the shower and by the time I get it its ready to go.[/quote]
It took a while to load my 29g .5" needle with .25ml when I tried it. That sounds like a good idea to hang the needle to load when you hop in the shower. I injected that slin pin shot into my delt, but my legs are probably lean enough to hit muscle with a half inch needle. The 27g 1" seem to go IM in under a half inch on my outer thigh and the tear drop looks like it is another spot that would work.
I’m using 25g 1.5 inch needles that don’t bother me, but smaller would always be better. On the slin pins, can you load the syringe with a larger needle and then put the small one back on for the injection? I load the syringe now with an 18 guage needle then switch it out.
Also, I keep freakin out that I’m not getting all the air out of the needle before I inject. The insurance company will only allow me to get 2 vials a month of the 1 ml test cyp. and its hard not to draw in air when im loading them. In case I don’t get all the air out, is there some severe consequences like an air bubble to the brain or something?
Be sure to expel the air before injecting…it is definitely not a good thing in the case that you may nick a vein, but I understand the risks to be small (espeically with slin pins)
Unfortunately slin pins don’t have a removable needle. You are stuck with what you’ve got. There is no worry with drawing it though–the needle is still plenty sharp after a trip through the plunger. I honestly use mine for 3-4 injections sometimes before disposing of it.
Many will pull a bit if air into the barrel. When they inject, small amount of air pushes out a lot of the T what would other wise be wasted. That is what used to be practice for gear injection when I was heavily reading 7 years ago.
I have been injecting with #29 0.5ml 1/2" insulin pins for years. Injecting SC, avoiding a lifetime of IM tissue damage.
Been using 3 cc syringes and 21 gauge needles. I got 9 1/2 cc doses out of a 5 cc bottle. Looks like there would be a better way than wasting 10%.
what i do after my injection flag it back and you can see the test that sitting in there …just pull off the used end and put a fresh needle on the end and use it the next time and no waste.
Cant believe nobody here knows how to minimize gear lost in needle.
what you need to do and this will only work if you are doing quads or somebody is giving you shot in glute because you have to be lying down in order for needle to be vertical.
when you draw from vial and take needle out draw some air in too. ammount of air you will suck inn is determined by how much gear you think you are loosing.
when you have air in syringe tap it to the plunger side of the syringe not the needle side and make sure it stays there (that is achieved by always holding syringe vertical with the needle pointing down. what this will do is when you are doing your shoot the air that will come to needle last will push the rest of juice out so air will take its place in needle and juice will be in your muscle. And dont say but what if i have to much air and I push it in my muscle because small ammounts of air like that realy wont hurt you…