In the News

[rain_gryphon]

New York - can't stop criminals, no money for social services, can't keep the streets repaired, but defame the mayor in graffiti, and a team'll come swarming to paint it over in under 24 hours.

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Apparently having a syringe is illegal in Indiana. Someone needs to tell the drug stores that, as they're happy to sell you one. That's kind of annoying as well. An old ground-glass chromatography syringe is the best thing ever for oiling small parts.

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Interestingly (and perhaps ominously), prior infection with Dengue fever seems to provide some immunity against the Chinese Doom. Apparently a large number of false positive antigen tests are associated with people who've had Dengue as well, so that (oddly enough) the two vira share genetic material, even though there's no apparent evolutionary linkage between the two. I wonder if that's related to the spike? There are probably only a limited number of ways to build a working viral spike.

This is worrying, because Dengue is one of those weird diseases which, if you've had it once and recovered, then have a second attack from a related strain, it can be much worse, as your immune system over-reacts and destroys you. That's why doctors don't like to vaccinate you against it unless you have some reasonable risk of exposure.

On the good side, Dengue is another virus that responds well to hydroxychloroquine and zinc. I'm a great believer in zinc and auto-generated vitamin D anyway.

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Iran's stuff just keeps mysteriously blowing up... They should be more careful!

Comments

[thewayne]

It's interesting. I was in Colorado visiting friends, getting ready to do my weekly antibody infusion, and I'd forgotten to pack the monster needle to load my 60 ml syringe from the small bottles. I called the Walgreens that was about a mile away, described exactly what I needed as I even had the catalog number and exact gauge and length in my iPhone. And he gave me one. He knew it wasn't suitable for drug use/self-injection, the needle isn't sharpened that way. And his sister does home medication for a similar condition, so he was familiar with the equipment that she uses and recognized what I was describing.

A friend of mine is a watch/clockmaker, he uses similar syringes to what you describe for his purposes.

[rain_gryphon]

I had, somehow, the idea that you had to go to a place to have your injections done, although I suppose that would limit your travels.

[thewayne]

My condition was cataloged/formally labeled in the '50s.  Initially the treatment was a gammaglobulin shot in the hip.  It marginally effective, but it was all they had.  And it was hugely painful!  Second generation treatment was intravenous infusion of antibodies and that continues today.  People go into infusion centers for treatment every 3-4 weeks.  It can have pretty severe side-effects, varies by person.  The treatment is not unlike chemotherapy, sitting in a chair for many hours with a needle in your arm.  No thank you! There are other down-sides to the treatment the chief known as Peak/Trough Response.  When you get your treatment, your Immunoglobulin Type-G level (IgG) (the only IG that can be replaced) is screaming high.  Which is good!  It'll fight off nigh anything.  But since the bodies of people like me are not producing antibodies, these imported antibodies are continuously being used and dying off.  By the time your next infusion comes around, your IgG level has dropped into the gutter (especially if you're on a 4-week plan) and you're vulnerable to infection and basically feeling crappy.  Every month you're going through this. I get the 3rd generation (according to FDA rules) treatment: subcutaneous IG infusion (SCIG).  "I" do this treatment, by myself, weekly, wherever I am.  The meds require minimal refrigeration: they're safe up to 85f, so I carry them in a cooler when I travel and refrigerate them when I'm at my parent's house in Phoenix.  I have a mechanical clockwork wind-up pump that holds a 60 ml syringe.  I load up that syringe with my meds, I have a tubing set that splits into four 28(?) gauge 12mm long needles, and I insert them into my abdomen after purging the air out, securing them with Tegaderms.  Thus the subcutaneous.  They don't go into my bloodstream. Because of the subcutaneous aspect, they enter into my body and disperse more slowly.  Because I do this weekly, and because of the slower dispersion, I have a much milder peak/trough response - my highs aren't as high but my lows aren't as low - and my IgG level does not swing as wildly between the day before/after my infusion.  I do sometimes feel a little crappy after my infusions, but I do them Sunday afternoon/evening, and I'm not doing anything else that day except maybe watch TV or play Lord of the Rings Online and go to bed, and I feel fine in the morning.  Each infusion site (needle stick) holds about 15-20 ml of fluid, and they do swell a bit and they are sensitive.  That's the way it is. Over eleven years, I've done this approaching 700 times.  When I was on my first med for 14 months or so, it had a lower gram density of antibodies per carrier solution, so I was on 70 ml or so, and that required two syringes and it hurt!  I hadn't been infusing as long - had just started - and the tissue in my abdomen hadn't stretched, so I was doing two infusions a week: a 30 and a 40 ml.  Now I'm on a higher density med and infusing 65 ml, which one syringe will hold even though it's rated for 60. The beauty of the SCIG method is that it's completely portable.  My wife and I did a seven week/7,000 mile drive in '12 and I had my meds shipped to friends in Colorado and to relatives in Maine.  I also took meds to Europe and infused in our hotel in Berlin and on a ship on the Elbe River, IIRC, moored at Dresden! If you're using IVIG, it's a much trickier proposition as you can't DIY because a nurse must be present and it makes travel a little more fraught.  Technically there is a risk of anaphylactic shock, even with SCIG.  I've got a couple of epi pens with my gear.  Nothing has happened in eleven years, so I doubt anything will unless I have some major changes and complications in my medical profile.

I mentioned 3rd Gen treatment.  The FDA is behind the ball compared to Europe.  They have a new method that's going through the approval process here, but they're not pushing it right now.  It borrows tech used to treat skier's knees where a gel is applied and then very mild electric current is used to change the osmotic coefficient of the skin to get the medicinal gel to penetrate better.  So applied to my treatment, I would end up with a disposable device (perhaps refurbishable by the manufacturer?) that is about the size of a deck of playing cards.  One side has sticky tape on it.  I'd alcohol prep the skin on my abdomen, peel off the sticky tape protective cover, stick it to my abdomen, pull out an activator cord, and go to bed.  And that would be my infusion. In the morning it's done, peel off the device and dispose/recycle/return it. Depending on the dose, I might need more than one device or doing it nightly or more than one night might be required to get the correct dose of meds.  They would come pre-filled from the manufacturer or specialty pharmacy. I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS NEXT GENERATION!  NO MORE NEEDLE STICKS!  No more 3+ hours a week taken out of my schedule!  The actual infusion is about 60-80 minutes, but all the prep, setup, take down it takes quite a bit of time.

I'm not needlephobic, but you get tired of them after a while.  Just for round-number sake, let's say I've done 700 infusions.  4 needles per.  That's a minimum of 2800 needles sticks.  I say minimum because sometimes you stick a needle in and it hurts so you pull it out and move it an eighth of an inch.  Yes, they're small needles.  It doesn't stop them from being needle sticks.

I know this is a lot more info than you were looking for.  It's my life, and I explain things in detail. :-)