Didn't have a chance to write up a detailed post, either on a fruit or the topic I was originally thinking about. I think they're neat and they taste good.
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looking for subq injection supply recommendations. i've got (luer-lock btw) syringes that are alright but i cannot for the life of me find a decent 27g 5/8ths inch needle that doesn't end up wasting more E than i'd like.
e: thank you everyone.
i'll definitely look into airlocking it, and if that doesn't work then fixed needle it is.
just go for fixed needle syringes, much much lower deadspace (needle switching is generally unnecessary anyway)
You could use the airlock technique. That's what I use with my luer-slip syringes (and other people I know also use that technique). Once you've drawn your desired amount of E, withdraw it from the vial, point the needle up, pull the plunger to draw around 0,2 mL of air in, switch needles now if you want to use a different needle for injecting, and now point the needle downwards and let the air accumulate as a single bubble at the top with the plunger. It is now ready to inject. Inject the E together with the air (E first, then the air). What happens is that once all E has been injected, the air in the syringe will push all the E that's stuck in deadspace out, so the loss from deadspace is reduced.
Before you panic with the idea of injecting air, know that small amounts of air like the one mentioned are perfectly fine to be injected SQ or IM (I think you can theoretically also inject a whole mL and be fine). But absolutely do not inject any bubbles when administering substances intravenously though.
Note that you may want to adjust your dose now, as you will now be injecting more E than you did before.
Your body can absorb a certain amount of air but the bigger problem with it is it usually hurts more for not much benefit. Technically you're giving yourself subcutaneous emphysema but it's really not a big deal if its a couple mls and you only inject once a week or whatever. The amount you "lose" in the needle is negligible, just think of how tiny the volume is with that gauge of a needle times it's length - it's essentially nothing. A 27 g needle is like a fifth of a mm for its inner diameter. The benefit of squeezing out that little bit of E vs the risk of harm and the actual pain it'll likely cause is just not worth it. But if that's your practice and it works for you and you don't mind the pain, go for it.
You can technically inject a small amount of bubble IV cause your body will absorb a tiny embolism like that - but at work, if I do a couple bubbles, someone else does, som other people do - it adds up. I stick with a no bubble tolerance for IV and IM injections as well.
I didn't know the air lock thing had a name but that's how I do it at work and for myself! Except I clear the syringe of air after switching needles lol.
(it refers to the act of injecting air after the substance, not the act of clearing deadspace when switching needles)
I think it is called airlocking because one of its uses is to prevent the liquid from escaping through the tunnel made by the syringe, but I don't really see a difference in leakage (perhaps it's an IM thing) and just mainly use it because I like the idea of avoiding loss from deadspace.
I may be mistaken, but isn't most deadspace not from the metallic part of the needle?
With the syringes I use, according to the diagram, a third of the E drawn would be lost to deadspace with 0,1 mL injections. That to me sounds like a significant fraction.
If you can't find a syringe that fits the bill, there's one hack you could use. Let's say you're trying to inject .1 mL of E medicated oil.
First, obtain a vial of sterile oil of some sort. You want a sterile vial with an injection port that contains sterile oil inside. (Ideally, this would be the same oil as whatever is used as the carrier oil for your medication.)
When giving yourself a shot, first draw .5 mL of the plain sterile oil. Next, draw .1 mL of your E medication. You now have a syringe that has .1 mL of E oil sitting on top of .5 mL of sterile filler oil.
Inject yourself with the syringe. The E oil will be entirely injected, and all the dead space inside the syringe and needle will be filled with the dummy oil. You'll inject yourself with the full amount of E oil and a little bit of dummy oil.
I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work. Finding sterile oil vials could be tricky, but it's probably doable. Sterile vials of bacteriostatic water are a lot easier to find, but I'm not sure if that would cause problems with the differential density between the oil and the water. The oil would want to float to the top of the column (though this may not occur in the time it takes to draw and inject.) While this would be fine with drawing (oil on top, water on bottom), when you invert the syringe to inject downwards, the oil and water would want to switch places. You could try to inject yourself with the needle pointed upward, but that would be a bit of a feat of contortion. Though, if you're injecting into the top surface of your thigh, I suppose you could lay stomach side down between two chairs, with your thigh exposed in the gap in between. It would be a minor feat of contortion, but it wouldn't be too hard.
I would suggest trying to find vials of sterile oil. If you can't, sacrifice a syringe to science and experiment. Try drawing some ordinary tap water and some olive or other oil into a syringe. First draw some tap water into the syringe, then draw some olive oil. See if the system is viscous enough that the oil will stay on the needle end of the syringe even if inverted. If this works, then you should be able to do this dual layer technique even with more easily obtainable vials of bacteriostatic water. Obviously don't inject yourself with this experimental syringe.
Some dead space in your needles is inevitable. But there's nothing that says that your actual medication needs to occupy that dead space.
EDIT: disregard this. Try the airlock method instead. https://old.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers/comments/yv37fy/estradiol_dropped_by_200_pgml_after_switching_to/iweyuva/?context=3
if youre injecting 0.1mL of E then you would want like 0.05mL or less for that... not 0.5mL. also you can just use air, you dont need some second oil (and a second oil is a bad idea because they will mix) airlocking is extremely common and completely safe. this "hack" is just.... bad advice
this would just be diluting the medication, bad idea
oil floats on top of water, this wouldnt work
just no
Yeah, the airlock method seems to be the way to go. For details, here's a description: https://old.reddit.com/r/DrWillPowers/comments/yv37fy/estradiol_dropped_by_200_pgml_after_switching_to/iweyuva/?context=3
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