No kidding. Has this ever happened to any of you?? I went to inject myself and I accidentally bumped the pen and out sprayed the medicine all over my leg....not in it where of course I wanted it. Now that I have gotten over the part where I say things like @@#$$#@@ and such, I almost think it was hilarious and I just stared at it like I couldn't believe it happened and it was like a surreal scene.. I know that it was my fault so I wont make that mistake again! And that was the last pen I had and tomorrow I will order some more med but in the mean time I am going to be behind and right now my feet are having a hard time of it. I keep having to put large band aids on my feet with the Vanos cream that I use to help heal the splits in my skin etc. Oh well. I went to the beach tonight any way with my kids and just said "meh" and had a good time sore feet and hip soreness and all.
Bummer! I remember getting clumsy with a shot of MTX once and I watched it roll off the chopping board, off the counter and end up with the needle sticking in the linoleum of the kitchen floor vibrating like an arrow hitting a target. Luckily I had another needle but not enough MTX for a new shot so I swabbed the bent needle and squirted it into the (blunt) end of a new syringe. Handling small needles and vials when you have limited control of your hands (for me a big side effect of the disease) is really frustrating at times.
My rheumatologist is really helpful about giving samples if I run out of my biological (which happened once due to a cock up at the specialty pharmacy). I picked up a shot on a Friday afternoon to take on Saturday. Could that be an option? Hang in there and sorry about your feet!
I had an Enbrel shot that just wouldn't fire - no matter what I did with it! Worst thing was I was waiting for approval for the refill.......
So very frustrating but I hope you keep your great approach of having fun at the beach with your kids until you can get the next one :)
It happened to me once with my humira. When I pulled the 2nd cap off, the pen just went off and it sprayed everywhere like a fountain. Always makes me alot more cautious now.
Deanna
Thank you for sharing your story . I could just see the needle stuck there on the kitchen floor.
I dont think my rhumy has bio samples in his office. especially humira as he really wanted me to take Enbrel because he likes it best. My pharmacy insurance said no. we want you to take this drug instead. grrr. I dont like it when my pharmacy seems like a bully. We certainly pay enough for our health insurance. But I will ask my dr. about whether or not he has samples. Its still hard for me to pick it up though cause he is down town and its expensive just to get there and pay parking etc. Downtown city trip is a hassle. Maybe my local Rite Aid pharmacy might help me out in a pinch sometime.
janeatiu said:
Bummer! I remember getting clumsy with a shot of MTX once and I watched it roll off the chopping board, off the counter and end up with the needle sticking in the linoleum of the kitchen floor vibrating like an arrow hitting a target. Luckily I had another needle but not enough MTX for a new shot so I swabbed the bent needle and squirted it into the (blunt) end of a new syringe. Handling small needles and vials when you have limited control of your hands (for me a big side effect of the disease) is really frustrating at times.
My rheumatologist is really helpful about giving samples if I run out of my biological (which happened once due to a cock up at the specialty pharmacy). I picked up a shot on a Friday afternoon to take on Saturday. Could that be an option? Hang in there and sorry about your feet!
Hi Jen . We had a nice eve and night at the beach. It was a warm breeze which is amazing at night here cause its kind of cool here mostly anyway.
Im sorry to hear about your frustration with your needle and the refill situation ....gosh I know what you mean. I will be waiting now for mine to come in the mail til next Tues. but I ll be fine. I am not going to worry about it. I might get a little achy and I gotta stay on top of putting cream on my feet to keep the skin splits and other skin flares down.
Im glad you did not get hurt with your needle while trying to get it to work and hope you dont have anymore problems with your med shots.
Jen said:
I had an Enbrel shot that just wouldn't fire - no matter what I did with it! Worst thing was I was waiting for approval for the refill.......
So very frustrating but I hope you keep your great approach of having fun at the beach with your kids until you can get the next one :)
Stmpmaniac said:
It happened to me once with my humira. When I pulled the 2nd cap off, the pen just went off and it sprayed everywhere like a fountain. Always makes me alot more cautious now.
Deanna
Thanks for sharing Deanna. I hope you do not have anymore fountains of Humira. I dont know about you but my second thought was "there is some money just spraying all over the place." We all know the stuff is not cheap. I hope you have nothing but successful and easy shot from now on. Take care :)
I recently had a fridge malfunction freezing all of my medication, not to mention, everything else in the fridge. Ironically, the fridge had just been 'tested' with a datalogging thermometer. Over a days worth of measurements taken once every minute showed it was working fine ... that was, of course, until I put a full load (4 pens) of humira in there (I take it weekly). Then the thing glitched and drove the temperature from 41F (5C) down to below 10F (-12C). I opened the fridge door and was stunned to find 'humira popsicles'. I was devastated to think that I had managed to destroy 4 injectors.
I called the humira help line & fortunately they replaced the injectors at no charge... what a relief.
So if you have a mishap with a humira pen or syringe, call them. They made $9 billion annually on humira alone. So there is probably room in the budget to send out an occasional replacement.
Good information to know Dandylyons. I don't think it would dawn on me to ask for a replacement if I knew it was my own fault and not theirs. Thank you for this suggestion.
I have not used Humira yet but did have an Enbrel auto injector fail. Earnest thing would not fire. It was like the spring was gone. Contacted my pharmacy who contacted Enbrel and they replaced it. They like to know when things fail as they can not fix what they do not know. I would definitely contact them or have your pharmacy contact them. Depends on how you get it, my drugs all go through my pharmacy.
I had a Enbrel pen fire and not retract. Fun stuff.
Yes, happened with my first one. Luckily I didn't end up missing a dose.
Jay
Mishaps are inevitable. As frustrating as it may be, there is no need to compound that by assigning blame. We have enough to deal with as it is. I think my training as an engineer tends to color my perspective. The key phrase would be 'fault tolerant system'. Treatment with injectable medications that require special handling is a far from optimal way to provide treatment. It is a system that is prone to the occasional mishap. I do not view a prescription for a biologic medication as merely a purchase of an individual injector. In the bigger picture, it is part of a treatment delivery system. Given the cost of these medications it is not practical for any of us to pay for these meds out of pocket. The delivery of treatment needs to be a fault tolerant system because inevitably mishaps or malfunctions will happen. So the important thing to focus on is minimizing or eliminating any interruption of treatment. We as patients have contracted with our insurers, doctors, pharmacies, and the drug companies for treatment. How the individual transactions are structure with copays and authorizations and the like, are all just artificial business constructs. We have the right to expect that an imperfect system should be fault tolerant & provide mechanisms to overcome these occasional glitches... and for the most part it does ... but we need to ask. I will readily admit that I struggle when it comes to asking for help. But I am slowly learning ;)
To frame it another way, if you fell down and broke a bone, you wouldn't hesitate to go seek treatment so as not to suffer further. You do not think, Oh ... it is my fault I fell ... so I should just suffer or tough it out ... or I should pay for this out of my own pocket... because I am to blame. Blame never enters into it.
I would say, that a mishap with an injector is no different. It does not matter how the mishap came about. It only matters that the mishap threatens to interrupt your treatment & cause you avoidable suffering. So if it happens, let go of any guilt, and just call the drug company help line, or call your rheumatologist & get a replacement to get your treatment back on track. I spent unnecessary worry on something that was solved with a simple phone call. Like I said, slowly I learn ...
dandylyons~~ Thank you for sharing and your information is helpful. All such good food for thought. You are right. Drs. and pharmacists are there to take care of us. So far I have found staff that cares for Humira patients to be extremely helpful. Yes, they do make much money from us. We deserve the best care they can give us. I am learning how to ask for help when I need it but I too am a slow learner but I am getting there.
dandlyons said:
Mishaps are inevitable. As frustrating as it may be, there is no need to compound that by assigning blame. We have enough to deal with as it is. I think my training as an engineer tends to color my perspective. The key phrase would be 'fault tolerant system'. Treatment with injectable medications that require special handling is a far from optimal way to provide treatment. It is a system that is prone to the occasional mishap. I do not view a prescription for a biologic medication as merely a purchase of an individual injector. In the bigger picture, it is part of a treatment delivery system. Given the cost of these medications it is not practical for any of us to pay for these meds out of pocket. The delivery of treatment needs to be a fault tolerant system because inevitably mishaps or malfunctions will happen. So the important thing to focus on is minimizing or eliminating any interruption of treatment. We as patients have contracted with our insurers, doctors, pharmacies, and the drug companies for treatment. How the individual transactions are structure with copays and authorizations and the like, are all just artificial business constructs. We have the right to expect that an imperfect system should be fault tolerant & provide mechanisms to overcome these occasional glitches... and for the most part it does ... but we need to ask. I will readily admit that I struggle when it comes to asking for help. But I am slowly learning ;)
To frame it another way, if you fell down and broke a bone, you wouldn't hesitate to go seek treatment so as not to suffer further. You do not think, Oh ... it is my fault I fell ... so I should just suffer or tough it out ... or I should pay for this out of my own pocket... because I am to blame. Blame never enters into it.
I would say, that a mishap with an injector is no different. It does not matter how the mishap came about. It only matters that the mishap threatens to interrupt your treatment & cause you avoidable suffering. So if it happens, let go of any guilt, and just call the drug company help line, or call your rheumatologist & get a replacement to get your treatment back on track. I spent unnecessary worry on something that was solved with a simple phone call. Like I said, slowly I learn ...