Re: 10/13 Jack: nano-dosing
I think everything less than 0.1u is not a micro-injection anymore - but a "Nano-Injection!" He actually got the shot 30 minutes late (noted by +0.5 in my SS), because it took me a while to try out the 10 uL glass syringe. (Too bad I didn't think about practicing with it earlier). Silly me, I was too hopeful in thinking that using the new syringe would be similar to the disposables. So here's what I ended up doing:
1. Secured the disposable needle to the glass syringe
2. Took off the cap of the disposable needle (<this was a puzzle - will ask my vet if there's some trick to pulling it off - it's probably like trying to open a child proof cap to a medicine bottle - once you know the right way to pull it off, it won't be such a puzzle)
3. Filling the syringe: the first obstacle was that the needle tip itself holds a few drops of insulin, so drawing in to the 0.01u marker only sucks insulin into the needle cap - even drawing in 0.2u still didn't show insulin yet. I even tried taking the needle cap off - and "filling" the glass syringe using a little insulin from a disposable syringe (putting the needle of the disposable syringe into the head of the glass syringe, and injection insulin into the glass syringe until it filled up - then replacing the disposable cap on the glass syringe. Unfortunately, when I replace the disposable cap onto the "filled" glass syringe with 0.1u in it - after depressing the plunger to 0.0u, the insulin simply moved from the glass syringe into the needle tip, but it's such a small amount - it didn't reach the end of the 1/2" needle! lol) - so... I drew in 0.7u
4. Finding the dose: As the air bubbles in such a small tube cannot be "shaken" to the top - I played around with pushing the insulin in and out of the syringe. Even when you fill up the entire syringe - it's 1u - so there's no worries of "squirting" the insulin everywhere - it's such a small amount. When I depressed 0.7u in the air - the insulin formed in a bubble at the tip of the needle. So I could push in and out, and watch the bubble get bigger/smaller as it was sucked in and out of the needle tip. My goal was to measure out 0.01u - but that amount is so small, I could just as easily be injecting nothing. For example, there was an air bubble between 0.2u and 0.1u - so even though I push the air bubble out of the syringe, it could still be lingering in the needle tip. So after pushing the insulin bubble in and out of the plunger a few times - I was looking for what section of the tube was most likely to not have air. I pushed in 0.7 to 0.6 and nothing came out. Then I pushed in 0.6 to 0.5 and a small bubble began to form at the needle tip. After some adjusting - I had the plunger set to 0.45u and pushed it to 0.35u to see a small bubble of insulin form on the needle tip, and decided that was the best "section" of my draw that formed a consistent bubble.
5. Injecting the dose: Resetting the plunger to 0.45u - I poked Jack, and depressed the plunger to 0.35u and took out the needle. Being careful to not let the plunger move, so no insulin would be sucked back into the tube as I was pulling out the needle.
So Jack got somewhere between 0.01u and 0.1u - I'm more certain it was 0.1u in the glass syringe than injecting 0.1u in the disposable syringe - but this method is still not completely accurate.
Next step: I'm going to my vet to hopefully get them to "train" me in how to use this syringe. If they make a syringe like this - there's got to be an accurate way to actually use it, right!? But like any syringe, the ability to accurately dose 10% of the syringes volume becomes harder. If this syringe doesn't get easier to use - the only way to get accurate nano-doses will probably only be possible with a zero dead volume syringe (a syringe that has a plunger that depresses all the way through the needle tip to push out every last drop).
~Yoshi
p.s. - Libby: Lookin' forward to hearing your input on the past 4 days, (here's a
link to a little of my newbie assessment from yesterday's condo).
