Question about Medicine Cartridge - Osteoporosis Message Board

Spongebones · 07-05-2006, 09:21 PM

Hi, I have a question about step 4 in Prepare the Pen. It says liquid should appear clean, colorless, and free from particles. What about swirlly lines? Yes, when I checked mine tonight, there were swirlly lines inside the cartridge otherwise it looked fine. Has anyone ever had this happen to their medication. Don't know if I should use it or not, can't call Customer care at night!

CrohnieToo · 07-06-2006, 09:24 AM

SpongeBones, I take it you have called Customer Car by now. What did they have to say?

When in doubt, skipping one day's dose of Forteo isn't going to hurt. Coming out of the frige my pen usually is somewhat "frosted" and I just wipe it w/my fingers or a paper towel so I can see better. I've never seen "squigglies" in mine but I do know what you mean because I've seen them in other "clear" liquids. That doesn't mean they are okay in the Forteo pen - or even in the other "clear" liquids so ... better safe than sorry.

Spongebones · 07-06-2006, 11:07 AM

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did talk to Customer Care this morning. After a lot of questions, she finally said that there was probably mosture between the glass cartridge and the plastic coating. (I didn't know the cartridge had a plastic coating) Anyway, she said that it would probably be okay to use, but that they would send my pharmacy a voucher for a new pen if I didn't feel okay using it. So that is what I let them do, better safe that sorry. They said to keep the old pen for 20 days and they would send package to return it and then after looking at it would send me an explanation of the problem.

taape · 07-06-2006, 08:27 PM

I had a frustrating time when I first started using Forteo because I could see a line inside the pen. I even took it to my local pharmacy and they didn't know what it was. I know I wrote in to this forum and no one else seems to be having the problem. I contacted Eli Lilly and they sent me a new pen like 3 different times. They were pretty agreeable with sending new pens. Eli Lilly looked into the issue and sent me a letter stating that some of the alcohol from the swab gets into the pen when you clean it off. The lines were particles of the rubbing alcohol. The medicaton was tested and was fine to use. I thought at one point that there was ice inside the pen because that's what it looked like. I think that if the medication went bad the particles they are referring to would be really noticeable and we would know that something was wrong with it.

CrohnieToo · 07-07-2006, 09:27 AM

I haven't noticed any of these "sights" you gals have seen w/your pens. BUT, what I DID run into the prompted me to call Lilly was after maybe 7-8 pens. All my previous pens when I primed them gave a good healthy squirt of Forteo (I kept thinking what "gold" was being wasted!!!). Then I started a new pen and all I got was a few beads on the needle tip. So I changed needles and "primed" it again and got a huge squirt of Forteo as with my previous pens. But then I wasn't sure if that second "prime" w/the new needles was the "priming" or the actual dose!

I called Lilly. They were glad to know I had tried changing needles to make sure it wasn't the fault of the needle rather than the pen. Then they had me run thru two primes and one "dose". I was told that the amount released during a "priming" could vary so not to worry about it, as long as I "primed" correctly the actual "dose" for the actual injection would be correct - and that there would still be enough in the pen to last the full 28 days. And there was altho it sure took that pen "stopper" down darn close to the "bottom" of the pen the last two doses!