Hi Marilyn,
I don't know the answer to your first question, but I think I can help with your second question. I also had the same problem with Tegaderm. As soon as I put it on, it started burning my skin. I tried to ignore it, but when I tired to take it off, it took the skin with it. There are a lot of different brands of transparent dressing and I have tried a lot of them. The dressing by Smith & Nephew works best for me. It does not irritate my skin and it comes off easily. If that brand doesn't work for you, they can give you something called skin prep to wipe the skin with before applying the dressing. It is supposed to form a barrier between the skin and the dressing so it won't bother you. As far as the dressing pulling out the needles when you try to remove it, it could be the brand of needle, not necessarily the dressing. I'm still using the same dressing, but when they sent me Soft Glide needle sets, the dressing stuck horribly to the needles. They started sending High Flo and the problem stopped. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and hopefully I'll know the answer. :) Best of luck!

Hugs,
Ashlee

I only use 1 syringe 40ml so I can not help you there. My specialty pharmacy sends me sorbaview. It does not cause me as much of a reaction. Hope this helps!

Hey there Marilyn!

So how many needles are you using? I use 5 and infuse 120 ml's (12 grams). Are you rotating your sites? How long are your needles (mine are 9 mm). Also are you putting them far enough apart? I use my pointer finger as a guide to make sure they are far enough apart although I use my abdomen. Additionally, the first needle should still be closed until you get all the needles in, then open them all, pull back the syringe and check for blood return. I'm not sure how the first needle is leaking if its still closed while you insert the rest.

The medicine is leaking from the bottle when I am filling the second syringe. Once in my body everything is fine until I go to take of the Tegaderm.

Oh wow did I totally misunderstand you or WHAT? hahah sorry I stayed up late last night hehe

Hmmm so I have a problem with leaking too, but its not usually from the hole its from the vent in my spike. Are you using the vented spikes? Have you tried using a new spike for the 2nd syringe and going into the same hole? Sorry brainstorming here.

I have been told to simply stick the 18 gage needles into the rubber and then do the same with the second needle. I don't use a spike. Is that unusual?

I would say most use a mini vented needle spike similar to this one:

http://us.bbraunoem.com/cps/rde/xchg/oem-bbraunoem-en-us/hs.xsl/products.html?prid=S4003400N

Does yours look like that? That one has a cover over the spike (needle) part of it but its very similar

HI Marilyn,
I have never had leaking but I only used needles twice, after that I went to the vented mini spike that Kelli posted. Two thoughts but not sure if this is helpful. First do you push air into the bottle before pulling back. With the needles, I was taught to pull back on the syringe enough air that equals the amount of ig you are going to put in, insert the needle and push it into the bottle. It helps the ig come out easier since the needles don't have a vent. My nurse said your hole won't get as big doing this. And my second thought on that is to see if you can put it back in the same whole. That might be really tricky. I haven't tried that before. And if you can switch next time you order supplies to the mini spike, it is so much easier to pull and you can use the same spike for multiple syringes. I use three syringes. Two for one bottle and just leave the spick in there, twist off the syringe and twist on the new one right away.

And then on the tegaderm, I don't use that anymore. I agree with Ashlee, the Smith & Nephew IV 3000 is the best. The tegaderm would pull my skin off, leave sores and bruises. And then it took a while for me to heal so I lost that area. They are quite large compared to tegaderm but it works very good. Some people have used a skin barrier wipe. I tried it once, but it was a bigger hassle than I wanted to deal with and didn't do enough to protect my skin. It was too hard to wash it off afterward and I figured there had to be an easier way to do things.

Good luck with it all. - Zen

Hi Marilyn,

I too, do subq and just went from Gammagard to Hizentra. Like Ashlee, Kelli and Zen, I use the Mini Spikes and the IV 3000 One Hand. Just noticed they are manufactured by Smith and Nephew, I always just called them IV 3000.

It sounds like you are having an allergic reaction to the Tegaderm like I did. Call your specialty pharmacy and have them send the IV 3000 to you right away, do not wait for your next shipment. I toss the Tegaderm when I open the injection site package.

My nurse trained me on the Mini Spikes, I never used the needles. But, make sure you do not get Mini Mini Spikes. My specialty pharmacy kept accidently sending me Mini Mini Spikes and the Immunoglobulin is too thick to go through the spike as I found out the hard way.

you'll be fine on subq, just takes a little time to get your rhythm with the treatment process. Pretty soon, it all will be 2nd nature.

I hope this helps.

Light and Love,

Denise

Thanks everyone,

Unfortunately I really can't get mid shipment orders for supplies unless it is an emergency. I can try to find it in India and my insurance will reimburse me. I will see if I can get the mini spike to try next time. That is a problem I can live with for now. it is a very small amount that I am losing.

I will also try to find the Smith & Nephew IV 3000. That sounds like something I really want to do ASAP. I will see what I can find here. My dh is flying back to the USA in April so maybe I can get him to bring some back.

Thanks for the help.

Marilyn