Beginner's error

[deluge]

What a basic blunder.

I was mixing up a vial of Reta. Drew it out of the vial into the syringe, then jammed a complimentary diabetic needle into a cartridge, and stuck the Reta/filter/fresh needle in.

I'd recently come across someone who did the same thing—using a diabetic needle as a vent. Instead of pulling the plunger, he just let it rise on its own while pushing the 'tide into the cartridge. I thought to myself, "Self; that's a decent middle ground between leaving a needle open and burning a filter just for venting." So I gave it a shot.

And of course, the predictable happened. The rubber stopper inside the cartridge popped out the bottom instead of lifting the plunger in the diabetic syringe. Splat—1/3 of my vial ended up all over the countertop...

 

[BNLFL]

deluge said:

What a basic blunder.

I was mixing up a vial of Reta. Drew it out of the vial into the syringe, then jammed a complimentary diabetic needle into a cartridge, and stuck the Reta/filter/fresh needle in.

I'd recently come across someone who did the same thing—using a diabetic needle as a vent. Instead of pulling the plunger, he just let it rise on its own while pushing the 'tide into the cartridge. I thought to myself, "Self; that's a decent middle ground between leaving a needle open and burning a filter just for venting." So I gave it a shot.

And of course, the predictable happened. The rubber stopper inside the cartridge popped out the bottom instead of lifting the plunger in the diabetic syringe. Splat—1/3 of my vial ended up all over the countertop...

I'm familiar with that thread, and I called out that it was incorrect. Some arrogant newcomer tried to pick a fight over it. They ended up on my ignore list.

 

[CNCCurrency]

deluge said:

What a basic blunder.

I was mixing up a vial of Reta. Drew it out of the vial into the syringe, then jammed a complimentary diabetic needle into a cartridge, and stuck the Reta/filter/fresh needle in.

I'd recently come across someone who did the same thing—using a diabetic needle as a vent. Instead of pulling the plunger, he just let it rise on its own while pushing the 'tide into the cartridge. I thought to myself, "Self; that's a decent middle ground between leaving a needle open and burning a filter just for venting." So I gave it a shot.

And of course, the predictable happened. The rubber stopper inside the cartridge popped out the bottom instead of lifting the plunger in the diabetic syringe. Splat—1/3 of my vial ended up all over the countertop...

Reading that made my head spin.

 

[eidos]

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

 

[AlexSilver]

deluge said:

What a basic blunder.

I was mixing up a vial of Reta. Drew it out of the vial into the syringe, then jammed a complimentary diabetic needle into a cartridge, and stuck the Reta/filter/fresh needle in.

I'd recently come across someone who did the same thing—using a diabetic needle as a vent. Instead of pulling the plunger, he just let it rise on its own while pushing the 'tide into the cartridge. I thought to myself, "Self; that's a decent middle ground between leaving a needle open and burning a filter just for venting." So I gave it a shot.

And of course, the predictable happened. The rubber stopper inside the cartridge popped out the bottom instead of lifting the plunger in the diabetic syringe. Splat—1/3 of my vial ended up all over the countertop...

Sometimes I've skipped the vent needle out of sheer laziness and loaded the cartridge into the pen before filling it. Roughly 1.5 ml will fit that way, and you can squeeze in a bit more by drawing a small amount of air out first — just not so much that the stopper shifts.

 

[Chili777]

You can say I'm nuts, but a vent needle isn't worth using up a filter for. I'd argue it's excessive unless your recon is happening somewhere full of hazardous waste. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Flash-BCR]

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

If that occurs, I'll unwrap a sterile $100 note and lift it straight off the surface....That's how I fix things...

 

[CNCCurrency]

Flash-BCR said:

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

If that occurs, I'll unwrap a sterile $100 note and lift it straight off the surface....That's how I fix things...

 

[deluge]

Flash-BCR said:

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

If that occurs, I'll unwrap a sterile $100 note and lift it straight off the surface....That's how I fix things...

I can't recall which member posted it, roughly 2 months back, but the gist was they dropped some peptide and without thinking licked it up from the counter...

Honestly, I was genuinely tempted to do the same!

 

[Flash-BCR]

deluge said:

Flash-BCR said:

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

If that occurs, I'll unwrap a sterile $100 note and lift it straight off the surface....That's how I fix things...

I can't recall which member posted it, roughly 2 months back, but the gist was they dropped some peptide and without thinking licked it up from the counter...

Honestly, I was genuinely tempted to do the same!

lick it, snort it — either way it ends up in the same spot, right?...

 

[randompersonrandom]

Oh wow, I actually came across that thread and my first reaction was "that's intriguing! What a smart approach." Then @BNLFL completely tore the original poster apart, so I figured "guess he wasn't a fan." After that I had a snack, dozed off, and it slipped my mind. Still, I appreciate you running the experiment and sharing the story with us.

 

[HouseCat]

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

When you're doing a recon, do you keep using the same filter the whole time, or do you carry it over to later sessions too? And if it's just within one session, are you running the same filter for different peptides? If you do hang onto it across sessions, where do you keep it in between?

I ended up with some free filters that aren't PES, so I've been putting them on the vent needle—but reusing them never crossed my mind! Getting extra life out of a free filter is about as good as it gets.

@deluge That sucks…thanks for passing along what you learned!

 

[eidos]

HouseCat said:

eidos said:

Yeah, with pressure you can't predict the outcome.

Luckily, we're only talking about $5-7 at stake here.

As for the 0.1 PTFE filter I put on the vent, I use it again — always keeping it facing the same way, naturally.

When you're doing a recon, do you keep using the same filter the whole time, or do you carry it over to later sessions too? And if it's just within one session, are you running the same filter for different peptides? If you do hang onto it across sessions, where do you keep it in between?

I ended up with some free filters that aren't PES, so I've been putting them on the vent needle—but reusing them never crossed my mind! Getting extra life out of a free filter is about as good as it gets.

@deluge That sucks…thanks for passing along what you learned!

I only do this for the air filter, never when filtering liquids.

After wiping it down with alcohol, it goes back into its original packaging. Every vial gets a fresh needle.

Indoor air rarely contains even a single bacterium per milliliter, though a handful (10?) of fungal spores could be present. The AC is blowing air around as we speak, and my filter stash will last me several more years, so there's no harm in this easy extra step.

For venting pen cartridges, I take the barrel of an insulin syringe and leave the plunger out (I've still got some 8mm ones that I don't use for shots). What comes out is mostly air; the cartridges I have aren't under negative pressure. The chance of anything getting in is even smaller.

 

[Grogu]

Chili777 said:

You can say I'm nuts, but a vent needle isn't worth using up a filter for. I'd argue it's excessive unless your recon is happening somewhere full of hazardous waste. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah, using a filter on the vent needle would be a total waste in my opinion — that's just excessive. The only scenario where it might matter is with a pen, since the headspace has already been taken out of the vial. But when you inject ambient air into a vial before pulling a dose, that's the same air going in, and to me that's actually a bigger issue because you're actively forcing air into the vial. With a vent needle, the air is presumably exiting the vial rather than being pushed inside.

I also don't bother sanitizing the supplies themselves before reconstituting — I only do the work surface. That peptide test guy sprays everything down (pen carts, vials, etc.) with alcohol spray. I do wipe the vial tops with an alcohol swab, but that's pretty much all I do...

 

[Flash-BCR]

Grogu said:

Chili777 said:

You can say I'm nuts, but a vent needle isn't worth using up a filter for. I'd argue it's excessive unless your recon is happening somewhere full of hazardous waste. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah, using a filter on the vent needle would be a total waste in my opinion — that's just excessive. The only scenario where it might matter is with a pen, since the headspace has already been taken out of the vial. But when you inject ambient air into a vial before pulling a dose, that's the same air going in, and to me that's actually a bigger issue because you're actively forcing air into the vial. With a vent needle, the air is presumably exiting the vial rather than being pushed inside.

I also don't bother sanitizing the supplies themselves before reconstituting — I only do the work surface. That peptide test guy sprays everything down (pen carts, vials, etc.) with alcohol spray. I do wipe the vial tops with an alcohol swab, but that's pretty much all I do...

My work surface is a stainless dental tray. I give it a spray of 70% alcohol, then leave it to sit for a moment...after that I swab it around and wait a little longer for it to dry...As for Hospira and pep vials, I do wipe their exteriors down, simply because my hands have been all over them many times before recon day....With syringes, needles and filters, I just tear the plastic open and tip them out onto the tray...

These days reconning moves so much quicker. With those first few, it felt like such a drawn-out process...

 

[T.Bird]

Flash-BCR said:

Grogu said:

Chili777 said:

You can say I'm nuts, but a vent needle isn't worth using up a filter for. I'd argue it's excessive unless your recon is happening somewhere full of hazardous waste. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah, using a filter on the vent needle would be a total waste in my opinion — that's just excessive. The only scenario where it might matter is with a pen, since the headspace has already been taken out of the vial. But when you inject ambient air into a vial before pulling a dose, that's the same air going in, and to me that's actually a bigger issue because you're actively forcing air into the vial. With a vent needle, the air is presumably exiting the vial rather than being pushed inside.

I also don't bother sanitizing the supplies themselves before reconstituting — I only do the work surface. That peptide test guy sprays everything down (pen carts, vials, etc.) with alcohol spray. I do wipe the vial tops with an alcohol swab, but that's pretty much all I do...

My work surface is a stainless dental tray. I give it a spray of 70% alcohol, then leave it to sit for a moment...after that I swab it around and wait a little longer for it to dry...As for Hospira and pep vials, I do wipe their exteriors down, simply because my hands have been all over them many times before recon day....With syringes, needles and filters, I just tear the plastic open and tip them out onto the tray...

These days reconning moves so much quicker. With those first few, it felt like such a drawn-out process...

Everything comes down to having systems in place. Every one of us started out as a beginner, and we went through all the lists of things to do and things to avoid, but it only truly clicks once you've done it yourself — that's when the advice from others finally makes sense. Making a few errors along the way is simply par for the course.

 

[BNLFL]

CNCCurrency said:

deluge said:

What a basic blunder.

I was mixing up a vial of Reta. Drew it out of the vial into the syringe, then jammed a complimentary diabetic needle into a cartridge, and stuck the Reta/filter/fresh needle in.

I'd recently come across someone who did the same thing—using a diabetic needle as a vent. Instead of pulling the plunger, he just let it rise on its own while pushing the 'tide into the cartridge. I thought to myself, "Self; that's a decent middle ground between leaving a needle open and burning a filter just for venting." So I gave it a shot.

And of course, the predictable happened. The rubber stopper inside the cartridge popped out the bottom instead of lifting the plunger in the diabetic syringe. Splat—1/3 of my vial ended up all over the countertop...

Reading that made my head spin.

A newb claimed that was his method and the superior approach. I attempted to explain why it was incorrect, yet as a highly educated newb he persisted, so I added him to my ever-expanding ignore list.

Chili777 said:

You can say I'm nuts, but a vent needle isn't worth using up a filter for. I'd argue it's excessive unless your recon is happening somewhere full of hazardous waste. Your mileage may vary.

At times I must. For instance, yesterday morning. I combined two vials of Reta, an R50 and an R60. I needed to insert a vent to get the reconstituted liquid in. The 3ml syringes kept resisting, and I didn't want to apply more force.