URGENT HELP. MY PEN HAS JAMMED

[Crunchymum]

Trying to take 2nd dose of my 10mg pen and it's jammed.

I don't know what to do? It's stuck. I can't seem to wind it backwards, it didn't plunge to administer the dose. Now it's stuck.

There's 3 more doses?

Urgh. I'm so frustrated.

Having a shit day and this has my fucking sobbing in the kitchen.

Change the needle. That is the usual cause of jams, a blocked needle. Did you prime?

Go back to your supplier it sounds like a faulty pen. If the other posters suggestion doesn’t work

Don’t panic. It will be sorted. Supplier will have to swap if it’s faulty.
try a new needle
then if absolutely all else fails buy your own needles and inject

Yep change the needle. Also, if it is permanently jammed you could get some separate syringes and use the medication that way.

Thanks.

Simple Online Pharmacy answered my call really quickly, asked me to send in some pics and said they'll mark it as urgent.

I did try a second needle but since speaking to them I've tried for a 3rd time and it worked but the medication leaked all over me (despite me injecting it?)

Something is definitely wrong here.

And now I've used an additional dose to the pics I sent them so they probably won't even replace the pen as they'll assume I'm fibbing?

Urgh.

21 weeks in and I've never had an issues.

Did it prime correctly with the first needle?

Get a needle and syringe and suck it up through that from the bit where you normally attach the needle

I did yes and I did see a weeny bit of liquid. Albeit not as much as I'd usually see.

Will try and decant the rest to syringes. Any idea what size syringes for 10mg? (Or can I just buy 10mg syringes?)
Would I leave medication in the pen until next dose and then decant into one syringe and then do the same again the week after? So I don't decant it all at once?

I'm still not sure how much of today's was actually injected either? Pen did plunge 3rd time but so much liquid seemed to leak out.

FWIW I've attached a pic and this was after I'd tried with 2 different needles (primed both times) pen was very stiff and hard to manipulate from 1 back down to 0.

Ah, ok., the red seal looks like it's blown due to pressure. Just to let you know that may pop or burst if you try to puncture it again with a screw on pen needle or a syringe.

Here is some advice (from the Shemed website) about what to do if the red seal is bulging like that:

"This often happens due to pressure build-up from:

Using a bent needle when trying to prime or inject.
Using the pen without a needle or when a needle is not attached correctly.

If the seal is slightly bulging:

• Attach a new needle - ensure it’s correctly attached and the inner needle is not bent
• Dial back the dose knob to 0
• At 0, gently press the knob. There will only be a small amount of movement – this may release built-up pressure in the cartridge.

If the red seal is fully out or a needle won’t attach properly, the pen can no longer be used"

If you want to try with a syringe, you would need 1ml insulin syringes. The 10mg is a measure of the strength of the dose, not the volume of liquid. Regardless of the strength of a pen, a normal dose from it is always 0.6ml. 1ml insulin syringes are normally marked up in units from 0 to 100, so you would extract 60 units to do a 0.6ml dose.

These syringes, or similar, would do:

https://ukmedi.co.uk/products/fms-micro-syringe-32g-8mm-1ml-fms-fms-32g-10ml-ukmedi-co-uk?variant=53484951077243

Oh, also if you do use syringes, you just do it each week once, the medication shouldn't be kept in a syringe, just injected immediately.

Thank you @SilenceInside

Shit!! So I've ruined 3 weeks worth of medication? Urgh. I guess my supplier is going to say it was my fault.

I can't afford to lose almost a whole pen. And god knows how much I injected on the 3rd attempt as it did work / plunge but leaked all over my tummy.

I think that the supplier might try to say that it was a needle attaching issue and blame it on user error. But, you followed the instructions and primed each time, so I would insist on that to them if they quibble. You could just have been unlucky with a dodgy red seal, regardless of the needle attachment.

You might also be able to pierce it without it bursting. If you hold it vertically with the red seal at the top when you try, then if it does burst you may still be able to retrieve that dose.

Looks like its burst? Does this mean everything inside is compromised?

I just want to say that you’ve had some terrible bad luck with this @Crunchymum, it must be infuriating for you.

I think if the seal is compromised like that then the medication is more exposed to air than normal and so will degrade much more quickly than otherwise.

Well my supplier (Simple Online Pharmacy) have agreed to replace the pen - amazing!

Except I ordered a new one before seeing the email confirming this!! Urgh! So now I have to get them to cancel my order !!

But overall a better outcome than I'd expected.

Ah, brilliant that they will replace the pen. I really thought they might try to blame user error, so that's a great result.

Don't worry about the extra pen, it will keep in the fridge and you can use it next month