Bill, first thanks for the insulin needle advice. I used a 25g 5/8" needle and it went so easy I couldn’t believe it. I shot into my quad and had less pain than in my glutes. I usually shove and shove and wait for that initial pop of the needle into the skin, then bear down going deep into the glute with a 21g. This was just too easy, it went right in, no pain. Of course, it felt like as I was slowly pushing the plunger down, when it got to the 1/2cc point, that the pressure inside the muscle wanted to force the needle out. I only used 1cc. Thanks. I have a quesion. I am looking at picking up a box of surplus 27g 1/2" syringes/needles from a closed down clinic. The guy says that the sealed items could be 5 years old or older. #1 Is it ever too old? #2 I usually throw away the whole thing, but can I reuse the syringe and just replace the needles? These are 1cc and I have a few 3cc’s left on hand. #3 Can I prefill syringes and use at a later date? So I only have to dull one needle loading. How long can they sit? Thanks
I would make a point of injecting slowly enough so that you do NOT feel this pressure within the muscle. If it even starts to appear, time to stop the motion of the plunger for a few seconds, then go slower. 30 seconds per mL is a good speed.
I don’t know the answer to whether old needles are good or not. It could be that the rubber degrades with time, and the degraded rubber might cause a problem (particles coming off.) It is also entirely possible that the things last 10 years, but are dated much shorter than that simply because the company didn’t feel like bothering to prove they were good for 10 years. So I don’t know. Seeing as how needles with syringes are so cheap you get several per dollar, I wouldn’t cheap out.
You could reuse a syringe if flushed thoroughly with alcohol but this really is problematic because you don’t have the facility for sterile drying of the alcohol. Actually, injecting a TRACE amount of ethyl or isopropyl alcohol with your oil based injection is not harmful, but basically, for the sake of saving 20 cents or something, I can’t see going through the bother of trying to resterilize the syringes.
You can prefill syringes and use at a later date. I don’t know how long. If you just want to save needles so that there is only one needle that is used for filling all syringes, and a fresh needle for each syringe at actual injection, this can be accomplished simply by screwing the fill-needle onto another syringe, in a multiuse vial you have filled with at least 70% alcohol, draw it up, squirt it out, leave needle sticking in vial and then it will be the draw needle for the next time.