Hi All,

I have been free from the burden for two years and of course I am back as painful as ever. It seems worse than before, but I know its the same killer on the left side of my head. Anyway I used to get the syringe out of the device and manually inject half a dose per headache (3 mg) as that aborted it and I still had another 3mg for the next "event" Now I am bummed to notice they have a new device that is f..ng impenetrable!!! I don't need all 6 mg per headache! this stuff is expensive and my insurance rations me 

I experienced the same problem and am having financial/insurance problems as well. It is possible to get to the syringe inside the device but not easy. I was able to use the saw device on my multipurpose knife; because it's small. I delicately cut into the pen on all sides, up an dwn until the glass syinge was exposed and was able to pop it out. Hope this is helpful.

Patrick

Yup, I just helped a migraine sufferer yesterday who had this same type of Sumatriptan.  It was not manufactured by Glaxosmithkline, thus did not read Imitrex on the label. 

Two long self inject pens came in the package.  I could see the glass vial in a window at the center of each plastic auto injector pen.  I grabbed my Leatherman multi-purpose tool and used the needle nose pliers and began operating piece by piece until I retrieved the glass vial of Sumatriptan with needle exposed.

I taught the Imitrex trick with a Qtip and this exposed glass vial of med.  Normally one would have to peel back the white label on the Imitrex glass vial to see how much one is wanting to push out.  This glass vial did not have a white label sticker, just clear glass.

It is a lot of work to rip the plastic to shreds and get the glass vial out of this pen.  But I think it's well worth it to conserve this expensive drug and use a 1/3 or 1/2 opposed to a full 6mg shot.

-Gregg in Las Vegas

I have, and still do, take my autoinjectors apart but I asked my pharmacist for vials and syringes and she was able to easily provide both. I can now control the flow without having to perform major surgery on the pens. I know it presupposes you can afford imitrex Rxs at all but thought I'd throw that out there. blessings. lance

The new pens can be dismantled and the medication rationed into separate syringes.

That's hilarious! Yesterday I went to the hardware store with the new Imitrex pen, explained to the guy what I needed to do. He got a little hacksaw and we proceeded to try. Within 2 minutes we got it open, pulled out the mechanism and rescued the syringe from jail!! What a relief, I bought the hacksaw and now have double the shots! Phew....

Obviously this is something to operate on before an attack occurs, as it would be a double nightmare trying to do this while attacked.

The problem people need to be aware of with this new style pen and ripping it apart is once the vial is released from its jail, lol, the needle is exposed.  This needle needs to somehow get a cap on it or something to shield so it doesn't accidentally get damaged, bent, release med, etc.  Maybe there are insulin syringe caps that would fit?

-Gregg in Las Vegas

I opened them all up and stored them very carefully in a padded box in the fridge. Oh yeah can you imagine fumbling with a hacksaw during an episode. I want to throw up at the thought!

Hello,

Here I posted the pics of how I broke into the device.

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Quote:

This needle needs to somehow get a cap on it or something to shield so it doesn't accidentally get damaged, bent, release med, etc.  Maybe there are insulin syringe caps that would fit?

Push the contents into insulin syringes

This must be a very recent development, as I just refilled my 'Imitrex' a few months back and still received the old vials.  Is this what I have to look forward to for my next refill?  Wow...

Eb wrote on Jun 1^st, 2013 at 6:51pm:

This must be a very recent development, as I just refilled my 'Imitrex' a few months back and still received the old vials.  Is this what I have to look forward to for my next refill?  Wow...

Pretty sure this is only the generic type, not Glaxo

-Gregg in Las Vegas

Here is a link to a video showing both how to get into one of the preloaded pens and the regular imitrex STAT dose system. The guy also shows how he just empties the syringe taken from the preloaded pen or STAT dose autoinjector into a new unused syringe for easier controlled dosing. I'll likely now take that a step further and empty mine into multiple syringes of 2mg for even easier administering. It's a good video for anyone relying on Imitrex/Imigran injections and especially those using the tip for "extending" the doses...

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Thank you for posting this. I just successfully removed my first 2 injections from those epi-pen things! would have taken me days if not for your posts. Wish you pain free days and nights!  :)

Hi. I get the vials of trex and some insulin needles for home use.it is cheaper and more friendly than the snap and burn of the stat dose pens..my insurance rations me on pens also but after my two box limit they will pay for two vials..the vials have a pretty large rubber place on top that with a little aiming you can shoot a stat dose pen into the vial..hope this helps someone..

The pens are not new.  I had them for years until my pharmacist told me they were no longer available - not being made by sun pharma any more.  So now I have the device with 2 vials.

The pens can be pulled apart ( google  "cluster headaches splitting injections), but it's much easier to discharge the pen into a normal syringe.

the sun pharmaceutical sumatriptan pens were unavailable for a year, the company had to refurb their factory to meet US standards, they are quite popular over here (UK) due to ease of use and as splitting doses is frowned upon by our medical institutes and some organisations,i am sure i read somewhere that glaxo were trialling a 3x3ml dose imitrex pack though.
zany