Adverse drug reaction?
Last Thursday I went to do my every-two-week Humira injection and the injector pen malfunctioned. They're supposed to be dead simple -- take the caps off, put it on your leg, press the button, CLICK, curse for a few seconds as it stings, and when the yellow piston is visible through the little window it's done. Well, this time it did everything up to the CLICK, but no stinging and no yellow bit. Hm. I wait 20-30 seconds (usually takes less than 10), then pull it away, and there's medication coming out of the needle tip. Doh.
So I called up the manufacturer, Abbott, and they can't say if I got the proper dose or not. There was a drop of blood, so clearly the needle did *something*, but how much is anyone's guess. After a few rounds on the phone with various parties my GI says to err on the side of too much (rather than too little), and Abbott is shipping out another pen to the Walgreens around the corner for me to pick up. Hopefully it'll be there tomorrow.
Anyway, later that afternoon I get another call from another department at Abbott. Apparantly, the one or two drops of blood that I mentioned when discussing the malfunction are considered "bleeding", which is considered an "adverse drug reaction", which requires a report to the FDA? Buh?
So I called up the manufacturer, Abbott, and they can't say if I got the proper dose or not. There was a drop of blood, so clearly the needle did *something*, but how much is anyone's guess. After a few rounds on the phone with various parties my GI says to err on the side of too much (rather than too little), and Abbott is shipping out another pen to the Walgreens around the corner for me to pick up. Hopefully it'll be there tomorrow.
Anyway, later that afternoon I get another call from another department at Abbott. Apparantly, the one or two drops of blood that I mentioned when discussing the malfunction are considered "bleeding", which is considered an "adverse drug reaction", which requires a report to the FDA? Buh?