Intron A / Interferon Unboxing!

So the geeks out there know about unboxing. When you get a new cool gadget, and you think you are the first to get it, you photograph or video your opening the box to show everyone how cool the gadget is (and therefore how cool you are.)  Someone actually called it “Geek Porn,” but I think that is best applied to other things.

I have uploaded the full size images, b/c there are no good images on the Internet of what this thing looks like.  Believe me, I tried looking.

So here is my Intron A Interferon unboxing.  These are the needles for Subcutaneous (Sub-Q) self-injection.

I picked it up at my local drug store.  It has to be kept refridgerated, so it was in a brown paper bag that said REFRIDGERATE UPON ARRIVAL.   In red.  Allcaps.  Pretty intense.

(Of note, that sticker was made in Redmond, OR, a town which I have not thought about in probably 15 years, and a town which is now probably just a suburb of Bend…)

Inside the bag were two boxes of Intron A.  The prescription was for 4 units, and the tag on the bag said 3 units, but I only got 2!  And this stuff is *not* cheap.  I have to go back and ask for my third box.

Inside the box is one preloaded needle, with 60 MIU of Interferon.  Supposedly it is a little overfilled, so there is actually 70 MIU in there. As you turn the handle it increases the dosage.  One full turn is 5 MIU, Two full turns is 10 MIU.  Each notch on the turn is one MIU. The pink part at the right functions as the plunger/button.

This is the end that the needle screws on to.  Looks like there is some kind of membrane that the needle goes through. Something resealable or something.

And it comes with a batch of screw on needles in their own little individual double walled containers.

On monday I go up to Columbia to learn how to use it.  I think I have a pretty good idea, and it comes with instructions, but it will be good to have a professional needle-person walk me through the first time.