Perhaps a very short one on needles, pen and regular, what gauge, length, for what and why. I went initially for high gauge short needles and now I have a box of "spares"

@atlas01 Or, maybe sell a shorter "plain" cap for the V4 series.

@kenhnsy Have Costco's 7 cu foot frigidaire garage chest freezer. It's a nice black. Am happy with it so far. Easily keeps temps below -20C. Only criticism I have is that it only has two adjustable feet, not three.

@hunt_ak Just switched to pen for my weekly. Noticed a surprising difference in needle sharpness and ease. Might have been switching needle manufactures? and/or maybe just the needle not being pre-dulled by poking the vial before injection... migrated from BD syringes to EasyTouch pen needles.

wayyy back in the day when I had this problem, found that rubbing ice every morning on my face helped.

@TrueNorth Indeed, I ask one of my daughters who has a child with allergies, for an old/or expired one. Not sure if I can get one w/o a prescription. Better having an old one than none.
She said that the doctor had told her:

• An old pen is better than none and degradation is not much of a concern.
• A dose is not harmful
• If required two doses may be appropriate.

@pep_researcher that's not what I read or agreed to.

Essentially, filtering will remove bacteria and no more endotoxins will be introduced.

No way to get rid of the current endotoxin load, just limit or stop more being introduced, and of course, injecting your test subject with bacteria.

Endotoxins can be introduced anywhere in the manufacturing process. No bacteria required even. There is no way to get rid of them w/o destroying the product unfortunately. GMP is the product being filtered as it's being pumped into the fill room for lophilization. Any slight contamination problem in the fill, and the product is non-sterile. Sterility in the fill that I worked in was much, much more rigorous that any hospital operating room that I've seen.

Filter sterilization will at least remove bacteria and limit further endotoxin production. Best you can do since there is no iron clad guarantee of sterility.

@ogsteve

Yah, I'm looking for a low cost, reputable lab as well... QA at most labs seem questionable.

@ogsteve endos may come along for the ride with non-sterility unfortunately. Think levels likely depend upon how much growth there's been in the vial and the resulting garbage generated. Another reason to keep things chilled and dry if possible; cooling and dehydration slow growth.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/endotoxin
"Endotoxin is defined as a toxic substance released from the outer membrane of certain bacteria, such as E. coli, primarily consisting of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which includes lipid A. It is responsible for various diseases in humans and is a significant contaminant in the pharmaceutical and food industries."

@pep_researcher Was in tech also; totally agree.
Any app is a huge privacy and security hole. Security is expensive and difficult with little downside if it's crap... so no one bothers

@Superpep I think your odds of getting sterile vials increase if the sterility test passed; conversely, I wouldn't order from a batch where I knew a vial had failed.

@Stevepep endotoxins come along with bacteria, and without bacteria. So, unfortunately, back to same conclusion, some samples with, some without, although my guess is that contaminated vials will test positive for endotoxin more often.

Can't give a firm opinion, didn't work in the endo lab or the final testing lab. Worked testing the environments. The fill was one of them.

?Perhaps someone here has experience in an endo lab?

When I interviewed for the job, they showed me a part of the endo lab where they kept the rabbits. They'd dose them and to check for pyrogens, monitor their temperatures via a probe up the rabbits rear end... They ask me what I thought, and being a kinda off color guy, I said "Oh, it'll be great when someone ask me what I do for work... I probe rabbits" and laughed.

I think it's possible that both labs are correct.
possibilities are that the whole batch is not sterile, some of the batch is sterile, or all of it is sterile. Saw in a video that Jano mentioned this, and in my experience makes sense.

Used to work as a QA analyst for a major drug manufacturing firm. Working and processing the samples from the lophilizing fill wasn't fun. 3 pairs booties, 2 pairs bunny suits, 2 pair head doilies, mask, and space suit hemet with filter. Like working in a plastic bag.

Watched a video online where a Chinese firm was doing fill. Nice equipment, gowns, then the camera moved a bit and yikes! there was someone in shorts :

I filter. No way without it.

Oddly, I don't have as much problem on reta compared to triz. Could not tolerate triz. History of GERT, and esophageal erosion, resulting in bleeding and anemia. I am hoping I have less problems when I lose more weight.
On pantoprazole (protonix) currently for this.
My suggestions for acid indigestion, your experience may vary, blah blah.
Try in this order:

0. life-style, no eating before bed. do not lie down immediately after eating, period. Incline your head/chest some when lying down. Try and figure out what exactly triggers it for you. Large greasy meals are my trigger.
1. Tums
2. Famatidine
3. Omeprazole Note: if you do a 14 day course, you must do at least 2 days of Famatidine immediately after to handle the acid rebound.
4. Pantoprazole (perscription).
5. Pantoprazole and Famatidine both.

Try and avoid having to start doing omeprazole or pantoprazole which are systemic. They create other problems with absorption of nutrients and other medicines as well...

No idea about this really, but remember reading somewhere that you can "chase or flush" injection with bac water
pull some units of BAC water, for example: 10 into syringe
pull however many units of KLOW after that into the same syringe
inject.
Theoretically the last 10 units should be mostly BAC water and may? help.

Any rats with cagi experience have any comparisons so far? Less side effects than cagi? More? grew third eye and horns?

Started at 1mg per week; immediately backed off to .5 for 4 weeks. 1mg initially made me really tired. I'm male.

@jackiee Was wondering the same thing. Looked it up. Guess it is possible with enough pyrogens. Pyrogens = endotoxins... "Pyrogens can lead to adverse reactions in patients. Common symptoms include fever and chills, but more severe consequences can arise, such as muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, organ failure, or disseminated intravascular coagulation. In serious cases, especially with large amounts, exposure can lead to life-threatening septic shock." https://biologyinsights.com/pyrogenicity-causes-medical-risks-and-testing/

Triz 7 weeks. Then transitioned to Reta due to severe stomach problems on triz. 1/4 of a year. Hoping to lose some belly fat soon...