Peeled off the mega-priced Neulasta, now it’s ready to be torn apart by Rick’s curiosity. It’s annoyingly noisy, glad it’s done and off. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Peeled off the mega-priced Neulasta, now it’s ready to be torn apart by Rick’s curiosity. It’s annoyingly noisy, glad it’s done and off. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
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Probably a radial pump with ball bearings being pressed against a hose.
Glad it’s done and off!
Marcus:
None of which should entail a $6,000 price tag.
Yeah, me too. It has several alarms, which are bloody annoying and loud, and it clicks. And it flashes a green light for 26 hours. For all the ‘needle’ being fairly soft plastic, if you move your arm the wrong way, feels like someone is digging around in there with a large nail.
I can’t get over the price… you would think they would do at least some recycling, but perhaps it is not the mechanism but the drug that costs so ridiculously much?
The device is intriguing and I am with Rick: take it apart, see how it works. I’d wonder what odd little parts are in there, and whether I could use them for something else. When I was a child I had boxes of strange little parts I found, which I would then take and put together to make all sorts of unlikely things: dragons! Horses! Trolls! Taking things apart and then putting things together is a really fun thing to do.
Caine
There’s where some of the $6000 is going: medication theatre.
Glad it’s off you and awaiting dissection.
Kestrel, we are a ‘take it apart’ household, always have been. Curiosity is a good thing. :D As for the price, I guess this would be mid-range, as the pricing runs from 5,300 to 8, 200 dollars per dose. As far as I know, that price is for the medication alone, not the delivery system, because in some cases, people in chemo get a straight injection rather than the timed device. I’m sure the on bod system adds to the price tag, though. I’ll be going through 3 or 4 more of these.
Chigau:
:snort: Yep.
An electro-mechanicak gadget and a little ghost.
The little ghost looks as if it’s saying ‘So sorry, I tried to keep it quiet, but it just doesn’t listen to me, I’m so sorry’ :(
I hope Rick enjoys the dissection, it would be good if someone got some fun out of that much money.
Jazzlet:
I agree!
Just looking at the photos (and putting on my EE hat, since I am at work :-)), I’d guess the device itself isn’t more than a couple-hundred dollars, depending on what all is in there.
Looking forward to photos after Rick has taken it apart.
The dissection photos will be up tomorrow morning. Not much to it really, but it does hold 3 bloody batteries. Er, scratch that, the photos are up now.
The cost is mostly the medication. The device itself is a small part of the overall cost. The aggravating thing about the OnPro is that is only set for a for 24 hour delay. It’d be nice if we could specify a 24, 48 or 72 hour delay. You wouldn’t have to make a second trip.
Mine was on a 26 hour delay. But yes, I’d really appreciate a delay which would not fuck with my schedule so much. Does it really matter when you have the injection after the chemo? On my regular schedule, I pull the chemo pump on a Friday. If I waited until Monday to go back to town for the injection, would that still work?
Yes, I’m afraid it really does matter when you have the injection. Monday would be 8 days prior to the next infusion. You’d still have quite a bit of peg-filgrastim in you. Which would make the myelosuppression of the next cycle worse not better. It need to be given 24-48 hours after chemotherapy and more tan 10 days prior to the next cycle. At least those are the recommendations. Could you do it and get away with it? Maybe. Not really sure. Caine, you seem more than usually capable. The other options for growth factor support would be giving yourself a shot of Neulasta (peg-filgrastim) at home after you disconnect, or several days of shots of filgrastim. Filgrastim is the short acting stuff. Some insurers will allow some flexibility with self-administration of biologics at home. Some won’t. Your local pharmacy may fill either prescription or they may not. Mail order is a possibility in some cases. There are many barriers to care for patients in rural areas, as you’ve said. Nudge your oncology team. And check with your insurance carrier. This isn’t a good situation for you.
No, it isn’t, but I think my hands are tied, because of the insurance rider. I will ask again though. Doing the on pro is hardly rocket surgery, I could easily handle it, but fuck knows what the insurance people think I’d do with the damn thing, besides what I’m supposed to do.
The fuck knows what goes on in the heads of the bean counters. The fuck knows.
So endeth the lesson.