Talking Allergies

Hey Everyone,

I’m looking for some suggestions on what I can inject my son’s expired epi-pens into. I have purchased the Taking Control DVD’s, the instructional epi-pen poster and an epi-pen trainer. I have showed all my friends and family what to look for in case of an ana reaction as well as had them play around with the trainer. The poster is displayed at daycare and I keep the DVD and epi pen trainer at daycare for when new staff are hired. But no one (including myself) has actually seen how a real epi-pen works.

Since all of my family will be around on Christmas Eve I thought that it would be a great idea to see what the epi-pen really looks like (talk about festive) but I don’t know what I can inject it into. I was thinking about maybe an orange or an apple but I don't know. The owner and director at my son’s daycare are also looking so forward to doing the same thing at their next staff meeting.

Any suggestions on what I can safely use would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Jodi; I think a orange will do it. For mine I used a grapefruit but it is adult size.
The needle was not too big, I had always thought it was big like the dentist needle. Rather silly on my part.
You can buy a trainer from Ana Canada and practice with it.
One mother I heard of used Elmo with her child, they practiced. I can not remeber who though..
Kelly

I have a training video from FAAN which suggests using an orange ( a regular one...not a christmas orange ).

Oranges (or apples... but not too ripe) are the perfect! If you hear of a plastic bottle, DON'T! Plastic bottles are sometimes suggested, but the needle sometimes doesn't go through and the noise it does when it hits the plastic will scare anyone whose already scared of what the needle could do . The best I found were oranges as I once almost went through an apple because it was too ripe and I pushed a little too hard on the Epipen .

When I was in nursing school (about a hundred years ago) we used oranges to practice injecting before we tried the real thing (people).

Orange it is.

Thank you everybody!

Hi Jodi, my son teaches first aid/cpr and and I'd like to also tell you part of what he teaches people - whether using a trainer or an expired epi-pen.

Always hold it in a fist - never put the palm of your hand over the back of the pen. (In an emergency you could put the epi backwards and end up injecting the wrong person.)

When using a fruit to inject an expired pen - do not place it on a person leg - it could roll and the *patient* could actually get injected. Do not hold the fruit either. Just place it on a table. Again because you do not want to hit the person in the arm. If the fruit is sent flying you are using to much force because it should not happen.

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Kelly, I used an Elmo doll the size of my son to teach him how to use the epi-pen (with a trainer). It was a really rough day for Elmo. First he was found unconscious (my son was teaching a first aid/cpr class in my living room) and then he had two anaphylactic reactions. He was saved from all of it and is currently doing quite fine.

I thought I better clarify - I have a son in his 20's that teaches first aid/cpr. I have a 7 year old with an insect allergy -- and a really big Elmo dol.

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One more suggestion - if your fruit (I use oranges) is really juicy, make sure you cover the area around it before injecting the epi-pen. The first time I used an expired one juice flew everywhere, including into my uncovered butter dish.

Anna Marie; I did not remeber from where. It is good to be reminded and your oldest son did a super job that must of been rather entertaining to do it that way.
My Doctor told us to us to be careful as the orange/grapefruit may roll like you said.
We had to do it the other year as my doctor said " your afraid of the needle I want you to " and will we did it. It was surprising how small the needle was, but there was lots of medince in it.
Kelly

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for your suggests. Just as I planned, on Christmas Eve with all the family around, I pulled out the epi-pen and told everyone we were going to see how this worked. Everyone was really quite interested. I cut the bottom of a grapefruit so it wouldn't roll and put it on a plate. I was kinda nervous about using the epi-pen and I wasn't even using it on a person. The needle was smaller than I thought and I wasn't expecting the "pop" sound. I'm glad that I know now how it actually works.

How big is the needle? I have not seen one.

I was expecting like a 3" needle but I'd say it's about an inch. I thought that the needle would be visible once you pulled off the grey cap but it doesn't pop out until you jab it into something. When I got my son's new epi-pens I was debating on getting the Twinject instead of 2 epi-pens but I wasn't sure I would be about to actually stick a needle that long into my son. I also thought that with the twinject being so new, if I wasn't around, would someone know how to use it properly. Plus I would have to re-train all the staff at my son's daycare.

I was expecting like a 3" needle but I'd say it's about an inch. I thought that the needle would be visible once you pulled off the grey cap but it doesn't pop out until you jab it into something. When I got my son's new epi-pens I was debating on getting the Twinject instead of 2 epi-pens but I wasn't sure I would be about to actually stick a needle that long into my son. I also thought that with the twinject being so new, if I wasn't around, would someone know how to use it properly. Plus I would have to re-train all the staff at my son's daycare.

Just long enough to save a life.