>This new form of Crystal Lite tastes good and offers a
>significant amount of calcium per 8-oz serving.
>
Many know of it in its prior incarnation as the "bee sting kit."
It is an automatic syringe that injects a potentially life-saving dose of
epinephrine. This medication can temporarily reverse symptoms of
anaphylaxis and statis asthmaticus.
When a person is exposed to an allergen that triggers a major reaction,
several things can happen: airways can swell and constrict to the point
where they can't breathe, tongues and lips can swell, having the same
effect, lungs can constrict and/or be filled with fluid, making it
difficult or impossible to exchange air, or, in the case of anaphylactic
shock, blood pressure can drop precipitously, causing the person to lose
consciousness very quickly.
During such incidents, your body's own defenses (via your adrenal system)
are overwhelmed; epinephrine acts to enhance the body's own adrenal
response to such incidents, with the same effects (opening airways,
combating allergic symptoms, etc) and the same side effects (sense of
panic, increased heart rate, hightened perception and awareness) as a
natural "adrenalyn rush." Its effects are temporary (approx 20 minutes), so
if the underlying reaction is still active or the allergen/trigger is still
present, severe symptoms will return. That's why it's essential to 1) have
an extra Epipen, and 2) go IMMEDIATELY to an Emergency Room or trauma
center. They have other treatments that can stave off a return of the
symptoms, and they have the ability to resuscitate you if you have a
respiratory collapse or cardiac arrest.
The EpiPen is a very nifty device, which resembles something that "Bones"
used in Star Trek. It is a syringe, but it's embedded in a device that,
when activated and pressed against the skin, automatically injects the
epinephrine. You don't have to get up the courage to look at a needle and
stick it into the skin - it does that part for you.
Its predecessor, the Anakit, contained a regular syringe, and was a bit
more daunting to use.
Recently there have been two worrisome recalls of Epipens. The first was
due to a design flaw in a new kind of EpiPen, the Epipen EZ. It looked a
bit like a ball-point pen, where you press a button on top to inject the
medication. Trouble was, there was no guarantee that the device was in
place against the skin, and in some cases, the precious, lifesaving
medication was just sprayed into the air. If you didn't have a backup, you
were toast. During this recall, all were replaced by standard Epipens,
pending a redesign.
The recent recall was more disturbing and disruptive: Meridian Medical
Technologies, the makers of the Epipen apparently went to an automated
technique of filling their Epipens, rather than the manual process that
they had used before. But the new technique did not guarantee an adequate
dose, and lapses in Meridian's quality control allowed several batches to
be distributed , without the guarantee that each pen had an adequate dose
of medication. They recalled several lots, with the promise that the
recalled pens would be replaced for free. Trouble was, more than a million
were recalled, and several distributors had large stocks of mostly
recalled lots; the manufacturer could not manufacture and distribute the
replacements quickly enough to respond to the demand. (They went back to
their more reliable filling technique). As time goes by, distributors are
getting restocked. I imagine that Meridian is producing as many as they
possibly can to meet the demand, and that they will be undergoing some
tough scrutiny from the FDA regarding their quality control.
Mark Feblowitz GTE Laboratories Incorporated
[log in to unmask] 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham, MA 02154-1120
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