20 minutes ago, Finni said:

when I was weighing 10 mirt tablets, one weighed less than the average. 

What pill dose are you using? 10 mg? 20 mg? 

What is the weight of the tablet for 14.7 mg.

Just keep that consistent by shaving or adding extra bits/powder.

Your weight will never change for a consistent dosing. You need to do whatever is necessary to keep it that way.

Edited March 26Mar 26 by LostinCanada

@Finni You are tapering mirtazapine correct? And you’re shaving or cutting tablets?? Mirtazapine can easily be compounded by a pharmacy or you can make your own liquid and it would be much more accurate in getting your dose accurate than shaving tablets. I’ve made liquid mirtazapine and it’s quit easy if you have a few easy to acquire pieces of equipment that u can buy on amazon 

11 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

What pill dose are you using? 10 mg? 20 mg? 

What is the weight of the tablet for 14.7 mg.

Just keep that consistent by shaving or adding extra bits/powder.

Your weight will never change for a consistent dosing. You need to do whatever is necessary to keep it that way.

The thought of having to take a full 15 mg tablet really scares me. And to have to add to it it’s very scary because I’m so afraid of being zinged again.

So I figured out that I really wasn’t taking 14.7 mg. My old scales were measuring 15 mg mirtazapine tablets to be .100 g, and sometimes my scales would register .098 g that I was going for and sometimes they wouldn’t.

My new scales measure 15 mg tablets to be an average weight of .1040 g.

So taking 2% off of that would leave .1019 g and when I tried that it looked to be much much less than what I’ve been taking.

So I’ve settled on taking less off:  

 

.1027 g on new scales

2 minutes ago, Finni said:

1027 g on new scales

So that looks more like 1.25%
 

About 14.81mgai

 

Glad you have some better scales. Hope this helps. 

When I get my mirtazapine refilled, will I need to weigh 10 of those new pills and get a new average?

@Chippy

@LostinCanada

8 minutes ago, Finni said:

When I get my mirtazapine refilled, will I need to weigh 10 of those new pills and get a new average?

@Chippy

@LostinCanada

no, as long as it's the same brand (and you shouldn't switch brands anyways), the average weight will be the same.

only if it's a different dose tablet or different brand, you need to weigh cause it's a different tablet.

Edited March 27Mar 27 by Lighty

12 minutes ago, Finni said:

When I get my mirtazapine refilled, will I need to weigh 10 of those new pills and get a new average?

@Chippy

@LostinCanada

Yes I would do this. There could be variations between batches just as there is between pills in batches. Might be the same but good to check. 

4 minutes ago, Chippy said:

There could be variations between batches just as there is between pills in batches.

I'm pretty sure, as long as it's the same exact tablet, and it's not a new recipe or something, the weight should be exactly the same on average, as they need to make the tablets consistent.

It wouldn't hurt to double check the weight again tho.

2 minutes ago, Lighty said:

I'm pretty sure, as long as it's the same exact tablet, and it's not a new recipe or something, the weight should be exactly the same on average, as they need to make the tablets consistent.

It wouldn't hurt to double check the weight again tho.

I’ve recorded some pretty big fluctuations between tablets in the same bottle, which really surprises me.

 

1 minute ago, Finni said:

I’ve recorded some pretty big fluctuations between tablets in the same bottle, which really surprises me.

 

Unfortunately this is the case and why we average the pill weight. I personally would always check this between batches. 

I still don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to add to a 15 mg pill.

I don’t think I can get there psychologically

3 minutes ago, Finni said:

I still don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to add to a 15 mg pill.

I don’t think I can get there psychologically

Don’t put the pressure on yourself. Remember Mark only suggested it for convenience. Just concentrate on getting a consistent dose. Which you are doing. 

3 minutes ago, Chippy said:

Don’t put the pressure on yourself. Remember Mark only suggested it for convenience. Just concentrate on getting a consistent dose. Which you are doing. 

I mean that some of my 15 mg tablets weigh less than .1027 g, my current dose

3 minutes ago, Finni said:

I mean that some of my 15 mg tablets weigh less than .1027 g, my current dose

Oh I see. That is tricky. That is always going to be a potential issue when making such small reductions and having manufacturing tolerances that big. I’d be tempted to not take those ones. See what LIC says. 

1 minute ago, Chippy said:

Oh I see. That is tricky. That is always going to be a potential issue when making such small reductions and having manufacturing tolerances that big. I’d be tempted to not take those ones. See what LIC says. 

So far, I have them separated out in a different bottle put away!

 

I think my doctor would be open to prescribing a few extra every month if I need to to not have to deal with those outliers

2 minutes ago, Finni said:

So far, I have them separated out in a different bottle put away!

 

I think my doctor would be open to prescribing a few extra every month if I need to to not have to deal with those outliers

Good. Tricky work this home chemistry business isn’t it!

Just now, Chippy said:

Good. Tricky work this home chemistry business isn’t it!

Yes!

 

I wonder if a compounding pharmacy could use this same brand of mirtazapine to make a liquid for me…..

 

eeek 

That’s another variable for my CNS though

6 minutes ago, Chippy said:

Oh I see. That is tricky. That is always going to be a potential issue when making such small reductions and having manufacturing tolerances that big. I’d be tempted to not take those ones. See what LIC says. 

just a reminder that legally, each tablet dose can be +-5% from the advertised dosage, as it's considered insignificant in pharma effect.

2 minutes ago, Finni said:

Yes!

 

I wonder if a compounding pharmacy could use this same brand of mirtazapine to make a liquid for me…..

 

eeek 

That’s another variable for my CNS though

I’d stick where you are and try not to panic. There is always light variation in the drugs. And to honest compounding services sometimes make errors. These errors can be bad! 

2 minutes ago, Lighty said:

just a reminder that legally, each tablet dose can be +-5% from the advertised dosage, as it's considered insignificant in pharma effect.

Wow! 5% 

1 minute ago, Chippy said:

I’d stick where you are and try not to panic. There is always light variation in the drugs. And to honest compounding services sometimes make errors. These errors can be bad! 

Oh dear heavens! I certainly don’t want that.

 

I look forward to the day when I’m not dealing with any pharmaceuticals at all.

2 minutes ago, Chippy said:

I’d stick where you are and try not to panic. There is always light variation in the drugs. And to honest compounding services sometimes make errors. These errors can be bad! 

It sure can feel like I’m walking in a minefield sometimes

1 minute ago, Finni said:

Oh dear heavens! I certainly don’t want that.

 

I look forward to the day when I’m not dealing with any pharmaceuticals at all.

I look forward to that day too. 

1 minute ago, Finni said:

It sure can feel like I’m walking in a minefield sometimes

I know Finni. Try to focus on what you can control and let the rest go. Don’t feed the fear. Xxx

3 minutes ago, Finni said:

Wow! 5% 

Yes apparently so. Which is madness. What is important to remember is that is the rule with both the Fda and mhra is for active ingredient weight. There is no rule for the pill weight. So hence we check the pill weights and average them to remove the variance in fillers from pill to pill. The variation in active ingredient will be taken into account during this process too.