Congrats holmes!
Now how the fuk do I calculate 500 iu's on a u100 slin pin if I mix 3 1/2 ccs in a 5,000 iu vial sukaaaa?
There are two types of insulin syringes available on the market---U100 (which is human/veterinary use) and U-40, which is only veterinary use. The syringes are based on a 1ml maximum content in which a U100 insulin syringe has 100 units of insulin per 1 ml.
Now to complicate things a bit more, U100 insulin syringes are available in 1/3, 1/2, and 1 ml size syringes.
On insulin syringes, each individual mark represents 1 Unit---and the marks are based on if its U40 or U100 insulin with the syringes clearly labeled as U40 or U100.
Also remember that Insulin Units (U-40 or U-100) are different from International Units (IU). An IU is a measure of biological activity---in insulin 1 IU of insulin has the biological equivalent of about 45.5 μg pure crystalline insulin. Use of IU to measure insulin makes things even more confusing because you aren't measuring volume, you are measuring biological activity.
With GH--a 5 mg vial contains 15 IU of biologically active somatropin (growth hormone)---remember again an IU is a measure of biologicaly activity, not a measure of volume or mass. It was to be reconstituted with the 5 ml vial of sterile water which was supplied. This results in a diluted concentration of 1 mg/ml of somatropin (concentration of base product/concentration of dilulent= final concentration). This 1 mg/ml of somatropin resulted in a 3 IU/ml concentration of somatropin (or 3 IU/ml of biologically available growth hormone). Again, if I want to torture myself, I do calculations with IU.
The Humatrope cartidges were designed for ease of use by nonmedical personel, but if you do the math with them, they are even more confusing. They are a prefilled syringe with a cartridge in them that contains either 6 mg (18IU), 12 mg(36 IU) or 24 mg (72 IU) somatropin. The dilulent included is 3 ml of sterile water---so if you use the cartridge, it will result in either 2 mg (9 IU), 6 mg (18 IU) or 12 mg (36 IU) per ml concentration of somatropin.
Obviously this math can be very, very confusing. It gets even more confusing because different manufacturers make HGH products with different doses. For example, NovoNordisk makes Norditropin Cartridges in three concentrations: 5 mg/1.5 ml (or 3.33 mg/ml) 10 mg/1.5 ml (or 6.667 mg/ml) or 15 mg/1.5 ml (or 10 mg/ml).
My advice for anyone considering administering these sort of drugs, especially if you are doing it outside of the direct guidance of a trained medical professional, make damned sure you have something that is clearly labeled, you have the correct syringes, you double check the syringes, and you think a bit about the math involved with the dilutions.
Just a brief conversion:
1 cc (cubic centimetre) = 1 ml (milliliter ) these are volume measurements.
A mg measures the dosage of the drug a mg = 1/1000 of a g (gram)
1 mcg (microgram) = 1/1000 milligram
An IU (International Unit) is a measurement of fluid
To answer your question: 3.5cc = 3.5ml. 5000iu divided by 3.5ml = 1428.571429iu per ml. 1428.57 divided by 3.3 = 432.0, so just above one third of a ml will approximate 500iu (if, in fact, your slin pin is 1ml)
