Using a scale to weigh and measure doses

[Frogie]

4 minutes ago, BfromNJ said:

So I am basically paying no mind to the milligram idea.  I weigh in grams and then do 90% of it.  does the scale not measure in miligrams? 

I’m not sure if it does in mg. But I did what Brassmonkey said to do and weigh in grams. He did his whole taper using the scale and is doing wonderful.

[BfromNJ]

7 minutes ago, Frogie said:

I’m not sure if it does in mg. But I did what Brassmonkey said to do and weigh in grams. He did his whole taper using the scale and is doing wonderful.

Thank you.  My scale is ordered and will be here tomorrow.  Hopefully brassmonkey can "weigh" in pun intended. lol.   if he sees this.  

[Frogie]

Just now, BfromNJ said:

Thank you.  My scale is ordered and will be here tomorrow.  Hopefully brassmonkey can "weigh" in pun intended. lol.   if he sees this.  

He might. He’s currently on a trip around the world. Lucky him. But I’m sure one of the mods can help you. They are all very experienced and knowledgeable. Good luck!

[BfromNJ]

8 minutes ago, Frogie said:

He might. He’s currently on a trip around the world. Lucky him. But I’m sure one of the mods can help you. They are all very experienced and knowledgeable. Good luck!

Well the way you explained it is very helpful to me.  Im just so afraid to mess it up. 

[Frogie]

12 minutes ago, BfromNJ said:

Well the way you explained it is very helpful to me.  Im just so afraid to mess it up. 

I made a lot of mistakes. But I finally listened to the mods and it started going smoother. I still had a rough road, but I made it. Yesterday was my last dose of Lexapro! I never thought I would see that day. If I can do it anyone can.

[BfromNJ]

1 minute ago, Frogie said:

I made a lot of mistakes. But I finally listened to the mods and it started going smoother. I still had a rough road, but I made it. Yesterday was my last dose of Lexapro! I never thought I would see that day. If I can do it anyone can.

awesome congratulations!   

[Frogie]

Just now, BfromNJ said:

awesome congratulations!   

Thanks. I appreciate that. I hope you do well in your taper.

[brassmonkey]

Very well explained Frogie.

 

This is a very weighty subject and I can't wait to weigh in on it. (don't get me started on puns I'll get banned from the group)

 

The scales we use don't actually have a milligram setting, so we have to use the gram setting.  The Readout shows the weight to 3 decimal places (00.000) The three places to the right of the decimal point indicate milligrams. A reading of 00.125 would be read as 125mg. a reading of 00.012 would be 12mg and 00.001 would be 1mg.

 

Just to add to the confusion, the weight on the readout of the scale is referred to as mgpw (milligrams pill weight) and is the physical weight of the dose. The strength of the dose is referred to as mgai (milligrams active ingredient) This is the number that we usually talk about.  You would do the same calculations just starting with the strength of the dose as stated on the bottle instead of the average pill weight. For your record keeping you need to track both.

 

The numbers Frogie gave are for doing a 10% taper. If you want to do something different just ask and we can help with the math.

 

It might be a good idea to practice a couple of times with some otc painkiller tablets just to get the feel of how things work.

[Frogie]

4 minutes ago, brassmonkey said:

Very well explained Frogie.

 

This is a very weighty subject and I can't wait to weigh in on it. (don't get me started on puns I'll get banned from the group)

 

The scales we use don't actually have a milligram setting, so we have to use the gram setting.  The Readout shows the weight to 3 decimal places (00.000) The three places to the right of the decimal point indicate milligrams. A reading of 00.125 would be read as 125mg. a reading of 00.012 would be 12mg and 00.001 would be 1mg.

 

Just to add to the confusion, the weight on the readout of the scale is referred to as mgpw (milligrams pill weight) and is the physical weight of the dose. The strength of the dose is referred to as mgai (milligrams active ingredient) This is the number that we usually talk about.  You would do the same calculations just starting with the strength of the dose as stated on the bottle instead of the average pill weight. For your record keeping you need to track both.

 

The numbers Frogie gave are for doing a 10% taper. If you want to do something different just ask and we can help with the math.

 

It might be a good idea to practice a couple of times with some otc painkiller tablets just to get the feel of how things work.

Thanks Brassmonkey:

 

I tried to explain it the best I could. I just didn’t use it very long because I switched to liquid.

 

But I will be using it when I start my Xanax taper. I’ll probably be asking you questions too.

 

By the way, I love your puns. You keep us going.

 

Hope you are enjoying yourself.

 

Take care,

 Frogie xx

[BfromNJ]

3 hours ago, brassmonkey said:

Very well explained Frogie.

 

This is a very weighty subject and I can't wait to weigh in on it. (don't get me started on puns I'll get banned from the group)

 

The scales we use don't actually have a milligram setting, so we have to use the gram setting.  The Readout shows the weight to 3 decimal places (00.000) The three places to the right of the decimal point indicate milligrams. A reading of 00.125 would be read as 125mg. a reading of 00.012 would be 12mg and 00.001 would be 1mg.

 

Just to add to the confusion, the weight on the readout of the scale is referred to as mgpw (milligrams pill weight) and is the physical weight of the dose. The strength of the dose is referred to as mgai (milligrams active ingredient) This is the number that we usually talk about.  You would do the same calculations just starting with the strength of the dose as stated on the bottle instead of the average pill weight. For your record keeping you need to track both.

 

The numbers Frogie gave are for doing a 10% taper. If you want to do something different just ask and we can help with the math.

 

It might be a good idea to practice a couple of times with some otc painkiller tablets just to get the feel of how things work.

The magi and mgpw confuse me.  I don't understand this at all.  So I'm not weighing as forgive said?  Now I have to figure this out? 

[brassmonkey]

You should weigh things the way that frogie talked about.

 

mgai, milligrams active ingredient, is the strength that is listed on the bottle, for example according to your signature you are currently taking 25mgai of luvox.  As you taper this number will decrease as you take smaller amounts of the medication.  This is the number we talk about when we say we are taking xx amount of a drug.

 

mgpw, milligrams pill weight, if you put a whole tablet on the scales the reading you get is xxx mgpw.  When you crush a pill and put some of the powder on the scale the reading you get is yy mgpw.  As you taper this number will decrease and you will weigh out smaller and smaller amounts.  This is the amount that you actually measure and take.

 

We have added the ai and pw suffixes to the mg to make it easier for people to understand what is being talked about.  If you were to say your taking 55mg we can't tell if you're talking about the strength of the dose or the weight of the dose and it is a very important difference to keep straight.

 

For my taper I used 40mg paxil tablets.  When I put one tablet on the scales it weighed 500mg. So we would write that as 40mgai and 500mgpw. My first reduction was 10% so I weighed out 450mgai of powder on the scales, this would be the dose that I take, I keep a record of this so I can calculate my next reduction.  That powder would contain 10% less medication which would be 36mgai , this is the number that I would report on my intro thread.

 

I hope this helps clear it up a bit.

[Songbird]

9 hours ago, BfromNJ said:

The magi and mgpw confuse me.  I don't understand this at all.  So I'm not weighing as forgive said?  Now I have to figure this out? 

 

You could use the dose-weights spreadsheet here (see second post):  how to calculate dosages and dilutions spreadsheets and calculators

[BfromNJ]

3 hours ago, brassmonkey said:

You should weigh things the way that frogie talked about.

 

mgai, milligrams active ingredient, is the strength that is listed on the bottle, for example according to your signature you are currently taking 25mgai of luvox.  As you taper this number will decrease as you take smaller amounts of the medication.  This is the number we talk about when we say we are taking xx amount of a drug.

 

mgpw, milligrams pill weight, if you put a whole tablet on the scales the reading you get is xxx mgpw.  When you crush a pill and put some of the powder on the scale the reading you get is yy mgpw.  As you taper this number will decrease and you will weigh out smaller and smaller amounts.  This is the amount that you actually measure and take.

 

We have added the ai and pw suffixes to the mg to make it easier for people to understand what is being talked about.  If you were to say your taking 55mg we can't tell if you're talking about the strength of the dose or the weight of the dose and it is a very important difference to keep straight.

 

For my taper I used 40mg paxil tablets.  When I put one tablet on the scales it weighed 500mg. So we would write that as 40mgai and 500mgpw. My first reduction was 10% so I weighed out 450mgai of powder on the scales, this would be the dose that I take, I keep a record of this so I can calculate my next reduction.  That powder would contain 10% less medication which would be 36mgai , this is the number that I would report on my intro thread.

 

I hope this helps clear it up a bit.

i see, but I will take the mgpw dose correct?  so if my luvox pill weighed in at 200 mg and i wanted to reduce by 10%, i would take 190 mgpw, but really i am taking 22.5 mgai right?  the rest of that is just the filler, etc.  Its like having a steak dinner, the steak is the main item, but i also have sides of potatos and veggies. lol.

[manymoretodays]

Hey BfromNJ,

 

See if this helps.

You have said:

Luvox  25mgai weighs 200mgpw

 

25mgai X .90 = 22.5 mgai  This is the dose of your 10% reduction from 25mgai.

So yes, you've got that correct!  !!!  🙂

 

Next you figure out what that would be in mgpw.  Or you can do this part first, which you may have.

So again......if 25 mgai weighs 200mgpw(on average)

You can do the same multiplication with that, to figure out what your 10% decrease looks like in milligram pill weight(mgpw)

 

200mgpw X .90= 180 mgpw

So here, I got 180mgpw.  I think you may have just subtracted 10 from the 200mgpw when you came up with 190mgpw?

 

So 22.5 mgai weighs 180 mgpw.

Therefore, to take a dose strength of 22.5 mgai you would ingest the contents of the weighed crushed pill/tablet which is 180 mgpw.

 

And then if you are using a Gemini20 scale, it reads out in grams or g for the weight.  I either use a milligrams(mg) to grams(g or gm) converter or just my personal calculator to figure that part. 

I come up with, at least for the Gem20 scale, a gram reading then of 0.180 g

 

Hope that helps.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by manymoretodays
Clearer??

[savinggrace]

 Brassmonkey,

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions from “down under.”  If I remember correctly, you were on your drug for decades too. The fact that you are so well that you can travel the world is such an inspiration to those of us whose nervous system’s can barely tolerate a shopping mall!  Have fun. You earned it!

 

Grace

 

 

[brassmonkey]

As MMT pointed out your are mostly correct BfromNJ.  A 10% reduction from 200 would be 180mgpw.  That is the amount your would weigh out and take. 

 

I like your steak dinner analogy and will be stealing it in the future.

[BfromNJ]

18 hours ago, brassmonkey said:

As MMT pointed out your are mostly correct BfromNJ.  A 10% reduction from 200 would be 180mgpw.  That is the amount your would weigh out and take. 

 

I like your steak dinner analogy and will be stealing it in the future.

Feel free brassmonkey. lol.   My scale came from amazon.  so I will be starting my taper soon.  Just waiting to be along in the house.  as it is my boyfriend doesn't understand and thinks im crazy.  so its best I do this by myself.  lol. 

[BfromNJ]

I have a question.  The Gemini scale comes with this weighing tray.  Do I use it and if do won't it throw measurement off?  I don't know how to insert picture.  Or does the scale account for the tray since you are supposed to use it?

 

 

[BfromNJ]

So here is my math.  Frogie or someone am I correct?  

 

10 pills  is 1.266.  ÷ 10 = 0.1266. This is each pill average.  X .75 (as I'm doing 25 % per alto and shep).  = .09495.  This is what goes in each capsule? 

[Frogie]

1 hour ago, BfromNJ said:

So here is my math.  Frogie or someone am I correct?  

 

10 pills  is 1.266.  ÷ 10 = 0.1266. This is each pill average.  X .75 (as I'm doing 25 % per alto and shep).  = .09495.  This is what goes in each capsule? 

You put the little tray on the scale, then turn the scale on. It will read “0”. That’s what you use to put the powder in so you can transfer it to the capsule.

 

The average capsules would be .126 (since you round to 3 digits). The 75% would be .0945. Since the scale measures in 3 digits I would round up to .095. That’s what would go in the capsules.

 

I’m sure Brassmonkey will explain it better but that’s how I figured it out.

 

@brassmonkey:

 

Is this correct? I don’t want to give wrong information.

 

Thanks,

Frogie xx

 

 

[brassmonkey]

That is correct.

[BfromNJ]

5 hours ago, Frogie said:

You put the little tray on the scale, then turn the scale on. It will read “0”. That’s what you use to put the powder in so you can transfer it to the capsule.

 

The average capsules would be .126 (since you round to 3 digits). The 75% would be .0945. Since the scale measures in 3 digits I would round up to .095. That’s what would go in the capsules.

 

I’m sure Brassmonkey will explain it better but that’s how I figured it out.

 

@brassmonkey:

 

Is this correct? I don’t want to give wrong information.

 

Thanks,

Frogie xx

 

 

Also, if I weighed ten whole pills, i should end up with 10 measured ones right?  Did I do it right?  I ended up with 10 new capsules,  using 10 pills to start.   I feel like I should have had more capsules if I was only doing 75% of my starting pills or at least more extra powder.  Or is it that it's such a negligible amount?  Maybe I just wasted more than I thought.  

[Frogie]

3 hours ago, BfromNJ said:

Also, if I weighed ten whole pills, i should end up with 10 measured ones right?  Did I do it right?  I ended up with 10 new capsules,  using 10 pills to start.   I feel like I should have had more capsules if I was only doing 75% of my starting pills or at least more extra powder.  Or is it that it's such a negligible amount?  Maybe I just wasted more than I thought.  

You will end up with 10 capsules plus extra powder. Did you keep the extra powder? You need to keep it and put it in an empty pill container and mark it “extra Luvox.” Then it will add up and you can get 3-4 more pills out of it next month probably when you do your next taper.

[Frogie]

3 hours ago, brassmonkey said:

That is correct.

Thanks... Hope you are enjoying your trip. Can’t wait to see pictures 😊

 

Take care,

Frogie xx

[BfromNJ]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 3:10 PM, brassmonkey said:

That is correct.

Great.  so I did okay with my first try.  Well, I panicked on the first 5 capsules and thought my math was wrong.   lol.  so I flushed them. dummy me .  before realizing I could have just emptied and started over.  Darn mushy med brain.   

[Frogie]

2 hours ago, BfromNJ said:

Great.  so I did okay with my first try.  Well, I panicked on the first 5 capsules and thought my math was wrong.   lol.  so I flushed them. dummy me .  before realizing I could have just emptied and started over.  Darn mushy med brain.   

I did that a few times until Brassmonkey told me to keep the powder. It does add up. You’ll be able to get 3-4 capsules out of extra powder soon. I’m glad you’re doing ok. You did it! Awesome!😊

[BfromNJ]

So I have a question on the scale.  When calibrating it, you don't put the bowl on there right, the weights must go right on the platform? 

[Shep]

2 hours ago, BfromNJ said:

So I have a question on the scale.  When calibrating it, you don't put the bowl on there right, the weights must go right on the platform? 

 

If you're using the Gemini scale, this is a good video to watch.  I'm linking this to start at about 3:30 minutes in where he demonstrates how to calibrate the scale: 

 

Smart Weigh GEM20 Digital Jewelry Scale Review

 

The bowl and the weights are all used to calibrate. 

[BfromNJ]

42 minutes ago, Shep said:

 

If you're using the Gemini scale, this is a good video to watch.  I'm linking this to start at about 3:30 minutes in where he demonstrates how to calibrate the scale: 

 

Smart Weigh GEM20 Digital Jewelry Scale Review

 

The bowl and the weights are all used to calibrate. 

Omg I'm freaking out because I think I calibrated the scale when I got it without the bowl.  Does that mean my measuring of my meds is off?  

[BfromNJ]

30 minutes ago, BfromNJ said:

Omg I'm freaking out because I think I calibrated the scale when I got it without the bowl.  Does that mean my measuring of my meds is off?  

okay I checked it, im okay.  no need to freak out.  lol. 

[deedeedee]

Hi, I was looking for somebody to help me and luckily I have stumbled across this page.

 

I am just about to start tapering off Seroxtat, so just getting my tool-kit in place.

 

I guess I am going to need a pill cutter, pill box and digital scales.

 

My question is on the digital scales - can someone please recommend a make of digital scale as obviously I will need to be measuring in milligrams? 

Thank You

[BfromNJ]

@Frogie

@brassmonkey

Can someone help me with tapering gabapentin?  I take two 100 mg capsules 3x per day.  I need to reduce by 10%.  Its a powder in capsule.  Do I open the capsules and weigh powder?  Or can I weigh the entire capsules?  If I do that won't it be inaccurate? 

[brassmonkey]

Yes, you have to take the powder out to weigh it.

[BfromNJ]

So if its 10% , I can just open one up and take 20% of that one.  Just to make it easier? Instead of taking apart two of them?

@brassmonkey

[brassmonkey]

Yes.  Be sure to save the powder you take out because it will add up quickly and you'll get "free doses" out of it.

[Altostrata]

On 4/15/2019 at 11:46 AM, deedeedee said:

Hi, I was looking for somebody to help me and luckily I have stumbled across this page.

 

I am just about to start tapering off Seroxtat, so just getting my tool-kit in place.

 

I guess I am going to need a pill cutter, pill box and digital scales.

 

My question is on the digital scales - can someone please recommend a make of digital scale as obviously I will need to be measuring in milligrams? 

Thank You

 

Please read this topic from the beginning. Extensive discussion of make and model.