Little Scare

[MSSpouse]

I'm the work-at-home spouse of an Active MS-er using the injectable meds that require refrigeration. Unfortunately, the other day the small fridge where we keep the meds went haywire, with the temp dropping down to a little over 28 degrees. After a quick double-take at the digital readout, I pulled the meds out in a panic. Fortunately I caught this early, as none of the syringes were frozen (yes, I inspected each and every one, and we had 3 months' worth in there). Am now in the process of installing an external thermostat to control the fridge temperature, though I am tempted to get a new fridge too as I'm pretty ticked off at this one.

Has anyone else had a problem like this? Should I be concerned that the meds spent some time at this temperature, even if they didn't freeze?

[ActiveMSers]

They should be fine. It would take hours at that temp to freeze. But if your spouse uses an autoinject and they explode when giving the injection, well, then they froze and the batch is toast.

When mine froze, I ditched the fridge in under a week. FWIW, a wine fridge might do double duty nicely, as they are supposed to keep temps constant and—bonus—you have a place to store your wine at perfect temps! It's a matter of safety is the excuse I would use to purchase it. Although I don't know if you could write it off on your taxes.

[MSSpouse]

I looked into the wine fridge thing--the ones I saw had a temperature range that was a little too high for what we need. Rats! I think I'll just pick up a new cube fridge (with the temperature controller attached) for the meds and restore the other one to its previous life as a beer/soda fridge.

The guy at the home-brew supply store (where I bought the temp controller; most folks use these for lagering) also suggested I try to get insurance to pay for it! That would be an interesting claim form to fill out.

Thanks for the info re: the auto injector. His next shot is tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. No explosions I hope!