Lantus lasting 20 days?

[asyarlk]

Hi

I've noticed a pattern with my lantus an I am wondering if anyone has the same issue.

Basically, after around 20 days after using a new pen, my sugars start to rise, even after 0g carb meals. For example, I regularly eat the same breakfast of 5g carbs and take 0.5u novorapid as I seem to rise early and this stops it. Then I hover at 5mmol until lunch. However, after 20 days of a new lantus pen, I know go up to 8mmol. This also happened last month.

Is this common? Is my lantus losing its potency? I take 6u at night...I had the same problem last month and when I swapped my lantus it settled again,

Any ideas?

 

[himtoo]

that is a really good question-- lantus should last about 4 weeks once taken out of the fridge and inserted in the pen.
i assume your pen is a 2 unit pen ie: can only take 2 or 4 or 6 units etc etc
i also assume you are doing an "air shot" every day to make sure you get insulin coming out of the needle prior to injection.

based on 8 units used per day ( 6 injected and 2 in air shot ) your cartridge will be lasting about 37 days which is outside the recommended time.

the other thought is what temperature is the pen stored at normally ?

i have not heard of lantus becoming ineffective after 3 weeks but to be safe you could change the cartridge at 3 weeks for a few times to see if you get any improvement.

 

[tim2000s]

@asyarlk k , it is a common phenomenon. I used to get 22 days out of a 10ml vial before having to jettison it. After 22 days, I needed nearly twice the amount of Lantus from the same vial.

Others have mentioned the same issue with Lantus, and it is pretty widely known in medical circles that once out of the fridge, the shelf life is quite a lot lower than Levemir.

If you do a quick search on here, you will find that others have experienced the same thing.

 

[asyarlk]

Thanks. I will have a look on the forum to see .

I am on a 1 unit pen and do a 2u air shot before I take my 6u.

I will change my lantus today and see if it settles down again. The one I use stays in my bedroom so stays quite cool most of the time.

Possibly it's been kept out of the fridge longer than I know about.

I've heard a lot of good things about levemir but not so many about lantus. If I can counteract the shelf like then I'm quite happy staying on it.

 

[asyarlk]

@tim2000s are you still on lantus?

 

[tim2000s]

@tim2000s are you still on lantus?

I had other issues with Lantus (documented here), so changed to Levemir, which I have found to suit me a lot better.