Insulatard effectiveness

Anywhere that holds medications does check their fridge temperature daily, or at least on every working day - have always done so when proefessionally responsible for vaccines kept in travel clinic and other medications at various research units.
I do the same for my own insulin in our home fridge, but regularly keep my Humalin I and Humalog insulin out of fridge for approaching 28 days, as I often travel out of reach of fridges.

Hi,

When it's particularly warm in my bedroom (it's like an oven sometimes) i find it coincides with a suspicion my insulin's potency has started to decline.

As it's getting warmer i'm planning to only half fill my cartridges so i use new insulin quicker, problem is that when filling cartridges for a pump you get less bubbles when the insulin is at room temp and you can get 3 cartridges full from one vial, so it's hard to judge between keeping your insulin effective and wasting supplies.

I hope pharmacies have checks in place to monitor things like that!

If i have suspicion that my insulin is a bit 'off' i'll change it to be safe.

The other day i had something suspicious floating in my cartridge. God knows what it was but i was horrified at how it could get in there so i only suspect it was either the cartridge or the insulin, i checked my vial and it looked fine, but i decided not to use it anyway.

Better safe than sorry!

It should keep outside of the fridge for 28 days..

Couple factors though to think about..

Where do you keep your insulin pen when it's out the fridge, Direct Sunlight, Cupboard next to the cooker or prehaps near another heat source! such as near a toaster etc!

Also check your actual temp of your fridge, this may not be the right temperture so wise if you'll storing insulin to purchase a fridge thermometer to keep an eye on it..

Another think you might need to bare in mind, is your routine, rather there is any changes here, perhaps work pattern, exercise pattern or meal plan pattern might be the culprit rather than the actual insulin going off, the dose isn't meeting the needs!

As joper says, by keep your insulin away from any heat sources should prolong the life of the insulin, just remember to shake the pen well before injecting as I recall Insulatard is a cloudy insulin.

Nigel

Hello,
I have found your post from yesterday, I could not answer because I only registered this evening.

I am a type 2 diabetic, I have problems swalling pills, I have been prescribed Insultard and I inject in the morning and the evening. I am told the morning injection lasts for 8 hours at least, it is a slow release insulin.
But I found that it takes around 2 hours to kick in and wears off after 6 hours; they want me to iuncrease Insulard rather than put me on a quick insulin as well as this would make me put on weight.

I have to shake the Insultard before I inject because its always separating.

Inez