Novo Nordisc Echo Pen - Watch For Cartridge Holder Breaks

I don't normally post anything on here, but thought I would share this insight. Whilst on a recent business trip to Canada I was getting some very strange BG readings, which just did not make sense. I put this down to lots of travelling, change of time zones and change to eating patterns. Wrong! When I got back to the UK, I decided to have a total re-fresh of my Insulin - Novo Rapid and Levemir. Thats when I discovered a crack in the cage threads (Novo Rapid Pen) which holds the insulin cartridge. What this meant is that whilst I was dialling in the correct dosage in to the pen and injecting (so the pen top read correctly) I was infact under delivering the amount of insulin going in. I checked this by doing a few squirts out and found that the volume of insulin did not really change and was inconsistent. I'm pretty low dosage of short and long acting so it does not take much to make a biggish swing for me.

Incidentally I have 2 pens - Blue for NovoRapid and Red (for bed) for my Levemir. It was the NovoRapid pen which was faulty.

The pens are about 2years old; so I suppose nothing last for ever. Perhaps I am a little heavy handed screwing on my needles and it is this which caused the threads to break.

As soon as I spotted this error I switched my Rapid to my other pen and things went back to normal immediately!

As a final point, I asked my doctor to write a script for a new pen, which took about a week to be processed and ordered by Boots; so its worth getting a spare just in case something happens with your pen! Had both my pens failed then I am really not sure what I would have done - how do you deliver insulin?

Robinredbreast said:

Hi, that has happened to my first pen, tbh, I think the plastic is rather on the flimsy side, considering how many times we use it. I have about 3 more at home now as back up's. Only use the Echo for NovoRapid and the 1/2 units are a must for me, plus it gives the dose and time of the last injection, if I have forgotten whether or not I have injected

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I have 2 spares now Unless I am travelling away on business I keep my pens separate as Ive injected Rapid 3 times at night instead of my Long Acting Levemir. 1st time I did this I woke up at 2am with a major Hypo. Fortunately, I realised in my semi conscious state what I had done and sure enough on checking my pen top I saw I had injected 10 units of Rapid. My normal delivery of Rapid is about 3 units for a 60/70g Carb intake, so I was in trouble. Juice and several slices of toast sorted me out. I still injected my Levemir as I still needed background for the next day.

The joys of Type 1.

helensaramay said:

I second your comment about having spares.
Thankfully, my diabetes team hammered it into my head to have spares and always take these with me whenever I go away ... along with twice as much of insulin, test strips, needles, lancets and a battery for my meter.
(They actually said "when I am on holiday" but as I travel for work, I need the spares for more than holidays).

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I get so frustrated with the amount of paraphernalia I have to travel with - both work and holiday. I am on Freestyle Libre (self funded) so I carry spares of this device also. What really gets me is hotels (abroad) which charge for a fridge in your room!

satindoll said:

Novo Nordisk sent out a warning letter to GP's over this problem and it was reported here, though it was some time last year, they will replace the tube carriers with new ones if you contact them on their Customer Care help line........
Telephone Customer Care*

Tel: 0845 600 5055 (8.00am to 8.00pm weekdays and Bank Holidays)

*Calls are charged at a local rate and no other costs are incurred by the caller. Calls may be monitored for training purposes

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Thanks. Thats really useful and I have now read about the recall. My pen was 2 years old, not sure it was part of the faulty batch or not. Anyway - Im carry spares now.