For some reason, I can’t seem to let go of my outdated, half used vials of insulin. For me, It’s levemir an novolog. I am thinking that maybe it is some sort of subconcious nihilistic reaction, a “just in case” I am In Absolute peril/dire circumstances sort of thing. In general, I have no intentions of using them, but when presented with the opportunity, I quite literally cannot make myself toss it. It makes me sad, and it feels wasteful. But geez, what part of the maintenance of diabetes isn’t wasteful? Why can’t they make smaller vials for people like me, who could use 1 vial for 3-4 months if it lasted that long.
I have a bowl of bottles in my fridge, many of which have the dregs left in them. It costs as much as jewelry or cocaine, I can't bring myself to throw it out either.
You can waste less if you switch to pens which in general hold 300 units rather than 1,000. Novolog has a half unit pen which would probably be a good choice for you.
Thanks for the advice maurie. At this point, I am using novolog pens. I am at the mercy of the medication that the study I am participating in gives me, as I don’t have insurance. I always finish my novo pens before they expire. But I always have levemir vials, and sometimes novolog too.
I have the perfect cure for any urge to hold on to things that you don't really need: watch even one episode of "Hoarders". It will make you want to run through the house throwing out everything except the baby and the cat. Shudder. I jest (kinda) but pre-Hoarders (by about a decade) I was involved in helping a level 4 hoarder do some clean-out and clean-up before the sheriff came to evict her. After spending EIGHT hours cleaning stuff out of JUST her kitchen (using one 33-gallon black garbage bag after the other -- you couldn't even tell that I had been there. It was that bad. Ever since then I have kept nary a used yogurt container, an empty pill bottle or a hank of left-over yarn in the house. When papers pile up, I get the willies. Just...let it go. Really. Let it go.
I hate tossing insulin vials & feel guilty when I do, but do throw them out.
I use Levemir for 6-8 weeks with no loss of potency. I also use Apidra vials for 5-6 weeks with no problem. Helps me feel less wasteful.
Even though they say it's not necessary, I keep opened vials refigerated. Can't hurt to keep insulin at a constant temp & perhaps that's why I can use them longer.
Wholly cow Jean, I did shudder! My family, including me are surface abusers, there is always a table to toss it on when in a hurry. It's what a like to call temporary clutter and when I have a time it gets put in it's proper place or gets tossed. Unfortunely, that may be twice a day or not in two days! I recently took my son to a classmate's house for a playdate, the mom had said weeks before at our house that I was so organized, and that she needed my help and advice with hers. Now looking at her house it looked like a combo of lived in and just moved in. No dirty dishes or clothes on the floor, but extra large containers and boxes stacked on top of each other in the living spaces (even burying the fireplace). There were more toys then I ever thought any kids could play with in a lifetime. And a professional snow cone machine on kitchen island that hadn't been used since summer, not that it stood alone, she may have had 2 square feet of free counter space (not next to each other, I may add).
Yeah, I am on the go too often to even keep my levemir in the fridge. I have to have it on my person. I tend to be able to use my levemir for 2 months and my novolog for 1.5 months.
The boxes made me laugh. I have an old friend that had a "box room" in her house. For some unknown, unknowable reason she kept about forty or fifty empty cardboard boxes (not flattened) in a spare bedroom. She had gotten it into her mind that finding "good, clean, sturdy" boxes for moving was sooooo difficult, that she would collect them when she found them. Was she planning to move? Nope. She just couldn't pass up a "good, clean, sturdy" box. Go figure. I'm not saying that I have never collected silly things (I used to have a clean, empty yogurt container habit: "I can use them for lunches and left-overs.") but my collections have never taken over entire rooms. (Knock wood.)
Funny the things people can't toss out. My mother saves the cotton that comes in vitamin bottles. Why? Are cotton balls a rare, hard to find item? My mother-in-law has a container collection. Stacks of plastic cottage cheese & margarine containers. She uses some of them, but has a ton. She also has stacks of Tupperware stuff.
I . too have hoarding tendencies( a "baby" hoarder,) I call it.. and still have A bottle of Lantus from a pump failure in 2008 in my fridge. And am stacking up on Apidra now that it is free. I always store my new and used vials of insulin in the fridge, an old habit from" back in the day" when we took one shot daily; and never carried it out of the house.
Watching "Hoarders"motivates me,somewhat . I am a"surface abuser" ( lol I like that term, Emily.), feeling every piece of printed material is worth a save ( some where): Mail,MagazineS, books, newspapers,recipes, ancient tax returns, receipts .. If it is paper, I save it!! Will pick them up and move them to one room (my little office))once a week though. However, I never open the door when I have visitors that do not know me... Getting rid of boxes of I-can-still-wear-it-but-why- would-I? clothes to the kidney foundation next week.. Will get to the paper clutter room..next week, of course, as procrastination rears its ugly head.
One other thing I thought of, although I haven't done this for a while, is that it can be useful to have "empties" to load up for day trips w/ shots? Instead of "smoking" a fresh bottle in my golf bag or for the amusement park or whatever, I'd unload a bottle as dry as possible and put in a day's supply. Maybe a bit extra for an amusement park? heh heh heh....
I have to tell you, this is probably not a good idea. When insulin goes bad, it polymerizes or separates. And it is like a crystalization, it will spread. If you load up an old empty with bad insulin, within minutes to hours, all the insulin you loaded is probably toast.
You can probably order sterile empties from your pharmacist for cheap.
Acid, I put a little bit in a resevoir on the sunny hot days I go to the beach, boating and am "untethered'. I keep the resevoir and syringes in a a little pouch with the small frozen ice bag wrqaped up, sometimes in a fanny pack... In pre-pump days. I repeatedley carried a vial and syringes around for MDI. For some reason, I never got into the pens, Once, only once, I had an uncushioned vial to break, while in transit. Very alarming. Since I am nowon a pump so I carry the insulin -filled smaller, plastic resevoirs instead. I have not noticed a decrrease in its potency as a result. I Keep ossome filled resvoirs in the fridge for trsvel purposes. I know that this may not be recommended by the insulin manufacturers, but it works for me.
I know that we value our insulin like gold and it seems wasteful to throw it out. But the truth is, insulin has only transient value. If I really have an issue, I can't get a new prescription. I'd rather go get NPH and R than to use an partially used insulin vial or pen that has become outdated.
And we all "waste" insulin. I prime my pens and syringes. I waste a good 2 units on every injection, even if I am injecting only one unit. That is just part of what we need to do.
There are some things that I think we can do to not "waste." I carefully rotate my supplies, making sure I use the oldest first. And I have adopted a plan, if I ever have extra unused, unexpired supplies, I will try to donate them as soon as possible to Insulin for Life.
Please just make the decision to throw out these vials. The should have no sentimental value to you and you properly should not turn to it if your primarily supply of insulin fails.
