Thanks @CatLady06. I’ll search locations for the CGM. Mine just fell off today. Will try opsite. Skin tac was too irritating. The CGM is a good tool, but it is quite the pain sometimes. Thanks again!
The home health nurse recommended and used the Skin Prep for my husband’s post-surgical dressings and Uni-Solve to remove them. Neither product irritated his skin…and he had a zillion dressing changes over several weeks!
I was using Apidra when I first started pumping with Omnipod in May 2013. I liked Apidra, it seemed to start faster and be finished more quickly than Humalog. Unfortunately I had a bunch of occlusions with Apidra in the beginning and one day when I was out in the sun playing golf the insulin literally died in the pump and my blood sugar sky rocketed. My endo recommended changing to Novolog and I have had no occlusions with it and it has handled the temperature extremes both high and low without issue. If I were to go back to MDI I would resume using Apidra.
afrezza starts to work within 15 min
I heard John Pickup (who virtually pioneered insulin pump use in the UK) talk about this. It has to do with the potential for carbon dioxide to cause local reductions in the pH in the tissues around the site. The three analog insulins use different amino acid modifications to facilitate faster absorption at the site. These changes can alter the pKa (i.e. neutral point) of the protein. Apidra has a lower pKa than human insulin making it more likely to denature if pH around the site is lower. Novorapid actually has a higher pKa than human insulin making it more stable. Humalog contains an aa27/28 inversion which doesn’t affect the pKa. It is possible that these changes also affect thermal; stability but I haven’t seen any data personally.
Joel
Apidra has a longstanding reputation for being less thermally stable, but I’ve never seen any actual hard data.
I find Novolog works faster for me than Homolog - so interesting that there’s so much variety here! I haven’t tried Aprida, as insurance doesn’t cover it. I also developed bad irritation at my pump sites recently when using Homolog, so have switched to Novolog and having no problems. Keeps me on my toes!
Yes, we ae waiting for a faster insulin. I use novolog, because I think it lasts longer in a pump than humalog. apidra only lasted two days in a pump for me. They can make it act faster. Hopefully soon.
Hy there!
First post here! Actually, I’m from Brazil, but I’ve learnt a lot in those discussions here. I’m trying out now Apidra instead of humalog. I gotta tell u that, for me, humalog used to work brought my sugar levels down better than apidra.
Other point I’d like to say…I don’t know why, but all insulins here in Brazil are muuuuch cheaper than US or Europe! An exemple: yesterday I bought 5 apidra solostar and I paid for it 120 reais! Thats about 30 dollars for 5 apidra solostars! Ive read here that some of you need to pay around 180 dollars!!
Lol welcome. 5 apidra solostar pens is more like $500 for 5 here in the USA. Proud to be an American and pay 20 times more for everything than anyone else (kidding). Virtually nobody pays cash for insulin here though it’s all purchased by third parties which is what drives the cost up… terribly inefficient system we’ve been duped into here though.
I can imagine retiring in Brazil…
Yes, there’s no logic to the pricing. You can get a lot of us started on that!
For me using injections with pens, Apidra is faster onset and shorter tail than Humalog, but also requires more insulin per gram carb than Humalog. Even though they’re both “fast acting” bolus insulins, I like to have both available depending on what the situation is, what I’m eating, etc.
Exactly the opposite for me on the I:C ratio. At noon and later I used an I:C ratio of 1:8 with Apidra, but 1:7 with Humalog. Unfortunately, Apidra is not covered by my current insurance. I was hoping to switch to one that covered it for 2017, but there is not a single Medicare supplement that will cover it in my area. I’ll even have to switch plans to cover Humalog, as my current plan is going to switch to Novolog, which is the slowest of all for me.
This is an interesting thread. Has anyone used any of these insulins with symlin? I am currently on apidra with symlin and have a hard getting the timing right to take my bolus after the symlin.
Same for me and thanks to the randomness of prescription management I was forced to switch from Humalog to Novolog this year. I’ve read other comments where people who liked Novolog were forced to switch to Humalog. Whenever you find a good plan the only thing that’s certain is that it will change.
I have not used Aprida, since not recommended for my pump, and not covered by my insurance,
But I have switched from novolog to humalog, then back to novolog (due to insurance ‘preferred’ list), and found the novolog worked a bit faster for me. I also had to reduce my total daily insulin with novolog. But I know others have gotten different results, some just the opposite.