I'm buying some diabetes travel supplies for when I travel for work. I'm thinking buying this case to keep all of my supplies in. I want the blue one so it's easily visible. I had my pump supplies in a ZipLoc bag last trip and forgot to put them back in my bag when they emptied it to search. I didn't realize I'd left them until I went to change my pump site that evening. Luckily I had been heading back home and not to a hotel somewhere!
Anyway, that case has a gel pack in the back which is supposed to (I think) keep insulin cool for up to 12 hours. I would like something that keeps it cool for as long as possible. (I won't be in really hot places. I just would like to be able to bring long-acting insulin without having to toss it a month later for being "unrefrigerated", as I usually don't end up using it and only bring it in case of pump failures.)
I was wondering if a Frio would be cold enough to put in that pocket behind where the insulin pens would sit (instead of the gel pack) and keep them cool for longer. Or does it only work if the pens are actually inside the Frio itself? Keeping in mind I won't be going to any desert environments or anything.
I also have an Epipen which is NOT supposed to get too cold (or too hot), so maybe I could stick a Frio with long- and rapid-acting insulin in the area where the gel pack goes, and the epipen and other stuff in the loops on the front. I've never seen this or any other travel case in person so have no idea how big they are for organizing supplies.
I am not concerned about the chill for insulin, except for long term storage, If you use a pump, it is exposed to body temp for a few days (98.6) and seems to work well. I have been advised to only use room temp insulin to fill my pump cartridge, About 40 years ago I was told to only use Lente insulin at room temp, so it mixed better when I shook it it up to fill a syringe. Really!
If you are flying, the Frio will wig TSA out :D! I know, as I had that experience at TSA with a month long trip to Atlanta last year in 100 degree weather.
I only have used the Frio to house my day to day insulin bottle in summer, when I set the daytime temp in the house to 80. It keeps everything cool enough. Basically refrigeration is over rated, depending on the location,
The thing is that I keep long-acting insulin in case I ever need it (have needed it twice in the past six years when my pump failed completely and I needed a replacement). So right now when I travel, I take a vial of the long-acting insulin with me, but it means that it's unrefrigerated for about a week, and my understanding is once it's unrefrigerated it only lasts about a month. (Maybe this is wrong?)
So right now, without having a cold pack of some sort, it means that every time I travel, I pretty much waste a vial of insulin because I bring it with me and don't end up using it, which I find really annoying. I would like to be able to bring long-acting insulin with me, put it in my hotel fridge (if available), then bring it home and put it back in my fridge, and have it last until I need it or until it expires (which would be like 2015 or so for insulin I buy now). So that would mean it would be unrefrigerated for about a day on the two days that I am actually travelling. I travel for about a week every month or six weeks.
I'm in Canada so don't need to worry about TSA much. I'm usually just travelling around the country (flying) and only go to the States for leisure (at least so far).
Can't you just carry a prescription with you for the rare time you may need it? I keep a prescription on hand for the "in case" time my pump may go out. I don't see buying the insulin to keep on hand for the 2 times in 6 years you may need it.
I could, but I'm not sure how long a prescription lasts? I also think in a travel situation finding a pharmacy could be stressful (I am not a big traveller as it is). I don't think buying a pack of pen cartridges every few years is really any more inconvenient than keeping an up-to-date prescription on hand and finding a pharmacy in case it's needed.
Also, I have used the long-acting insulin more than two times in six years. A couple times I went on short pump vacations. It's just twice that I had no choice because my pump wasn't working.
The pen has to be in frio and frio in open air for it to work. It works via evaporation, the frio itself is not actually cold but the moisture evaporating from it does allow for heat dissipation, how much depends on temp and relative humidity of its environment. In the application you describe, it will provide no cooling whatsoever for your insulin
60°F-72°F, depending on the climate which the wallet is exposed to. This is not cold enough for long term storage.
You can carry a RX and fill it anytime here in the US....in most large cites even at 3;00am. A (US) prescription is valid for one year, I get new ones every year and carry them along with a letter of medical necessity listing all of my needs, including drugs and fluids. If my pump fails I will just make up my basal every 4 hours with a injection...I have no intentions of switching back to a basal insulin while I wait for a new pump.....
I would not trust a Frio to ensure long-term storage for a basal insulin. I really think you need to consider a travel fridge. I also don't trust hotel fridges, they are often quite unreliable and can have hot or cold spots. If you really must bring basal vials for long-term storage you might consider a travel microfridge. And technically, once you have used the basal, you need to toss it a month later anyway.
In general, insulin loses it's potency in proportion to the temperature it is exposed to and the length of time.
Perhaps another option is to use pre-filled syringes, keeping your vial safely at home and bringing a few syringes with just the backup basal you would need (tho I don't think you can prefill syringes with Lantus). Some sources suggest that prefilled syringes keep for 28 days, but I've also seen a number of studies that show the plastic affects the insulin within a week.
I have a travel fridge it works great...My Daughter lives in Germany and it's great, works on household current or 12V (car battery).
While we are on the subject of keeping things cool I thought I would share how we keep our dogs from overheating down here in Texas. Hmm mm...Frio vest for dogs....
When my pump failed the first time I originally planned to take a shot every three hours ... That ended after 24 hours when I found waking u every few hours and trying to stop work every few hours (I don't work at a desk job) too annoying. My pump ended up taking more than three days to arrive due to major issues with the courier.
Given what others are saying I think I'll ask my doctor for a prescription I can keep on hand and only bring long-acting insulin if I know I'm going to a more remote area or on a longer trip.
Do you know if that fridge runs on batteries? I saw that several years ago and was going to get one for an Earthquake kit, but I couldn't find anywhere saying it could run on batteries.
Ironically, here is where I find myself wishing they still made 150-unit pen cartridges like they did in the 1990s. It would be easy to just bring one just in case (150 units would last me 5-6 days) and if it wasn't it wouldn't be like throwing away 300 (for the current pen cartridges) or 1000 (for the vials) units.
I think I'll probably talk to my doctor about getting a prescription I can keep on hand and only bring insulin if I'm going on longer trips, etc.
For long travel (such as an international trip) where I carry 2X the normal supplies as well as pen backup for my pump, I use this package which has cold-pack inserts. It holds pens and vials on one side, next to the gel packs and on the other side it holds
miscellaneous supplies - meter, lancets, alcohol swabs, sharps pocket, etc.
This keeps things chilled until I get to the hotel or ship where I put the extra (unopened vials and pens) in a refrigerator. Probably technically not needed..but sometimes travrel can be through hot areas and it just makes me more comfortable.
PS. I also bring the pen cartridges for my kiddie Novopen. That way I can use them either in a pen or my pump and not waste them. They still seem to be available in the US. They are 300U.
I usually use pen cartridges since I can't measure using a syringe. For Apidra it's not a problem: I keep them in an insulin pen when I first take them out of the fridge, and then use them to fill my pump and replace the one in the pen with a new cartridge from the fridge, so they are never out for more than a a few days to a week. It's more the long-acting insulin, which I would like to (ideally, though sounding like it may not be possible) keep for months at a time before using.
That case you linked to is similar to the one I'm looking at, and I think it uses the same gel packs. I saw a link to one (from the Amazon page you linked to) that had a temperature monitor built in, which I like the idea of, too.
On a similar topic--- does anyone know at what temperature insulin freezes? Or is otherwise damaged by getting too cold? I travel a lot for work. The other day I was in a hotel and put my carry case in the mini fridge. I keep a cheap little keychain thermometer in the case. In the morning it read somewhere around 25 F. That is of course colder than I would have expected the fridge to be, and below the freezing temp of water. The pens didn't appear to be frozen, but I couldn't be sure. They were all brand new pens so I didn't test them with a needle right away to see if they were frozen or not, but visually didn't appear to be. Nonetheless, I set them aside and haven't used them yet. Any thoughts?
