Humalog Kwik Pen-Not Always Getting Full Dose

Treatment Insulin
1

Hey Everyone,
Been a little while. Wondering if anyone has ever had this problem…

On my last two Humalog pens, U-100, I’ve noticed on occasion, after giving an injection where I firmly pressed the plunger all the way several times, I am still able to twist the plunger backwards between 1-2 units, and when I turn it back up that same amount and try again, I can still twist it back down that same amount. I have to crank up past this seemingly dead space in the dial, prime, and then measure up and inject. As I said, I always press the plunger several times and am sure I’m going all the way down with it. I do this because I never trusted that kind of sticky feeling where it doesn’t feel like the plunger came all the way back up. This is the first time this has happened to me in the last year of using these pens, but has now occurred on the last two pens I’ve used, from two different boxes, filled at the pharmacy on two different dates. At first, I noticed it by accident just twisting the plunger afterwards to have something to fiddle with while logging what I had taken. I wondered if I had somehow cranked a unit or two back up with some kind of weird twisting of my thumb on top of the plunger while contorting to reach a site, but I’ve determined after several otherwise unexplained highs post injection where I’ve been able to reverse the plunger afterwards that I am in fact missing insulin. As I said, curious if anyone ever had this happen. I’ll be making a call to the manufacturer either today, or tomorrow if they are closed today.

Thanks,
Ryan

2

still having this problem? giving it a BUMP. i have no experience with KwikPen unfortunately.

3

Sometimes I get a bad pen-tip and the pen won’t prime. What did you find out from the manufacturer and/or provider?

4

Thanks for the bump. I actually never got around to calling about it. The previous pen I was using up until last weekend was so bad I ended up throwing it out with about 250 of the 300 units left. It happened two or three times on this new pen, but much less than the last. I’ll try to get around to making a call today and follow up here.

Ryan

5

If you don’t want to waist the insulin in the pen, i would extract it with a syringe and use it that way. like that you can at least use most of the left insulin. not sure but it hurts many if they have to throw away so much insulin, especially in the states where it is mindblowingly expensive.

1 Like
6

You can “add” units at any point to your injection. Depressed fully, you can dial up whatever “more” units you want/need. Mid injection too, last time I checked.

Had the stuck problem the past few weeks with my final pen. Got down to the last couple units and it jammed. Took my finger off the plunger and pressed anew a second time. Stuck for a second, but finally worked.

Make sure you hold down the plunger when it reads zero for 5, 6 seconds too. Apparently the mechanism can stick. A bit of extra pressure/force typically works.