InPen Smart Insulin Delivery + G6

Sean, I can call today. I can be relatively flexible to meet your schedule. If I don’t hear from you, I will plan to call sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 pm today.

I work as a software quality assurance manager here in Virginia.

Rob Stites

© 571-352-7658

I want all to know that Sean called me directly yesterday and we had a very good conversation about the pros and cons of using the InPen. I am glad that Dexcom is pairing with the InPen and hope that it can be useful to me in the future. There are certainly FDA hoops that the company must comply with and cautions of not overdosing on insulin that focus the testing of the pen and the necessary dosing calculations. A new generation of the InPen is coming out and I would be open to trying it.

Sean suggested that the Novolog cartridges may have expired or been submitted to too much heat or cold this summer. So I contacted Novo Nordisk and they are replacing my 5 cartridge package. The possibility of the Novolog having lost potency was increased by the fact that the pharmacist had told me it was the last carton she had. So it may have been sitting for quite some time, but not yet officially expired. So I will use the InPen with the replaced cartridges (and mail back the old cartridges) to see if that makes a difference in keeping my BG in the normal range while using the InPen.

Thanks to Sean for giving attention to this and taking my peer review comments!

RLS

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Wonderful news Robert! I am so glad you and Sean were able to connect and talk about your issues.

Sean, I so very glad you reached out to Robert regarding your product the InPen.

When I find my new internist this is one of the treatments I will be asking him or her in combination with Dexcom. I think it is time.

The replacement Novolog cartridges seem to be covering my BG well enough now. I am overriding the InPen insulin dosing recommendation by reviewing the calculation of the dose. Again this morning the recommendation was for 1 unit and the calculation came to 1.47 units so obviously I took 1.5 units. This is an FDA mandated rounding down, Sean told me.
I will continue to use the InPen and try to adapt my existing methods to use the pen only (along with syringe for Lantus). The InPen also recommend amount of carbs to bring the BG up and these have been relatively accurate.

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Hello, I am following up after more than 7 months of off and on use of my newly replaced InPen which Companion Medical supplied to me. We suspected that there might have been a mechanical error in the original pen but I would say they were both operating as intended. I also switched from Humalog, which is more expensive in my medical plan, to Novolog cartridges which cost less in my plan. But use was the same.
I am having to say, that for me, this has not been a helpful addition to my insulin delivery and here are some things about me and reasons why the InPen is not something I will continue to use.

  1. I am on a low-carb, higher protein & vegetable diet, seldom more than 40 carbs a day and must micromanage my insulin doses. (Whole grain pizza is my passion!)
  2. I have a history of good BG management using syringes and vials kept in my frig and in my blood tester bag. The syringes allow me to adjust my doses well.
  3. I use Dexcom G6 and my iPhone to know my BG and an additional app, once called PredictBGL, but now called “Jade” which costs $100 per year or less and both track my BG timing and IOB and give alerts to my phone. I must record my injections manually but I have such a habit that it is not an issue. Jade has a prediction algorithm that I trust and I can adjust multiple input items for my own body reactions to insulin. My reasons for not continuing with InPen;
    A. The pen continues to under dose my needs and I see no reason to change my standard algorithm just to make it work. Significant drips are on the needle after injection each time and I wait 10 seconds before withdrawing the pen needle.
    B. I suspect that putting the InPen in my pants pocket causes the insulin to overheat, but as I told the Companion Medical CEO Sean, the pocket clip is non-functional so I have nowhere else to keep it on my person. In fact, the second InPen clip broke a few weeks after I received it while trying to clip to my pants pocket since it won’t clip in shirt pockets securely. Clipping securely into my shirt pocket would be a win for me.
    C. The cartridges and pen needles are more expensive than vials and syringes
    D. The iPhone app is interesting but I don’t find it especially insightful and the reports are not particularly helpful. I am able to enter into my log manually which is helpful but unable to delete anything from the log. IOB is helpful and recording doses.
    E. Looking toward retirement within 3 years, I am expecting to want to keep costs down and the InPen does not provide enough benefit for the cost.
    F. Just last month I purchased my first $25 vial of Novolin R from Walmart and it is working fine especially since I am on a low carb, higher protein diet.
    G. My own system works very well for me, but the InPen may be a benefit to you. I hope these insights help you evaluate your choices.
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