Insulin at room temp for 10 days after delivery?

My insulin delivery arrived at my office and sat there for 10 days. I just found it and put it in the fridge, but the cooling gel packs had clearly lost their cool.

Is this insulin still good to use?

Just to be clear, it has not been opened. It just came from delivery, 3 months supply of lantus solostar and humalog, both pens. I have type 1 & LADA.

Was it sitting inside an air conditioned office? If so, then it’s probably fine. Not ideal storage for insulin, but it’s probably OK. The key question IMO is not whether it was unrefrigerated, but how “extreme” were the conditions the insulin was exposed to?

Huh, we did have a discussion recently which went on and on at length about what are the manufacturer’s claims for insulin viability. However, I think it got eaten by the migration. :disappointed:

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I always had insulin in my drawer in bedroom, room temp, never to hot or cold and it was fine (did this for about 25 years). Once I moved to upstairs bedroom with much hotter temp, that did not work so well and realized pretty quickly the the insulin was no longer working and went to fridge storage. So give it a go and if your BG starts going up for no reason you’ll know why.

It will be fine! ---------

It took me 5 tries to not get the “body invalid” error.

Agree. Insulin is more stable than some people seem to think. I have always kept my bottle in use at room temp for however long it takes. Before the last few years when I saw all the comments on here about how you should refrigerate unopened bottles, I kept my spares at room temp for years. I have never had one go bad. But then my house is always between 60 and 75.

LOL, does this really mean your body is invalid?

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I think it should be fine. You can test it and see. If you’re like me and often have unexplained numbers don’t throw it out due to random highs, I’ve definitely thrown out some insulin that was fine I’m sure in the past. I would keep the extra in the fridge from now on.

Overseas mail order pharmacies ship insulin to the United States with it taking 18-21 days to clear customs and be delivered from time of shipment. I questioned them on this practice and they say as long as it doesn’t exceed room temperature it can spend 30 days unrefrigerated without effecting its 28 day shelf life at room temperature once it’s opened. I don’t know if that’s actually true or not, but it’s what s Canadian pharmacy told me.

Humalog is rated by the mfgr to be kept at room temperature for x days…and that room temp max is considered to be 86 degrees. we all know how conservative mfgr storage requirements are for medicines…

The only time i worry about temps is when I am sunning myself on a hot day–I try to keep the pump in the shade by turning it around on my waistband so that the clip is exposed instead of the pump. A pump sitting in the sun can get exceedingly hot in a short time.

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Thankyou all for the replies. I will go ahead and use the insulin and keep an eye for abnormalities. Sounds like it will be fine.

I initially joined this forum naming myself ‘overthinker’ as a 33 yr old who had just been diagnosed with Type 1. But I am starting to feel that ‘overthinking’ is just part of the territory for newly diagnosed people. The first year or so was full of big twists and turns, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

So great to have this community help me as I adjust. Hopefully the admins can fix the website issues - thanks again!

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You’ll get used to it if you remember it is a marathon not a drag race…

there are a number of things that newly dx’d diabetics do. Among them are (in no particular order)

  1. fret excessively over keeping insulin cool
    2 throwing out perfectly good insulin in 30 days
  2. using alcohol on fingertips prior to testing (dries out the skin)
  3. changing lancets EVERY time.

We have to be somewhat careful not to overheat insulin like leaving it in a parked car. Also, don’t let insulin freeze.

I’ve used insulin that has been opened for months. it works.
I change lancets “every once in a while”.

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Oh, I think we all know when it has become painfully clear that it is time to change the lancet, no? :anguished: :smirk:

Hah! And oh what a long while it often is. Nice thing is they seem to have settled on one universal format for these things–at least, I’ve had lots of different testers but they all seem to accept the lancets from the box I bought about ten years ago. And it’s still pretty full.

I could open a lancet store, I have so many. The only type I have ever bought is a package of cartridges for the accucheck FastClix. It takes many months to go thru the 6 lancets in a cartridge. They are quite handy and the button action to pierce the skin is cool–just one depression of the button.