I keep mine in an open tupperware container on the shelf in the fridge. In a house of four college guys who frequently (and sometimes violently) open and close the fridge, I’ve had vials slide out of the butter compartment despite the door. It’s not as discreet, but I’m not too worried about that.
Our butter compartment is completely full of insulin as we speak. If I had one more vile I’d have to put it somewhere else.
Lee Ann, who is also a member here, has a great blog named The Butter Compartment.
Also, I just remembered that our refrigerators are much colder than what is required for insulin. So in response to Heidi’s original question, I don’t think that it will damage the potency of the insulin.
When we purchased our new fridge I made sure the butter compartment was big enough to house my 90 days of insulin. I kept demanding to see the butter compartment of all the fridge prospects. Finally the salesman said “You must really like butter” … “No, sir… I keep 90 days worth of insulin in the butter compartment”
He laughed. He ended up calling us back after a week and found us the perfect fridge.
I also keep mine in a rubbermaid container in the fridge(s)–keeps it all together in case of emergency–easy to grab. It also buffers it from temp changes from open/closings and differing amounts of food in fridge and short power outages. have one at each kids house fridge and one in my work fridge…
I also keep all our other medical supplies (except the open bottles we are using) in plastic tubs–good in case of emergencies/evacuations (fire,earthqueake etc-) waterproof in case of flooding
Long term storage (we get three month’s supply at once), we keep in the inside butter/cold cut department in the downstairs refrigerator. Monthly storage, yes, we use the butter compartment. I had noticed her opened Novolog seemed to lose potency toward the end of the vial over the summer months and we did have to throw out a couple of bottles. Although Sis was reluctant (she likes to keep the vial at room temp. because she doesn’t have to remember to take it out before site change), she was more reluctant to throw out insulin or chance insulin going bad. We keep it in the fridge now between site changes. If it is too cold, we put it in a pocket and wear the insulin for twenty minutes to warm it up.