I put "all" of my extra insulin in the freezer today because we had a power failure of 4 hours and it was sweltering in the 90's .. then I went out and forgot about it. When I came back the power was on. It came on at around 6pm and I came home around 9pm. I don't think the freezer reached full temps right away so it prolly wasn't in there at full temps long enough to freeze and it doesn't look frozen at all, it's just cooler than normal. It's perfectly clear. Will it be ok? How can I tell other than testing it...there is a lot of it...? My opened symlin pen was totally liquid and seems to come out as normal when I primed it. I also forgot to put my symlin pens not being used in a cooler place, they were in another fridge, and wonder now if they will be ok due to not being cool enough. I'm so upset :( I hope I haven't ruined it all.
Sounds like the insulin should be ok. As long as it looks right the only real way to know is to use it. I know it's a little late but the best thing to do with a problem like this is to use a Frio if you have one. Hope for the best!
thanks Zoe, I think it is probably ok.. you're right, a frio would have been great, I would have needed a few though because this is a big chunk of insulin, lol. I will ask my endo what he thinks too... this kind of thing makes me so nervous.. and I was telling myself last night tomorrow I'm going to order a solar fridge and then the power went out... murphy's law I guess. :)
Yep, Murphy gets us all!
so true.. I hate murphy, whoever she/he is.. lol
Definitely not my favorite person (if he/she was a person they were a trouble maker). Now "Occam" I like: Occam's razor says the simplest answer is usually correct.
I have always heard that the fridge itself will stay at 40 degree or below for up to four hours, if you don't open the door. Even after 4 hours, it would take a long time for a closed refrigerator to attain a temperature that would harm insulin.
Simple answer--leave it in the frig!
I would not immediately assume that your frozen insulin is ok. You should keep a close eye on it, if it appears to develop particles it is bad, but it could go bad and look ok in the pen. With a vial you might also notice it clinging in stringy bits to the sides.
In the end, the true test is whether it loses potency and the only way to really know that is to use it and keep track of things. Unfortunately insulin may not totally go bad, it just may require 2-3 times a normal dose. When I had a frozen insulin incident, my pens looked "ok" because they had not crystalized, but they were not ok.
I believe insulin is more resistant than how we think it is. But we are somehow hardwired to be cautious about this kind of stuff as D.
As Brian said there's just one way to know if it's ruined: try it.
In this kind of situation you can choose to be optimist or pessimist. Price is the same so get a big smile and go for the former. Maybe you are gonna find out that frozen insulin works better!
I know I should have just left it in the fridge, I feel so dumb :( I had called our power supply company and she told me to put in on ice, which I said would not be a good idea because it could freeze and she said just don't put it near the ice. So I decided to put it in the freezer in which things like ice cream were already starting to melt a bit.
She said she was on insulin too... lol. I wonder if I can get them to replace all of this if it is damaged. We're going to get a generator system soon, but I also plan to get solar fridge so I don't have to worry about all of this. I'm on LI and we have LIPA, one of the worst power supply companies... we have constant power outages and it's such a stress worrying about all of this.
Hi meee. Recently, when our trailer fridge with my vial of Apidra in it went to 30 degrees, the insulin behaved just as Brian said, requiring extra insulin in the doses. A lot of testing required!
lol... thanks Rick, I think I will try to smile and hope it is going to be ok, so I still have my big stash :) I will open a couple of new pens and try them to see. I hope you're right that it is more resistant.. it really looked ok and I had read someone else's post here who said her's was really frozen and it still worked. Also I have kept using my opened insulin now a lot longer than the manufacturer says to now and syringing it from novolog prefilled pens to my old novopen junior penfill cartridge and I've had no problems with that either.
Really Brian? That isn't a good sign. Was yours stringy/have particles etc? Did you keep using yours? I think I will test a couple of pens just to see if they are working or not.. better to waste a little now than to not know my whole emergency stash is no good. I had a lot extra of my novolog/lantus and somehow ended up with extra levemir too although not as much even though I switched to that later on, because I had started on a much higher dose last year after I got out of the hospital. I guess I will have to buy more because my insurance will not cover this prolly.. I wonder if they will let me just pay for it out of pocket? Or would the manufacturer replace some of it? I just feel safer having the extra insulin in case of disasters.
I had forgotten what Occam's was and looked it up.. it definitely sounds like my philosophy, the simpler the better.
thanks everyone.. on another note I woke up testing at 34 today and took glucose tabs, then tested again 4 minutes later and I was really 81.. seems this is my couple of days for things going haywire.. lol. :(
Thanks Trudy, are you still using yours? I will open a new pen of levimir and novolog and see what happens.. don't relish the thought of more testing but I need to find out sooner rather than later... since I tend to fluctuate a lot etc. though I wonder how I'm going to know for sure if it's the insulin.. I guess if i keep going higher all the time I will know though... in that case maybe I can just dose higher but it might be better just to replace it all if that happens..
I haven't thrown it out yet, but in fact, I probably will. A dilemma--I sure hate to waste insulin, esp. now that the insurance company has cut my supply of Apidra in half.
oh no, that is such a pain..:( maybe you can just dose it higher? or is that too confusing/iffy?
why did they cut your supply in half?
I hate all of this worrying we have to do about all this stuff...
I hate to waste it too.. I had enough stored up to keep me going for a year or more maybe in case of a real disaster I think, due to taking a much larger dose when I first got out of the hospital, not sure really how I ended up with so much novolog though.. I guess my endo just rxed a lot more thinking I would be taking much higher doses but I had switched to a low carb diet and I'm still very insulin sensitive most of the time.
Figuring out the insurance company... Anyway, when I used a pump I needed more insulin than now on MDI, because the pump, tubing, etc. does waste some insulin. Still, I appreciated getting two vials rather than one monthly because my Apidra often only lasts 24 days or so rather than a month. Apidra is temperature sensitive, so I figure that somewhere along the line before it gets to me, it gets damaged and loses potency. A perfect bottle of Apidra is just exactly what I need. The insurance company doesn't take damaged bottles into account; what's more, they really, really want me to get Novolog. I can live with Novolog, but it just doesn't work as well as Apidra with my peculiar digestion. In time, if I run out of Apidra on this new regime, I suppose I'll have to switch to Novolog, which does last a month.
I agree: I also hate worrying about all this stuff.
:( can you fight them to give you two vials? they really should have to account for damaged insulin, or whoever delivers it should have to if they're not storing it properly.. I didn't realize apidra was more temp sensitive than novolog. How is the timing of apidra better for you?
I was thinking I may switch because I want to try the pendique pen and they told me you can't use novolog with it, something to do with the pen refill size I guess- I'm not sure, but then I thought maybe I can just get one box of apidra refills and syringe the novolog into it after it's used up. I'm used to novolog and I worry about changing things too, but actually switching to levimir was not bad at all- however if apidra is so much more sensitive it's prolly not a good idea. I heard that apidra is doing a free insulin program this year? Is that true? I also noticed a coupon someone posted saying she gets free novolog I think- for her daughter- I meant to inquire about that at my insurance.. have to see where I bookmarked it.