I think it was Zoe who talked about free Apidra. Nothing wrong with experimenting with Apidra, esp. of you can get a vial free! And yes, I love my Levemir.
No use in my trying to fight the ins. co. for more Apidra; my doctor already tried. Actually, my doctor and I had to fight to get any Apidra at all rather than Novolog; I'm getting a special dispensation until 2014. My doctor has seen my records with the different types of insulins, beginning with R and N, and fully supports my having Apidra.
I have delayed digestion and poor absorption due to having Pernicious Anemia and Celiac as well as Diabetes, and Apidra's fast onset and short tail work for me. Dinner is the most difficult. I take half the bolus right before dinner and the other half right afterwards.
Good luck with your insulin that had a little time in the freezer.
I'm glad you were able to get the apidra, hopefully they can extend it for you too. That's good it helps your digestion problems. I've eliminated all grains and wonder if I have some gluten sensitivies too because I seem to do better this way overall. I'm going to try to get some apidra and see how that works for me. I've started my testing on the novolog and still cannot tell if it is ok because I stayed at 113 or so for 3 hours with 3x 1 unit boluses over 3 hours, which can happen at times, I go through a few hours of insulin resistance at various levels. Then took my basal, the unfrozen one, and went hypo after shopping a bit. My dinner bolus did lower me but was a bit larger than normal. Oh well, more testing on the way. I think it is ok now. I guess the levemir/basal will really tell me whether it is ok or not, kind of scared to do that one.
It's technically not free Apidra, but free co-pay. So you need to have insurance coverage to get it. But if you do it's good for up to $100 for a three month supply. It started last year and goes at least until the end of 2013 so it's been awhile since I've paid for Apidra. Just look on their website.
I have to tell you, I didn't see any problems, but I preferred to not take a risk. The ship gave me NPH and R and I was able to use those while on the ship. Then when I got to Mexico, I was able to just go buy supplies in a pharmacy. My biggest fear was that I would decide my insulin was degraded and inject double or triple doses only to find that I suddenly got a pocket of "good" insulin and have a bad hypo. Just to reduce the risk of variability, I chose not to experiment on my vacation since it cost little to have confidence in an alternate insulin supply.
yeah.. I'm not sure what to do because it seems to work with maybe a little higher dose or even the same sometimes.. for my brunch I took only 2 units novolog today from the frozen pen and I went to 154- normally though I would take anywhere from 3-5 units for that meal depending on my bg.. but there are times when I can spike that much anyway even with the higher dose on perfectly good insulin.
I really can't tell whether it is good and I'm afraid to test the basal so far. I called my endo and they said call novonordisc. novo nordisc said not to use it because they can't tell if it's good or not. So I will prolly just have to replace it- my doc said they will write a letter of medical necessity if my insurance won't cover the replacement. I'm just wondering how to replace my big stash though...
I kind of feel that way too Brian, but since I'm so fluctuating and each time is different for me, I can't tell for sure yet... I totally understand you doing that on your trip.. how did you like nph and R? maybe I can buy a some of those if I can't replace all of this.. do you need rx for them here?
Next time let it get warm. Ive read its better it gets warm than to cold.
Next time just keep it in your frigerator with the rest is the food and don’t open the fridge door to keep the cool in. They stay cool for a day or two depending how often you open it.
My power company is a subsidiary of Con Edison. Con Ed is supposed to be really good, but it's like all their resources go to NYC and we get stuck with crap. I actually think our power company might be worse than LIPA...
We've been considering a generator. Most of the people on my block have either had one installed or are seriously thinking about it--we lose power all the time and we lost it for 5-6 days twice in the last two years.
When the power goes out, I worry about my strips. And my epi-pens. And when I used to use a nebulizer, I worried about the capsules, too. This year when we lost power from Sandy, I slept with my meter under the blanket with me so it wouldn't freeze.
Let's just face it--if you don't live in Manhattan, your power company probably sucks.
oh boy.. I don't know if there can be a power company as bad as LIPA, LOL.. but I'm sure Con Ed is awful too.. we lost power for 7 days during Sandy and fortunately one of my neighbors had a portable generator so I was able to store all my insulin with her. Now this friday we lost power for 4-5 hours for absolutely no reason whatsoever .. and we have constant power outages too, if it rains for 2 seconds with a tiny bit of wind the power goes out! It's crazy. A LIPA tech was walking around trying to figure out what was going on saying he had no idea where the problem was. A friend said they should be responsible to pay for my insulin now, I'm going to contact them. Are you on LI?... we're looking at an in house generator too, I think that is the only solution when you have all this stuff to worry about. I'm also going to get the solar fridge asap because that wouldn't even require extra fuel, they can be used in areas that don't even have regular power. I just hope there's enough sun for that. I'm wondering about the strips too, do you refrigerate them? I didn't know that was needed and the meter? I didn't even think of that.. I just had mine by my bedside I think or wherever during Sandy and it was fine.
