Mini-rant

OK, so I had to change my type of short acting insulin in anticipation of new Rx benefits through my insurance.
I spent 10 days waiting for doc to call the new Rx in to my mail order company. The prescription was called into my local pharmacy instead. Today the insulin finally arrived, and it’s in the wrong form. I’ve used pens (rather than syringes) for about 10 years. During my appointment, my doc even gave me a free sample PEN for the new insulin. Of course I now have three bottles of insulin, rather than pen cartridges.

Usually I just laugh at this stuff, but today it just made me want to cry. : - (

I know how you feel! My doc and his office is quite good at taking care of us, but sometimes orders get messed up between my request and the staff. What’s bad is when I used to get things from a certain mail order pharmacy and under no circumstances would they allow returns. (thankfully, Optum Rx does, which I currently use). I hope you have some syringes to use this if you need it NOW, or can you return it? I’ve never been allowed to return anything once it is passed over the counter to me and I sign for it. They claim “its the law”. aargh. I hope they take care of you ASAP. The pharmacist may be able to give you emergency quantities of pens until it’s straightened out tomorrow.

What kind of pens do you use? You can easily refill any of the Humalog pens from vial and syringe. Either the non-disposable Humalog Luxura pen, or the disposeable Humalog Kwikpen type are easy to refill.

Here are some directions:
refilling-the-lilly-kwikpen-disposable-pen

filling-your-own-pens

I very much like the Luxura because it’s easy to fill with whatever I want. I have Luxura pens filled with Lantus, Levemir, Apidra, and some other special mixes.

1 Like

interesting. I think the pens I have in the fridge as backups to my pump can’t be refilled, but the link you gave is really cool for the pens that can be filled.

1 Like

So…I have been happily using a Novolog Pen (Junior, so I can take .5 units) and now need to switch to Humalog. The sample Humalog pen given to me by the Doctor (Lilly Luxura HD, as mentioned by Eddie), has no cartridge in it to fill. Otherwise, I can see using transferring insulin from the bottles to the cartridges using a syringe.

I don’t think the unused Novolog cartridges (sitting in fridge, soon to expire) I have for my “NovoPen” will fit in the Humalog pen.

Dave44 - thanks for your note. I also have Optum Rx, so maybe they will let me return it? It was left by my front door, so I’m thinking now that I’ve opened the outside box with the ice chest in it, they won’t let me return it.

Thanks everyone for the helpful info, stuff only T-1’s would know.

1 Like

If you are interested in doing it, you can just buy a pack of cartridges from Canada with a script from your doctor. You can re-use the humalog cartridges over and over, so a pack of 5 would last a long time. Then you can fill with your vials.

I think a pack of 5 is about $90 from Canada with no insurance.