My anniversary for taking advantage of the Lilly free Humalog coupon is coming up in September, which made me go look and see if the offer is still on-going. It is. You can get 1 free 5-pack of pens every 12 months with this coupon.
I'm on a pump, so my insurance-paid insulin is in vials. However, I very much like to have some pens around as backup. It's awfully nice of Lilly to offer this -- I still have two left from last year's freebie. I plan to get another 5-pack on 9/7 when I'm eligible again.
Dave, If I do this, does it come with any pen needles? Or do I need to get 2 Rx’s from my doctor, one for the Humalog and one for the pen needles? Thanks for posting this. I would also like to use a pen sometimes for correction boluses. The only disadvantage is that the pump will not calculate the IOB number. I wonder if the pen needles come in longer lengths to facilitate intra-muscular correction shots.
What I always do when I use a shot for correction, Terry, is just disconnect my pump and waste the equivalent amount so it will be calculated into the IOB. That also gives me the opportunity to watch and see if insulin is coming out of the set if I'm trouble shooting a problem.
By the way if anyone is interested, Apidra had a free copay coupon as well that could be used for vials. I used it for over a year. I don't know if it was renewed for 2014 as I started Medicare last November and federal programs are excluded (and my insulin is free on Medicare anyway). Anyone interested can just go to the Apidra website to see if it is still available.
Zoe - The co-pay rebate program for Apidra from Sanofi is currently available through the end of 2014, possibly longer.
Your system of “air shooting” to keep the IOB accurate is a good work-around. I wish the pumps allowed the user to input an external syringe shot so the pump could keep track of it. This is the kind of thing that pump manufacturers could learn from us if they asked us.
I simply can not believe that no one at the mfg's hasn't thought of this. It's so obvious.
Rather, I strongly believe it's that ol' devil, the FDA. Probably something like, if you enter it and then forget, or adjust the amount, or anything that could break the link between what you actually inject and what you input, well, we can't have that sort of thing.
The pump always knows precisely what's gone in to you through it, no matter what you do to modify the delivery (cancel part way through a square wave, for example).
Isn't it so nice to be protected from yourself by Big Daddy? Don't you feel safe?
I did this when my insurance wanted me to switch to humalog which didn't work out for me and I stayed on novolog. but at least it is there for a possible emergency. I can't give it away apparently. no pen needles just the five pack of humalog pens.
Just a quick note that I tried using the Apidra discount after losing my health insurance and was told by my pharmacist that it only covered the first $100 dollars of the insulin.
