Has anyone ever tried to salvage un-used insulin from a pod? I have done this and it does work, all you need to do is take it out the same way you put it in. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this… I usually only do this if there is a problem with the pod and it is filled with insulin (or only a day old).
I do this each time I change my pod and havent had any problems.
I done this before…only if I experience pod failure within the first 24 hours. I definitely would NOT advise habitual withdrawal of unused insulin because this would mean that somewhere along the line, you’ll have a pod with seriously old and possibly out-dated insulin mixed in with new.
This came up once or twice before on this group…
Ah-hah, here it is: http://tudiabetes.com/group/omnipodusers/forum/topics/can-you-go-beyond-the
Read down towards the middle part and you can see some comments. Personally, I think it’s fine if the insulin has only been in the pod for a short time, but I would never re-use insulin from a 3-day-old pod.
I do this pretty much whenever a pod fails (or I knock it off) within the first 24 hours of placement. I did have one pod fail while priming though and it was difficult to remove the insulin from that one. There was lots of pressure and I could only get out about 140 of the 200 units. I think this may be because I never removed the needle cap but I’m not sure. I also once tried to inject air into the pod before removing the insulin and that just results in the insulin coming out the cannula on the other side. Studies have been done showing insulin retains nearly full potency up to 48 hours on your body and then starts dropping pretty quickly, I think about 15% a day so be careful about continually reusing insulin from pods.
I found the best way to do this is to put the needle in the hole and pull back all the way (even though no insulin may be going into the needle) you will se it start to fill the empty needle…
yes… i’ve had to do this before. once, i ruined a pod by running into a doorway before inserting the cannula. so… it was a perfectly good and un-used pod… but the tap had ripped. so, i took out the insulin and got just about all 100 units back.
I do this as well, if there is enough left in the pod whenever i change it I do it. Never had a problem.