Because I buck the trend and the norm and inject pork natural insulin I am always worried that the supply may dry up some day. I have been stashing one vial a month for years and at present have an 18 month supply in the fridge, over 50 vials. According to IDDT in Britain my insulin will be like brand new even after 10 years of storage. I keep a close watch on temperature and rotate my supply monthly. I can’'t use synthetics after giving it an 8 year try, so I am stuck with this. I refuse to go back to synth.
Do any of you keep a stash of insulin, in case of natural disasters etc? I always keep several hundred syringes handy too, and I have used as few as one per week when I was poorer than I am now.
A few times I have even reduced dosage by 50% and ate way less when times were tough, and I have national health care, go figure. ha ha!!!
Don
I don’t take animal insulin, but I do stash extra Humalog!! My husband is SO ready for me to clear out the overflowing butter compartment in the fridge, because it won’t hold any more vials. They’re all mostly half-empty, but I still keep them. I live near D.C. and worry about an attack where I would be stuck inside for days or something.
Funny how those of us who depend on insulin prioritize so differently… if there were a bad terrorist attack, most people would be worried about how to contact their families and make sure they had food. But with me, my biggest worry would be whether I had enough insulin and strips!!
So I don’t hoard it for for the same reason you do, but yes, I do stash it. I’m sure that many people do the same thing!
You reminded me of a time when a tornado was raging up our road (I live out in the country) I sent my kids, my husband, and the dogs to the closet (my daughter was newly diagnosed as a Type 1, so here I go while everyone is hollering at me ,to get our insulin and and needles for our shots and the pump supplies (for just my pump at the time) Hey i got all of it right after they said the tornado had went into another county ( just 5 miles down the road) If it had hit us I guess I would have been gone to nature so now I keep a ready supply in the closet!
Wow Doris, that is quite a story!!! Glad it went the other way!
I have a three months supply by accident lol okay wait let me explain. I had moved to a new station with my husband and the doctors there really had no clue in how to treat a type 1 so instead of putting in 3 bottles for the month which equals to 3000 units he put in 10 vials thinking that equaled 3000 units?!? apperently he took that since I changed my site out every 3 days that it was a vial per change instead of the 3ml. so I ended up with 10 vials for one month and he did the same with my test strips and lancets and what not. I of course told him after I filled the first script and we switched the qty of it all but hey gave me a 3 months supply of extra insulin and strips and what not and I am working on building the pump supplies as of right now I have a months supply. so I will never again be stuck if my supply got shipped late or some drastic event happened.
The American College of Endocrinology says "a 30 day supply of medications for diabetes and all other medical conditions. this should include insulin, oral antidiabetic agents and a severe hypoglycemia emergency kit (if prescribed by your physician). The rest of the list includes a kit that is “both insulated and waterproof”, a 3 day supply of bottled water, and lists and lists and lists. …a one or two day supply of food that does not require refrigeration, four refreezable gel packs, at least two glucose meters with extra batteries. Ever see the list?
u would have thought I would have been ready it looked like REALLY bad weather all day! But me in my fanticy world… I’m glad it did too! LOL!
My son was diagnosed in 2005 when Katrina hit !! Even thought I live nowhere near there, I heard horror stories about diabetics without insulin or supplies.It was eye opening to me. I realized the importance in having extra supplies on hand. At that point, I don’t quite remember how I did it, but I always had an extra vial - because he was on shots. Then when he went on the pump, I got his pump supplies about 2 months before he started pumping, so I just kept getting the prescriptions filled like he was pumping… Now, I get his insulin and strips every 30 days, even though I don’t always need them right away…(although he goes through a bottle of insulin a week !) I have stockpiled a nice little supply in case or emergencies, natural disasters, who knows ??? I need to stock up on batteries now… they usually have a decent shelf life !!!