So my pod fell off last night. Just slipped right down off the front of me. 
I had put it on with no problems, used Skin Tac, never noticed anything wrong, and then it was off.
Anyway, I knew I had at least 75 units left, so I took my fallen pod and put it in my medicine cabinet and have been using it for my manual injections. 
Good idea? Bad idea?? Breaking a law of some sort??
We do the same too if the pod is 1 day to 1.5 days old. If the pod is more than 1.5 days old, I figure that the insulin has been at skin temperature for a long time, and may get compromised if we use it for too much longer.
But, to tell the truth, I do it for safety (not using it if it is more than 36 hours old), but I donāt really think it is necessary. If I was short of insulin Iād scavenge.
Then to follow your lead, Iāll drop it in the trash by lunch tomorrow. I really dislike throwing away insulin, but this meant my only throwing away half.
Weāve done it many times and itās never caused an issue. Iām not willing to throw away the money. We donāt do it for those that have been used for the entire 3 days, only those that error out in the first day or 1.5 days after applying it to Liam.
I fill my MM 1.8 reservoir to the max, and change it when it runs out, usually around 6-7 days. Pump is usually in pocket, so close to body temp. Never had any problems with the bottom of the barrel.
Independently I change infusion set every 3-4 days, so sometimes I do end up doing Reservoir at the same time.
This results in least amount of wasted insulin. I change tubing at same time as new reservoir, so once every 7 days instead of 3-4.
I guess Iām cheap or thrifty or something, because I would use every last drop even if it was 2 weeks old. As long as it works, Iāll use it
I have taken the insulin out of a Tandem cartridge after it was three days old and put it into the next cartridge which was then used for another 3 days. And added additional insulin to top it off to the level I wanted.
The Tandem of course is not worn directly on the skin like the Omnipod so no idea if that makes a difference.
I saw no issues.
I would not be comfortable taking the insulin out of the āsecondā cartridge and moving it to a āthirdā cartridge - there is a limit for me at least in my comfort level.
Note that we do not do that as a regular practice but really just wanted to try it out.
As well, we will take insulin out of the cartridge for a manual injection. This was based on advice from @Eric. So all we need to carry for ābackupā is a syringe. We already have insulin with us in the pump. This we have done on a number of occasions where we wanted an MDI for whatever reason. Worked really great. No need to carry around an extra vial.
Add me to the list of cheap people! I fill my reservoir to close to the max (not the complete max on the t:slim, although I did on my MM pump), and let it go until runs out, usually about 6 days. I also usually pull the insulin out of the old reservoir to add to the new one. Iāve not had problems with this so far, personally, but I can see why someone wouldnāt want to take the risk.
Iād use the insulin from the fallen pod. But then Iām the guy who refilled t:slim cartridges two times so that I could get 15 to 18 days out of each one.
If they pay for my waisted insulin if pod not working or when i go playing sport then it falst down ā¦i tryed 4-5 pods in 2 months who not make the 2 peep sound when inject the insulin then i did i could activate it still and it take insulin to other closed area but then no connectionā¦5 x waisted 150 units thats 750 units and that i pay self for price of 100 dollarsā¦
also what if u somehow get to problem with ur last insulin since the drogstore where out and they first get it 1-2 days later and then stuff like that happensā¦then u screwed since u not able to stik the syringe for inserting in somewhere to get it outā¦so u can inject air into normal input point so insulin comes out of the
medicine hose where it normaly comes out to ur body but then u have to have something to gather thatā¦Plz do something !
You can suck the insulin right back out @turbo5800. You definitely donāt have to waste it! Use the same needle you used to put the insulin in the pod, put needle inside POD, pull plunger back and the insulin comes out into the needle, then you can use it again. Whenever have have a POD fail immediately, we always pull out the insulin and re-use it in another POD.
Glad to hear you can do this. It was one of my questions.
So u telling me that when my pod is active i can still suck insulin out same way i injected? or u saying i then have to get need into the tube where insulin is injecting normal?
You cannot extract anything from any active pod because, in theory at least, an āactiveā pod is affixed to your body and you canāt access the bottom of the POD where you would extract the insulin from. What I am saying is that, you said you wasted a lot of insulin because you had repeated POD failures. Iām saying, when a POD fails, you can then extract the insulin from that failed POD and put it into a new POD so that you donāt have to waste insulin. There isnāt any tubing with the POD.
You extract the insulin from the same hole you used to fill it up with.
Old thread, but here I am. I started pumping recently (I keep meaning to post on this ā it is incredible! Why didnāt I do this earlier in my D life?!) and consistently discard at least 30u Novolog with each site change (using loop with Dash pods). I fill each pod with just about the minimum required to activate the pod, a little more to be safe.
Anyway, insulin is liquid gold ā I view that as fact, not opinion. It kills me to toss a pod with such valuable resources every 2 or so days. What about removing leftover insulin with a syringe and putting it into a sterile glass vial stored in the fridge with each change and using that stored insulin one time once the vial is full enough (then discarding the leftover after that)? Somewhat elegant and resourceful solution for maximizing usage of insulin? Am I being irresponsible or unsafe? Thanks!
Hi @JessicaD!
Yes, you can do that. Iāve done that too!
But Iād recommend doing it only āonceā per pod.
I will explain that in a moment.
Insulin is relatively tough. Much hardier than most people give it credit for. But itās strength can diminish being inside a plastic container (a pod reservoir) and exposed to body heat for several days.
So do it only once per pod. Here is what I mean.
You take the leftover insulin out of your old pod, and you put it in your new pod. Along with whatever new insulin it takes to fill the pod.
That new pod has both new and old insulin now, right? You use it for 3 days.
But now, if you take insulin out of that pod and reuse it, some of it will be 2 pods old, right? So the trick is to do it like thisā¦
Take leftover insulin from pod A and put it in pod B. After pod B expires, throw it away. Donāt take any out of it, some of it was already in 2 pods! You donāt want to use it in a 3rd pod!
Now start pod C, which has all new insulin. When pod C expires, take the leftover and put it in pod D. But when pod D expires, throw all of that insulin away.
Makes sense? Rotate your using of old insulin into every other pod to ensure that no insulin is leftover from 3 pods!
Hopefully I explained that well.
@JessicaD,
There is another somewhat little known trick that lets you fill your pod with much less than the minimum amount of insulin required to activate it.
Insulet will tell you that you need a minimum of 85 units to activate a pod.
But Eric will tell you that you can activate a pod with much less! 
The trick is to inject the insulin very s-l-o-w-l-y into the pod when you are filling it. When you hear the beep, stop!
You can get it to activate with about 70-75 units if you fill it very slowly! Try it.
BTW, I donāt use the syringe that comes with the pod. I use a 100 unit syringe to fill it, so I can track the amount I am putting in much easier. I donāt know if I told you that yet, but I think itās easier to use a normal 100 unit insulin syringe rather than the dumb syringe they give you.
This s.l.o.w trick is great to know! I will give it a try! Also ā I am thinking about taking my leftovers from each pod and putting them into a fresh (refrigerated) vial and then once I have enough in that vial, only using that amount -once- in a pod (and tossing the pod with any leftovers in it so I wonāt use that twice podded insulin again). Iām thinking I might have even less waste that way?
Yep, that would work too. Probably simpler than my way of having to track back and forth which pod is all fresh and which pod has old insulin mixed in it!
Exceptā¦with your method, the pod would be entirely āoldā insulin. My way gives you some old mixed with some new.
So I guess there is a tradeoff either way.
But try it and see how well it works. It might be that using all old insulin on occasion is fine for you. 