Do you prime your insulin pens regularly?

In my case this pen is an life insurance. I had a TBI a few years ago, so my memory is quite bad. My bolus goes in to xDrip automatically, and in my watch also. Now I only have to check the pen or phone or watch to se i´f I have taken any insulin. It is not available in Sweden either, so I imported them from Germany.

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Glad it is working out for you, I wish they would make them available more broadly, the technology is great.

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I was intrigued by @T1Allison’s thought on upward prime (which we use) vs downward prick.

My thought, though, is that priming upward or downward will always prime the needle. Priming upward will also take out some of the air in the cartridge (if using a pen).

So it seems to me that priming upward is more generally helpful.

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I’ve used reusable pens since the ‘90s and have always primed. I prime downwards because I prime into my hand so I can feel the insulin come out. I can’t see air bubbles so generally don’t worry about trying to get them out. I inject downwards, so presumably the air is at the top of the vial and won’t interfere with my injection once I’ve primed. If there’s a giant air bubble in the cartridge that I can see, then sometimes I’ll prime upwards to remove it, but that’s pretty rare. (I’m on a pump, though, so don’t inject all that often.)

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Did you just pop over there and pick one up? And how do you refill it? I am fascinated!

I bought it on mail order from a German pharmacy. The pen can take refill from both Tresiba and Humalog cartridges, I have two pens :slight_smile:

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And now 10 4 from Sweden, have a god night sleep :slight_smile:

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When you flick a pen with a pen needle on it to get rid of primed insulin droplets from an upward prime, do you find that it introduces new air bubbles like with the Omnipod fill syringe? I can’t tell if it introduces new air bubbles or just moves around the air bubbles that I can’t get out. In either case, I don’t like seeing air bubbles move to a new spot bc I can’t be sure that flicking it hasn’t now put an air bubble on the needle. Just my personal preference.

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I prime every new pen to make sure it works ok or if I suspect I’m having issues with a pen …otherwise I can’t afford to really waste the units to prime every single time (medicaid restricts me to 2-3 pens a month unboxed, no matter what I do, don’t wanna waste ). When I was on private insurance, I primed before every injection since I got boxes of 5 pens every month…but since I’m somewhat restricted…I can’t really. I’ve had pens break after half way through due to the needle bending despite careful application…so I don’t wanna waste.

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I prime every time because I’ve had enough issues with needles that got clogged fairly quickly (I re-use the same one for a while day for Novolog, so anywhere from 4-6 injections) and also seeing inconsistent amounts at times when I’ve primed.

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I always prime 1u or until I see something coming out. I change long acting pens every time because I only use it 1x daily and I don’t want it sitting there growing cheese for 24 hours. I change my rapid pen needles once or twice a day even though they get 3-6 or so uses between changes…

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I’m not sure how it would introduce new air bubbles. My guess is flicking probably just consolidates invisible small bubbles into visible larger ones. Keep flicking and you end up with one or two big bubbles.

I don’t experience that with the fill syringe, though I’ve read others talk about champagne bubbles. There’s usually a big clump of air at the top of the (upside-down) syringe, and I draw in the insulin slowly enough that any new bubbles get caught in the big one and air doesn’t get pulled through the insulin in a mass of tiny bubbles. Then I just push out the big bubble.

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No I do not prime my kwikpen and I’m careful to point the pen downward with those last few injections since the air bubble can get pretty big by that time. Oh and I use my pen needles 4-ish times.

I rarely use the pen but always prime 1unit. It has always worked as far as I remember but I suppose the process could fail somewhere.

Humalog Luxura pen.

Ed

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I never even knew I was supposed to prime the pen but it makes total sense.

My kids complain about the smell of insulin (which I find insulting; I don’t know why). Since they have commented, I totally notice it. Doesn’t that bother people when priming?

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No, the smell of insulin doesn’t bother me at all. I’m used to it and honestly I never found it a particularly bad smell. It smells kind of sterile and chemical, but it’s not unpleasant or revolting.

I prime, every time. After talking through why every injection uses 2 extra units with my insurance, they actually upped my prescription, which was nice of them!

…and, though I kind of hate to do it, and I know circumstances don’t always allow for it, you guys really shouldn’t be using a needle that many times. I’m not a doctor, but my very first endo had a poster of this on his wall, and it stuck with me (pun intended)…

Rh7RY

So just food for thought on reusing needles :wink:

That’s a well-known photo, but as far as I know it was fabricated by industry. Nevertheless, I prefer using needles only once.

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Here’s an interesting study. They conclude that used needles can be distinguished from unused needles, but the number of times a needle is reused does not correlate with needle tip deformity.

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I can understand the picture after 1 use, but they must have done something like use the needle through kevlar to get the after 6 use pic. With that being said, reusing needles 6-7 times is a bit out there for my son. He might use one 2-3 times, but that is usually only when a replacement isn’t readily available.