Let’s temporarily put a pin in the fact that I keep chasing my diabetes around like a greased pig and cannot wrestle it into submission using my divine intellectual prowess…
…and just celebrate that I did a thing! I now own a sturdy stand mixer with a dough hook and it’s amaze-balls! I made homemade soft pretzels from scratch with my boys today. They taste just like the ones from the state fair!
You got fancy!
I did run across this article about having problems, similar to me!
What city is the Quaker Steak and Lube in? Sounds like it might make for a good field trip!! Looked them up not realizing they’re a chain, places all over!
The one that @Eric and I hit up is on Florence, KY south of Cincinnati.
He suggested it as a joke. And then I insisted that we actually go there. 
They’re a CHAIN?! My mind is blown. (Or I need to get out more.). Let’s pick a location and date!
@JessicaD Check it out: Pennsylvania | Quaker Steak & Lube®
But you’ve got to love the website name!!
Boy, howdy, me, too! 
I’ve been meaning to post about this…totally unscientific…but I thought it was interesting.
When my 8 year old got his first COVID shot at our pediatrician’s office, the nurse (whom we’ve known forever) had a hell of a time getting his shot in his arm. She offhandedly said, “Man, he’s got really tough skin!”
He’s a non-diabetic child who wouldn’t have scar tissue or anything. I wonder if there are different skin types where some people just have tougher skin than others. Maybe it was a fluke dull needle…but maybe not all skin behaves the same way. I don’t like the catchall explanation that if you have trouble injecting that it must be because of scar tissue. That seems too easy of a “well you overused that area so it must be scar tissue”. What if it’s just tough skin? And it doesn’t mean anything’s wrong?
So…other than being irritated and impatient that my initial theory didn’t hold water immediately out of the gate…
…I am glad that potentially insulin lasts much longer than I was inclined to believe.
I have never seen this before until today…but my pharmacy is out of stock of insulin…and has been for at least three days and continues to be out of stock of insulin. (It’s been taking me two weeks of renewing and follow up phone calls just to get my test strips for the last few months.) I took my boys with me to pharmacy just now to at least pick up what allergy meds they had in stock for my kids, but when I pulled up to the window, they are closed today due to staffing shortages.
So yup…keeping my hoarding going…
…and my new theory with my pens is that using 5mm length pen needles, they are really prone to leaking back out after injection. I’ve been watching the leakage problem for a while. The syringes I have are 6mm so maybe that little bit extra helps fight leaking?
I don’t know. I’ll keep trying.
I have often been critical of short needles. I have mentioned my disdain for those micro-needles, like 4mm and 5mm! I hate them.
Why not try a longer needle with your pens and either prove or disprove your theory? I can send you some 8’s.
A couple of reference threads:
On the other hand, since you are using 5mm with both pens, and they are not acting the same, the problem is probably not ALL needle related.
But shorter needles still suck!
@T1Allison While I’ve experienced “leaking” it’s been relatively rare. Haven’t ever tried anything other than the 4mm’s initially prescribed, but have had Droplet and BD Nano 2nd Gen types. The Droplet’s definitely left something to be desired, they would often just make an indentation in my skin and a noticeable difference in comfort, not actual pain, but at least more of “pinch” and once resulted in an external “injection”! Never have those issues with the BDs. I don’t know the cost difference, but I specifically asked the doc to prescribe the BDs so I don’t get a “suitable sub!”
I’ve found that when I carry Fiasp with me in my purse, it will become less effective if it is not chilled every night. But then I run out the door and forget to take my chilled Fiasp with me! Always in a rush, it’s the most important thing not to forget! Am now using an Omnipod and I find that will older insulin it is not as effective. There’s a warning on Fiasp stating it will become less effective after 30 days. 
Here is an update on our insulin test. @T1Allison sent me 2 old (expired) pens and 2 new pens.
I wanted to use them in my pods, because that gives me a 3-day view of the insulin, both basal and bolus, instead of just using it for bolus.
I also wanted to wait until I was not traveling and not using Loop, because those things would not be helpful for comparison.
So I used the insulin from the pens to fill the pods. I used 4 pods in total. I alternated between the old pen and the new pen, and did it in this order:
So that was 12 total days for comparison, 6 days with each insulin.
Overall, everything seemed fairly consistent. The first pod on the second day seemed a bit wonky. But I was eating and drinking like a jackass on that day.
All the other days seemed normal for all the pods. Nothing seemed suspect.
If the older insulin is weaker, it is a small amount that was not very noticeable for me. Yes, it could possibly be weaker, but nothing I could be sure of. I wouldn’t be able to say for certain. 
Sorry @T1Allison, this was probably not very helpful. 
Whatever! I love that you tried them both! Thank you for doing that!
The fact that you tried them and neither was obviously super crappy IS helpful. Narrowing down the issue in bg management is super difficult, obviously!, because of all of our variables.
Yay for FUDders being awesome, brave and helpful!! 
Actually, this was much easier than when you locked me in the trunk of your car.
What’s a little false imprisonment between friends?
I have three box sets of pens that expired 2 years ago from when my father passed away. I’m glad to see that maybe they work as I am newly diagnosed.
I have opened a new non-expired pen which I keep stored in the fridge when not in use. Have people used opened pens past their 4 week “discard” date with no issues?
