Feeling Defeated Rant & Also Needing A Bit Of Advice

[Kaylz]

Ah @Kaylz! Sorry to hear what a rotten time you’ve been having. Never rains but it pours eh?

Sounds like you coped admirably with a whole heap of stress, and have been working through it and sorting it all out bit by bit.

Hope your anxiety and stress levels can begin to subside, and that the washing machine delivery goes smoothly.

Thanks Mike, everything is just sent to test my patience at the moment, Bruce due up with clean washing today and also some shopping, all social distancing will be out of the window for a while as he's going to have to come in to help get rid of the old washing machine as me and my mum certainly wouldn't manage it down the closey stairs and I could barely afford the new machine let alone the extra £20 they wanted if we wanted them to take the old appliance away with them, hopefully things get better 🙄
xx

 

[stephknits]

Sorry to hear you are struggling.

 

[KARNAK]

Hope you are feeling better today @Kaylz? {{{HUGS}}} from a friend. 🙂

 

[Flutterby]

Just sending some hugs and understanding thoughts. All of this situation is taking it's toll and I empathize. I think your insulin question has already been answered but I now keep freezer blocks in their frozen state after losing power for more than 24 hours on one occasion. I have a small cool bag and feel a bit less stressed if the power is off for any length of time. I leave it in the fridge for several hours but have the option to move it to the cool bag and ring a friend to store it for me. Just a thought.

 

[Kaylz]

Thanks guys!
@Flutterby unfortunately the 2 drawers in the fridge freezer have absolutely no room to store freezer blocks at the minute but will look into that and the bag when things calm down, we usually have grandad's freezer to store things but haven't been doing that lately with the current situation, I do have the option to nip to his or Bruce's to store my insulin if I needed as even though my grandad is the same street just 38 numbers difference he still had power yesterday, was another area of the town affected by power cuts later in the afternoon, thankfully I'd just managed to get my porridge done in the microwave! xx

 

[leonS]

NOT a good idea to freeze insulin, nut if is fine at room temperature even on the tropics

 

[Kaylz]

NOT a good idea to freeze insulin, nut if is fine at room temperature even on the tropics

I'm sure we all know this however nobody has mentioned we should be freezing insulin

 

[brisr949]

Sorry to hear your having such a rough time, it sometimes feels like it all comes at you at once but reading through the posts you have some amazing friends here who i dont think mind if you need to lean on them a little..sending hugs from me.
On the insulin subject i get mine in monthly batches and as they are ok out the fridge for a month i guess it wouldn't matter if the fridge went down.

 

[trophywench]

We very often can't get only a month's worth Adam, due to the packages insulin is in! And I see the Novorapid leaflet says it keeps up to 28 days out of the fridge so presumably eg a 10ml vial, that's 1,000u, must be thrown away if you have no fridge and have only used part of the vials or boxes of cartridges or disposable pens. That's not very advisable when it's the only thing keeping a T1 alive, now, is it?

Also - and I've always disagreed with this! - because every medication you are on was not started on the same date, every scrip for 28 days tablets etc, expires on a different date. So, I perhaps have 3 weeks of my BP tablets left when I need to re-order one of my other tabs - I even take a larger dose Levothyroxine tab every day accompanied by a smaller tab every other day since the 100mg isn't enough alone, but 125mg is too much daily, so we compromised by taking the extra 25mg one (smallest size available) every other day and it seems to do the trick - however the 100 and the 25 are out of sync, the 25 I can't order any more and I'm not due to have another routine blood test but for the hospital clinic not the GP surgery so GP doesn't get notified of the results automatically - until August and my GP diabetes check isn't due until October-ish.

 

[Hepato-pancreato]

Don't know if this will help! My energy supplier is sse, and i'm on a register as needing power due to my illnesses ,conditions and what not. Never had to use it as when my fridge passed away i put my insulin in a neighbours fridge until new one arrived. Anyhow from what i can gather they will try to help you! Problem is i don't know how and i'm sure all energy suppliers have such a list. Might help in the future if you contacted your energy supplier and explained your medical circumstances and asked to be added to such list. Hope this is of some good to you.

 

[little fawn]

My mental health, OCD and anxiety are taking a real bashing at the moment with everything going on, I haven't been out the house in 12 weeks, I'm losing skin off my hands, I'm crying all the time and things got worse last night when the washing machine gave in, washing had to be done in the bath and hung out today, I've ordered a new washing machine from Curry's (although didn't really have the money spare to do so but hey ho) and will be delivered next Wednesday, Bruce will be taking our stuff and washing it for us and bringing us it wet so we can dry ourselves on the airer, then to top all this c**p off the power went out at 7:15 this morning, so here's where I need a bit of advice, it was off for just over 4 hours and the fridge opened a maximum of 3 times while the power was out, will the insulin I have in there still be good to use? Or should I order fresh? Any help would be greatly appreciated at this desperate for me time if you could be so kind, thank you!
xx

Kayles, This happened to me! Your fridge was off for only 4 hours then your insulin will be fine. It takes a good while before your fridge temp creeps up especially if the doors were only opened 3 times for short periods of time. So don't worry. However I'm positive your doctor will prescribe you more!
Us diabetics are wonderful people and truly amazing with what we cope with in our daily lives and what life throws at us, let alone dealing with the Big D into the bargain. We never get a break from it not even at Christmas and I've had Type 1 for nearly 60 years now. So yeah, Kayles, tell yourself you're wonderful and amazing every day in the week and mean it with all your heart.I

And you're getting a new washing machine on Wed!
Lots of luv xx

 

[brisr949]

We very often can't get only a month's worth Adam, due to the packages insulin is in! And I see the Novorapid leaflet says it keeps up to 28 days out of the fridge so presumably eg a 10ml vial, that's 1,000u, must be thrown away if you have no fridge and have only used part of the vials or boxes of cartridges or disposable pens. That's not very advisable when it's the only thing keeping a T1 alive, now, is it?

Also - and I've always disagreed with this! - because every medication you are on was not started on the same date, every scrip for 28 days tablets etc, expires on a different date. So, I perhaps have 3 weeks of my BP tablets left when I need to re-order one of my other tabs - I even take a larger dose Levothyroxine tab every day accompanied by a smaller tab every other day since the 100mg isn't enough alone, but 125mg is too much daily, so we compromised by taking the extra 25mg one (smallest size available) every other day and it seems to do the trick - however the 100 and the 25 are out of sync, the 25 I can't order any more and I'm not due to have another routine blood test but for the hospital clinic not the GP surgery so GP doesn't get notified of the results automatically - until August and my GP diabetes check isn't due until October-ish.

I dont quite get your reply, i said i get my insulin in monthly batches..i pick it up and dispose of what i have left from previous month so whats not advisable??
On your other point apart from my insulin and morphine the rest are all spread about the month so make at least one collection of one thing or another every week.

P.S..ive got a black cat 😉

 

[Kaylz]

i pick it up and dispose of what i have left from previous month so whats not advisable??

why do you dispose of what you have left from the previous month? how much do you actually get at a time?
xx

 

[Kaylz]

Don't know if this will help! My energy supplier is sse, and i'm on a register as needing power due to my illnesses ,conditions and what not. Never had to use it as when my fridge passed away i put my insulin in a neighbours fridge until new one arrived. Anyhow from what i can gather they will try to help you! Problem is i don't know how and i'm sure all energy suppliers have such a list. Might help in the future if you contacted your energy supplier and explained your medical circumstances and asked to be added to such list. Hope this is of some good to you.

As I said somewhere in the thread previously we are on the priority list due to my Type 1 but as it effected at least 40 odd houses most of which have children in too they diverted to the sub station when other reports started coming in, maybe if it had been going to be off longer then we may have benefited but we got no more than anyone else on this occasion xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

and dispose of what i have left from previous month so whats not advisable??

I think it might be that it sounds like you are running with no spare from month to month? My insulin needs fluctuate so i feel it’s wise to have enough in and i will reorder when stocks are low rather than monthly. But not too low! Because occasionally over the years Ive gone to collect some and there has been a shortage at the distributor and I’ve had to wait a week or so to get my new stock in.

Plus I feel expemsive enough already so i try to use every last drop I can rather than ditching any stored insulin. 🙂 Do you keep yours in the fridge?

 

[KARNAK]

P.S..ive got a black cat 😉

Is that the one you fell over lucky aint it?😳😉

 

[trophywench]

I do exactly the same as Mike. My pump takes very small pre-filled cartridges so that one box of 5 cartridges isn't enough though 2 boxes lasts till the middle of the next month. Hence I only order another 2 boxes as soon as I've started on box 2 and sometimes there will be 3 boxes of insulin. Prior to going on holidays abroad for eg 6 weeks, has been 3 months at times in the past, fridge looks like a drugs warehouse! Cos we are always told to take twice as much as we think we'll need, to allow for disasters. Far easier to do that than have to find a doctor, get a scrip, find a chemist, hope they stock whatever, in a foreign language - and of course pay for it cos the locals do so EHIC doesn't cover it.

 

[rebrascora]

My insulin comes in a pack of 5x3ml cartridges or pens and lasts me between 3-6 months. So far I have never discarded any insulin. It gets used until it is empty, even if it is a week over the recommended 28 days. I just use a bit more if it looks like it is not quite as effective as it should be. It actually irks me that there is a tiny bit left in the pen that I can't get out because it won't dial up anymore. I always make sure I have one spare pen and cartridge in the fridge in case I have a breakage etc ie I reorder when I start using the penultimate one.

 

[Kaylz]

I was going to say per prescription I get 10 cartridges of Novorapid and 5 of Tresiba (Tresiba can be given in 10 if my needs change enough to need that much) and that lasts me ages xx

 

[little fawn]

Kayles, This happened to me! Your fridge was off for only 4 hours then your insulin will be fine. It takes a good while before your fridge temp creeps up especially if the doors were only opened 3 times for short periods of time. So don't worry. However I'm positive your doctor will prescribe you more!
Us diabetics are wonderful people and truly amazing with what we cope with in our daily lives and what life throws at us, let alone dealing with the Big D into the bargain. We never get a break from it not even at Christmas and I've had Type 1 for nearly 60 years now. So yeah, Kayles, tell yourself you're wonderful and amazing every day in the week and mean it with all your heart.I

And you're getting a new washing machine on Wed!
Lots of luv xx