Insulin and Hot weather

[Austin Mini]

Just returned from Gozo where its been 36deg in the shade. I have found my insulin (Humalog) was a LOT less effective in those conditions. I left the insulin in the fridge overnight and carried it in a 'Frio' cool bag during the day (from 09.30 to 14.00) as it was TOO HOT during the day to safely walk about without serious protection and its only June! I am contacting the manufacturers to see if this is a faulty batch as readings in the 18's isnt good when you were injecting 20+ units to keep yourself normal. Always a big worry if you had a night time hypo as I had to increase everything just to stay at a reasonable level. I have never had this before but have never been to Gozo either. ps I found cold insulin has a high (thicker) viscousity than at room temps perhaps this has an effect? We will see.

 

[trophywench]

Ooer - are you sure it was OK?

Do your needs normally go up to that degree in heat? - cos mine come down. I've been to Malta and had that heat, also in Crete a few times - and was able to have a veritable carb-fest. And get fat! LOL (doughnuts daily in Crete, really decadent and NO BOLUSING till dinnertime! Sadly it wears of about Day 10 ...... )

 

[Northerner]

Is it possible that the insulin got too cold, rather than too warm e.g. was the fridge at a colder setting than your fridge at home?

 

[Austin Mini]

Never thought of that (too cold fridge) but at home I never store the Humalog in a fridge as its ready for use in the case. However everything has returned to normal over the last 24 hrs just would like an answer. Been to Creete too but that was ok. Still confused though?

 

[Northerner]

Never thought of that (too cold fridge) but at home I never store the Humalog in a fridge as its ready for use in the case. However everything has returned to normal over the last 24 hrs just would like an answer. Been to Creete too but that was ok. Still confused though?

I remember someone once saying that they'd had some in what turned out to be a faulty hotel fridge and it froze and thawed and lost its potency

Good to hear things are back to normal - are you still using some of the same insulin you took away?

 

[Austin Mini]

The fridge didnt freeze the insulin, there was a freezer compartment above it. I have today injected the insulin I was going to return to manufacturers so far so good it seems to be doing the business. Strange that but since returning I am getting back to normal readings. Might be a good idea to recommend peps to test more when abroad on holiday.

 

[PattiEvans]

Are you 100% certain of the foods/drinks you had? I recently had a holiday in Spain where it was very hot, I was doing loads of swimming. I was also drinking about 4 x 440ml cans of non alcoholic beers in the afternoon which I'd calculated were 4.6g carb each. It was only on the next to last day I discovered these (uselessly labelled) beers were actually just under 20g carb each! I only discovered because we were out and I ordered one which came in a bottle with better labelling!

 

[Austin Mini]

The food we ate was Weetabix mornings, salads or wholegrain sandwiches which we made ourselves for lunch. Evenings we had roast or boiled potatoes (you had to look carefully as resteraunts were chip heavy). We drank Gozo wine which was under ?2 a 75cl bottle. We are gonna have to go back for more research!