Lantus pens

[Phil65]

My MDI regime means I use a lilly pen for my Humalog, this pen is easy to use. However, the disposable Lantus pen (white) is absolutely rubbish!! If you click past your required dose of units you have to fire it off and re-dial, also if you dial up your dose and inject and if you didn't have enough insulin in the pen i.e it runs out during injection, you don't know how many units you have taken as opposed to the lilly pen you can see by looking at the pen how many units you have taken. I have been told that there is a new pen now called a lantus solo, must be better?? does anyone else use this pen?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Nope I'm stuck with the (equally terrible) Autopen 24. Another pen that doesn;t allow you to redial doses. For years I had the blue one that only does 2u increments. At least I've got a green one now. Still terrible but I can adjust basal by 1u. Woo hoo! 🙄

 

[novorapidboi26]

Both my Humilin I and Novorapid are disposable.......

The Novorapid Flexpen and the Humilin I is from Lilly - thats one is weird, you need to line up a marker pull out the dialer then dial, if you make a mistake you have to line up the marker and push it back in...

When on Levemir I had the same pens, just different colour, orange for novo, green for levemir.....

Anyway, enjoy my useles information........

 

[Northerner]

Nope I'm stuck with the (equally terrible) Autopen 24. Another pen that doesn;t allow you to redial doses. For years I had the blue one that only does 2u increments. At least I've got a green one now. Still terrible but I can adjust basal by 1u. Woo hoo! 🙄

That's what I use currently but I'm hoping to get a Clickstar (reuseable) pen at my annual review on Tuesday - I believe they are supposed to be much better than the Autopen 24. I think the disposable version of the Clickstar is the Solostar but could be wrong - hopefully our insulin pen geek 🙂D) sofaraway will be along to give all the details!

 

[runner]

I use a Lantus Solastar - is that the one you're thinking of? When it's running low, it will only click as far as there are insulin units, so you know how many you've had, and you can dial back if you've over-dialed.

 

[Phil65]

That's the one runner! I am definitely going to get a solostar Lantus pen, when I see my DSN or GP next.

 

[runner]

When the pen is new, it can feel a bit crunchy when dialing, but seems to work Ok otherwise. I read in 'Balance' that unlike some of the other pens, it is not being discontinued too.

Northe, is the clickstar more ecologically sound do you think?

 

[NiVZ]

Hello,

I have hated all Lantus pen's so far, especially Autopen 24 and not a fan of disposable needles (Solostar).

BUT I absolutely LOVE my ClikStar reuseable pen. Would recommend it to anyone who uses Lantus.

NiVZ

 

[Phil65]

Hello,

I have hated all Lantus pen's so far, especially Autopen 24 and not a fan of disposable needles (Solostar).

BUT I absolutely LOVE my ClikStar reuseable pen. Would recommend it to anyone who uses Lantus.

NiVZ

Thanks NivZ, interesting, I must look at the clikstar, is this a pre-filled throw away pen? The pen i use is a sanofi aventis lantus, it is cheap dials terribly and I hate it!! Anything must be better!!

 

[katie]

I also hate the white lantus pen, it's so annoying when you turn it too far and have to waste all that insulin + it's completely environmentally unfriendly. I will ask about the Clikstar ppen when I next go to the hospital 🙂

 

[Robster65]

I've been on the Solostar for a couple of weeks now and find it ok. It costs just about the same as a 3ml cartridge of normal lantus so no disincentives for the GP. 😉

Retired the Autopen24 after many years of service.

Rob

 

[NiVZ]

Thanks NivZ, interesting, I must look at the clikstar, is this a pre-filled throw away pen? The pen i use is a sanofi aventis lantus, it is cheap dials terribly and I hate it!! Anything must be better!!

Hello,

The Solostar is the pre-filled throw away one below:

The Clikstar is the re-useable cartridge style pen from the same manufacturer shown below:

Also check out this older thread about Solostar vs Clikstar:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=8462

NiVZ

 

[Northerner]

I've been on the Solostar for a couple of weeks now and find it ok. It costs just about the same as a 3ml cartridge of normal lantus so no disincentives for the GP. 😉

Retired the Autopen24 after many years of service.

Rob

What I find odd is that these disposable pens are practically worthless if they only cost about the same as a cartridge, yet the refillable pens cost about ?25-30! The disposable pens must be almost as complicated to make as the refillable ones, surely?

 

[katie]

What I find odd is that these disposable pens are practically worthless if they only cost about the same as a cartridge, yet the refillable pens cost about ?25-30! The disposable pens must be almost as complicated to make as the refillable ones, surely?

I can't think of one reason for disposable pens?!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I can't think of one reason for refillable pens?!

I can't think of one reason to use disposable pens!

Apart from the waste, and an inherent suspicion of using something 'throw away' in a role where I am after complete precision and reliability if a cartridge pen ever failed it'd be very easy for me to take out the insulin cart and draw up with a disposable syringe (I have a few gathering dust at the back of a shelf just in case).

Each to their own I guess 🙂

 

[novorapidboi26]

I suppose there would be less matrerial wastage with refillables, your only throwing away a glass vial which is much more easily recyclable....

I used to use a Humapen when on a mix, I loved it, but now the ease of throwing the injection away and grabbing another one is too easy, yet unkind to the environment......

 

[Phil65]

I can't think of one reason to use disposable pens!

Apart from the waste, and an inherent suspicion of using something 'throw away' in a role where I am after complete precision and reliability if a cartridge pen ever failed it'd be very easy for me to take out the insulin cart and draw up with a disposable syringe (I have a few gathering dust at the back of a shelf just in case).

Each to their own I guess 🙂

Mike,

I totally agree with you and the refillable pen are so much better quality.

 

[PhilT]

I use Lantus Solostar pens too, they come in a box of five.
The only minor niggle I have with them is when they are new they can be a bit stiff when you do the first couple of injections but other than that they are ok.

 

[katie]

I can't think of one reason to use disposable pens!

Apart from the waste, and an inherent suspicion of using something 'throw away' in a role where I am after complete precision and reliability if a cartridge pen ever failed it'd be very easy for me to take out the insulin cart and draw up with a disposable syringe (I have a few gathering dust at the back of a shelf just in case).

Each to their own I guess 🙂

I didn't mean to type refillable, I meant disposable 😉

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I didn't mean to type refillable, I meant disposable 😉

Hee hee! LOL!