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Levemir Insulin Pen broke this morning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 27273
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The inevitable happened this morning as you can see from the title.

I am fortunate I have some back up 1ml syringes to fall back on so I just had to inject from a levemir pen vial like I was told not to once whilst on a DAFNE course by a DSN! So, no doses have been missed and my blood sugars have been good all day, however I called my areas integrated diabetes team to get a replacement pen plus a spare and their answering service was a dead end, I could not get through to anyone. Wether this was because it was a Sunday morning, or wether the interogated diabetes teams have decided people with diabetes can do without them I do not know.

So, I called my local district general hospital and asked them for help with this and was put back through to the interogated diabetes team who are none existant right now. The spelling mistake is deliberate by the way!!!

I have stayed calm all day but somethings not right here, yes I should have had a spare pen and this is what this experience has taught me so far. However, I will call the diabetic clinic and my GP surgery tomorrow and I am staying calm!!!!!

For those of you on MDI, make sure you all have working spare pens handy just in case, don't do what I did and leave it until its almost too late.
 
Hi.

Sorry to hear you have had a pen breakage. I don't quite understand how you are currently injecting but a possible option might be to use your bolus pen for basal as well until you get a replacement and just swap the cartridge for the basal injection and then put the bolus insulin cartridge back in but be very careful about not getting them mixed up.

I bought a spare pen to cover this eventuality 6 months ago, when I changed to reusable pens, as it occurred to me that I had no means of injecting insulin if my pen broke and since I am terrible for dropping things it was a clear potential risk for me.

I hope you get sorted with a new pen and a spare soon.
 
Hi rebrascora,

Thanks for your reply and suggestion but swapping cartridges is not an option because I inject humalog which is manufactured by Lilly and the broken pen is for levemir which is manufactured by Novo Nordisk so the cartridges will only fit in pens made by the relevant manufacturer.

When my levemir pen broke this morning I remember thinking that a universal pen which will fit all pen needles and insulin cartidges is just what I need!

The dodgy pen was the Novopen Echo
 
You just use the 3ml Levemir vial with a syringe, the same as you do with a 10ml vial and a syringe.

OK you've never been shown how to do that but it ain't rocket science - withdraw syringe plunger to correct number of units, insert needle downwards into the rubber bit in the middle of the vial cap, inject the air in the syringe into the vial. Whilst keeping the plunger of the syringe pressed in well tight, invert vial so it's now on top of the syringe. Now withdraw say 10u of insulin into syringe, at least double the dose you want whatever that is. Let it dangle slightly whilst you balance it and flick syringe smartly to get all the air you don't want in the syringe, directly below the needle. Depress the plunger again to expel said air back into vial, followed by excess insulin you withdrew, leaving only the X units of insulin you need in the syringe. Remove vial from syringe, plunge needle into chosen injection spot, depress syringe plunger, wait a few secs with plunger held in, withdraw needle from self. Place syringe in sharps bin.

Get on with life!
 
Its ok, I injected levemir from a syringe this morning, I've injected insulin from vials since the age of 9 up to the age of 13. With 38 years of T1D injecting from syringes is not an issue. My control has remained stable all day.

My question was about the frustration of not being able to get through to a DSN to get some more pens as I had no spares this morning when my levemir pen broke.
 
Mine tends to have a day or two off at weekends too; funnily enough so did I when I worked for a living. 😉
 
Just an FYI here, you can actually ring 111 to get an emergency prescription for this type of thing xx
 
Easy after the event, but it is well worth having a spare pen in hand.
I am glad that you had syringes in hand to get round the problem.

I was able to get a pen from my GP, but as others have said that would not be possible at the weekend. In an emergency it is also possible to get one from the pharmacy too.
 
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