really dodgy insulin vial

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SilentAssassin1642

SilentAssassin1642

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
changed my novorapid, went to inject before dinner and next thing i know there's insulin all over my leg...

took the vial out only to see the rubber seal at the bottom had split and a huge split all the way down the glass. How annoying. And doubly so because I wasn't sure how much insulin i actually got from that. Changed the vial over and injected slightly less to be on the safe side.

how annoying...
 
this has happened to me a couple of times now, guess they get squashed in the fridge sometimes.

Once it happened when I wasnt at home and I had to inject loads just to get the right amount, it actually worked too 😉 but probably not the best idea :D
 
Vial or cartridge?

I've had a few Novorapid cartridges that have split during use - my insulin has it's own shelf in the fridge, so there is no way anything in the fridge is responsible for damaging it.

Could be a good way for them selling more insulin 🙄 If we took them back to the pharmacy what would happen? We'd get a new one, would the phramacy get it replaced or just bin it?
 
vial, cartridge same diff *shrug*

its annoying. and won't photograph very well either
 
salmonpuff said:
vial, cartridge same diff *shrug*

its annoying. and won't photograph very well either
Click to expand...

Vial you draw from with a syringe... cartidge can in some ways be a pressurised container e.g. setting a dose without a needle loaded.

I figured you meant cartridge 😛

Yes, the lighting to photograph it without some specialist diffusers and lighting would be close on impossible.
 
i was told they were one and the same, always called it a vial, always will *shrug*

1zi5v4.jpg


you can just about make out the crack in the glass at the top. It's a bit out of focus as my camera hates doing super close ups. stupid camera 😡
 
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Yep, I can see it against the plunger! Not good is it?

salmonpuff said:
i was told they were one and the same, always called it a vial, always will *shrug*

1zi5v4.jpg


you can just about make out the crack in the glass at the top. It's a bit out of focus as my camera hates doing super close ups. stupid camera 😡
Click to expand...
 
bloody rubbish 😡 made my day a million times better it did /sarcasm *le sigh* :(
 
Coo! Never happened to me, but I'll know I'm not alone when it happens! I get confused between vial and cartridge too. I suspect that some medical people kept calling the cartridges 'vials' when they were intoduced and passed that on to some of the longer-diagnosed people.
 
my first specialist, dr barter (awesome dude), always called them vials. Its kind of stuck. 🙂
 
Northerner said:
Coo! Never happened to me, but I'll know I'm not alone when it happens! I get confused between vial and cartridge too. I suspect that some medical people kept calling the cartridges 'vials' when they were intoduced and passed that on to some of the longer-diagnosed people.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm one of the later users who used syringes, to be honest still prefer them. Novorapid is available in vials still, Levemir isn't.

I bruised far less with syringes...
 
Sam, i'd complain to Novo Nordisk...cheap gits. I reakon you wouldn;t get much joy from taking it back to the chemists. We tend to send defective products back in the hospital.

Ok, the pharmacy geek will explain the differences:
cartridge: fits in a pen
Vial: a glass bottle like thingie (that's not a technical term btw🙂) with a rubber seal and a cap on the end (until you take the cap off anyway). You can get some insulins in multi-dose vials, which is what they usually use on wards on hospitals, and i'm guessing that's what Einstein uses.
Ampoule: you don;t get insulin in them at all, but they're usually all glass and have to be broken to get the drug out and then thrown away.
It's very confusing, especially when you're following somebody else's notes. If the pharmacist or doctor just writes "novorapid x1" you're left confused, is that one pen? one pack of pens? one vial or one cartridge?
 
RachelT said:
Sam, i'd complain to Novo Nordisk...cheap gits. I reakon you wouldn;t get much joy from taking it back to the chemists. We tend to send defective products back in the hospital.

Ok, the pharmacy geek will explain the differences:
cartridge: fits in a pen
Vial: a glass bottle like thingie (that's not a technical term btw🙂) with a rubber seal and a cap on the end (until you take the cap off anyway). You can get some insulins in multi-dose vials, which is what they usually use on wards on hospitals, and i'm guessing that's what Einstein uses.
Ampoule: you don;t get insulin in them at all, but they're usually all glass and have to be broken to get the drug out and then thrown away.
It's very confusing, especially when you're following somebody else's notes. If the pharmacist or doctor just writes "novorapid x1" you're left confused, is that one pen? one pack of pens? one vial or one cartridge?
Click to expand...

im still gunna call it a vial. old habits and all that

i want an ampoule. They sound fun

i bloody well should complain. Cheap bumholes
 
salmonpuff said:
im still gunna call it a vial. old habits and all that

i want an ampoule. They sound fun

i bloody well should complain. Cheap bumholes
Click to expand...

S ounds to me like if it broke then it WAS an ampoule! There's probably some poor elf in DEnmark blowing glass cartridges (vials🙂) week in-week out, and he sneezed, and the quality control goblin didn't pick up on it - stupid goblin!😱
 
Northerner said:
S ounds to me like if it broke then it WAS an ampoule! There's probably some poor elf in DEnmark blowing glass cartridges (vials🙂) week in-week out, and he sneezed, and the quality control goblin didn't pick up on it - stupid goblin!😱
Click to expand...

THOSE BLOODY ELFS! 😱:D
 
Northerner said:
S ounds to me like if it broke then it WAS an ampoule! There's probably some poor elf in DEnmark blowing glass cartridges (vials🙂) week in-week out, and he sneezed, and the quality control goblin didn't pick up on it - stupid goblin!😱
Click to expand...

It's a bog standard cartridge, I don't think Novorapid comes in anything other than vials or cartridges.

It was explained to me by my DNS why I shouldn't draw insulin from a cartridge into a syringe.

With a vial you draw air into the syringe and put this into the vial, then draw the insulin - the volume of insulin withdrawn is equal to the air you've put in (or similar!).

In a cartridge you can't put air into the cartridge, you can't put the air in to balance what you're drawing out. As such if the plunger doesn't move down the cartridge as you draw into the syringe the cartridge COULD implode or crack...

So clearly the glass in the cartridges aren't too forgiving or strong to withstand simple knocks.
 
Interesting. I've never had to use a syringe (except pre-filled ones after I broke my leg). Now I know something about them and how they work! I will therefore appear the wise one when the Good Ship Diabetic gets shipwrecked on a desert island and all we can salvage is vials and syringes!🙂
 
Northerner said:
Interesting. I've never had to use a syringe (except pre-filled ones after I broke my leg). Now I know something about them and how they work! I will therefore appear the wise one when the Good Ship Diabetic gets shipwrecked on a desert island and all we can salvage is vials and syringes!🙂
Click to expand...

I think all ID diabetics should know how to use a syringe, always the ultimate backup if your pen packs up. You can always get an insulin syringe from a chemist or A&E to draw some insulin from a cartridge.
 
Einstein said:
With a vial you draw air into the syringe and put this into the vial, then draw the insulin - the volume of insulin withdrawn is equal to the air you've put in (or similar!).
Click to expand...

when i used syringes, my mum (trained nurse of over 30 years) would always draw up air first if she was giving me my insulin, which she did up until i was about 5/6/7 - i never did though.
 
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