? Expired pen needles acquired for free-different size?

A neighbor on nextdoor.com is giving away some medical supplies after losing a loved one.

He gave me some needles for pens that expired 05/2017. I was not aware a needle could expire. Would it be okay to use them? These are also in a Ziploc bag. They say on them NovoFine .3 -.8mm. The needles I got with my pen say 32 gauge .23 mm X 3/16 so I am guessing these pens might not work. I have been keeping my needles in the refrigerator next to my pen. These needles were not kept in the refrigerator. Does that matter?

Thanks.

 

We typically use syringes to draw insulin, instead of pen needles, as we make dose changes by 0.25 unit amounts. The pen needles should not be kept in the refridgerator. There is a Sticky Note on Handling Insulin and Syringes you might want to read.

 

Thanks. And I just read elsewhere on the web that NovoFine needles only work with NovoFine pens.

I'm a newbie, with a cat just diagnosed in early August and wish I had found this site sooner. My vet has me giving Franklin 3 units twice a day with a pen, although he has not received any insulin since Sunday night because my new package of test strips got lost in the mail before finally arriving on Tuesday and then he has tested between 100 and 200 (although 205 or 207) one time since then.

Since joining this site, I learned that 3 units seems a little high for a starting dose. And in researching these pen needles, I just read that the pen is less accurate in doses less than 3 units. So I hope this doesn't mean that after about 2 weeks of giving insulin, if the vet decides to keep him on insulin, I'm not headed back to the pharmacy for a vial and a syringe. More money.... Sigh. I speak with her tomorrow to give her an update for the week.

Thanks again.

 

You won't need a new vial - when you remove the cap off the pen, there's the same little rubber seal as on the vials. Insert syringe there. You will need to get U100 syringes - with half unit marks if you can find them. Here's a pic of the little rubber seal - it looks white in this picture but it's usually either gray or red. This is an empty insert cartridge.

 

4th day of no insulin and starting at 114 on the AT - pretty good. If Franklin still needs insulin, you need to get syringes to be able to draw a MUCH smaller dose. And you can use syringes to extract insulin from pens, so that part you wouldn't need to buy again.

Bummer on losing the test strips in the mail!

 

Awesome! Thanks very much! Glad I can keep using the insulin I have. I will check to see if this guy has U100 syringes when I go back to return the other stuff (I got lancets I am keeping for now, a Freestyle Freedom meter that does not work with FreeStyle Lite strips so returning that...and one box of FreeStyle lite strips I will keep and try out with my AT2.) It was on here where I learned I could feed him Fancy Feast. I was stubborn for a few days because I had purchased the dry Science Diet W/D (and later when I learned how dry food not recommended at all for diabetic cats wondered why they would even sell that to me) so I kept mixing it with the Science Diet W/D canned and then Fancy Feast. But once I went only on Fancy Feast Classic (with Sheba Roasted Turkey pate as a snack in between FF meals), his numbers dropped. I think it will turn out to be a good thing the post office misplaced my package for a couple of days as that led to me to stop giving him insulin. Thanks again everyone.

 

Dropping the dry W/D can make a huge difference. We have seen a number of cats either go off insulin or drop their dose a lot lower by ditching the high carb dry.

Most pharmacies should have 1/2 unit marked syringes, that is what is used for children.