Lantus Pen in Half-Units Question

Hello!

My pharmacist (who is the best and sweetest pharmacist on the planet) and I were talking the other day and he found a program where he could find me give Lantus pens at an affordable price, BUT also we calculated we would actually waste less Lantus since Moby's at such a teeny dose. (only a half unit a day)

I read that Lantus pens do not do half-unit injections, though, else the pen will jam. Has anyone found that to be true? Should I continue with the traditional vial and syringe method?

 

Hi Marciegee,

We use the Lantus pens with our normal syringes. Don't buy the needles that come with the pens. Instead, just insert your syringe into the rubber gasket at the end of the pen and treat the pen as a vial.

Good luck with the affordable price!!

Ella & Rusty

 

OMG! That makes so much sense!!!!! I didn't even know that could be done. Thank you!

 

Marciegee....just do it like this!

 

Yay! Thanks Chris! It does say that you should keep an opened Lantus pen OUT of the fridge. That seems weird to me, is that right? It's been hammered in my brain to store the insulin in the fridge at all times!

 

That's for humans that use it within the 28 days...continue to store it in the fridge so it will last a lot longer just like the vial.

 

The reason for keeping the Lantus pen out of the fridge is because of the pen dosing mechanism and the temperature change affecting the mechanism. You're not using the mechanism, so go ahead and keep it in the fridge.

Using the pens (and not contaminating them) is slightly different than using the vial. There is a video on the Taking Care of Your Insulin sticky that demonstrates what you need to do to draw the dose. Take a look here and then click on the right sticky.