Thursday, February 9, 2012

How Many Units Do You Have Left???

After an impromptu discussion on the Diabetesaliciousness FaceBook page at lunch about the number of units left in your insulin pump. And now that I'm just about to change my insulin reservoir because I'm down to 0.9 units, (I prepacked a prefilled reservoir in my handbag last night & brought it to work with me) and I can't stop thinking about insulin pumps and the amount of insulin we have in them. So the Diabetesaliciousness question of the day is:
How many units do you have left in your insulin pump/insulin pen? And how does that number make you feel?
There's no wrong answer and all totally off the cuff - But damn if I'm not all types of curious now!
And for the record - I just primed and plugged in my new insulin reservoir and am now packing 156.7 units of insulin - And I feel safe and totally good to go! BRING.IT.ON.

17 comments:

Brian Bosh said...

58U left at present. I don't like to go to work with less than 25, or go to sleep with fewer than 12.

Lala Jackson said...

165.5! I have such an odd relationship with insulin now - for 13 months after I graduated from college, I wasn't able to get health insurance. Insulin is of course, super expensive, so I would make major decisions based on how much insulin I would need and I was always careful to not even let a unit go to waste! Now, I'm more lax about it because I have the insurance to cover it, but it's weird thinking about a time when I was so attentive to it!

Unknown said...

AORN (as of right now) 41.0 #ulip (units left in pump). Hehee. LOVE the idea, Kel!

Jen said...

114.8u ...a very safe feeling.
There have been plenty of times I'm pushed the limits and underestimated how long it would last.
I woke up the other morning at 4:00am to find my pump was completely out. I don't remember it alarming me...maybe I was just in a deep sleep!
I've gotten into the awful habit of "cheating" my pump...rewinding and refilling the reservoir, but not changing the insertion site.
Times are tough, needles hurt, Diabetes is expensive (even w/insurance). I'm trying to be better about changing every 3 days though!

NeurosurgeryNP said...

118 u at present. Good to go here.

Colleen said...

84
I change every 3 days and just did a change yesterday.
I don't fill the cartridge when I do a change, just enough for the 3 days.

Unknown said...

My daughter has 24 32 units right now, and that will last another day and a half. We'll change it after the 10u warning, and there will probably be about 5u left. Then we'll fill it with 60 - 80 and do it again!

Stephen said...

52.8 units left! If I hit the gym in the morning, I probably won't have to change until tomorrow night.

I usually worry more about whether my infusion set is coming loose. Sucks when you're at work and that thing works its way out...

Thanks for asking!

Alexis Nicole said...

We change at 20 units during the week, weekends I allow to go to 5. And we refill to 180 units. He uses about 40 a day and his insulin stays good for 4 days in the cooler months =))

The Kimlers said...

I have 18.1Units left in my pump right now. That makes me feel sad, because that gives me a little over 7 hours but that falls during sleep so i'll have to change it with units still left :(. It also makes me think of the last few weeks pregnant with my 3month old (exactly today!!) 18.1 units wouldn't cover half of my dinner meal.. oh insulin resistance.

Lora said...

We usually start with around 100u... when the prime is playing nice. I get a little antsy if we hit the 20u alarm. We toss anywhere from 20 - 50 units on site change day because Justin only uses an average of 20 a day, unless we are going all pizza and cupcakes.

I kinda feel bad throwing away all that insulin and I have tried to load less up front, but we ran out and it was a big ol mess at school, so we went back to overload.

Lathump said...

77.8 in my reservoir now. I fill it completely and use it for about a week. I tend to change my reservoir with about 20 units left. I figure since my insulin has been out and about for a week, it's not a bad idea to start fresh. I never like to be away from home with the chance that a reservoir will run dry.

Joanne said...

I believe the minimum we can put in the pod is 80 units. Elise only uses about 9 units per day and we're on day 2, so I'm guessing we have 60+ units still in there. Bleargh, it kills me that we throw away about 50 units of insulin every 3 days.

eml210 said...

55.6...plenty for dinner and maybe even overnight, depending on what dinner is. Especially when I work 12 block from home, across from a major hospital, and have friends who are docs/nps who can write emergency scripts.

Abby L said...

6.50 units left with "13:46" left for the time...sometime after dinner I will fill a fresh reservoir and change my site. I used to be super strict about changing asap after the 20 units left warning and/or every-other-day.

Mike Hoskins said...

249.4 units left currently, as I put in a new fully-filled reservoir and new infusion set this morning. That makes me happy. PLUS, it's the first-ever time I've used my lower back - so all is good at the moment!

HVS said...

27 U left in my pod,& that pod expires in an
hour so I have to change it. And that bums me
out, it's like throwing away 1 Day plus some of insulin
(crazy low insulin requirements post-pregnancy)
but there's no way around it.