I have several boxes of pen-fills that I accidently put in the freezer. The insulin is for my 17 year old exchange student who takes four shots a day. We were separating a supply for him to take to school, and I absentmindedly placed them in the freezer. I found them six hours later, and I can’t tell if they froze. Bubbles still moved, the solution was clear, and appeared no different than the others. Are they still usable?

Insulin should not be frozen, but if the pen-fills were clear and the bubbles moved, then I think that this had not taken place, and it would be fine to use them.

DOB

[Editor’s comment: Dr. O’Brien has taken a very pragmatic approach. However, it is difficult to be sure of the reliability of the insulin if it semi-frozen (whatever that means!) and if using these cartridges, I’d surely want to do very frequent blood sugar testing. It’d probably be cheaper to go to a pharmacy and get some new insulin, and not to worry about it.

P.S. I called both Novo-Nordisk and Lilly, and the customer service reps both said it’d be wiser not to use the product since it had been below 36 F.

WWQ]