
November 13, 2000
Blood Tests and Insulin Injections
Question from Saugus, California, USA:
I thought that I heard about an insulin pen with which you could pre-fill the cartridge with your own mix (i.e. Humalog/NPH) of insulin. Is there such a pen? My son would like to use a pen, but mixes insulin. He doesn’t want to have to inject twice.
Answer:
I believe Disetronic makes an insulin pen that you can fill with insulin using special cartridges. One can mix the insulins, Regular or Humalog and NPH, but would you really want to? You then are faced with a fixed mixture. 75/25 NPL/Humalog is available as well as 70/30 NPH/regular and 50/50 NPH/Regular in pens. What would you mix and how would you give extra of the fast acting without another shot?
Most of my kids with diabetes are so happy with the convenience of the pens and the loss of the need to mix that two shots with a very sharp needle are the least of their worries.
LD