The Journey through Pens and Insulin...

So I decided for my second post I would talk about the different types of pens and insulin I have used over my time as being Diabetic. So take this as a 'review' as all of my pens and insulins, essentially I am 'reviewing' a product that has kept me alive and kicking for numerous years :)

Junior Novo Nordisk and Mixtard 30

So the first ever Pen I ever used, way back when was the 'Junior Novo Nordisk Injection Pen'. As you can see it was brightly coloured but as a 10 year old it didn't bother me too much. I was using this pen with Mixtard 30 penfill which is the mixed insulin that has both fast-acting and slow-releasing insulin. I would inject before breakfast and tea. At the time it was great for trying to control my BG's but it was very fixed I had to have it half an hour before food, and had to have it mostly the same time each day for it too be effective. However, this type of insulin was discontinued in December of 2010, so with this in mind my nurse changed me too Humulin and the Lilly Pens.


Lilly Pen and Humulin

So this was the second pen I used to inject insulin, I only had it for a short period of time as I changed over too the Multi-Daily Injections (MDI). But the Humulin worked on the same principle of Mixtard 30, a mix of fast acting and slow releasing insulin into the body. The Lilly pen looked a bit more adult as I was getting a bit older. The insulin worked the same so had to inject half an hour before food and was very fixed.

Silver and Blue Novo Nordisk Pen and Novorapid and Levemir
So this is my current insulin regime, I inject four times a day and more if needed. I inject the background insulin, Levemir(Basal) just before bed. Then before I eat any food I count the carbs and inject the right dosage of Novorapid(Bolus). These insulins are better for someone who needs to be more flexible, apart from the Levemir that has to be injected at the same time the rapid injections can differ when I inject just as long as it is with food. With this type of injectional regime I can have a correctional dosage of Novorapid if I am running high BG's due to illness.

Novorapid:

Levemir:

Obviously all of these insulins' where right for me at the time I was injecting them, I have had quite good control on all of them so have had no bad reactions. However, these are my opinions different insulins'/pens work better for different people or even worse. But I hope you have enjoyed this post, I thought it might be quite interesting to do :) x