I had a new toy arrive in the post today. A Novopen Demi, courtesy of my friendly DSN. I've been thinking that a half unit pen would be helpful for me to attempt better carb counting, rather than just aim for meals in carb value increments of 35g, 70g, 105g and so on.
So because they don't seem to do flexpens in half unit increments, I've had to switch to cartridges. Flipping heck, my prescription came in (without TOO much hassle for once!) with three boxes of five cartridges. At the moment, I'm lucky if I get through a flexpen a month - I usually end up having to throw it out with at least 100u left in it. The waste bothers me no end, but that's another story. Fifteen cartridges? If my insulin usage carries on at the same rate it is now, that should theoretically last me over a year! Not having to order any NovoRapid for a year? Now that's a thinker.
Anyway, my comments on this at the moment. It's heavy. The flexpen weighs next to nothing, but this thing is metal and bulky, rather than plastic and light. I suppose it's better for the environment that way. It also doesn't have the initial '0.5u' step that I was really hoping for. But hey, I did 1.5u rather than 2u tonight, and it seemed to work OK.
But I've got to get on with it - although I've got best part of a box of flexpens left, I have now apparently had them taken off my prescription, so I've no choice, really!
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I've swapped back and forth from pens to prefills because prefills are easier with me having one hand but my old DSN (the less said bout her the better) told me I shouldnt use prefilled as she didnt like them so put me on cartridges. I found pens rather than prefilled smoother when injecting. I've had a few levemir prefilled that were really juddery and felt like the needle was blocked even though it wasn't. At mo im back on prefilled because they are just plain easier for me.
I hope you get on with them =) I'm lucky I have never needed to use 0.5 and always rounded to 1.
becky, these do have a 0.5u step up. As I've just done as 0.5u correction. It's literally a dribble of insulin, but its definitely 0.5u