Hello! I noticed our fridge wasn’t working properly this morning and the temperature which is usually +4 had risen to +36. The insulin packets were warm. i transferred them straight away to another fridge which was working well. I don’t know whether I should now throw all the insulin out? Any advice?
I was told by a pharmacist that for every day insulin sits out of fridge, it loses a day of potency once it’s opened. I would call your pharmacist for their opinion. We travel overseas with extra insulin and it’s not refrigerated during the time of travel to airport, flight time, and travel to hotel - and we haven’t had problems. Hope this helps!
@morseyami hi! Are you sure about 36 I mean that’s very hot? At 22 your insulin would be absolutely fine no worries but if it got that hot it only lasts 3 days.
Thank you 
Yes that is helpful!
Hi Joe,
Well the fridge said 36, but the insulin wouldn’t have got that hot, but it possibly got hotter than 22.
@morseyami, given that the insulin was then refrigerated. I would get a bottle or 2 quickly, then work through the stock you have and use the new bottle as backup. If you have unexplained high blood sugar you can always switch to the backup. If everything is fine (my guess) then you can keep working through the older stock. Best of a bad situation. Best of luck!
Thanks Joe, appreciated!
My insulin sits in my locker at work every day and goes back in the fridge overnight. I’m pretty sure I also use vials after the 28-day expiration. And I’ve never had any issues. As long as it didn’t get super hot and went right back into a working fridge, I’m willing to bet that it’s fine. Joe’s advice is good, though. Get some fresh in case you notice it’s not as effective as usual.
T-1 for 54 years and have been through a lot of insulin in that time. I can only think of 2 times where I had seriously compromised insulin. The first time back around 1967 where I bought a bottle of NPH Iletin II that hadn’t been refrigerated, it was cloudy and not effective at all, but who knew way back then until you finally started spilling glucose in your urine and the Testape went to Medium and then Darker green. Most insulins today can be kept at room temperature (approx 72-76 degrees) for 28 days. Oh, the other time the insulin went bad was when ordering it from Canada and apparently it was much colder there than it was in Texas. The insulin actually ‘gelled’ in the vial and was like Jello.
Thanks for that appreciated!!
Thank you very much. So far no problems