A good find, and a favour to ask you...

Have you ever had an insulin pen that STINKS? Stale horrible old insulin - phhoooeey! Well my favourite pen, my Novopen demi, somehow got itself into that state even though it's my newest pen - probably only about a year old - and even though I cleaned it fairly regularly. (Twice a year is regular! It might not be often enough, but it sure is regular! Yes I know I said I've only owned it a year. So I've cleaned it twice. Tell me you've cleaned yours more, go on, lie to me!).

*ahem*

A few months ago I started pulling it apart to clean it every few days, I just couldn't get rid of that pong.

I soaked it in dishwashing liquid, I sat it in boiling hot water, I left it all sitting open for days with no cartridge in it in the hope that fresh air would help. I stared at it and willed it to de-stink itself, but nothing worked.

So I started using my old novopen (not a demi) and ohh it was nice to be away from that horrid stink, but I very much missed my half units and soon learnt that for me good control NEEDS half units. And so I had to go back to stinky-pen. Ugh.

It almost smelled fresh again by the time I put a new insulin cartridge in - but right when I thought things were going good I made the move of putting my nose right up to the lid. PHHHHOOARR! *holds nose*. This will never do!

So I got desperate. When I couldn't find the email for my diabetes ed nurse (to beg for a new pen), I thought I may as well try everything I can think of. I was about to try soaking it in bleach, spraying it with kitchen cleaner, burying it in the sand or whatever other plan I could invent.

But then I found The Answer: Simple-as. Soak it in hot water with a little white vinegar added.

Simple things are always the best :) For a few hours I had a pen with a whiff of vinegar, but that faded fast. And now I have a fresh smelling, fresh looking, fresh feeling (Ohh, there's a commercial in that lol) Demi pen. YAY. I can go back to being embarrassed of injecting holes in myself in front of people, instead of being embarrassed of the smell that wafts out when I pull that little beasty out of my portable pancreas.

Such a small thing, but such a big sigh of relief!


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And on another note... I have a favour to ask of the diabetes O.C:

*flutters eyelashes*

Now, Darrrrlinks, could you possibly, please, perhaps, have a look at all the links you have going on the sides of your blogs or blog roll pages, and kill off some dead ones / update the changed ones?

Coz M here is a chronic blog surfer and loves to just go through from one blog to the next using another person's links. But as time passes it's getting harder & harder to do because there are so many messages that say "this blog page doesn't exist" and so many sites that haven't had a fresh post since February 1912... I keep hitting dead ends!

*pulls the puppy dog eyed begging look*

Please, favourite bloggers in the whole wide world, could you do that for me?

*big cheesy grin* I'll luv ya forever-n-ever, really :D

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On yet another note - I owe you all a post on the failure that was my Diabetes Education dinner in honour of Type 1 diabetes day. I *tried* to raise my voice. But... Ears have to be turned on for that to work with any success. *sigh*. More on that some other day when I'm over the emotional side of it! (It seems that 2 weeks is NOT enough time to lose the disgust you have for your own family's lack of interest & knowledge).

Hurumph.
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