Inserting Levemir PenFills into NovoPen Echo

What do you do if your kiddo needs half unit doses of Levemir in on-the-go pens, but in the US the only thing available are pre-filled pens that only dose in one unit increments? 

 

You improvise!

Note: you will also need a spare or empty NovoLog PenFill cartridge to do this because you're going to steal a piece off of it.

 

Our Endo ordered per my request: Levemir FlexTouch Pens and a NovoPen Echo that has the ability to dose in half units. Then you do a bit of surgery.

 

1) Cut the plastic holding in the Levemir cartridge. I know people that do this with a utility knife, scissors or snips. I asked my husband to do it... thus a hacksaw got involved (overkill, but it worked just fine). Just cut very slowly until you almost get through the plastic and then just snap it the rest of the way by hand. Do both sides and the cartridge will pop right out.

 

 

 

 

2) The Levemir cartridge as-is is missing a piece to fit into the NovoPen Echo. All you need to do is to pop off the orange cap from a NovoLog cartridge and pop it right onto the Levemir cartridge. Now it will fit right into your NovoPen Echo.

 

 

 

3) I have multiple NovoPen Echo's in use so I label them using NovoNordisk's color coding system to keep things straight. I used green electrical tape for this.

 

 

 

Now I have a small handheld case that holds: full strength NovoLog, diluted NovoLog, diluted Regular, and Levemir.

 

 

 

We still use vials and a syringe at home, but having all of these insulins in this case right in the fridge makes grab and go crazy easy.

 

It doesn't take much to make this T1 Mama happy!