Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Expiration?

When Kacey had that low this past Sunday, something prompted me to make sure the glucagon is always within reach. We have 4 of them...one on the diabetes cart (the small cart Kacey does all her testing), one in her diabetes bag, one at the school nurse and one in her classroom. I pulled out the one on her cart and I was looking at the label and noticed an expiration date. APRIL 2009! Yikes! That's next month! I didn't realize they expired so soon. We got them in July 2008 so we haven't even had them a year and we paid $50 a piece for them!

So my question is... WHY do they expire after a year? Are they still good even if they are expired?

It sucks that we spent all that money on them and now we have to trash them. I guess if they are of no use them we could use them to "train" other family members.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know why they expire either but we usually get throw ours after after 1 year (I think ours are usually good for 1 year).... You can give them back to your doctor, sometime they use to them teach other people

Anonymous said...

Actually Jill, I just pulled out one of mine and it also expires in April 09!!! But we filled ours in March 2008. I also just noticed that I had to refill before 3/12/08 so now I have to call my doctor for them to call them in!! :)

Cara said...

The expiration date on the pharmacy tag and the expiration date on the kit itself were different for me. But I didn't realize that until I had already showed someone how to use it.... so basically I wasted it several months early. Be sure that the expiration date is the one on the bottle.
I've never actually had to use on or to have it used on me, so I don't know about if they are good or not after the date...

Jamie Schull said...

Hello,

I love your blog! I always check the expiration date when I get the glucagon from our pharmacy and if it is less than one year from purchase I complain and they order me new ones, I expect to get a years worth of peace of mind when I buy them. I have had them give me ones with only six months left on them. But I only keep two, one at home and one wherever my son goes. Good luck with your beautiful daughters, have you checked out diabeticrockstar.com she might like it.

:) Tracie said...

No clue if they're good after expiration....we've been blessed not to have to use one so far! I keep recently expired ones around for peace of mind just in case, I also do that with insulin and rotate out as dates come and go.

Anonymous said...

Our school nurse just reminded me that all the glucagons we keep at school expire this month - which means all the ones here at home do as well - LOL Nikki will actually get a kick out of sharing a glucagon renewal date with Kacey