Lotus maintenance

[JustPickleRick]

Hi,
I switched to Lotus last month from Asda as they would no longer supply due to healthy BMI.
I ordered a 5mg pen but have a couple of pens already in the fridge. I have also been working my way down through the doses to maintenance. I'm on 3mg at the moment and will probably go down to 2.5mg either today or next week.
My question is, i've had an email from Lotus telling me to reorder. Do I have to? I thought they would allow longer gaps between ordering. Does anyone have experience with them and ordering with longer gaps?

I’m not in maintanence but I ordered a pen with lotus early March and had an email on Wednesday saying it had been almost 90 days since my last order. I didn’t think they’d let me order again after such a break but it got approved next day and delivered this morning!

Ahh thats helpful to know. I will order one again maybe next month but as I don't need it right now, I'd rather not pay out. Thanks for your reply

I am with lotus. From what I have read about maintenance in general is, if the gap is too long you might have to go down a dose. I think some pharmacies let you go to 6 weeks to stay on same strength pen. Its tricky because the cost of a 2.5mg with lotus is around £150 and a 5mg is £168 so savings to be had with the bigger pen using smaller doses and lasting longer.

I have two 5mg pens in the fridge so if i had to go down to 2.5mg, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world as I can still count the clicks on the other pens. I will make sure I order in the next few weeks to get them off my back 😅

From a few different forums I’m on, 6 weeks is pretty standard and some go up to 8 weeks too. That’s why I was so surprised lotus still prescribed after 90 days (the email said almost 90 days and when I logged in, a message at the top said 89 days since my last prescribed order)!

to be honest, it could be a bit of a game changer for me. I’d been taking 3.75mg for a while from 5mg pens, ordering every six weeks, with the last couple being 7.5mg pens. I’ve gone up to 5mg recently but having to order every six weeks just so I knew I’d get them meant I’ve accumulated a few pens.

I’d decided to get through the ones I’ve got and then just have to deal with starting at 2.5mg again when they eventually run out, but if I can get one every 89 days then I can still keep my prescription going whilst running down the ones I have!

Tempting to change to 8 week one do you know which ones do 8 weeks? I think in long term maintenance the goal to reduce cost. It feels just as pricey to be on a lower dose if using a lower dose pen especially with the change in pen. My last one was one of the newer style pens.

I am on 7.5mg at the moment and thinking about coming down to 5mg next dose as I am within goal range. Husband wants me to stop now and thinks I have 1 dose left. I am going to carry on and hope he doesn't notice it in the fridge (hidden). However once I use up my spare pen I can just have a current pen in my drawer. Eventually I would like to use a 5mg pen over 8 weeks.

It seems as though lotus would. I’m pretty sure iqdoctor did me one after seven weeks last year when I messed up my dates.