Insulin overdose

[Torty1966]

Hi I'm type 2 on insulin. Just been put on abasaglar basal 56units in morning then humalog as a bolus. Have to carb count. Just miscalculated my dose. Should have been 8 units and I gave 26! Spoken to 111 they said eat bread/starch and drink lucozade. Taking levels every 15 mins. They're getting a doctor to call me. Levels are going down. From 11.7 to 9.3 in half an hour. Any ideas. Worried

 

[eventhorizon]

Keep checking your blood sugar and get a stash of lucozade, cola biscuits, sweets, cake etc etc. Don't let it get too low. Have you got anybody with you?

 

[EllsKBells]

Hi there, first things first don't panic! The advice 111 have given you is pretty much it, drink some lucozade and also eat something starchy, like bread, or weetabix, something like that. Keep hypo treatments nearby, and definitely keep testing. If you can stay at home, that's great, and try not to be too active. Is anyone with you? Just keep testing, and keep eating if you need too. I know it's not nice if you end up going too high, but it is better than having a hypo.

Try not to stress too much! We've all got it wrong before and, speaking as someone who has overdosed in a completely different context, it's not a massive massive overdose, so you can probably control it without having too bad a hypo. Keep testing! Did you eat the meal you were dosing for?

 

[col101]

You've done all the right things. You said you carb count do you know your ratios so how many carbs would equate to the bolus you've taken? Should give you a clue as to how many carbs you'll need to balance it. If your blood sugar drops quickly then lucozade or glucotabs are the quickest acting. Good luck let us know how it goes

 

[Scott-C]

If 8 was the correct amount for the meal, then you've taken enough for another two of those meals, so that would be a rough guide to how much extra you'll need to eat.

No personal experience of a miscalculation like that but instinct tells me that a steady mix of fast carbs like lucozade and slow carbs like bread, biscuits spread out over the next 5 hours will sort it with an emphasis on the 2 to 3 hours after injection. Not sure what the humalog profile is, but most fast acting insulins reach their peak after about 2 hours and last for about 5 hours. So if there's going to be any major reaction it'll probably be around the 1hr 30 min to 2hr 30 min mark.

You'll look back on this in a few days time as as a damned good excuse for cakes!