Lantus allergy?

[aileenc0]

Hi was just wondering if anyone on here had ever had any problems with lantus.I git put on it for about 4 months a while back aftr about 3 or 4 days I started to develop a really itchy rash like hives and went to my gp who more or less said it was an allergy to something but not insulin as that would be very unusual. however this continued and after being prescribed almost every antihistimine on the market I still felt completely miserable and was covering in severe bruising and scrapes with scratching continuously!! Eventually one saturday morning I got up to find My face had totally swelt up so much so that could hardly open my eyes and my lips made mick jaggers look tiny I went to my local casualty to be told it was something I had eaten definately not the lantus. the following monday I went to my diabetic nurse and told her to put me back onto insulitard she put me on levemir instead and two days later The rashes and swelling had gone although they still have not admitted it was the lantus I know it was so really I was just having a bit of a rant but wondered if anyone else had experienced anything like this??
Aileen :lol:

 

[totsy]

hya,
im on lantus and have never had any bad effects sorry :|

 

[janabelle]

Hi Aileen, just read your message. Sounds an awful experience, and one I have never had with lantus.
However I have been experiencing problems with lantus since I've been on it over 3 years. It is only this week it has finally dawned on me that it's most likely lantus that has caused a lot of the problems I've been experiencing. I take the same dose most days, but my control varies day to day. I have days when it doesn't seem to work and days when I am continually hypo. I had a hypo day this week, and it was very frightening. My advice to you, following your experience, is to report it to Aventis, the company who manufacture Lantus. I have to warn you that they are unlikely to divulge any info about whether other people have reported similar side-efffects. They were unnecessarily evasive when I reported my experience, and especially when I asked whether other people had reported similar problems to them. As a result of this negative contact, I do not trust the company, and am going to change insulins as soon as possible.
I have had 19 years on human insulin, and now having tried the new generation insulins, my quality of life day to day is not great and blood sugars very unpredictable, which means I am constantly monitoring, as my hypo-awareness is not great. I also feel tired a lot, and have gastric problems, although I do not know whether these are related to my insulin. I would like to hear particularly from people having similar problems. I am also considering, in desperation, trying animal insulin. If anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.
Justine

 

[totsy]

hya justine,
after reading your message im wondering if my problems are to do with lantus,i havent had an allergic symptoms but do feel shattered most of the time,i eat the same foods and some days my blood is low all day and others is around 8/10,i am also having a lot of night time lows where i wake up really ill which is pretty scary,may i ask what gastric problems u have as the last yr i have had horrendous stomach pains and im always constipated (tests for gall stones were fine),my gp says im doing great but believe me i dont feel it, ive been on lantus 19mths as novomix wasnt working with me, it seems a shame as i often have to miss a cooked meal for something light as my blood is high or i make a light meal and my bloods are low so have to cook something more substantial,it is in charge of my life at the moment and i need to feel well again,sorry for rambling
amanda

 

[totsy]

hya,
no i dont carb count as im only one one injection of lantus daily, the metformin was given as novomix wasnt really working so they gave me metformin, i do want better control of my diabetes but my dr says im doing fine( i dont feel it)
amanda

 

[totsy]

hya,
i have asked this question yesterday in the forum,
im not sure what i am,when diagnosed i was ill with plus 4 ketones and the hospital diagnosed me as type 1,but nearlly 4 yrs on im having a lot of night time hypos and now my dr says im not a typical type 1 as he believes im making some insulin in the night,i am lost and dont know what i am,can u shed any light on this?
amanda

 

[totsy]

hya ,
i dont see a consultant just my gp and diabetic nurse,i was given lantus as soon as my gp surgery started using it which was 19 mnths ago,i take 28 units lantus at the mo and 1 metformin tablet,
thanks for your help amanda

 

[totsy]

thankyou for the advice,i will do that,personally i think its down to money as it took me ages to get lantus as our surgery didnt use it
take care
amanda

 

[totsy]

hya sarah
i know and i certainly dont want that,its just so hard to get drs to listen
amanda

 

[aileenc0]

Thank you for your replys everyone my dad is on lantus and never had any allergy type problems but like some of you have mentioned he does tend to suffer fron 'hypo days' a scary experience as I'm sure you would agree. :?

 

[janabelle]

Hi Aileen, on my last "hypo" day, on Lantus, I felt it was my duty to report it under the "yellow card system" as an adverse effect of the insulin. I have since changed insulins. By reporting these adverse effects in this way, the appropriate authorities will be made aware, and the safety of the medication will be scrutinized. It is dangerous and certainly life-threatening to have such unpredictability with insulin. I never experienced anything like it with any of the "human" insulins I had been on ever the years. The insulin should not be acting in this way, and if your husband cant relate these "hypo" days to anything, then it is unlikely to be a problem with him. I reported these problems to many health professionals, they don't take it seriously. We need to make people aware of these problems, because I predict in the next 10 years, other insulins may be phased out in favour of these newer "analogue" insulins.
Wot's your husbands's explanation of these "hypo" days?
Justine

 

[janabelle]

Sorry Aileen, meant to say, wot's your husband's GP's explanation of the "hypo" days.
Also I am sure there must be some people having a good experience with Lantus, be great to hear from them about their experiences too. Surely it can't be all bad!
Justine

 

[DrCornelis]

As a medical specialist (retired) I decided to start using Lantus about 3 months ago after consulting an endocrinologist. I had tried some oral medications before but I could not stomach them. I managed but not too well.
The Lantus did work but after some time unpleasanr side effects may appear.
I checked on a number of sites, forums and blogs and was (un)happy to conclude that effects that may appear (more so with an older pen it seems) are:

- myalgia, muscle pains that have not been there before
- ear pains
- flu like symptoms or hay fever symptoms
- mood swings

Of course all these side effects are well known by now but they are not divulgated to the doctors.
Maybe they will treat the symptoms and you will feel a little better. But I am not too fond of treating side effects because these will bring in more side effects.

The only thing patients can do is to list all their complaints in forums like these. It is the fastest way to get all possible side effects to the fore.
Especially if you have never experienced such effects before.

I'd be interested if some of the effects described here sound familiar. Then please let us know.
The manufacturers will not be over eager to supply you with that information.
Type in Lantus + allergies/allergy under scoogle and check with some of the forums - also from other countries.
Good luck - be careful - reduce the Lantus and see what happens... your bloodsugar may drop unexpectedly - reduce by 2 numbers only

 

[janabelle]

Hi, very interested in your post as I too experienced lots of side effects, it's only looking back that I can associate them with Lantus. I felt like I was dying some days, it was so difficult to describe. I started to get ill within a few months of taking it,and the symptoms peaked about a year later. I was in constant pain in my arms, shoulder area. I had days when I felt so ill, and couldn't function at all, and I and my husband began to think I had some awful disease and it was the end for me. The worst days seemed to be when the lantus didn't seem to be putting my blood sugars down, almost like I hadn't taken any at all, consequently I would take more- I had a tremor, and muscle twitching in my legs, nausea exhaustion, dizziness and just cried and layed down all day. It was terrifying. The tiredness is like nothing I can describe, I felt like I had been drugged. I would take paracetamol to try and ease the symptoms and it would have no effect. I suppose I cant say for sure that these symptoms were caused by lantus, but I had never experienced anything like this and I've been a type-1 diabetic for 19 years. During my time on Lantus I also developed stomach problems which were diagnosed as a suspected ulcer- pain wind, belching and nuasea, none of which I had ever suffered before.
Do the symptoms I describe sound familiar to you, and where did you get your info?
I also had days when I was constantly hypo- it did not relate to any changes I had made, and were always unexpected.
You are right about Sanofi Aventis- they did not divulge any information when I asked whether they anyone else had reported similar symptoms to them. They claimed that all reports were confidential and proceeded to read me the leaftlet that came with my Lantus!. Following this fruitless conversation with their medical department a few weeks ago, I concluded that I did not trust this company and did not want to be a ginuea pig for them any longer. From experience I know that not all pharmaceutical companies are not so secretive. I have had very helpful and honest info from Wockhardt and Lily.
Jus

 

[DrCornelis]

Thanks for your further comments.
I checked with a friend who is also my GP and with another who is a pharmacist. Both had never head of the side effects but on the other hand were not very surprised to hear of them.
I corresponded with my endocrinologist in Cape Town, who also concluded that these were unusual side effects and that maybe the only thing to do was to switch over to Levemir.

I stopped the Lantus for a while and started taking an anti-histaminic and sometimes and ketoprofen to act against the "flu". The anti-histaminic was helpful and most symptoms subsided.

Maybe the expiry date and/ or the storage play a role. Maybe also the factory where the Lantus is produced.
Today I started another test with a new pen and I keep this pen in a fridge.
If the symptoms reappear I think I have proof enough.
Continuing Lantus and take other medications against he side effects is not an option.
I am pretty sure that the manufacturer knows of these side effects by now but as long as they are unusual they will avoid publishing them.
I will report the side effects to the authorities in my own country though.

 

[lionrampant]

As my consultant told me recently, Lantus was a great insulin when it was first introduced. Everyone bought the company line because compared to older treatment methods it was indeed gold standard. It was a massive step forward but Detemir (Levemir) is a far better basal insulin (assuming it's split into two doses - another thing that was misunderstood in the beginning was that you could use Detemir as a one shot insulin).

I'm due to come off Lantus on Monday, and I'm looking forward to going back to Levemir. Because regardless of how horrible my control was back when I first used it, I know it wasn't because Levemir was somehow deficient, it's because we didn't understand how to use it four years ago.

I'll be reporting back as soon as I have some concrete results.

 

[janabelle]

Hi,
Sarah, it worries me too that my local PCT recommend Lantus by name, and the person involved in compiling the guidelines told me she knows of patients that have reported similar problems of unexplained hypos. I am going to get to the bottom of this one way or another. The manufacturer has some kind of hold over the NHS and what makes me more angry is that while medical professionals are well aware that people lose their hypo-awareness while taking these analogue insuins, they are quite happy to recommend that we only test our blood sugar twice a day! Think they're trying to finish us off one way or another :twisted:
I reported the problems with Lantus On the Yellow Card Reporting System,at the MHRA- don't trust that your doctor will report it, they won't.
Lantus ruined my quality of life for 4 years, and my control was lousy so there will be long term implications. I can catagorically(don't know if I spelt that right-don't care) say that since I have been off Lantus the hypo days and many other problems have gone, and that ain't no co-incidence! There is a problem with that phoney insulin, and doctors are ignoring their patients concerns and it's a **** disgrace.
So my message to anyone having problems with lantus is trust yourself, not your doctor, and keep a diary of symptoms, hypo and hypo days etc, and make them listen!
Rant over.
Jus