yet another question...

[ebony321]

Hi again,

starting a new post for another question as im hoping someone can answer soon

I noticed last night that my doctor has kindly put on insulin vials, new test strips and humalog and humilin pens on my prescription...

However he has taken my current insulin off, am i mistaken in thinking i need to use my current insulin until i get the pump or am i meant to use the new pens do you think?

I use novorapid and lantus at the minute, and i understand that it was changed to humalog and humilin because lantus is in your system to long so isn't suitable to use as a back up incase of a pump fault.

I'm going to call my diabetes centre and ask when they open anyway, just thought i'd ask what you guys think. or did when you changed.

Spaaaaaanks

 

[iHs]

Hello Ebony

It may be that your hospital prefers its pump users to use Humalog as the bolus insulin instead of Novorapid but it doesn't really matter which bolus is used as long as you are ok.

Humalin I would go along with as that probably works better than Lantus. I still have my back up of Levemir but I did use that twice daily (MDI) whereas you might still be using Lantus just once a day.

On the day of my pump start, I injected my usual bedtime dose of Levemir but left off the morning dose. I just used my bolus dose to cover breakfast but added an extra 2u to cover the fact that I had very little background going on. I got to my hospital for 9am to meet my dsn and pump rep and got connected by 10.30, did a quick bg test using my own Aviva strips (the rep didn't have any) and my bg level was 9.? so wasn't too high. I then got my all my stuff in a bag (suitcase size) and came home. I was a bit high during the day but that was because the basal wasn't quite right and the carb ratio was a bit out but once I sorted it out by entering Time Blocks on the handset I was then able to alter the carb ratio from 1:20 to 1:10 which was much better although still not correct. Over a few days I then tackled my basal rates by doing bg tests and altered my nightime basals down to 0.23 from 0.50. I then stopped going low.

Try not to worry about things as everything will come to you with time. :wink:

 

[phoenix]

As IHS says it doesn't matter which rapid insulin is used in the pump, they are all fairly similar. I was on lantus and Novo pre pump and the hospital changed me to Apidra in the pump, but I'm pretty sure that was because it was fairly new and they wanted to see how well it worked :!:
My back up was changed from lantus to levimir as that doens't last as long. I've no idea how well it will work as a backup since I've not needed to use it. (and had to dispose of 10 out of date pens along the way... what a waste)
My pump start took place over 3 days in hospital so different to the UK. I took my normal lantus the evening before, spent the day in hospital with various talks and practicing insertions and reservoir filling, then 'went live' for dinner that evening. The initial basal they suggested was actually too high for me as I found I needed a third less insulin on the pump. I went low before bed but was able to correct it without any problems. As I was in hospital I was also woken at 3am/6am for testing, I think that thats a good thing, so set your alarm clock!

I hope you get a sensible answer about whether to use the humalin. If you don't have enough lantus left it might make economic sense to use the humalin rather than potentially waste several new lantus pens. On the other hand I'm not sure that a change of basal just before going onto a pump is a good idea.. as a back up it's hopefully only ever to be used in an emergency and for a maximum of 24 hours.

 

[ebony321]

Im a bit concerned about wasting things too. But my nurse has emailed me back and has confirmed that i do need to stay on my current insulin and only to use humulin and humalog as a back up, so im trying to call my DR's now for them to put it back on, but only one box as five pens will last me fine (i usually get 2 boxes at a time) i would rather stay on novorapid and lantus as i have pretty good control and dont want to mess around with new insulins for a month only to mess around with the pump if that makes sense

I have higher than normal ratio's (so my nurse says) so im hoping they go down on the pump to avoid having to re-fill every 5 mins :lol:

I split my lantus so i will be having my night dose the night before and leaving my morning one, and hopefully never have to take it again yey!

Seems like theres alot of things i never thought about but im still very excited, so thanks again guys

 

[sugar2]

Hi,

On a related, but slightly different note...once you are on the pump, you do still need to keep your old insulin on your prescription for "emergencies" ie, if you break your pump. My logic for what to get went like this...

Wosrt time for pump to fail...at the aairport, on teh way to a fortnights holiday.

Therefore, I need , at most a fortnights worth of insulin.

I carry found "emergency novorapid all the time...and swap this every 2 months or so.

I hat waste too...so at the moment, the nurse put both novorapid and levimir on my repeat prescription....but only 2 cartridges.

I haven't actually tried to obtain 2 vial yet.../as my old "stock" is still well within date, but it appears that they can keep a small amount of prescription.

Hope that helps

 

[phoenix]

One thing you can do to stop wasting the rapid back up insulin is to watch for the expiry date on the pens and just before it's up use them to fill the reservoir. .. I assume you can use a cartridge in the same way. You obviously can't do this for the basal or if for some reason your backup rapid differs from your pump insulin.