Novorapid

[No1DeadlyPoison]

Hello everyone! I was just wondering how many people have Injected the wrong insulin. So instead of Levemir you have given NovoRapid (which I have just done) and how you have dealt with it. If anyone could give me some advice on how to deal with this and what to do that would be fantastic.

 

[gem09]

On Christmas night just passed I took novorapid thinking it was levemir, realised it was the wrong insulin as soon as I finished pushing. My strategy, considered glucagon, but instead went up to my bed ( trying to avoid panicking) and had some shortbread, orange juice and a glass of milk. Tested every half hour until approx 6 hours had gone by (had a lot of alarms set!) all was fine, never went below 4.8 or above 9!

 

[himtoo]

hi there @No1DeadlyPoison
welcome to the forum
i would get a good bit of carb in right now --- say 380 ml bottle of lucozade and follow it with 2 pieces of toast

and then just test every 30 minutes or so for the next 3 hours -- i know it is a pance answer for your sleep tonight -- but it is important to be safe

i would take your long acting though -- maybe reduce it a bit............

 

[himtoo]

how many units fast acting did you take ?
what was your BG before the injection

not critical but important in not going beserk and eating the whole fridge in panic

 

[catapillar]

I reckon a high percentage of us have done it at least once - that's what I like to tell myself anyway.

When I did it, I did these things (not at all sure they are the right things):

1. I realised immediately and I injected my long acting into the same place I had injected the shirt acting because I know the reason you aren't usually supposed to inject both in the same place at the same time is because the long acting will slow the action of the short acting & I wanted it slowed - in hindsight it would have be a good idea to also round down the long acting as @himtoo suggests
2. Ate a fair bit of toast and jam - high speed glucose + complex carb combo
3. Made sure my mother knew what I had done so she could check on me in the night - I was living at home at the time, but you know let someone in the house know, or a friend/family member who can ring you in the night
4. Set alarms to check through the night

 

[No1DeadlyPoison]

Thank you so much for your help and concern. I Injected 22 units of NovoRapid but did my Levemir 2 minutes later, my BG was 20.4mmol. So I am thinking I might not be to bad but I just don't want to hypo in the night. As I live at home, I have told my parents so they are aware. I have just done my BG and it was 16.6mmol. Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

 

[noblehead]

Hello everyone! I was just wondering how many people have Injected the wrong insulin.

Once took my basal insulin twice within the space of half an hour, to make matters worse I was working nights at the time and was due to start work not long after

Hope you got through the night OK @No1DeadlyPoison

 

[No1DeadlyPoison]

Hello everyone. Just wanted to update you all. I got through the night okay. I didn't have any hypos, I checked my BG every half hour. It didn't go below 8mmols. Thank you all so much for your help, I really appreciate it. Take care everyone.

 

[therower]

Hi @No1DeadlyPoison . Did the very same thing Wednesday morning this week. It's so easily done. Actually posted a thread BIG OOPS which proved it's a fairly common occurrence.
Glad it all turned well. Does get you worried though.

 

[allan2010]

Hello everyone. Just wanted to update you all. I got through the night okay. I didn't have any hypos, I checked my BG every half hour. It didn't go below 8mmols. Thank you all so much for your help, I really appreciate it. Take care everyone.

Glad you got through the night. I've made the mistake a couple of times which has been ok because I'm still in the honeymoon period and levomir doses are low. I just upgraded to the Novopen Echo which has a digital display to show how much you've injected, and when. Ask your hospital and they should be able to issue them.

 

[No1DeadlyPoison]

Glad you got through the night. I've made the mistake a couple of times which has been ok because I'm still in the honeymoon period and levomir doses are low. I just upgraded to the Novopen Echo which has a digital display to show how much you've injected, and when. Ask your hospital and they should be able to issue them.

Hello allan2010. I have these insulin pens you are talking about. One is a half unit, which has really helped me but my mistake last night which I have done once before (but didn't have this app for help) was because I was tired. I realised what I had done when I had Injected the last unit. But all is good now though.

 

[allan2010]

Ahh. Cool. I haven't started using mine yet. Still on the old pens. I suppose we still need to be alert!

 

[No1DeadlyPoison]

Ahh. Cool. I haven't started using mine yet. Still on the old pens. I suppose we still need to be alert!

It is definitely worth using your new pens, at first I didn't like them to much as I liked the clicking sound my old ones made but you get used to the Echo ones fairly quick. They still make a click sound but are much smoother.

 

[Kevlar87]

Hey @No1DeadlyPoison

I hope you got through the night ok!

I use novorapid and levemir too and I find that the prefilled pens that I get straight from the pharmacist are really handy because they are bright orange for novorapid and green for levemir. I mean I've been close to injecting the wrong insulin a few times but the colour on the pen has always stopped me in my tracks!

However, on a seperate but somewhat similar point - sometimes when I listen to my gut instinct and think I am going slightly high (on the way back from work, or sitting in a meeting etc), I will inject a corrective dose of novorapid without thinking, to then realise (by taking an actual BG reading, which I should have done in the first place) that my BG was fine. But like the guys have said, it's best not to panic, eat some high glucose/carbs food and just test regularly for a few hours.

Note to self: Test before listening to gut instinct!

 

[Diamattic]

@No1DeadlyPoison - The Echo is definitely a smoother pen, and it has a much nicer weight to it then disposable pens. I made sure to get the red one, to stand out from my grey Lantus pen - the standing out is very much appreciated when you're tired, or its dark lol

Typically just figure out how many carbs you need to eat for however many units to injected, put in some of your fav movies and get to partying lol Check every 30-60 minutes or when you feel off and in about 5 hours all should be settled. Glad it worked out for you though!

 

[No1DeadlyPoison]

I really want the red one as it's my favourite colour. But I have a blue and silver one.

I put my alarm on for every 30 minutes as it went down drastically within half an hour.