lantus seems to have stopped working

Curleous

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Dislikes
bad manners and rudeness
I have been waking up the last few weeks with levels between 7 and 8 and have increased lantus from 14 to 17 and still no better. The only thing that does slightly lower it is if i have 2 or 3 glassses of wine. I know about the dawn phenomenen but should i continue to increase lantus until i wake up lower than this. Does lantus also effect the novvorapid sensitivity as at the moment i have also started to need more novorapid to cover my meals than i did a while ago?
Thanks
Curleous
 

alf15

Well-Known Member
Messages
56
Hi,

I have had a few problems with lantus a few times now. Like yourself I was on 14 shots of lantus. And my levels would be perfect, my bs wouldn't move from the night before. Then they started to rise to 10 - 14.

At 1st I thought the lantus was bringing low when I was sleeping, so I woke up during the night to check a few times and I wasn't going low. So then I thought it just stopped working like alot people seem to complain about with lantus.

Then I started to up my lantus 15, 16, 17, 18. 18 shots seemed to hold me. But then a few weeks of 18 shots I started to go low a few times during the day and at 1am so I dropped my lantus off.

What I think happened to me, was I had something wrong with me, an infection or virus and my liver was releasing energy to fight the virus/infection.

Maybe this is what is happening with you. Are you sick? I felt fine, but must of had some infection which sent my bs a bit mad for a week or two.

So what I'd do 1st is do a few checks during the night. If you bs isn't going low mid sleep then start to up your lantus dose by 1 unit each night and see what holds you.

But beware you might have to reduce it again ina week or two if you have a virus/infection like I had.

Also what could be happening is, if you are eating fatty food or even pasta or rice dishes at dinner time, I have noticed that it can take 4-6 hours for the food to be broken down fully. So if you are having your dinner at 7pm and you go asleep at 11pm, the food could finally be coming into you at around 12 or 1am.

Hope it works out for you soon! I can be really annoying, cus it messes up your hole day sometimes.
 

Curleous

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Dislikes
bad manners and rudeness
I have been eating later this week as on evenings at work but this has been going on for a while. I also exercise less when on evenings. i know i am not going low over night so shall try 18 units tonight then 19 and 20 to see what happens. 7.8 is way too high to be waking up with when going to bed at 5.5

Cheers
Curleous
 

Marky4

Active Member
Messages
26
This is interesting. I was on Lantus for many years, but have now swapped to Levermir.

When i was on Lantus noticed variations in readings too. (Although its true to say my general control, and knowledge of what I was doing was worse then). I also had sometimes disastrous blood sugar lows at night, which nearly wiped me out a couple of times. The inconsistency on Lantus, I was always suspicious about. Been much better since i went on Levemir.
 

Curleous

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Dislikes
bad manners and rudeness
Well up to 18 last night and have just tested this morning at 05.30 and 6.9 so under 7 but went to bed at 5.5 again so will give it another day on this before another increase.Have finished evenings now so will also try some exercise today which is good.

Cheers
Curleous
 

alf15

Well-Known Member
Messages
56
Curleous,

Thats good, I wouldnt be worried about 6.9 waking up. To be honest waking up 7 or 8 isnt majorly bad. If you keep waking up 10+ i would really worried and would try to correct it the next night.

Like Mary said, Lantus can be a bit funny (can work perfect for a few months and then not work correctly for the next), I'm thinking I might change to Levimar myself soon.

Alan
 

sugar2

Well-Known Member
Messages
833
Hi,

Two thoughts.

i noticed that you have been diagnosed since july 2009...wondered if this was teh end of yor "honeymoon" period, and that youwill need to reassess your doses?

You ahev been doing fabulously well...so I should be getting advice from you, rather than the other way around. I was on lantus, changed to levimir as it seemed to run out on me...only lasted me about 20 hours, rather than 24, and then moved to the pump...which | love.

Whilst on teh pump, you are encouraged to do regular fasting periods, where you leave your basal rate running, and measure your blood sugar every 2 hours. The advice is, that if you stay within 2 m mol/litre, from where you started off, then your abasal rate is OK.

The other thing to bear in mind is teh accuracy of your meter. Whilst I really do encourage and admire your very tight control...due to teh vaguers of the meter...the difference between a 6.9 and a 7 may not be teh obvious 0.1.

I would say, yes, try and change your doses so you can increase your control, and if nothing seems to do it, seek medical advice help to change your insulin, but don't expect your blood sugar to stay at exactly 5.5 all the time.....I am not sure that none diabetics have thsi level of control?
 

Curleous

Well-Known Member
Messages
85
Dislikes
bad manners and rudeness
thanks for all the replies...i have settled at 17 lantus for the time being and am back down to below 6 morning readings. i think that combination of eating big meals and later in the evening than usual has been a contributory factor along with been a bit lazy on the exercise front. I have noticed that with more lantus my novorapid seems more active ? . I also could have a bad syringe of lantus? who knows

Cheers
Curleous
 

janabelle

Well-Known Member
Messages
816
Dislikes
Lack of choice of insulin for newly diagnosed patients.
Dog owners who let their dogs poop in the street-a hazard for most, but worse if you're visually impaired!
Having RP
HI Curleous,
Glad things have settlied down for now. Lantus is notorious for causing unexplained highs & lows in some people. Your post reminded me how I'd blame everything but the wind direction for the crazy (no) control I had on it. I was on humalog also, and on the days when my BGs were high, the humalog seemed to have little effect either, it was like I had no Lantus in me at all. Other days my BG would be dangerously low all day with no humalog! Funny thing was, it seemed to work when I first started on it. :?
I remember reading an article in the internet a couple of years ago, although I can't find it now unfortunately; it stated that studies had been carried out that showed a significant percentage of lantus remained at the injection site for up to 36 hours. Lantus is very acidic on injection, the neutralisaton process allows it be released slowly. I can only gueess that in some people this process is interfered with for whatever reason, which causes problems with release and consequently the action of it.
I'd been on many different synthetic "human" insulins before lantus, and porcine insulin since and not had this problem with either. Lantus is in a class all of it's own. :evil:
Jus
 

stewpid

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,

It's a while since I've been on the forum, but it's amazing how relevant this thread is to the reason I'm back on.

I did a dose ajustment course about a year ago and I was really pleased with the difference it made to me. My regular readings were down in the 6's and my HbA1c was the lowest it has ever been (diagnosed Type 1 in Jan 1999).

However, in the past 6-8 weeks I seem to have lost all control. Despite doing the usual calculations on dosage (Humalog) I have been as high as 14-16 two hours after meals and had to take some pretty big correction doses. I have increased my Lantus Solostar from 12 to 14 to 16, but still my morning readings have been more than 8 on most occasions.

For example last night I went to bed at 9.4, and did some night-time tests when I was 9.0 at 1.00am, and 9.3 at 3.00am. When I got up this morning I was still at 8.0.

At lunchtime I was 8.7 pre lunch and having had only a cheese sandwich (with 7 units of Humalog) I was 12.6 two hours after lunch. Previously I would have been 8-10 at most.

What could be making the difference? To be honest it's getting me confused and worried :?

Regards

Stewart
 

wizardinblack

Member
Messages
18
Similar thing has been happening with me- I have posted about this in another thread, but I am not familiar with Lantus, is this the same as Levemir? That's what I take anyway but I don't think that's the problem. It's the Novorapid that doesn't seem to be working as it usually does lately, i'm going to have to keep increasing until my readings are right but i'm a little worried about what could be the matter.
Glad i'm not the only one having this problem though :lol:
 

iHs

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,595
Hi

With time most people will have to adjust their basal insulin dose and also their bolus insulin as well. Nothing stays the same day in day out so all you can do is make the changes when a pattern starts to appear from your bg levels and increase firstly the bolus insulin one unit but if that doesn't sort things, then increase the basal just one unit at a time.

Could well be that the colder weather will mean that bg levels will be higher than summer so all you can do is monitor and increase insulin or reduce carb eaten.