When do you take your basal (long acting) Insulin?

[Klang180]

Hello

My last question and poll about this was too long winded and got only one reply so i will keep this one short.

When do you take your long acting insulin (Lantus, Levemir) and why?

 

[bennyg70]

Alright Klang,

Ive been taking mine at 9pm, but I found I was running a little high come dinner time say at 6 - 7pm.

Im guessing that my lantus was burning out after 20 - 22 hours, as my 2 hours after lunch test are normally OK.

So my thinking is, im now going to take it at 11pm before bed. Hoping that it sees me through till dinner time, and I can deal with the short fall between 9pm and 11pm with my nova at dinner...

Hope it works!

 

[Klang180]

Alright Klang,

Ive been taking mine at 9pm, but I found I was running a little high come dinner time say at 6 - 7pm.

Im guessing that my lantus was burning out after 20 - 22 hours, as my 2 hours after lunch test are normally OK.

So my thinking is, im now going to take it at 11pm before bed. Hoping that it sees me through till dinner time, and I can deal with the short fall between 9pm and 11pm with my nova at dinner...

Hope it works!

Interesting thanks. I can see that might well work well for you. I actually take mine at 11.30pm ish before i go to bed and i am finding i dip considerably during the night. I have come down from 20 to 15 in total but the issue still occurs. I think it is absorbed too quickly as it then doesn't seem tohave the same effect during teh day and allows my BS to creep up. I am rotating sites more but it is difficult to keep track of where i have and haven't been.

Anyway good luck Benny!

 

[lisamariebrankin]

We do our daughters in the morning now as she used to wake up low, most of the time hypo when we gave it at her bedtime.

 

[Klang180]

Exactly what i am getting! Thanks

 

[Snodger]

I changed relatively recently from bedtime to breakfast - best thing I ever did.

 

[Abi W]

I used to take my lantus with dinner, but after basal rate testing I found my sugars were rising into double digits between about 10pm and 2am, before then crashing to frequent 5am lows. So I figured my lantus was taking about 6hrs to really start working, was coming on too strong at that dosage (16u), hence the early morning hypos, and running out by dinner the next day (my carb ratio for dinner was insane). I.e. it was lasting 18-20hrs.

So now I split the dose, taking most of it (10u) before lunch so that it's working by dinnertime and overnight, and take 5u at bedtime, which is enough to keep me ticking over, but at that small dosage also helps avoid the early morning hypos.

I know it sounds mad, splitting but not 12hrs apart, but it seems to work. It's my own unconventional solution based on trial and error, so I'm not recommending that anyone necessarily do it... Am a big fan of split doses though, it's really helped after years of trying my single lantus doses at different times of day and not getting anywhere.

Hope that helps,
Abi

 

[bennyg70]

Have you done any basel testing through the night?

Ie. Eat healthy dinner at 6 - 7pm then dont eat before bed, make sure bloods are ok before bed - then test every couple of hours through the ngiht and into the morning. Your basel should hold you steady.

When I was first put on lantus I was initially put on 34 units, Im now on 14 and i seem to be settleing out now to the point where I can get a bit more panickity about the odd unit.

I used to go low every single night no wonder considering i was on over double the dose i am now, (Please bear in mind I have also lost a bit of weight since, but I shouldnt have been on more than 20 units lets say at my heavier weight)

 

[Klang180]

Hey Benny

Yes that is exactly what i have done and the annoying thing is that i go down overnight but then it doesnt hold me steady throughout the day if i do a missed lunch or breakfast. So it seems it is having too much of an effect in the first 1-8 hours and too little after that. I think it could be an absorption issue but i was thinking that doing it in the morning would mean its biggest power is in effect when i need it most (11.5/1 ration at breakfast whereas i am 15/1 at lunch and 20/1 or more at dinner). Of course this would wreck all my ratios about so it is always tempting just to have a pre bedtime snack instead!

 

[Dougal]

I used to be on 18 units of Lantus, but never really felt well - I was always tired and felt ill. My morning blood sugars were always very high and advise from my DSN to increase my dose by 2u made me feel even worse. My DSN then put me on CGM for 7 days. The results were that I was hypo from midnight to 6am every night. Occasionally I would hypo at night, not wake up and suffer a seizure. We reduced my Lantus to 9u, blood sugars still run too high, but if I increase Lantus by 1u I spend 24 hours hypo. My consultant suggested that I inject 1u in the morning, as he said that experience has taught him that when people take less than 12u of Lantus tend to run out before 24 hours. This seems to work well, although I am still having problems.

Perhaps you should ask your DSN to put you on CGM, it could show were the problems are?

 

[SamJB]

I've recently thought that it's best to take it in the morning because it's in the morning that you know whether the dose was correct. If you inject before bed, test when you wake and your dose needs changing then you need to wait until the next evening to change your dose. Where as if you inject in the morning, you will know before you take your lantus whether it needs changing again. Maybe I'm missing something though! ...I still inject before bed.

 

[bennyg70]

How strict are you guys in taking it at the same time everyday?

I used to just o it anytime between 8 and 11, I had never been told to take it at the same time every day. Im pretty strict now, taking it within half an hour of my target time ...

 

[Abi W]

I'm not super strict, but generally it doesn't vary by more than an hour for either of the times of day I take it.

 

[Glen]

I take 28 units of Levemir at 1030 and 28 units at 2230. I generally keep within 15 mins of those times. Have just reduced my daily does by 4 units which seems required every time the clocks go back.

 

[angieG]

I changed relatively recently from bedtime to breakfast - best thing I ever did.

Snodger,

Can I ask how it was better? I'm only 3 months down the line with this and still learning, I take mine in the evenings but like many others seem to drop low overnight but am okay during the day.

Regards
Angie

 

[Delphinum]

My dose is split so I do half at 8am and half at 8pm. I'm rigid with the 8pm injection as an alarm goes off on my phone and I take other medication then but if I want a long lie in the mornings, I'll sometimes not do the morning dose until 9-10am. When I was doing the full dose just at night, I was getting massive night time hypos and very low blood sugar mid morning. Splitting it seems to have helped.

There's no option for that on your poll though so sorry I can't click that.

 

[Littleholls]

I also split my basal. 6 units am and 10 units pm. After lots of experimenting with dosage, I've found this works best for me, helping keep me controlled all day.

As above, I had hypos in the night when taking full dose in one injection.

 

[Sanober]

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[Paul Oak]

Notice the survey doesn't allow for split doses, since splitting dose to breakfast and before bed my control has improved, and dose been cut by some 60-70%

 

[LaughingHyena]

I'm another with a split dose. Morning one I do around 8am with my breakfast, the evening one around 9:30pm. So far this is working a lot better for me than a single dose did.

When I was on a single dose I did it in the evening.