NOVA MIX 30

[LEE1974COX]

hi
im a new diabetic type 1 last wendsday, they have put me on nova mix 30, i have 24 units in morning 7am and do well up until my lunch at 2pm then my blood just rockets. i think i need a seperate fast working insulin to be fair. any tips would be welcome

 

[Just Laura]

Hey Lee,

Have no idea if this will be of any relevance to you but my 5 year old daughter (diagnosed in January) has an injection first thing in the morning (Lantus) which is a basal, background insulin which lasts her throughout the day/night and then 3 injections around meal times to deal with whatever she eats. (Novorapid)

Sorry you have to be part of it, and I can't pretend to be a proper member myself, but welcome to the club.

x


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[anna29]

Hi Lee .

I have moved your post into here it's the Type1 section .
Here you will meet other Type1's on insulin just like yourself .

They will be able to help you and answer your question/query .

If you need any help to post around on the forum.
Just ask a moderator or myself .
We will do our best to assist :thumbup:

Anna.

 

[Paulasensio]

Hmmm. You should be on a bolus regime too. Who is dealing with you - hospital diabetes nurses?


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[AMBrennan]

they have put me on nova mix 30, i have 24 units in morning 7am and do well up until my lunch at 2pm then my blood just rockets

Sounds like you are right. Is there any particular reason you were put on mixed insulin? Did they give you any specific advice regarding meals?

 

[iHs]

hi
im a new diabetic type 1 last wendsday, they have put me on nova mix 30, i have 24 units in morning 7am and do well up until my lunch at 2pm then my blood just rockets. i think i need a seperate fast working insulin to be fair. any tips would be welcome

Hello Lee

Twice daily insulins are good for newbie people using insulin to get to grips with. But, their drawback is that set amounts of carbohydrate need to eaten at set times of the day in order to stabilise the insulin's affect on blood sugar levels. The set amounts of carb can be adjusted to be more or less according to the bg level that your doctors have asked you to achieve. The reason why therefore that your blood sugar level is high at 2pm is probably because the amount of carb eaten at breakfast is too much or that you've eaten too much carb as a snack mid morning. Again, if you adjust the carb and test your bg levels a bit more, you'll be able to sort yourself out.

If you change to basal/bolus using fast and slow acting insulin, you will need to inject these about 4-6 times per day whereas twice daily is just 2. You can, with help from a forward thinking consultant, use fast acting insulin as a backup to the twice daily so that if you wanted to eat more carb at a meal time than the set amount, a couple of units of fast acting will sort you out..

Hope this helps you a bit so that you can think a bit more on what you need to do...

 

[donnellysdogs]

Agree with iHs.

What are your bg levels for a day? How much are they changing? It may well be that a tweak to the med you are on or your eating times can settle this...

Dont just jump in and ask for different regime after a week... You need to look at your bg levels every 2 hours first and then your eating...(qty and times).

 

[AMBrennan]

It may well be that a tweak to the med you are on or your eating times can settle this...

Yes, it is true that you could follow a strict meal plan, eating fixed meals at fixed times but why should he have to do that when the alternative is actually having a normal life?

Basal bolus is hardly rocket science and you need the same skills as for mixed insulins (knowledge of carbs in food); adjusting insulin doses without help is (e.g. DAFNE) something that can come later if desired; that is to say, instead of telling a patient to have 20u 50/50 mix you can just as easily tell them to have 10u Lantus and 10u Humalog.

The reason I asked about why you were put on mixed insulin is that the NICE guidelines say the following:

Prescribe the types of insulin that allow people optimal well-being. A
• Use multiple insulin injection regimens in adults who prefer them in an integrated package
with education, food, skills training and appropriate self-monitoring. A

Advise twice-daily insulin regimens (often biphasic pre-mixes; analogues in those prone to hypoglycaemia at night) for those:
– who want them
– who find adherence to lunch-time insulin injections difficult
– with learning difficulties who may require assitance

OP would be quite justified in asking for MDI/bolus, and my interpretation is that mixed insulins are not intended as first line treatment anyway.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Agree Ambrennan too.

Many people experience all of the insulins... but I personally feel that without knowing OP lifestyle that this regime MAY and only MAY be initially based upon lifestyle, commitments etc etc.

I do agree that bolus and basal is good, but premix can be good for certain people too. Thats the only reason I said not to jump in.. We dont even know of any bg levels OP has been experiencing.

 

[skhwoody]

I am on Novomix 30, from developing type 1 about 18 mths ago and it is extremley rigid, to the point where i have practically nothing other than breakfast and tea and even then i am struggling to get the sugars to an acceptable level. i was fine at first, i was needle phobic which is why i think i was put on this regime as i had to only ionject twice a day. But over the last few months my control is starting to slip and the insulin levels are climbing slowly and starting to make no difference. The last few days i have hit sugars of 17 - 24 during the afternoon and started to feel the effects or thirst and constant urination.

My next appointment is next month and i am looking at pushing onto the basal regime as it appears more flexible, even if it is more injections, at least i will be able to use my insulin to bring the levels down is extremly high, where as with novomix 30 you have to wait till the next injectable meal.

 

[iHs]

I am on Novomix 30, from developing type 1 about 18 mths ago and it is extremley rigid, to the point where i have practically nothing other than breakfast and tea and even then i am struggling to get the sugars to an acceptable level. i was fine at first, i was needle phobic which is why i think i was put on this regime as i had to only ionject twice a day. But over the last few months my control is starting to slip and the insulin levels are climbing slowly and starting to make no difference. The last few days i have hit sugars of 17 - 24 during the afternoon and started to feel the effects or thirst and constant urination.

My next appointment is next month and i am looking at pushing onto the basal regime as it appears more flexible, even if it is more injections, at least i will be able to use my insulin to bring the levels down is extremly high, where as with novomix 30 you have to wait till the next injectable meal.

Hi

Twice daily insulin doses can be dose adjusted so that bg levels are not so high. It's easy to do. With a bit more insulin you will be able to eat food and be ok. You shouldn't have to wait for hours on end for your bg levels to lower.....

 

[skhwoody]

i know, but for example, today my morning reading was high, i would normally inject 18 units, i increased it today to tackle the raised reading to 26 units, as i then ate my normal breakfast and 2 hours later it hits 19, with a meal or porridge i have regularly and it has not caused a spike like this. I can normally get around and work it out fine, but there are some days where a raise is required. However i am unable to inject between the 2 injections due to the mix and thats where my problem lies i think.

 

[iHs]

i know, but for example, today my morning reading was high, i would normally inject 18 units, i increased it today to tackle the raised reading to 26 units, as i then ate my normal breakfast and 2 hours later it hits 19, with a meal or porridge i have regularly and it has not caused a spike like this. I can normally get around and work it out fine, but there are some days where a raise is required. However i am unable to inject between the 2 injections due to the mix and thats where my problem lies i think.

Hi

I admit very much that it's easer to correct a high bg level with a bolus insulin as that will work within 2hr or so.

Did you eat more carbohydrate than you should have done for your evening meal or bedtime snack the night before that would explain why your bg levels were raised this morning before breakfast. Also, eating porridge, although healthy, tends to cause bg levels to stay raised for a while before they drop which might explain why you remained high all morning. Usually, an increase in the morning injection should start to have some sort of an effect about 4hrs later, so I think the porridge messed things up for you. How about some toast as an alternative?

 

[skhwoody]

i do try and mix it up a little with toast and porridge, but recently my shifts have changed at work to a 12 hour patter from 7 till 7 and i need in that to make the breakfast the main meal of the day i think until i have tea when i get home, as anything i am eating lunch time at all is pushing me over.

 

[iHs]

Hi

For shift work, then basal/bolus is probably the better option then. Best chat to your consultant about the change in your working hours...

All the best

 

[skhwoody]

Yes i work shifts, they change again next month to earlies and lates so each one poses its own issues.

 

[innilus]

I was on nova mix 30 for at least 10 years until I was told it was being discontinued. Now on Humulin, same 70/30 mix and dosage. I am a 27yo m and have been diabetic 24 years. I have 44-48 units in the morning (I say morning but whenever I get up) and 25-30+ units 8-10 hours after (or about 5pm). Obviously your height, weight, sex, metabolism, activity, resistance, etc are all factors but you need more juice. And I need to eat!

 

[russo109]

I've been on Novomix 30 since being diagnosed in April. I'm on 18 units in the morning and between 17 and 19 units befroe dinner in the evening dependant upon what I eat. I usuallu have a bowl of special k for breakfast around 7am and find my sugar levels are around 3.5 to 5 by midday-I usually have a snack mid morning to stop me going too low. Have three slices of seeded whole grain bread sandwiches, crisps and some fruit for lunch and find I'm back down to about 5 just before dinner at six.

So my experince of using Novomix 30 is good just have to find the right amountt of units to inject (It took me about to 2-3 months to get up to my right dose) and adjust your sugar intake so as not to have too many spikes of fast releasing carbs.

 

[dmcx3x]

I have just been put o this 2weeks ago i was on 5jags a day now 2 but my sugars are constantly high to start i was on 40 and 36 i ended up in hospital on saturday and now i am upto 50 and 42 and sugars are still not going down

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[iHs]

I have just been put o this 2weeks ago i was on 5jags a day now 2 but my sugars are constantly high to start i was on 40 and 36 i ended up in hospital on saturday and now i am upto 50 and 42 and sugars are still not going down

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Hi

I suspect that the reason why your blood sugar levels are not lowering is probably because you are eating too much carbohydrate in your meals. You need to adjust the carb correctly for the insulin to work ok and not eat whatever you want. Also, the little and often route works fairly ok with twice daily insulins and not just eating a big carb meal x 3 times a day and expecting twice daily insulins to work magic.