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Basal or not?

SueJB

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,336
Location
Heaven
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
cold weather
Hi
I can't remember if I did my basal dose this morning I was up before the sparrows.....so I'm not sure what to do now.
If I did inject and do another, any ideas what will happen? hypo?
If I didn't inject and don't do one now, what are the likely results?
Thanks, silly me!!
 

Aw Sue, I'm with you on this, I have to write mine down! I know that none of us can tell you what to do but I would not take another one, I would just test, test, test throughout the day, it would probably become obvious if you haven't taken it? The choice you are making is between risking an 'overdose' and possible serious hypo's or higher levels the rest of the day, at least if your levels do go too high you can remedy that easily enough with your bolus insulin. I guess it also depends on how much basal you normally take, ie 1 unit missed is different to 20 units missed. Could you contact your DN to ask for advice?, unless you are an experienced diabetic it can be very difficult to manage missed doses.
 
The best way would be to monitor levels every 2 hours or so and adjust as necessary. I wouldn't recommend dosing the basal again if you are not 100% sure you missed it.
 
Hi @KK123 I do keep a log usually but 4am start I keep asking myself did I inject and forget to write it down or not!!
Think I didn't but not risking an overdose.
I am testing @Muneeb, thanks and it's creeping up. It could be because of a lack of basal, the liver having a dump or the little piece of cheese I've just eaten or because I'm getting over a cold or because the sun's just come out or because it's Monday or because I'm a bit worried.
 
If you had a room of people with type 1 diabetes and asked "put your hand up if you forgot to take your basal insulin (or forgot if you'd taken it?", the only people with their hands down would be those on fixed dose or those diagnosed in the last 3 months. It is so easily done.
If you take two basal doses a day, I would say you are in luck. In your position, I would wait until my next scheduled dose and monitor-correct until then.
I would also be tempted to move my next basal dose forward a couple of hours.
This is a bit harder if you only inject basal in the morning.
In that case I would monitor for 3 or 4 hours whilst fasting to determine whether you did or did not take your basal (if your bg rises). If your bg follows a typical daily pattern, relax, feel good and stick with your usual basal regime.
If your bg rises more than usual(but accept the stress of not knowing may raise it a bit), assume you did not take your basal. You can then decide if you want to monitor-correct until your next due time or take basal then.
If you take your basal at a different time to usual, you can take it 22 hours later for a few days to bring back your usual time.
 
It's happen twice to me @SueJB Just try not to stress about it, your only human and we're not machines..

Great advice above, let us know how your levels pan out today ?
 
Making mistakes with Basal is far less of a problem than with Bolus. I wouldn't do another injection and compensate if necessary with the Bolus during the day.
 
Thanks all, the madamometer reads 7.8 so it's coming down like treacle off a spoon.
Almost defo I didn't do the basal but feel in better control with Beretta blaster than doing a basal brush
 
Morning,
I didn't take basal yesterday, BG came down to 4.7 at 6pm which is when I do the 2nd dose.
Up early this morning again but have not repeated the same mistake. Kept saying to myself, wait til 6
Have a great day
 
SueJB said:
Morning,
I didn't take basal yesterday, BG came down to 4.7 at 6pm which is when I do the 2nd dose.
Up early this morning again but have not repeated the same mistake. Kept saying to myself, wait til 6
Have a great day
Click to expand...

Would an alarm on your phone work for your basal at all, Sue?

Until March this year I had never, ever, ever taken any medication lasting longer than a course of anitiontics. When I started on a little baby dose of thyroid meds, I used to write M,T,W and so on, on the blister pack, so that I could track myself.

I appreciate it's not that easy for an injection. The other thing is, aren't there pens with the time of the last dose recorded? I can't recall what they're called, and they may only be for bolus, for all I know, but I just know I'd be a danger to shipping on insulin.

At least if I miss one daily dose of levothyroxine the therapeutic dose won't degrade too much by next day, and nor would an erroneous extra dose be likely to do me any lasting harm. I'm not on a large enough dose to give me the caffiene overload style of symptoms - thankfully!
 
Hohoho, no phone. This was the first time since being labelled T1D that I've forgotten and I know it was down to getting up at a very weird time which just threw me. All good today thanks
 
I used a Novopen Echo with the time and dose indicators for both Tresiba basal and Novorapid bolus before I got my pump, somyes, you can get them for both
 
Mel dCP said:
I used a Novopen Echo with the time and dose indicators for both Tresiba basal and Novorapid bolus before I got my pump, somyes, you can get them for both
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mel. I couldn't understand why the pens wouldn't be available for almost any insulin, as all it's tracking is a time stamp, rather than a dose or type, but then there are more bonkers things in the world of diabetes, as we all know.
 
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