Changes in insulin regime on night shifts?

[bellabella]

Hi all,
I am recently diagnosed (4 months) with type 1, and have gotten a fairly good grip on bs levels for the most part ( still ironin out the morning slight highs but getting there)
Anyway, I'm doing a week of night shifts this week (8-8am) and was looking for advice wit relation to insulin.... Should I change my basal timing? I usually inject lantus at 7am because that's when I wake up and am most likely to remember... I took it this morning as usual... Given the fact that I'll be awake all night, would there be any need in taking some more basal before work, or should I just test regular and correct any highs with novorapid? Stress makes me go sky high in general, and that's why I'm concerned about not having enough insulin on board, as lantus in my opinion doesn't last the 24 hours that it's advertised to.... However I also don't want to hypo either

 

[Marty10000]

"lantus in my opinion doesn't last the 24 hours that it's advertised to" - Agreed

I used to work odd shifts, it is difficult to dose for, especially if you don't know what you are going to be doing (Sitting at my desk / working in the warehouse / riding in the van / etc... ).

My advice is to test regularly (every 4 hours, or more if your control is suffering) and try to correct as best you can, and like always keep some sugar handy to fight a hypo . Don't make any treatment changes before you know how the routine change is gonna affect you, or you could end up making things worse rather than better.

Hope this helps.

 

[bellabella]

"lantus in my opinion doesn't last the 24 hours that it's advertised to" - Agreed

I used to work odd shifts, it is difficult to dose for, especially if you don't know what you are going to be doing (Sitting at my desk / working in the warehouse / riding in the van / etc... ).

My advice is to test regularly (every 4 hours, or more if your control is suffering) and try to correct as best you can, and like always keep some sugar handy to fight a hypo . Don't make any treatment changes before you know how the routine change is gonna affect you, or you could end up making things worse rather than better.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! That sounds reasonable. I'll be doing a lot of running around the place, but I'll do my best to find time to test it regularly!

 

[noblehead]

Just change your basal timing to when you get back in from work whilst your on nights, the hour/hour and a half difference will have little effect on your bg control, when you start back on days just change it back to 7am.

 

[PaulinaB]

As noblehead said -you can take your basal after you're back from work in the morning. I wouldn't change anything from the start. Better to go with it and see what happens. Correct any high with novo. You can start thinking about doing basal changes after a few days if there's a specific pattern that could be solved. If its just a few days though, I wouldn't bother

Let us know how you get on!