Changing of insulin

[Emmansund]

Please can I change from novomix to mixtard penfil insulin

 

[Antje77]

Please can I change from novomix to mixtard penfil insulin

Hi @Emmansund , is it that you want to change from novomix to mixtard? Or did you get a different insulin from your pharmacy?

You can of course change to a different insulin, but it may be that your dosage needs to be adjusted to a different insulin.

Have you contacted your doctor or diabetes nurse with your questions?

 

[Daibell]

Hi. If you are really a T1 then you should probably be on the Basal/Bolus regime using two different insulins i.e Basal & Bolus. This should give better control at the expense of more injections - your choice

 

[Antje77]

Hi. If you are really a T1 then you should probably be on the Basal/Bolus regime using two different insulins i.e Basal & Bolus. This should give better control at the expense of more injections - your choice

Not always a choice, depending on where you live and what health care is like in that place.
@Emmansund 's profile says 'rest of world', which could be anywhere, including war zones or places where the nearest doctor is a long way away.

 

[Emmansund]

Hi @Emmansund , is it that you want to change from novomix to mixtard? Or did you get a different insulin from your pharmacy?

You can of course change to a different insulin, but it may be that your dosage needs to be adjusted to a different insulin.

Have you contacted your doctor or diabetes nurse with your questions?

Is because novomix is now very cost nd mixtard penfil is not. Thanks why I want to and I have type 1 diabetes

 

[Emmansund]

Hi. If you are really a T1 then you should probably be on the Basal/Bolus regime using two different insulins i.e Basal & Bolus. This should give better control at the expense of more injections - your choice

Pls what is basal nd bolus? Are dey insulin. I have type 1 diabetes pls I need more explaination on DAT basal nd bolus

 

[Emmansund]

Not always a choice, depending on where you live and what health care is like in that place.
@Emmansund 's profile says 'rest of world', which could be anywhere, including war zones or places where the nearest doctor is a long way away.

I live in Nigeria and novomix is very costly there that's why I want to switch from novomix to mixtard

 

[Fairygodmother]

Are you able to afford a blood sugar testing device @Emmansund? The action profiles of Novomix and Mixtard are different so to change insulin safely I think you would need to monitor your blood sugars carefully. https://www.iddt.org/news/withdrawal-of-mixtard-30/nearest-equivalent-insulin-to-mixtard-30/
Is there a clinic near you that will provide support? Is it funded by a government scheme?
Do, if you can, seek help from medical professionals. We can’t tell you what to do or how to do it, but can say good luck and long life.

 

[SimonP78]

Up until not all that long ago I persevered with mix-my-own soluble and isophane injections, with a mixtard-50 pen to use in the evening when out for meals, etc. When I was younger and less desk-bound (and just bascially on the go more) this worked fine (I was always running low, which is easy to treat by eating), but as I've got older and unfortunately more chained to a desk, it wasn't working so well (not least needing to snack lots while doing less) so I finally made the switch to basal/bolus and wish I'd done it sooner.

Basal is one or perhaps two injections per day of a very long acting insulin to give background coverage, and bolus, a fast acting insulin, is taken for each meal and for any correction doses.

I'd not go back out of choice, but it would be doable. I do think that being able to chose your own ratios makes life easier, though I suppose if I had mixtard 30 and mixtard 50 available it could be made to work (for the evening I always really wanted a thing which doesn't exist - mixtard 70.) I used to vary my doses day by day to give some ability to tune to my activities & trends, but even with a choice of fixed ratios it would probably still work ok.

The major disadvantage of mixtards and my soluble/isophane regimen was that the short acting is not as fast as modern short acting insulins, and the long acting is not as slow as modern basal insulins, so it was very much more a case of roughly fixed meal times and reasonably fixed quantities of carbs along with snacks/exercise in between to maintain blood glucose.