Faulty insulin?

[kimrooney89]

Hi everyone.

Every night this week between 8pm-9.30pm I've had a huge spike in my bg levels where it's shot up to 20mmols or above.

I have been poorly this week with a throat and ear infection. However I haven't had a bg over 9mmols throughout the day but then this random rise occurs.

My carb counting for dinner is correct, I never have me a than 40-50 grams of carbs with my dinner which is usually around 4pm. I always get my hubby to double check my carb count too.

I've ended up using an increased temp basal and pen corrections numerous times this week. I've also had 2 set changes this week using the same insulin vial but after a horrendous night I've had to do an unplanned one this morning using a different vial.

Blood sugar hasn't come under 20mmols since yesterday evening despite increased temp basal, pump corrections and pen corrections. At 5.40am I took 8 units of novorapid as my bg was 21.3 but then at 8.20am it was 25.3 with 1.3 of blood ketones

Has anyone any thoughts or advice to help? I feel so lost. This is the first time anything like this has happened since I got my pump in July. I know you'll probably think I'm miscounting my carbs but I'm so strict with what I eat, I honestly don't think I'm the problem here.

Thanks for reading

 

[urbanracer]

@therower , recently suspected a bad batch of Novorapid.

 

[Chas C]

Interesting you should mention that, I've been using a batch over the past few months where I'd needed to up my basal by 30% and nearly double my bolus. In the last week moved to a new insulin batch and hey presto all back to normal ?. Also had bad colds and three doses of mild flu since Xmas so thought that was to blame, but still have a cold and my doses are back to normal.

 

[urbanracer]

Here you go - check your batch numbers.

www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/suspect-batch-insulin.140613/

 

[kimrooney89]

Here you go - check your batch numbers.

www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/suspect-batch-insulin.140613/

Thank you My batch is HS64T50 but has the same expiry date of 12/2019

 

[kimrooney89]

Interesting you should mention that, I've been using a batch over the past few months where I'd needed to up my basal by 30% and nearly double my bolus. In the last week moved to a new insulin batch and hey presto all back to normal ?. Also had bad colds and three doses of mild flu since Xmas so thought that was to blame, but still have a cold and my doses are back to normal.

I definitely think there's something wrong with this batch. All 3 of my vials are the same batch number and expiry date too. I'm going to give it until 12pm and I'll ring out of hours to see if I can have a prescription for more insulin vials.

 

[rmz80]

I would delay dinner till after taking a reading at 8pm then another at 9:30pm to see if its something to do with the time of day rather than the meal.

 

[kimrooney89]

Have spoken with healthcare team and a pharmacist at nhs 24, they're contacting novo nordisk re novorapid vials batch number HS64T50 expiry date of 12/2019.

That's 4 set chnges each using vials of insulin which weren't working at all. Yet pen corrections started reducing my bg within 25 minutes.

Worthwhile checking yiur vials just in case you have insulin from the same batch.

 

[Chas C]

Sadly I have used up all of that batch and don't have a record of its details anymore. I had not even given a thought to it being faulty insulin.

But been absolutely fine since I moved to the later newer batch.

 

[Bluey1]

Last year when I was on MDI I was around 25mmol/L and I took 250units of Novo rapid. I took my normal 12u, then 15u 30 min latter as I was still going up, and I kept upping it until I took 100u at once and I had nothing silly to eat and I didn't drop for hours, I should have been in a coma 20 times over. After the same results from a number of pens from different box's. I got a fresh batch and everything back to normal. I think there has been a really bad batch going around, I'm in Australia.