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Has anyone made this insulin mistake before? Any tips on avoiding it again?

L

Lg2020

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Im type 1 and normally have very good control but the start of this week has been a nightmare. A bad night time hypo followed by blood sugar level that shot up and just wouldnt seem to come down with correction doses. Same thing for 3 days in a row.

Initially thought I was coming down wih an illness but yesterday I decided discarding my insulin and trying a new vial. That's when I noticed I had put the fast acting novo rapid insulin cartridge in the pen i use for my long acting levemir.

Very stupid of me. I take my long acting at lunch time and just before bed so had been taking a big dose of novo rapid with no food then off to sleep for the night. Scary!

Anyone else done anything this stupid? It's taken me 17 years to make this mistake

I know it's my fault but made me think there should be some safety mechanism in the pen and the vial to configure it to only take one type of insulin

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Lg2020 said:
I know it's my fault but made me think there should be some safety mechanism in the pen and the vial to configure it to only take one type of insulin
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All of the insulin cartridges for pens are exactly the same size, its so you can use any reusable pen with any cartridge otherwise it'd be very restrictive and there would have to be loads of different pens

But I'm sure plenty have done exactly the same thing.
 
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@Lg2020 . Can’t say I’ve ever made that mistake. Made plenty of others though.:banghead:
To avoid confusion I’ve always gone with vials and pen for bolus and disposable for basal.
 
therower said:
@Lg2020 . Can’t say I’ve ever made that mistake. Made plenty of others though.:banghead:
To avoid confusion I’ve always gone with vials and pen for bolus and disposable for basal.
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That's a useful idea thank you I may do that.

I'm also changing the timing of my basal to morning and evening so at least if I did it again I'd be awake and notice it more
 
I also use novorapid and levemir. Novorapid cartridges are orange and levemir green. I use my red insulin pen for novorapid and other blue pen for levemir. You can get orange and green pens.. not sure if this helps... ?
 
It only took once before I decided one insulin via pen, one insulin via vial and syringe. Even I couldn't mix those two up.
 
Multiple injections per day, I sometimes do them without engaging my brain - that can be a mistake! I like the fact that one of my pens, my Echo, can tell me what I've just injected! If I've made a mistake, at least I know, and can ask my brain what I'm going to do about it!
 
I also use different coloured pens for my insulin Red for novorapid and a grey pen for the more sedate levimir.42 years in and still learning.
 
Yep done that and like tony bird I use diff coloured pens , and now thankfully it doesn’t happen .
 
Tresiba in Red Echo pen, Novorapid in Blue Echo pen, I think I would've noticed though with the bands indicating around 50 units remaining on the cartridge generally being a different colour, and for me at least completely different width, odd that you were using Novorapid without meals and experiencing no hypo's whatsoever though, for many that would have ko'd in no time
 
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