• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Help - took wrong units of insulin

G

goji

Well-Known Member
Messages
251
Hi all

I've had a bit of a senior moment!!! Could anyone advise on this situation.....

At 2.30 I took my novorapid with lunch. I needed one unit (no carb lunch) but while reading a magazine, I absentmindedly took 11 units :oops:. (11 units is how much levemir I always take at night for my basal dose). I realised about 5 mins after taking the insulin and started to check my BGs.

I've never had such a large dose before and my blood sugar started to drop below 4.0 quite quickly. I took two tubes of hypostop, 4 glucose tabs and a carton and a half carton of juice (altogether about 110 carbs). I've tested frequently and I'm now hyper (blood glucose at 3 hours after shot = 14.4).

Is it okay to take my normal bolus with my dinner (which will be ready at 6.30 pm) and can I take my normal basal dose? Has anyone else had a mixup? I feel a bit dim for doing this :oops:

Thanks
Goji :oops:
 
goji said:
Hi all

I've had a bit of a senior moment!!! Could anyone advise on this situation.....

At 2.30 I took my novorapid with lunch. I needed one unit (no carb lunch) but while reading a magazine, I absentmindedly took 11 units :oops:. (11 units is how much levemir I always take at night for my basal dose). I realised about 5 mins after taking the insulin and started to check my BGs.

I've never had such a large dose before and my blood sugar started to drop below 4.0 quite quickly. I took two tubes of hypostop, 4 glucose tabs and a carton and a half carton of juice (altogether about 110 carbs). I've tested frequently and I'm now hyper (blood glucose at 3 hours after shot = 14.4).

Is it okay to take my normal bolus with my dinner (which will be ready at 6.30 pm) and can I take my normal basal dose? Has anyone else had a mixup? I feel a bit dim for doing this :oops:

Thanks
Goji :oops:
Click to expand...

Hello

Dont worry lol. All of us who have had diabetes for a while have also made this mistake. I have done it many times.

As you did the bolus at 2.30pm some of its action will still possibly be active even though youve sent your bg up high through pannick at treating the hypo. The high bg will not last though as it will drop due to the type of fast acting glucose stuff you have used. You would have been better to have eaten four slices of bread in addition to a small amount of hypostop to deal with insulin.

Its difficult to say how much bolus you should now use for your evening meal but as a safeguard, I would suggest that you monitor your bg level every hour to make sure things are ok.
 
Hi, hope you're feeling better. 3 Years ago I took 28 units of humalog instead of 4, thinking it was Lantus-both in purple bottle-changed to a pen soon after! I spent the rest of the afternoon in casualty on a glucose drip and stuffing my face chocs and lucozade-had a few dodgy moments, but humalog like Novorapid only lasts bout 5 hours, so I was ok after that and discharged.
Follow previous advice, just keep checking your blood sugar and take your basal as normal, you'll be ok. We've all done it, just be thankful, as I was, that you realised your mistake early!
Take care.
Jus
 
Thanks guys for your advice about the doses. I feel much more reassured.

I checked before dinner (6.30) and my BG had dropped back down to 7. As that was four hours after the super-dose :oops: I'm hoping things will be stable now. I took a slightly lower dose (2 units) to cover my roast dinner and will keep checking until midnight!!!

Janabelle that sounds like a bit of a 'mare, were the staff at A&E nice about it? I thought about going but decided 11 units didn't warrant the trip. I thought it would be great to down loads of sugary stuff but instead it made me want to vomit!! Now I don't miss fruit juice so much. :D
 
Hi Goji,
don't feel bad at least you injected it yourself. Two years ago panicking to get my son to prize night i gave him 16 units of actrapid instead of 4 (16 units was his morning dose of mixtard) :oops: I fed him lucozade tablets through the prize giving and chips for supper. In the morning he was a little low and i adjusted his mixtard by 4 units after speaking to the hospital. At least i can look back and smile at my stupidity, we all have senior moments, we wouldn't be human if we didn't.
Hope all's well in the morning, take care.
Suzi x
 
Glad you're okay. What's that they say about experience being the best teacher?

Once (in the days of mixing insulin in the syringe) I asked hubby to do my morning jab as I felt a bit virusey. He drew it up in another room and I just checked the total amount in the syringe. When I went badly hypo soon after, he admitted he hadn't bothered putting his specs on and "might have" got the bottles mixed up!!!

Rang the hospital who said treat each hypo fairly generously but don't overdo it given that I'd had less long-acting than usual.

I'd never let anyone do my jab again unless I was paralysed... and he's now my ex-hubby.
 
At 2.30 I took my novorapid with lunch. I needed one unit (no carb lunch) but while reading a magazine, I absentmindedly took 11 units .
Click to expand...

Fergus's choice of footwear has been having adverse effects on a lot of people. :?
 
Back
Top