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How much insulin is 'normal'?

D

Dave Metric

Member
I was diagnosed back in February with T1D (or possibly 3c, although my FET was sent off I've not seen any results). Initially they started my on 40 units of long acting insulin but this didn't provide enough control so it was slowly raised to 60 over a period of time. Is this amount normal? Getting through pens the way I do does make it feel like a lot
 
There is no normal amount, everyone is different.

Some need quite a lot more than others, they just do - you need the amount you need, not what someone else needs, the same for fast-acting insulin for food as well, some need a lot more than others
eg I know when I went on a carb counting course a while back, one person needed 1 unit of fast acting for every 3 carbs, whilst another needed only 1 per 50 carbs .... - mostly what this shows is that people can differ by quite a hefty amount
 
Dave Metric said:
it was slowly raised to 60 over a period of time. Is this amount normal? Getting through pens the way I do does make it feel like a lot
Click to expand...
Perfectly normal!

I was diagnosed almost 9 years ago, and during the first 6 years my long acting need slowly rose to around 115. Which worked well for me for a bit until it slowly dropped again (I lost some weight and lost a depression, not sure which made the most impact) to around 56 at the moment.

I've been very well managed all this time, and I'm happy to increase or lower my dose again as soon as I see I need a bit more or less.

Are you on long acting only or on basal and bolus?
 
I'm mostly long acting as basal and 4-6 units as bolus as required. In the last 90 days it's been 7% bolus/93% basal.
 
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