Insulin overdose
- Thread starter Anne Mary Crosby
- Start Date
Hi Mastermind,
Totsy is right. Every human body (and animals too I suspect) needs a basal level of insulin in the blood 24/7. Functioning pancreases squirt out tiny amounts of insulin round the clock even during sleep when, obviously, no eating is going on. Insulin does more than 'just' (!!) regulate blood glucose. If insulin levels fall below a certain critical low level, the blood starts turning acidic as a result of uncontrolled ketone production. This rapidly (within hours) leads to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) which is fatal if not treated very quickly - with insulin ( and other things like potassium if things have become serious enough). My young daughters start becoming ketotic within 2 to 3 hours of receiving insufficient insulin (this has happened on rare occasions when they've had problems with their insulin pumps). It is terrifying to think how quickly they would become seriously ill and die without insulin.
So the answer to your question is that Type 1's do need their insulin, every day, regularly, without fail, even if they are not eating! That's why they are often hospitalised when they have vomiting bugs as they have to keep taking their insulin even though they can keep nothing down, and so they have to go on a drip to balance their insulin needs with glucose, or they would go into a hypoglycaemic coma, also very dangerous !!
Sue
Totsy is right. Every human body (and animals too I suspect) needs a basal level of insulin in the blood 24/7. Functioning pancreases squirt out tiny amounts of insulin round the clock even during sleep when, obviously, no eating is going on. Insulin does more than 'just' (!!) regulate blood glucose. If insulin levels fall below a certain critical low level, the blood starts turning acidic as a result of uncontrolled ketone production. This rapidly (within hours) leads to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) which is fatal if not treated very quickly - with insulin ( and other things like potassium if things have become serious enough). My young daughters start becoming ketotic within 2 to 3 hours of receiving insufficient insulin (this has happened on rare occasions when they've had problems with their insulin pumps). It is terrifying to think how quickly they would become seriously ill and die without insulin.
So the answer to your question is that Type 1's do need their insulin, every day, regularly, without fail, even if they are not eating! That's why they are often hospitalised when they have vomiting bugs as they have to keep taking their insulin even though they can keep nothing down, and so they have to go on a drip to balance their insulin needs with glucose, or they would go into a hypoglycaemic coma, also very dangerous !!
Sue
Thanks both for the enlightenment. I just assumed that a diabetic ONLY required a dose if they'd eaten.
Hi. In January I acidently gave myself an overdose of insulin. What happened was I got my self worked up over a medical at work, (not knowing that stress affects BS). I had a meal after wards, my wife said that I needed to give myself 4 units of insulin, I calculated as 20, so I gave myself 20 units. We went to a supermarket, I suddenly felt very unwell, I phone my wife and she asked where I was, I said I was in the Milk aisle and that is all I remember till I came round in A&E 1 and 1/2 half hours latter. My wife said she saw me sit back into a fridge cabinet then I fell on the floor and had a fit. Well the out come, I have ostieoperenia in my spine, the fall broke my back in 2 places, fortuantly not damageing my spinal cord. I wish I had listerned to my wife.
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Type 1 Hb1c 9.0 Hoping to get a pump. Now a good wife listerner
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Type 1 Hb1c 9.0 Hoping to get a pump. Now a good wife listerner
LittleSue
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 647
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
Totsy and Sue (diabetesmum) are right, but even if a type 1's basal injection was missed/delayed, it would take time before they became dangerously ill. (Assuming they didn't seek help when they started feeling high.) Basal injections are likely to have a longer 'overlap' than pumped insulin. Regular timings are better by far, but its unlikley to be the desperate race against time Casualty etc portray or to kill them in the 50 minutes left before the closing credits.
Indeed. The media both downplays and over-dramatises diabetes. Kinda like national security. Does that make us as cool as spooks?
Hello all,
I'm a new user here and am worried about the possibility of insulin overdoses. I, fortunately, am not a sufferer of the condition but my mother is, so please excuse my lack of knowledge (although I am aware of the consequences of overdosing). My biggest fear is the fact that she lives alone and can be forgetful so may take a double dose by accident so I guess what I really need to know is how much is too much and is there anything I can do to help prevent this?
I'm a new user here and am worried about the possibility of insulin overdoses. I, fortunately, am not a sufferer of the condition but my mother is, so please excuse my lack of knowledge (although I am aware of the consequences of overdosing). My biggest fear is the fact that she lives alone and can be forgetful so may take a double dose by accident so I guess what I really need to know is how much is too much and is there anything I can do to help prevent this?
daveb said:
Make sure she always has things like glucose tabs and orange juice close at hand, and see if you can't work out some way she will know if whe's taken her dose, like moving her kit from one place to another as she takes the shot.
Over time I've heard a few stories from people who have inadvertently OD'd, usually by shooting bolus instead of basal, who ate their way through it, testing a lot and staying up all night until it wore off.
I have a 14 year old son who has accidentally injected double doses in the past. He has managed to keep his blood sugar stable by eating double school dinners and an extra sweet or two - I now mark the cartridge with a permanant marker after each dose & he was changed to a twice a day injection instead of 4 times a day which made it easier for us to tell if he had injected as the doses are large.
As for the lethal dose of insulin - depends on how fast you get spotted. He has recently tried to kill himself by overdosing on insulin and injected several cartridges of rapid insulin, ( at least 600 units we think - possibly more) fortunately in front of his sister who told me & I called an ambulance instantly so he was on a dextrose drip within 15-20 minutes - he spent 24 hours on the dextrose drip and being fed each time he woke up ( he was very groggy for most of the time), and looks like making a good recovery. It did take far longer than normal for the insulin to clear out of his system and he was very low several times over the day but each time he went hypo they upped the glucose drip levels and he stablised.
Now I just need to find a way of preventing him repeating the experience next time his life becomes unbearable.
As for the lethal dose of insulin - depends on how fast you get spotted. He has recently tried to kill himself by overdosing on insulin and injected several cartridges of rapid insulin, ( at least 600 units we think - possibly more) fortunately in front of his sister who told me & I called an ambulance instantly so he was on a dextrose drip within 15-20 minutes - he spent 24 hours on the dextrose drip and being fed each time he woke up ( he was very groggy for most of the time), and looks like making a good recovery. It did take far longer than normal for the insulin to clear out of his system and he was very low several times over the day but each time he went hypo they upped the glucose drip levels and he stablised.
Now I just need to find a way of preventing him repeating the experience next time his life becomes unbearable.
I did this too, but mine wasn't that scary. After I had seen that I had taken the Humalog instead of the Lantis, I just ate quite a bit, and that brought me back up. When you take too much insulin because a mistake like this, or anytime you know you are going to get low quick, this is what you have to eat and how. You first eat a lot of sweets. The stuff with a lot of sugar like ****** candies, raisins, a lot of fruit juice, and stuff like that. Then eat quite a bit of something with a lot of protien. You can overdo this, and I often do, and what happens is that you are real high an hour or two later, so then you gotta take insulin again. =D
janabelle said:
DiabeticGeek said:Sorry people, but the pedant in me really can't resist.
This is a Hollywood variation of an urban legend! What is called "gas embolism" (i.e. a bubble of air being introduced directly into the blood stream) is almost always harmless. It often happens after surgery, and small air bubbles are quite commonly introduced by injection or intravenous drips. Usually this causes no symptoms whatsoever, and the air is just absorbed into the body over a few hours or days. Sometimes a large bubble lodges in tissues, at which point it can become uncomfortable - but it is still harmless and usually absorbed without any problem. Extremely rarely, a very large bubble can lodge in the heart blocking the blood flow. This can cause a heart attack, which could be fatal. However, even if you were to be injected with a completely empty syringe, although I wouldn't recommend it, you would be very unlucky to die. So, I am afraid, as a means of either murder or suicide the injection of air really doesn't cut it!
Ditto on this....Pedant is my middle name...lmao
I've had an accidental overdose of Novorapid today - I'm such an idiot! Only had an extra 1.5u and have eaten some dolly mixtures so should be ok.
I had a previous accidental overdose about 12 months ago it could have been very serious if not fatal due to the amount of insulin I had. I had gone hypo and before I had recovered from the hypo I had 60u of Novorapid. This must have been the most stupid thing i could have done in my life. I callapsed a few times and was literally hypo all day, was stuffing sweets into myself as fast as I could and was black and blue from falling over.
I have taken steps to avoid any serious misshaps when I'm hypo by avoiding taking insulin by moving my insulin pen away from it's usual place. Have occassionally forgotton to inject but that does not happen too often. I would never delibratly attempt to take my own life but accidental overdoses are scary, very scary.
I had a previous accidental overdose about 12 months ago it could have been very serious if not fatal due to the amount of insulin I had. I had gone hypo and before I had recovered from the hypo I had 60u of Novorapid. This must have been the most stupid thing i could have done in my life. I callapsed a few times and was literally hypo all day, was stuffing sweets into myself as fast as I could and was black and blue from falling over.
I have taken steps to avoid any serious misshaps when I'm hypo by avoiding taking insulin by moving my insulin pen away from it's usual place. Have occassionally forgotton to inject but that does not happen too often. I would never delibratly attempt to take my own life but accidental overdoses are scary, very scary.
Hee, this thread answers my question. I had a dream last night that I'd accidentally injected myself with 38 units of NovoRapid instead of Lantus, and was convinced I was going to die. I woke up wondering what would *actually* happen if I did that, and now I know!
hi Moondust just saw your very old post about your cat, whilst not a cat lover i' wouldn't dream of hurting one. Insulin overdose especially in a non diabetic person or pet will quickly cause unconsciousness, fits, coma and death, from administration to onset of unconsciousness and fits is dose dependent but can in some cases be minutes rather than an hourmoondust23 said:
yeah...I've overdosed by taking novalog instead of lantus at 200 units man. I was eating all the carbs I could get my hands on. but I was wondering if there was a way to tell how much is in the body so it could be corrected without going to the dr. Although fir the past 4 months I haven't been able to take and insulin at all due to no insurance and insulin is expensive.
February 19th of this year, I was asked by my employer's care provider to stop by the house for something of importance. Upon arrival she changed the subject, and insisted I try her soup which she had previously dished out into a bowl. She gave my son some out of the pot on the stove. Instantly I was in the bathroom, and felt lightheaded and had visual disturbances. My son had no symptoms. My son drove me to the emergency room shortly thereafter and they thought I was having a stroke as my blood pressure was 220/111. They kept me there for 3 days. My boss and the care provider called to see when I was going to come in next, not about my health which my doctor and nurses thought was REALLY peculiar. He owed me two months salary. Afterwards, the care provider and him were suggesting I work for free. I have my full urinalysis and blood reports. What do I look for that would indicate that that I may have been poisoned with my employer's insulin?
They were acting really cold and bizarre afterwards. I gave my two weeks notice and left.
