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Is it ok to occasionally vary dosage of Humulin M3?

Suzieb1

Suzieb1

Member
Messages
6
Location
South Yorkshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I am Type 2 - diagnosed over 20 yrs ago and I take 26 units of Humulin M3 twice daily. I was put on insulin after I had Covid twice in 3 months and my blood sugar went through the roof. It took around 3 months to get under control again and I now generally run
at between 4.5 and 6.5 mmol/l. I keep my carb intake quite low most of the time by eating for example, maybe one tiny new potato with main meal and a salad sandwich 2 slices of low carb bread (2g carbs a slice) for lunch. Breakfast is low carb Granola (4g carbs a portion) and almond milk. If I eat any more carbs my bs rises to 7mmol/l or over.

When I go away on coach holidays, due to set meals in hotels and unavailability of suitable food whilst travelling, I often have to eat more carbs than usual which results in high bs levels.

Would it be appropriate and safe to take an extra couple of units of Humulin M3 on those occasions? Does anyone else do this? I can’t seem to find any information on this anywhere.
 
Honestly, I would switch to a fast acting insulin and a separate long lasting insulin instead of Humulin. Humulin M3 is a mix of fast acting and long lasting together. It has some weird peaks with it too. But if you change your dose, say you raise it because you are running higher blood sugars, you run the risk of having too much long lasting insulin in your system too.

It becomes tricky. If you take it every 12 hours, and you stayed high 12 hours, feasibly you take a couple units extra to try to come down........... but then you also have the extra long lasting for about 12 hours after with the weird peak of the short acting.

That is one reason it's not popular anymore. If you have them separate you take a basal insulin at the same rate daily then you can vary your fast acting one to meet your needs. Much nicer.
 
Suzieb1 said:
Would it be appropriate and safe to take an extra couple of units of Humulin M3 on those occasions? Does anyone else do this? I can’t seem to find any information on this anywhere.
Click to expand...

I second @Marie 2 's comment about it being difficult to do this was a fixed mixture of long and short acting insulin, though the situation is slghtly complicated by the fact that you are T2 and therefore hopefully still making some of your own insulin while both she and I are T1s and therefore making very little or none of our own.

I strongly suggest you talk to your medical team about this issue.

Good luck.
 
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