cz_dave
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 448
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
I don't need half unit for basal, I take 7 basal in the morning and 10 at night, 1 more or less does not matter much.
But I really do need it for bolus, my bolus is 2.5 to 4, there is one pen with half doses that have just been available where I live but I have not managed to get it yet.
What I did after asking for help from DN and Doctor and pharmacy and getting no help was to get 'normal' insulin syringes and use them to 'suck' out the bolus doses for my apidra pen. Now I can give half units and even a bit less. I use this method at home only and Im stuck with full units when Im out. But since I eat more dinners at home and all breakfasts I can adjust most doses like this, and it helps a lot!
I also uses much less insulin since I don't need to 'prime' the pen, and the 2 (or 3) wasted doses per injection is a lot when you take 3 units for a normal dose and adjust once with maybe 1 units, that is 4(3+1) units used instead of 10(3+3 +3+1).
I use NovoRapid and Levemir and could not find half-unit pre-filled pens (pre-filled pens seem to be the default where I live). @LucySW advised to get the NovoPen Echo that supports half-units and insert insulin cartridges into it: NovoRapid Penfill. It works great. I also plan to get Levemir Penfill, so that I can use half-units also for basal. I often inject just 4 units Levemir at a time and adding a half unit is a 10% increase while adding a full unit is a 20% increase and that is sometimes too much.