Levemir suddenly not working

bhk said:

Hi all,

Levemir has helped me so much since I switched from lantus to levemir, as I explain in other posts. Though since 2 weeks, it seems my body does not want to handle it properly. Even if I opened a new one, I see from the freestyle libre curves that from 2-4 am to 8 am my blood rises from 5.0 mmol / 100 mg to 15mmol / 300 mg, proving the levemir is not working.

Has it ever happened to one of you! If anyone has feedback, it would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks!

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Firstly, it's possible that the vial or batch that you are using has gone bad for some reason (incorrect storage at pharmacy, etc) and you should switch to a different vial or batch to confirm this is not the issue.

Following that:

When do you take your levemir? That's a familiar projection on the Libre and signifies a couple of things.

1. Dawn Phenomenon. This happens to many people. it doesn't always happen and can vary depending on a lot of factors.
2. Basal insulin running out. This is something else that is often seen with basal insulins in the early hours of the morning (dependent on when you took the insulin and how many units/kg in the dose).

The two together can accelerate the changes.

If you can answer some of these questions we can provide more advice!

I would also suggest dawn phenomenon is the culprit..............

however, even is you seen a similar curve during the day it doesn't mean its not working, just that you need more between those hours of the day.......which unfortunately is difficult to accommodate for on injections, even a split dose........

with the hours you describe though, its almost definitely the dawn rise......provided you had nothing digesting or any active bolus on the go.....

Sometimes it just does and you need to revisit dosing!

@steve_p6 is quite right. Last weekend for no apparent reason I suddenly became much more insulin sensitive. No obvious reason though I can point at a number of potentials.

Definitely change the insulin first though.