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My Nan has injected Levemir instead of her Novorapid

S

sabre999uk

Member
Messages
9
Hi all,
I live with my Nan who has been a type 1 diabetic for 40 years, she is on Novorapid injected at breakfast, lunch and tea with 15 units of Levemir at bedtime.

A couple of times she has forgotton to do the Levemir and has woken up with bg in the 18-20 range but we've worked through it with no problems.

However this teatime she has managed to inject 10 units of Levemir instead of 10 units of Novorapid, can anyone suggest what I should do?

Her normal amounts are:
Breakfast 6 units Novorapid
Lunch 3-6 units Novorapid
Tea 10 units Novorapid
Bedtime 15 units Levemir

I've been dealing with Hypo's for 37 years and this is the first time i've been unsure what to do.

Thanks
Steve
 
Steve, do you have an out of hours number to call your diabetes nurse for advice?

This is how I'd deal with it, but I'm not a qualified healthcare provider so it's only my opinion and not necessarily the correct advice. I'd inject the Novorapid, as that has been missed and needs to be injected to cover the food she's eaten otherwise her readings will go high. The Levemir has been done too early but only by a few hours. I'd inject the remaining 5 units of Levemir at bedtime when she usually injects the Levemir. Keep a close eye on your Nan as she may have a tendency to go a little low this evening as the Levemir has been delivered a little too early.

Are you absolutely sure she injected Levemir instead of Novorapid? You don't want to go and do another rapid injection if she's already done it but then got confused and thought it was Levemir that she'd done. If you're in any way unsure you could leave it an hour and see if her readings go up higher than they should, if they do then that would be reassurance that she indeed has done the wrong insulin.

Perhaps see what other members think, I'm not sure if this is the right advice, just my thoughts on how I'd handle it.
 
Hi,
It's definate she injected the Levemir, its in a hard case and the pen is a different colour - she realised what she'd done as she took the needle out. At the moment she had tea at 6 and I'm just going to do her bg, i'll post what it is in a minute. We do have a number for her diabetes nurse - somewhere!

Steve
 
Hi

I'm also not a HCP but have had diabetes since I was 10. I think SophiaW's advice is fairly good as that is what I would do.

Maybe next time you should get yr Nan to keep her Levemir pen away from the Novorapid one and then she wont make the mistake again so easily. :)
 
At the moment they are as far apart as they can be without being in seperate rooms (about 15ft), maybe I should move the Levemir to her bedroom, less chance of her forgetting to do it and less chance of doing the wrong one (in theory....).

Steve
 
Steve, when my daughter was on injections we used to have an alarm set on my mobile phone to remind us about the bedtime Levemir. That was the injection we'd forget if we were going to forget one because it never coincided with a meal. Maybe you could do something similar, set an alarm, to remind your nan about the bedtime Levemir. Getting the two insulin mixed up is an easy mistake unfortunately, it's happened to us in the past too.
 
Why is it people don't think of something as simple as setting an alarm untill someome else points it out to them, is it because humans think of a complicated solution and miss the simple one that's staring them in the face... :lol:

Steve
 
Hi Steve,
Would your nan be capable of drawing up the 15 units of Levemir in a syringe? Just a thought but if she had her pre-meal Novorapid by pen and the Levemir by syringe and vial, it might make it easier for her if she gets forgetful. Trouble is when you're on insulin, injecting becomes like brushing your teeth, and you don't put much thought in to it, but do it on a kind of "automatic pilot" mode. Having one insulin admistered by pen and the other by syringe and vial it will make a distinguishable difference the two which might stick in her mind.
We all make mistakes, one landed me in casualty;and I'm getting so forgetful and I'm only 41 :(
Great advice from Sophia!
take care
Jus
 
Hi,
Trouble is after 30 odd years of using syringes she was pleased to see the back of them! I would double check what she's doing but I faint at the sight of a needle!
 
Hi again,
The needles are tiny, honestly, much smaller than when I was diagnosed. Personally I always found pens needles more painful due to the bulk of the pen.
Best of luck
Jus :)
 
At 8pm she had the rest of her tea and her novorapid after we found the out of hours number for the nurse, blood was 16 at 2200 and shes just had the remaining 5 units of Levemir & we are going to monitor her bg overnight.

I'll post in the morning how the night went.
Thanks for all the advice.
Steve
 
Hi,
My Nan woke me at 0725 and said that although she felt fine and had got dressed, her nightdress and bed were wet through with sweat so I did her bg and it was 2.1. Now I've got it up to 4.6, at least since she changed over to Novorapid & Levemir (she had to - she was told they were discontinuing the insulin she had been using, if I remember correctly it was Pork Mixtard?) the morning hypo's are a lot less frequent and at least she is concious.

We were out last month and we'd forgotten to take the testing kit with us and although she seemed perfectly fine I wasn't convinced. I spotted a Paramedic car so I asked him if he would check her bg - he looked at me as if I was bonkers but did it anyway, the look on his face when 1.8 came up was a picture! I guess 37 years of spotting hypo's early counts for something.

Thanks again
Steve
 
Hi Steve,

Hope everything went well for your nan last night? Also be sure to watch her levels this afternoon. Levemir is known to not work a full 24 hours, I have been told it only works about 16-18 hours (which is why I have been told to inject Levemir twice daily instead). As she took most of her dose early last night it will stop working earlier as well and she might see her levels rise later this afternoon.

I did it the other way around once, I took 16 units of Novorapid instead of my Levemir before bed not too long ago. Needless to say that wasn't a fun night :roll:
 
Hi,
We were told Levemir only works for 20 hours when we did the sessions at the hospital when she changed over, so far so good today after the hypo this morning I'm just going to do her bg again.

Steve
 
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