Sometimes forget if I've taken my Lantus!

[secrettheatre]

Sometimes - well, it happens only occasionally - I forget if I've taken my Lantus. Taking it is a daily habit, of course, which I do without thinking, so sometimes it just doesn't register. It happened today - I didn't sleep much last night so my brain's a bit fuzzy and although I'm pretty sure I took it I can't actually remember doing it. Probably a stupid question but has anyone else experienced this? And what do people do to ensure that they get their dose without fail?

Best,
Chris

 

[hanadr]

I don't use insulin, but perhaps you can develop a way of leaving your kit after using it, which is different from before using and that would allow you to check back.
I don't know what your kit looks like, but perhapsputting things a different way round morning and evening.
In any case, if you are not sure, check your Bg about every 2 hours. You might be able to tell from the Bg numbers and in any case can stop it from going too high.

 

[fergus]

Hi Chris,

Yup, I've done that before! Funnily enough, I worked out a system exactly as Hana describes to make sure I know I've injeceted on autopilot. It happens.
The Levemir pen points outward in the bathroom cabinet until I shoot up, then it's the blunt end facing me in the morning when I take my second half dose, then it's pointy-end-out for the evening again. Works a treat!

All the best,

fergus

 

[secrettheatre]

Hi Chris,

Yup, I've done that before! Funnily enough, I worked out a system exactly as Hana describes to make sure I know I've injeceted on autopilot. It happens.
The Levemir pen points outward in the bathroom cabinet until I shoot up, then it's the blunt end facing me in the morning when I take my second half dose, then it's pointy-end-out for the evening again. Works a treat!

All the best,

fergus

Cheers Fergus, neat system! I'll try something like that, since it's just so easy to get into the pattern of injecting, as you say, 'on autopilot'. Becomes mechanical after a while - same time, same amount every day, no thought required. So a system along those lines is definitely something I'll have to sort out.

Chris

 

[kegstore]

Happened to me maybe 3 times in 20 years, and always remember feeling so **** the next day, so repeat occurrences were rare. My pill system is brilliant though - I take 2 in the morning and 3 at night. I have the morning and evening pills in different locations, and a small plastic dosing container that I just move between the 2 sites after taking the pills. Simple but effective.

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

Hi Chris,

I thought I was going crazy one day wondering if I had given my son his evening insulin. I searched for fresh prick marks and hunted through every bin in the house to see if I could find the seals off the pen needles. As I couldn't find them I decided that I had most definitely forgotten. After this experience I now put his 5 pen needles in his kit and keep spares in a different packet. This way I know he has had all doses in the day but if I need extra needles I still have them with me.

My other sin has been dialling up the long acting dose on the short acting insulin and vice versa. I had noticed I had done this after pushing the button and managed to get him to eat a fairly large portion of pureed fruit mixed with glucose syrup (the cooking kind) and putting a tablespoon of castor sugar in his bottle. I now have stickers of rocket ships on the Novorapid. I also always put them back in exactly the same place so to reduce the chance of mixing them up again.

The times this sort of thing happens is always when something in the house is a bit chaotic or the routine has been thrown by some weird event. I've learnt to be ultra careful when things are going badly now.

We are only human

I have done my best to idiot proof my procedures and it seems to be working out so far.

Jen.

 

[LizzieP]

I always write it down in my record book, if i haven't written it in, then I know I haven't done it!

 

[skotish]

i always have my long lasting lantus on my computer desk and a sticker with 9 pm on my computer b4 i did this i frogot twice in 1 week and felt like poo :lol:

 

[Marky74]

I have set a repeating daily alarm on my mobile to remind me to take my lantus.

 

[annettemc]

I not only forgot if i'd taken Lantus or not but had really bad hypo experiences whilst taking it. Although I realised I must have been hypo I was unable to move my legs to get out of bed! After a few weeks of crawling to find hypostop or lucozade I changed back to insulatard.

I realise that different insulins affect everyone differently as my brother and sister still use it with no adverse affects, however for me personally it affected more than my memory and being incapable of getting up to treat hypos was really scary...

 

[tyrex]

I've use two Innovo pens which tell you how long since your last injection. I use one of them exclusively for my Levemir which means I can always tell whether I've forgotten or not. Mind you, I normally feel so rubbish by the time I get up in the morning having not taken it the night before, its only an academic exercise to check the pen!

Don't think you can get Innovo pens any more which is a tragic shame, because they're brilliant (I've very protective over them these days!) Lilly do the Humapen Memoir which has similar functionality, but I believe it is only combatible with rapid-acting Humalog, and they don't do a long acting cartridge unfortunately, which then leads you into the murky world of swapping insulin in cartridges! Still worth a look though I guess.

 

[rkeane]

Yeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss!!!!
On numerous occasions. It's so frustrating. I finally coped on one morning when i forgot to take it. Had a really important monday morning meeting so was rushing around. Eventually got in the car, delighted with myself for being on time,driving for 20 minutes, then like a bullet to my head--Levimir!!!!!!!! Had to drive back hm, in terrible traffic, and meeting was cancelled. Felt terrible but knew my health was more important. Worst part, everybody presumed I was out night before. Don't think they realise how important insulin is but I didn't bother argueing. I will just never let it happen again-especially not on a monday! Levimir is automatically on reminder on phone. xx

 

[tyrex]

Wrote to Novo-Nordisk - got this reply back (see attached). Doesn't look like we're getting an alternative for a while...

 

[ChezMorgan]

Yep i have done this many times With my night time injection i leave it by my bed and do it just before i turn the light off to go sleep.It seems to work

With the day times injections its a little more difficult but i can usually tell my a blood test as it reacts quicker.

 

[Woollie7]

:roll: Hiya! Just wanted to let you know you are not alone!!! I sometimes forget too & once I took it twice which is not a good idea!!! But I rang NHS Helpline & they were very helpful so don't worry there' always help at hand!!! & DON'T FORGET, WE'RE NOT ROBOTS JUST YET!!! :lol: :wink:

 

[secrettheatre]

I sometimes forget too & once I took it twice which is not a good idea!!!

Yup, done that - panic stations! :!: It's times like that when I thank God for Lucozade.

 

[AndyS]

I had this a bit though I would wake up in a blind panic thinking I had forgotten.

What I do now is use a marker pen and draw cirle round injection site. Usually gets washed off when I shower in the morning so if I wake up and check for a mark and dont have one I know I forgot.

Even if it doesnt wash off commpletely its under clothing so no one sees it and you can tell the difference between a fresh mark and one 24hours faded.

Like the idea of changing direction of pen though Not sure it would work for me as mine gets thrown in a drawer of desk.

A

 

[Celtic.Piskie]

Alarm on the mobile works for me, i keep the insulin in my handbag, a friend of mine actually attaches a paper pocket at the back to put her pills in.