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Took wrong insulin

bobandpat

Well-Known Member
Messages
106
Location
West Yorkshire
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all, hope you can help me. For the first time ever managed to take my bolus last night instead of the basal!

Phoned 111 and spoke to an out of hours doc who told me not to take the basal as my blood sugar had dropped so rapidly and still was going down.

This morning, I can't get through to the diabetes nurse at either the hospital or GP practice.

What should I do, please? Take a full shot or just half and go back to evening injections as usual tonight?

TIA
 
What an awful feeling it is when you realise you've injected the wrong insulin! Grrrrr. What fast acting insulin are you using? I am not a doctor but would be confident in saying most bolus insulins would be used up by 6 to 8 hours. It sounds like you are out of the danger zone. But keep checking your blood sugars and have lots of hypo treatment to hand.
 
Hi @bobandpat what is your basal?

I've done it with lantus and just waited out the next day with lots of extra small bolus shots, as I'd prefer to have too little basal in my system than too much.

(My most memorable occasion was on a road trip with my husband and teenage daughter. We were staying in a campsite, it was long past the time when any shops were open, and I had my family search for every form of sugar hiding in our car as I watched my bg and my supplies of glucose go down.)


Edited to add. If you can't get through to your GP or diabetes clinic you could always ring 111 again? There is also a diabetes.org.uk helpline who are allowed to give medical advice (we aren't, though we can describe our own experiences).

Diabetes UK Helpline

Get specialist information and advice on all aspects of living with diabetes. Call us for answers, support or just to talk to someone who knows about diabetes. What is the Diabetes UK Helpline? Our helpline number is 0345 123 2399. It is a dedicated diabetes helpline for all people with...
www.diabetes.org.uk
03451232399
 
Last edited:
I'm taking Lyumjev rapid acting. It's the Toujeo, long acting that I don't know whether to take or not. No idea what to do, it's a first for me in 50 years.
 
bobandpat said:
I'm taking Lyumjev rapid acting. It's the Toujeo, long acting that I don't know whether to take or not. No idea what to do, it's a first for me in 50 years.
Click to expand...
If you're not confident on managing your doses in these circumstances I'd suggest trying the diabetes UK helpline in my post above. (I edited the post to add it so am not sure if you saw it.)
 
EllieM said:
If you're not confident on managing your doses in these circumstances I'd suggest trying the diabetes UK helpline in my post above. (I edited the post to add it so am not sure if you saw it.)
Click to expand...
Thanks EllieM, I'm waiting for them to answer
 
Been through this myself a long time ago (not medical- just my thoughts so please talk to a medical professional if you can) - ok so you've now got a double dose of slow acting (imagine a curve of insulin activity each time you inject the basal for 24 hours). That will run out tonight - so if you inject some more basal - you're loading up on it double curve going on)

Choices are - inject half (you have some basal that will help tonight) or run entirely on Lyumjev and keep injecting when you go high, until tomorrow morning - if you do that though, might be a challenging night.

Can't say which is the right approach - I'd go for 1/2 basal and increase lyumjev as needed to get my BG down - but it would be better to talk through with a DSN
 
If your blood sugars have steadied now and you’ve stopped having to frontload carbs then you may be out of the woods. How are your blood sugars now?
Your post is lucid which is a good sign.
It’s still a good very good idea to contact medical professionals asap for advice and reassurance: possibly try the gp surgery again and ask for an urgent call
 
PS, I’ve done that too, with Fiasp instead of Levemir and by the end of the night I was sick of stuffing jelly babies, cake, jam sandwiches and biscuits in my mouth: how did I wolf down those things at parties when a child and still want more!
The next day I took basal as usual (Levemir has a different profile to tujeo) and was correcting highs as my system reacted to the unusual excesses of the night before.
Medical input’s needed for your particular insulins - keep trying to contact
As a side note, pred text wanted me to say ‘tuneless’ and rejected tujeo - so don’t let AI make the decisions for you
 
Yep been there got the t shirt , just make sure to check sugars regularly , and have plenty of sugar product at hand , I know when I did it I took my Basel after it , then just dealt with the lows as they came about ! I also ate a fair bit of chocolate to try and pre empt the lows , I’m not suggesting you do that, but don’t panic it can be sorted , my sugars were a bit irrational for a wee while but it was all soon sorted out , I’m 44 years in and still writing obscenities on a steamed up bathroom mirror and staring at it for a day
 
Happened to me once (probably as my bg was dropping faster than ever) that i took 20 units of fast acting insulin instead of slow acting. I tried to correct with 3 or 4 bottles of AA high energy drink (it works faster than dextro energy tablets). I also called 112 in case i would pass out. They stayed with me until my bg was back up again.

I would indeed advise, in case you ever make the mistake, to not take any additional slow acting or other insulin until possible hypo’s have been resolved.

I have to admit that ever since it happened to me, i have become a bit neurotic in this regard. Whenever i take slow acting insulin (abasaglar) i check a few times after injecting that i took the right insulin.

I have to say the names of the insulins are really confusing. ‘abasaglar’ is slow acting and ‘aspart’ fast acting: even the pharmacy assistants are mixing the names up sometimes.
 
I did this before, but I was on actrapid at the time. Took 40u of Actrapid instead of 40u Insulatard, as we all know Actrapid has a slow release profile over 8hrs, so wasn't really an issue. Just waited till morning to take Insulatard after eating some carbs to compensate.
 
Wow surviving 40 units of actrapid…wouldnt try that at home luckily actrapid is a bit slower than novorapid indeed.
 
I've done it once...an experience not to be repeated! I took 20 units of Humalog instead of Lantus. This would be enough for two carby dinners! And it was just before bed. Luckily, I realised as soon as I did it.

I immediately ate loads of sugary snacks, toast and sugared tea. I then spent three hours monitoring my BG for signs of a hypo.

I avoided a hypo, fortunately, but wouldn't recommend it...not because of the medical risk but because I had to sit for three hours being glared at by Mrs Andgrump for delaying bedtime


I went to bed when I thought the danger had passed without taking my basal. I just suffered the highs the following day and treated them with correction doses of bolus before taking the basal at the normal time in the evening.

I now keep the basal in my bedroom rather than in the kitchen with the bolus to avoid a repeat.
 
I did this with 13u of Novorapid instead of Lantus. A few weeks ago.
Oddly the carbs in the booze I had. (Reason why?) around 60g of carbs kept me sane till the morning I thought I was going to need another 90. (My insulin to carb ratio has dropped in the last few months? Probably a year in the evening?)
 
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