• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

What's going on ???

Casper60

Active Member
Messages
28
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I've recently changed insulin from Humlin I to Novorapid and Lantus. My glucose readings are all over the place and it's usually my evening meals that are the problem.

I start with readings of 5-6 take the correct units to carbs and I am doing good up to the 2 hour mark with readings of 7-8 then everything goes down hill as the reading start to go up fast and continue into double figures of about 14-16. What am I doing wrong as this seems to be a regular occurrence. I wish I'd stayed on my other insulin as I'd taken this for over 20 years without too much trouble but was persuaded to try a modern insulin.

Any advice will be much appreciated.
Cheers
 
The basic rules are for basal / bolus regime- if your levels change 2-3 hours of a bolus (whether correction or food) its the bolys that is wrong. At any other time its probably the basal.

However, this can definitely depend on the foods that you eat.

I take it you have been advised how to adjust units and insulin etc?
 
Not been taught much of anything so complete novis regarding this new insulin regime. Pointers please to put me back on tract.
 
It depends on what times you get up, eat, qty and timings of lantus. What times your levels rise.
Are you leaving 5 clear hours between food bolus's?
If perhaps you could give a day of timings n insulin n levels it would be possible to advise further.

Are you due a discussion with a DSN?
 
Just a general point about older vs modern drugs. Modern is not necessarily better. It depends on how it affects your body. If after tweaking things as much as you can, you are still having problems, going back onto the older insulin wouldn't be intrinsically bad, IMO.
 
I take Lantus at 11pm before going to bed. My readings on waking are in the 12s, lunch time between 6-7, but evening they start between 5-6 and then progress to 12-16 levels. I ran the other night to try to bring down my readings but they went up instead.
 

My instinct on this is that your basal is running out during the evening and so your levels are rising. I take Levemir and the general consensus is that splitting the dose into 2 injections is best to make sure you really do get a 24hr effect, I don't know if the same is true for Lantus though so I could be barking up a completely wrong tree!

Can anyone advise on Lantus and maybe splitting dose???
 
p.s. I just had a quick search on this forum and there are quite a few posts about Lantus not lasting 24hrs and splitting doses which might be worth a read (I just put Lantus split dose in the search box), or perhaps just give your doctor/nurse a ring and ask about it.
 
Humalin lasts anything from 6 - 8 hours and the Rapid lasts about 5 so this could be your problem as the Humalin is compensating for some basal I would guess.
Give your DSN a ring and have a chat with him/her and if you are not happy about the change then ask/demand you are swopped back to how you were before.
 
It's awful that they've changed your insulin and just left you to get on with it without explaining the possible differences!!
 
I'm on Lantus as well and am fine during the day while taking my humalog but high every morning even though I've put the dosage of Lantus up steadily every few days! It also takes 6 hours to peak so maybe take it early evening to give it a chance to kick in for over night? If you're not happy after you've tried moving times and dosage then ask for levemir, it's another slow acting insulin that might agree better with you? Hope you get it sorted
 
Thanks to everyone for giving me some pointers, thinking of going back to Humulin I again as I think it's too much hard work trying to master this new regime and getting no where. When I rang the specialist nurse she told me to do 1:8 carbs instead of 1:10 carbs so will give this a go but not holding out much hope.
Cheers
 
I think 1 to 8 will send you hypo at 2-3 hours after a bolus but you will have to suck n see.

Personally I think you need a split dose of lantus as others have said but cannot for the life of me see why they want to change a regime that worked for you previously...
 
Personally I would up your insulin when you eat as suggested by the nurse. 7-8 does not mean you will go hypo for sure if you increase it. When changing insulin I was told never to look at the number 2 hours after unless I felt ill. Some insulins take a different course and so higher or lower levels can appear at the 2 hour mark while the desired number can appear after the 4 or 5 when the insulin is out of your system.

My system will never give me a good reading 2 hours post. I will always peak at that moment and then hit target the 2 hours later. Some people are just different so I would focus on your 14/16 readings and see if you can tackle them first. Don't give up on an insulin just cause it is new to you. There is always the first couple of weeks where the human body understandably goes 'excuse me what the hell are you? no!' and resists. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…