Wrong insulin injected :( advice asap!

[jones_48]

Hi All,

I'm feeling terrified right now as i've just injected 35 units of novorapid rather than levemir. 35 is a lot for me - i normally take 20 units maximum a day..
I share a house so i'm just in my room and if anything was to happen noone would realise until i didn't show up for work.
I also don't have much food in, not enough to feed 35 units of novorapid, and with it being so late there's no shops open :s i think my insulin: carb ratio is 1:8 and i'm too scared to do the math.

Please can someone advise/help me

Thanks

 

[Hellbunny]

Hi, I hope you are ok and managed to get sorted, I know its a while since you posted but do you have anyone else in the house with you? If I had no food/sugar in I would probably ring for an ambulance since novorapid acts fast.
Really hope things are okay

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[picklebean]

I too hope you're ok... let us know how you're doing!

I think the best thing to do in this circumstance is go to A&E or if it gets to that point, call an ambulance..... maybe calling an ambulance is better anyway, given how fast insulin can act but I suppose that depends on what your blood sugar was when you started.


Anyhow, it's better to be safe than sorry - the emergency staff will have dealt with this situation before. It happens to quite a few diabetics!!

 

[smidge]

Hey Jones!

I hope you are OK. This is a little late, but Novorapid will act quickly and be out of your body in about 5 hours. However, it can have a bit of a kick around the 4 hour mark. You also need to factor in that you have missed your Levemir dose, so once the Novo is out of your body, potentially you will be running high until your next Levemir dose is jabbed and kicks in.

OK, to deal with the Novorapid at a 1:8 ratio, you need about 280g carb. What I would do is immediately have a glass of quick-acting liquid carb - Coke, Orange juice, Lucozade or if you have nothing else, some warm water/tea/coffee with a few spoonfuls of sugar - this will get some carbs instantly into your blood to counteract the quick action of the Novo. Then have a longer-acting carb - maybe eat a few slices of toast, preferably with jam or marmalade on. (Each slice of toast is about 15g carb and the jam would be extra - work it out). Test every 15 minutes at first to see what is happening. After about two hours, the majority of the Novorapid will be used, but you will need to test frequently for about 5 hours. Stop eating as soon as your BG stops dropping. Your aim is to use the Novo without sending your BG through the roof. If at any time your BG is falling quicker than you can get the carb in, call for an ambulance, but by using liquid carb when needed, you should be able to keep up. Do not sleep until you are sure your BG has stopped falling and is at safe levels.

Anyway, I hope you dealt with it OK.

Smidge

 

[iHs]

Hi

I too hope that you are ok this morning......

In addition to what Smidge has said, I always have about 2 tins of Amb...... Rice Pudding in my cupboard to cope with insulin overdose and then all that is needed is a tin opener or just pulling the tab. Stops the hypo.........

 

[jones_48]

Thanks for all your replies!! I live alone so i was texting a friend who persuaded me to go to A&E, just incase anything was to happen! They kept an eye on me for about 5 hours and let me go once my blood levels started to rise again

What i found really strange was that for the 35 units i took, all i ate was a bowl and a half of cereal and a sachet of glucozade energy gel, and this was fine. I'm really confused as to why i didnt need to eat more than this!? I even injected my dose of levemir a couple of hours after..

I'll definitley make sure i have some lucozade in the cupboard from now on

 

[dave howard]

Thanks for all your replies!! I live alone so i was texting a friend who persuaded me to go to A&E, just incase anything was to happen! They kept an eye on me for about 5 hours and let me go once my blood levels started to rise again

What i found really strange was that for the 35 units i took, all i ate was a bowl and a half of cereal and a sachet of glucozade energy gel, and this was fine. I'm really confused as to why i didnt need to eat more than this!? I even injected my dose of levemir a couple of hours after..

I'll definitley make sure i have some lucozade in the cupboard from now on

Glad you are over you little hiccup.
Your saving grace was the fact that you had not had your levemir at the correct time,so for that period your carb to insulin ratio would have been different to usual, hence why you didn`t go as low as you thought you would. All the best Dave.

 

[GlazedDoughnuts]

It happens but all you needed to do is just eat loads of carbs and you would of been fine.

In the past I've used 30 units for a big meal, as long as I ate, everything was fine.

 

[blueeyed81]

I think we've all done ut once ir twice, I did but stopped when I hit the twenty units mark, I lived alone but luckily had some weetabix in so had a couple of them with sugar on n some toast and I was fine lol aswell as a few cupoas with sugar, I now double check my pen before injecting lol

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[squeeze321]

Hey I'm really glad you are ok now Jones.

I know how you felt!
I gave myself a near fatal overdose of 60 units of Novorapid about 2 years ago during a hypo after trying to calculate the carbs in a box of ice lollys without realising I was hypo at the time! I did not want to eat the whole box of lollys but the hypo was making me crazy at the time. It has been the only accidental overdose I have ever had but I won't let it happen again. Like you, I live alone but managed to consume a bag of boiled sweets before callapsing on the floor in the bathroom. The day went by in a hypoglycaemic fog but I eventually got it under control.

This was the scariest hypo experience I have ever had, an accidental overdose is easy to do and consequences can be disasterous, and I think they are more common than people would think.