Can I take a 1 unit correction dose with Lantus

[Pat91]

Hi guys, have been experimenting today with units/foods today and my bed time reading is high (10.5) can I take a correction dose of 1 unit bolus at the same time as my Lantus. Obviously different injection sites. My last bolus was 4 hours ago thank you.

 

[DaveB]

Hi. Yes. I often do a bedtime correction if the error is big enough. I do it at the same time as my Levemir. You need to be careful to avoid Bolus stacking.

 

[Pat91]

Hi. Yes. I often do a bedtime correction if the error is big enough. I do it at the same time as my Levemir. You need to be careful to avoid Bolus stacking.

What Is bolus stacking.

 

[Robin]

What Is bolus stacking.

It’s when you do a correction dose, but you forget that you’ve still got some active insulin on board from your last bolus, so you correct for the level you are, forgetting that the insulin on board will still be working to lower your levels, and you end up hypo. You should be Ok if it’s 4 hours since your last bolus, most of the insulin is spent by then, (though sometimes mine splutters on for another hour if it was a large dose).
It can also be used to describe when you have a snack, so you bolus for the snack, even though you only bolused and ate for a meal a couple of hours ago. Sometimes DSNs throw up their hands in horror at the thought, as though we aren’t capable of calculating what we need whilst taking into cosnideration the fact that our previous bolus is still working on the food we ate two hours ago. But we are all practised in spinning more than one plate at once and keeping them all up in the air!

 

[Pat91]

It’s when you do a correction dose, but you forget that you’ve still got some active insulin on board from your last bolus, so you correct for the level you are, forgetting that the insulin on board will still be working to lower your levels, and you end up hypo. You should be Ok if it’s 4 hours since your last bolus, most of the insulin is spent by then, (though sometimes mine splutters on for another hour if it was a large dose).

Oh I see thank you. I have rightly or wrongly took 1 unit of Novo. Just didn't want it getting to high over night.

 

[Robin]

Oh I see thank you. I have rightly or wrongly took 1 unit of Novo. Just didn't want it getting to high over night.

You know what your levels do overnight, so if you’d expect to see a rise, not a drop, then taking a cautious unit of novorapid is what I'd have done. (Sometimes at bedtime if I need to correct, I will take half what I think I need, so I don’t get into a yo-yo of hypoing, treating, rebounding over-correcting again, and so on, overnight. You get the idea!)

 

[trophywench]

Yeah, what they said. The active life of Novorapid is 4.5 hrs +/- and it just tils off into insignificance, unlike Humalog which is another very commonly used fast acting insulin, but has a sting in it's tail for a lot of folk using it. I never have used it because I started on Novorapid in about 1998/9, it's always done what it says on the tin reliably for me, and I still continue to use it. I'm probably welded at the hip to it by now!

 

[Inka]

I wouldn’t have corrected a 10.5 at night @Type1Pat in the early months. As I said, bringing your blood sugar down too quickly can cause damage to your eyes and other parts of your body. You come down a bit overnight anyway.

 

[Pat91]

I wouldn’t have corrected a 10.5 at night @Type1Pat in the early months. As I said, bringing your blood sugar down too quickly can cause damage to your eyes and other parts of your body. You come down a bit overnight anyway.

Yeah I found this out last night went to bed on a 8.7 (no correction dose) woke up at 1.30 with a hypo. 3.1. got a right headache now.

 

[Inka]

Yeah I found this out last night went to bed on a 8.7 (no correction dose) woke up at 1.30 with a hypo. 3.1. got a right headache now.

Sorry to hear that. Hypo headaches are horrible. Coffee and carbs help.

 

[SaraKaya]

In the early days @Type1Pat I always aimed for nearer 10 before bed. Feels strange when you instinctively want to get the numbers down because you think that will ‘make’ you better!
I am only 4 months in and things are so much better now, You are asking all the right questions and the people on here are so knowledgeable!
keep going!!

 

[trophywench]

Aaah - I know nowt to speak of about the pituitary gland other than the fact it's there! Sorry you have a prob with it anyway, and hope you will get all the medical help you should get, with it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I would be very cautious of correction doses for a good while yet @Type1Pat

Don’t forget that folks here are just giving their own experience, based on what they do. They don’t know your insulin sensitivity or any of your medical details. 1u might reduce your BG by 3-3.5... but it could just as easily be 6 or 7... and from 10.5 you don’t have much wiggle room if things don’t play out as you expect.

I shudder to think how low you might have gone if you had taken that correction. And lows overnight can last longer and go deeper than during the day, because it takes so much more to raise you. Hypos overnight tech your brain and body to ignore BG at those low levels, and only release the ‘emergency’ stress/hormone response if you go lower still 😱

You may well still be in the ‘honeymoon phase’ where your flagging pancreas occasionally gets a bit of a second wind and ‘helps out’ 🙄. This can make estimating things like correction ratios, insulin sensitivity and insulin:carb factors a bit tricky to tie down.

 

[Ness12]

Is in it you need to check 2h after the last corrections you done than if is still high give another corrections.

 

[Inka]

Is in it you need to check 2h after the last corrections you done than if is still high give another corrections.

It depends how high you are. Sometimes blood sugar can take 3 hours to start the drop back down.