• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Anyone on Humalog?

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
V

vickih

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hello 🙂
Is anyone else on Humalog, or used to be?
How long did it normally take for you BG to get back to 'normal' after eating? i seem to be having trouble lately after my evening meals :( - might just need to change my ratio but any info would be very useful .
Thanks x
 
I have been on Humalog for 9 months now and on 25mix for 3 months before that which I hated.
My diabetes dietician who also runs the courses for type 1 - ie the ones I am not allowed to go on even though on insulin cos I'm a 2 but possibly 1.5!! - has told me to concentrate on the 4 hour figure rather than 2 hour especially if eating out. Also that rather than inject 20-30 minutes before a meal with Humalog can do it when I see the plate if for example am eating out. Reasoning being that there tends to be more fat in bought meals which can delay everything. May not be relevant as you are tyoe 1 but my ratio is 1u:12g carbs and this does not seem to change from am to pm. 1:10 was too much and created hypos. For corrections doses I use 1u for a 3 difference in blood sugar rerading. I am also on Levemir at 6u am and pm. This means total insulin of approx 24 daily which I have been told is about half a type 1 dose.
This may help - or probably confuse but I am sure there will be type 1s around soon to give you more help.
 
I switched to Humalog from NovoRapid a couple of years ago to get the Memoir pen (now defunct!). Both of those will last 4-5 hours in *most* people (ie they will stat in the bloodstream for that length of time)... but the trick is to work out how much effort they are putting in with your particular blood chemistry at what point versus how speedy or otherwise your digestive system tends to be. Then try to get those two 'activity curves' to match. Fun eh!

Personally I found Humalog fairly similar to NovoRapid in profile, with possibly a slightly weightier 'tail' (in that it was more likely to lower BGs later on in the profile, say after 3hrs, than NR would in me).

Patti (another member here) also tried Humalog and if I recall correctly her experience was of a much more marked 'sting in the tail'. So that BGs would rise for a while after eating... stay high... then suddenly dip much later on 4-5 hours or so after injecting I think.

First thing to do is to fasting-test your basal for the meals that you are having trouble with IMO - then adapt your injection timing/ratio based on how 'right' you can get your basal to be at that time in the day. Basal on MDI is often a bit of a Hobsons Choice, at least mine always was!
 
Last edited:
Hi Vicky
I am not on Humalog, I am on Novorapid, BUT just wanted to share a thought - when do you inject before eating? you could try injecting15min - 20mins before eating (as long as you are not in the low 4s obviously!) sometimes that helps with my post meal figures!
good luck x
 
Hi there

Patti (another member here) also tried Humalog and if I recall correctly her experience was of a much more marked 'sting in the tail'. So that BGs would rise for a while after eating... stay high... then suddenly dip much later on 4-5 hours or so after injecting I think.
Click to expand...
I found Humalog to have a marked effect betweem 4.5 and 5 hours after injecting. Prior to that it was long and slow. So I could coast with a highish BG that was coming very gradually down and at the 4.5 - 5hrs hours - Whoooo.... crash. I could be 7ish at 4.5 hours and suddenly go to 4ish and below on occasion. I'd only gone on it because of the memory pen. Once that failed I switched to Apidra which doesn't have such a strong kick in the tail.

Amusingly, the Apidra pen was rubbish and I hated it as it never delivered a properly measured dose, so I am currently using Apidra in a Humapen. It does work LOL!
 
Hi vickih,

My son (15) uses Humalog in his pump and has never had the problems you describe - he has been using it for five years nearly. I would think about injecting earlier than you do (no fast acting is actually that fast so dont worry about levels dropping too much) - start at 10 minutes before and work up from there - we now do about 25 minutes before eating which helps reduce any spikes. I personally havent heard of the issues described by others - but thats not to say it doesnt happen - everyone is different.🙂Bev
 
pippaandben said:
I have been on Humalog for 9 months now and on 25mix for 3 months before that which I hated.
My diabetes dietician who also runs the courses for type 1 - ie the ones I am not allowed to go on even though on insulin cos I'm a 2 but possibly 1.5!! - has told me to concentrate on the 4 hour figure rather than 2 hour especially if eating out. Also that rather than inject 20-30 minutes before a meal with Humalog can do it when I see the plate if for example am eating out. Reasoning being that there tends to be more fat in bought meals which can delay everything. May not be relevant as you are tyoe 1 but my ratio is 1u:12g carbs and this does not seem to change from am to pm. 1:10 was too much and created hypos. For corrections doses I use 1u for a 3 difference in blood sugar rerading. I am also on Levemir at 6u am and pm. This means total insulin of approx 24 daily which I have been told is about half a type 1 dose.
This may help - or probably confuse but I am sure there will be type 1s around soon to give you more help.
Click to expand...

Thans pippaandben, it's nice to hear from someone with type 2, something which i must admit i didn't know too much about until i started looking on here 🙂
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Personally I found Humalog fairly similar to NovoRapid in profile, with possibly a slightly weightier 'tail' (in that it was more likely to lower BGs later on in the profile, say after 3hrs, than NR would in me).


First thing to do is to fasting-test your basal for the meals that you are having trouble with IMO - then adapt your injection timing/ratio based on how 'right' you can get your basal to be at that time in the day. Basal on MDI is often a bit of a Hobsons Choice, at least mine always was!
Click to expand...

hello everydayupsanddowns, i did wonder how humalog compared to other quick acting insulins - thanks for the comparison with NR. i think the fast-testing basic idea is a really good one and i think i will try that 🙂 - what is MD1 by the way?
 
Cleo said:
Hi Vicky
I am not on Humalog, I am on Novorapid, BUT just wanted to share a thought - when do you inject before eating? you could try injecting15min - 20mins before eating (as long as you are not in the low 4s obviously!) sometimes that helps with my post meal figures!
good luck x
Click to expand...

bev said:
Hi vickih,

My son (15) uses Humalog in his pump and has never had the problems you describe - he has been using it for five years nearly. I would think about injecting earlier than you do (no fast acting is actually that fast so dont worry about levels dropping too much) - start at 10 minutes before and work up from there - we now do about 25 minutes before eating which helps reduce any spikes. I personally havent heard of the issues described by others - but thats not to say it doesnt happen - everyone is different.🙂Bev
Click to expand...

Hello Cleo and bev, thank you both for replying - i do usually inject as i eat or just after so maybe your suggestion of doing it earlier will also help - i will try that and see what happens 🙂
 
Pattidevans said:
Hi there

I found Humalog to have a marked effect betweem 4.5 and 5 hours after injecting. Prior to that it was long and slow. So I could coast with a highish BG that was coming very gradually down and at the 4.5 - 5hrs hours - Whoooo.... crash. I could be 7ish at 4.5 hours and suddenly go to 4ish and below on occasion. I'd only gone on it because of the memory pen. Once that failed I switched to Apidra which doesn't have such a strong kick in the tail.

Amusingly, the Apidra pen was rubbish and I hated it as it never delivered a properly measured dose, so I am currently using Apidra in a Humapen. It does work LOL!
Click to expand...

Hello Pattidevans, looks like i have a lot to thing about with the suggestions from everyone 🙂 How simple was it for you to change your insulin? did you ask for the Apidra or did your consultant recomend it? This may be a last resort if other things don't work 🙂
 
vickih said:
Hello Cleo and bev, thank you both for replying - i do usually inject as i eat or just after so maybe your suggestion of doing it earlier will also help - i will try that and see what happens 🙂
Click to expand...

It made a huge difference to my post-meal levels when I started injecting well before eating. You do need to be cautious until you find the optimum time for you, and also this may vary according to the time of day. I use novorapid and in the mornings can inject an hour before eating! At lunchtime it is more like 35-40 mins, and around 25-30 mins for evening meal. 🙂
 
vickih said:
hello everydayupsanddowns, i did wonder how humalog compared to other quick acting insulins - thanks for the comparison with NR. i think the fast-testing basic idea is a really good one and i think i will try that 🙂 - what is MD1 by the way?
Click to expand...

Sorry - shorthand to save my typing fingers MDI = Multiple Daily Injections = Basal/Bolus = 4x injections a day (or whatever you want to call it!) :D

Northerner said:
It made a huge difference to my post-meal levels when I started injecting well before eating. You do need to be cautious until you find the optimum time for you, and also this may vary according to the time of day. I use novorapid and in the mornings can inject an hour before eating! At lunchtime it is more like 35-40 mins, and around 25-30 mins for evening meal. 🙂
Click to expand...

Exactly the same for me! You DO have to be careful not to get distracted during those longer waits though... If you lose track of time you can dip low before your food gets a chance to digest!
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Sorry - shorthand to save my typing fingers MDI = Multiple Daily Injections = Basal/Bolus = 4x injections a day (or whatever you want to call it!) :D



Exactly the same for me! You DO have to be careful not to get distracted during those longer waits though... If you lose track of time you can dip low before your food gets a chance to digest!
Click to expand...

Thank you guys, i did try injecting a bit earlier at breakfast and that seemed to work ok, but couldnt' at lunch time because i didn't know what i was going to eat until i went to the shop!! 🙄

i'm going to check my levermir out tongiht,i am pretty happy with my morning one - i take 14 units at 7.30 am and 14 units at 8.30 pm - so wish me luck! :D
 
fasting night time basal

Well, i tried fasting with my levermir last night (8pm), bit tricky in checing BG's through the evening as i was out (maybe not the best night to try!) and i had 8.8 at 11pm, then 8.6 at 3am and was down to 6.6 at 7.15am this morning.
So....... i am thinking of adding an extra unit to tonight's levermir, what does everyone think?
 
8.8 to 6.6 is *just* over 2mmol/L, and at least some of that might be meter inaccuracy.

I would certainly not add any more than 1u, but just keep an eye on it for a couple of days to see if you need to drop if back down again 🙄

When I was on Lantus my basal was always a kinda 'least worst' thing really - I could never get it spot-on
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
8.8 to 6.6 is *just* over 2mmol/L, and at least some of that might be meter inaccuracy.

I would certainly not add any more than 1u, but just keep an eye on it for a couple of days to see if you need to drop if back down again 🙄

When I was on Lantus my basal was always a kinda 'least worst' thing really - I could never get it spot-on
Click to expand...

You may be right - wll check it before bed and about 3am and see what happens 🙂
 
vickih said:
Well, i tried fasting with my levermir last night (8pm), bit tricky in checing BG's through the evening as i was out (maybe not the best night to try!) and i had 8.8 at 11pm, then 8.6 at 3am and was down to 6.6 at 7.15am this morning.
So....... i am thinking of adding an extra unit to tonight's levermir, what does everyone think?
Click to expand...
Do you have a half unit pen for your Levimir. Mine has the reminder in the top as well. It's a Novopen Echo.
Being out may have given you a false reading of your normal reaction - unless you go out every night of course!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top