Given nova rapide is stead of lantus.

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mmorgan

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Any help greatfully received. My sister has given mum 30 of nova rapide instead of 30 of Lantus (no idea how this has happened, has never happened before). Blood sugar is 15.6. I’ve had to google. Suggested some juice for the nova rapide to work on, bloods went from 15.6 to 14.1. Had some toast. Now after two hours, bloods have stayed at 14.1. We are going to check again in an hour.
I’m aware a bolus can last for 3-5 hours.

I’m waiting for nhs 111 to pick up.

Mum usually has lantus of 30 at 9pm. Not sure now when she should take this if she should. Any advice gratefully received.
 
Oh dear, sorry to hear that - I have done that myself, more than once, and also soon after I was diagnosed I injected Novorapid and then found I was unable to eat.

When I rang 111 that first time, I was told not to take my Lantus, and when I told my diabetes specialist nurse afterwards she was horrified as this was the wrong advice - because the Novorapid will be out of the system after a few hours but the Lantus is supposed to give background insulin for the rest of the 24 hours.

So, from my experience I'd say your Mum should have some Lantus, but maybe a lower dose than usual as it's safer for her blood sugar to be a bit too high than for it to go too low. I would also keep testing her blood sugar every hour or so until you're reasonably sure the Novorapid is out of her system. Mine sometimes lasts 6 hours so err on the side of caution.

Does she have a Libre? - if so, can you set alarms if you don't have them set already? That way she'll at least get some warning if she goes low in the night.

It might help to talk to a medical professional if you are worried, but bear in mind that the problem with 111 is that you get a general nurse or GP, not a diabetes specialist, so their advice may not be accurate.

Incidentally, I was so stressed by the whole thing when I did this, my blood sugar remained high - even though I normally have lots of hypos!
 
Btw, if your Mum's blood sugar suddenly starts dropping, the juice is a good idea, or tea with plenty of sugar, or dried fruit. If it goes below 4 stick to the juice, that's one of the best treatments for a hypo.
 
what is her usual insulin: carb ratio? In other words how much insulin does she usually take to cover 10g carbs? She needs to eat the equivalent amount of carbs to cover to volume of novarapid taken. this is important, otherwise her blood sugar will drop too low. Juice is good, not chocolate. Keep checking for at least the next four hours, I would check more often than every hour.
 
Thank you so much everyone for replying. I think I’ve done the right thing. Still waiting for 111 to call but got hold of GP and explained what I had advised my sister to do (from things on the forum and, u fortunately Dr Google!!) and he says we did the right thing. Gosh it was scary. Poor mumsy. She’s fine. Thank u every one.
 
Her sugars started off at 15.6 and the lowest they went was 9.1, checking went 20 mins for the first few hours then every hour. The GP said I shouldn’t give her the Lantus until tonight when she normally has it.
 
So glad she is OK, @mmorgan 🙂

You'll probably find her blood sugar is on the high side for a few days if she didn't get any Lantus last night - that's what happened to me when the 111 GP advised me not to take mine. A bit high is safer than having her go too low in the night of course - but she may need a little more Novorapid than usual over the next day or two.

Tell your sister not to beat herself up about giving the wrong insulin, I suspect most insulin-users on the forum have done it at some point - and it's worse the other way, at least Novorapid only lasts a few hours, giving Lantus instead of Novorapid means keeping on testing for ages!
 
Thanks so much. Makes sense. Hopefully back on track now. I keep telling my sister to draw a line under it. It has never happened before and hopefully won’t again.
 
mmorgan said:
I keep telling my sister to draw a line under it.
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Makes sense to try and think of ways to reduce the chances of it happening again, but we're human and now and again we're going to make mistakes. As @TheClockworkDodo says, I'm sure we've all done it.

I like @rebrascora's idea of putting tape on one of the pens so it feels different. (I think I'd do it on the basal pen, but either could work.) That feels simple, low cost, and probably quite effective.
 
Normally lantus lives upstairs and nova rapide downstairs.because the libre scanner stopped working we had to go back to finger prick testing, and she brought the whole box of stuff upstairs. . Good idea about changing textures.
 
mmorgan said:
Normally lantus lives upstairs and nova rapide downstairs.because the libre scanner stopped working we had to go back to finger prick testing, and she brought the whole box of stuff upstairs.
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Ah, so there was a system (which sounds like it makes sense) but something unlikely broke it. I'm afraid that's a risk whatever you do, but adding tape might make it a bit more robust even when something like that happens. And it's nice and cheap.
 
Hi , I have got into a habit with 3 humalog daily and 1 lantus, Using 2 pens 1 for each insulin, I leave the Lantus pen in the kitchen cupboard for after my dinner and bring it out later out of sight out of mind , and I work with the 4 needle bay device as I have left home forgetting my lunchtime dose then calling my wife to check how many needles are in the bay , it has proved a very good reminder.
 
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