Viki rickford
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Hi, I have run out of lantus can I use novorapid instead until I get more lantus?
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mikeyB
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I would take an old prescription to a late opening chemist and explain the situation. They will need a prescription later.
The answer to your question is yes, but not for more than 24 hours, and test frequently.
By the way, welcome to the forum, you’ll enjoy it here because we’ve all made the same mistakes at some time or other.🙂
The answer to your question is yes, but not for more than 24 hours, and test frequently.
By the way, welcome to the forum, you’ll enjoy it here because we’ve all made the same mistakes at some time or other.🙂
Matt Cycle
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Hi Viki. Yes as Mike says you can do it. My DSN told me in 1987 if it ever happened to inject small doses of Actrapid (the so called fast acting insulin I was on at the time) with plenty of testing. Essentially you're trying to manually do the work that a pump would do but without the ability to inject extremely small amounts in a constant drip and you don't want to be up all night doing it either. If you can, try and get a prescription.
Ljc
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@Viki rickford , welcome to the forum. It’s very easily done.
I hope you have now managed to sort out some long acting insulin If not I suggest you contact your out of hours Gp service, 111 in England .
If your usual chemist is open for a few hours today they may be able to provide an emergency supply, take your repeat prescription with you.
I hope you have now managed to sort out some long acting insulin If not I suggest you contact your out of hours Gp service, 111 in England .
If your usual chemist is open for a few hours today they may be able to provide an emergency supply, take your repeat prescription with you.
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Yes you can (on an insulin pump you only use NovoRapid or similar)
BUT...
It would involve getting up every few hours through the night to give a small dose - and you would need a delivery method that could deliver sufficiently small doses depending on what your current Lantus dose is.
So you would divide your Lantus dose by 24 to get your approximate ‘units per hour’ requirement. And then inject say every 3 hours with just enough rapid acting to cover that period (3x your hourly rate or as near as you can manage). NR is likely to last 4-6 hours in most people, but with onset/fade of doses you wouldn’t really want to wait until the previous dose had completely run out, so you would be intentionally ‘stacking’ the insulin so would need to do extra BG checks.
As @mikeyB and @Ljc suggest, you may well be better going to an emergency pharmacy (or your regular one if you know them well) and seeing if they can give you some Lantus and then wait for the prescription until after the weekend.
Bank holidays eh?!
BUT...
It would involve getting up every few hours through the night to give a small dose - and you would need a delivery method that could deliver sufficiently small doses depending on what your current Lantus dose is.
So you would divide your Lantus dose by 24 to get your approximate ‘units per hour’ requirement. And then inject say every 3 hours with just enough rapid acting to cover that period (3x your hourly rate or as near as you can manage). NR is likely to last 4-6 hours in most people, but with onset/fade of doses you wouldn’t really want to wait until the previous dose had completely run out, so you would be intentionally ‘stacking’ the insulin so would need to do extra BG checks.
As @mikeyB and @Ljc suggest, you may well be better going to an emergency pharmacy (or your regular one if you know them well) and seeing if they can give you some Lantus and then wait for the prescription until after the weekend.
Bank holidays eh?!
Many years ago whilst on holiday I dropped the last Lantus cartridge I had onto a tiled floor as I was trying to change it and it smashed leaving me with only the novorapid for the last five days of my holiday
I just kept a good eye on my blood sugars and injected extra for each meal
It may not have been perfect but it worked and I survived.
IMHO - It’s not the end of the world for just a few days.
And no doubt that is incorrect advice to give you, but I can’t see it making that much difference in the longer term, so I wouldn’t over panic if I were in that position and can’t get hold of any until Tuesday
B
I just kept a good eye on my blood sugars and injected extra for each meal
It may not have been perfect but it worked and I survived.
IMHO - It’s not the end of the world for just a few days.
And no doubt that is incorrect advice to give you, but I can’t see it making that much difference in the longer term, so I wouldn’t over panic if I were in that position and can’t get hold of any until Tuesday
B
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