Insulin after food

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Luke

Luke

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
hey guys,
So I'm still very new to all of this and did something that appears to be very stupid.

I took my usual dose of 8 units of insulin (humalog) before my dinner, however my dinner was quite a lot of carbohydrate and I started to feel very sleepy (as my sugar was already high) so I panicked and injected an extra 2 units thinking that maybe it would lower my blood sugar and help with the carbs.
I was wrong
Now my blood sugar dropped by more than 10 in the last hour and appears to be dropping still
I ate a jelly baby that brought it up temporarily but then it decreased again.
I called 111 and they just advised eating carbs and keep checking through the night.
Has anyone else done this before?
Does it keep dropping all night?
What can I eat that will keep it up whilst I sleep?
Is it safe to still take my lantus?
Thanks in advance
 
Hi Luke - Humalog stays active for approx. 5 hours after you jab it - then when it's gone it's gone until you inject some more. So how does this fit in with when you jabbed and when bedtime Is?

And yes you should still take your Lantus because we need some insulin in our bodies all day and all night to just keep us alive and ticking over properly - and obviously if yesterday's Lantus has finished and once the Humalog has gone - you'll be without any, if you don't have the Lantus. If you are under 5 before bed - and the Humalog still has an hour to run - have about 10g of carb before turning the lights off to counteract it.

We all make mistakes occasionally, so just treat this mistake - and err on the side of caution - better to be a bit higher whilst you're asleep tonight, than get it wrong and go hypo in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow you need to start making doubly sure you count the carbs as accurately as you can!

Come back tomorrow and tell us how you got on overnight, so we know you're OK, please.
 
trophywench said:
Hi Luke - Humalog stays active for approx. 5 hours after you jab it - then when it's gone it's gone until you inject some more. So how does this fit in with when you jabbed and when bedtime Is?

And yes you should still take your Lantus because we need some insulin in our bodies all day and all night to just keep us alive and ticking over properly - and obviously if yesterday's Lantus has finished and once the Humalog has gone - you'll be without any, if you don't have the Lantus. If you are under 5 before bed - and the Humalog still has an hour to run - have about 10g of carb before turning the lights off to counteract it.

We all make mistakes occasionally, so just treat this mistake - and err on the side of caution - better to be a bit higher whilst you're asleep tonight, than get it wrong and go hypo in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow you need to start making doubly sure you count the carbs as accurately as you can!

Come back tomorrow and tell us how you got on overnight, so we know you're OK, please.
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Hi,
thank you for your reply, especially so late.
It's been about 3 hours now and I've most certainly learned from my mistake, will eat carbs to hopefully get and keep it up
 
General rule is always to have your basal / long acting insulin, even if not eating eg when ill / vomiting etc.
It sounds like you are taking fixed doses of short acting insulin, which means that you have to match your carbohydrate intake to dose. Eventually, you will learn to adjust insulin dose to take account of what you want to eat, correcting for blood glucose levels being above your targets, plus other factors such as expected activity, stress etc during the lifetime of the short acting insulin, about 4 - 5 hours.
Hope you had a restful night, with meter and jelly babies within reach when in bed.
 
Hi Luke. Hope you got on OK overnight. Let us know how you are.
 
Thanks for all the info guys,
I'm ok and my sugars are actually high this morning (??)
 
How much carb did you eat? maybe you over did it x
 
Yeah. I think you over did it. I do that all the time. Also, if you go low, your liver will kick out extra sugars. So don't worry about being high this morning. Just treat it. 🙂
 
Yeah, I'm very paranoid about hypos so I definitely overdid it,

Are the any safe ways of lowering your blood sugar?
 
Hi Luke

How long have you been diagnosed? It sounds like you could do with some help from your team about adjusting doses.

Have you been offered any structured education (eg DAFNE - dose adjusting for normal eating)?

It can really help to try to work out how much 1u of insulin reduces your BG by. This varies for everyone, but is often in the region of 1u reduces BG by 3 or 4mmol/L.

Then it helps to know how much carbohydrate you need to eat for your doses at each meal (or alternatively calculate a different dose for each meal based on the amount of carbs you are eating that time).

Your clinic should be able to help you with all of this.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Hi Luke

How long have you been diagnosed? It sounds like you could do with some help from your team about adjusting doses.

Have you been offered any structured education (eg DAFNE - dose adjusting for normal eating)?

It can really help to try to work out how much 1u of insulin reduces your BG by. This varies for everyone, but is often in the region of 1u reduces BG by 3 or 4mmol/L.

Then it helps to know how much carbohydrate you need to eat for your doses at each meal (or alternatively calculate a different dose for each meal based on the amount of carbs you are eating that time).

Your clinic should be able to help you with all of this.
Click to expand...

I was diagnosed last week, so it's all very new, the clinic haven't really given me any information about adjusting doses as they seem to want to take it slow, which is annoying because I'm eager to be 'normal' again. My mom has mentioned DAFNE but I haven't really looked into it, I'm seeing my clinician tommorow so I will ask!
 
Luke said:
I was diagnosed last week, so it's all very new, the clinic haven't really given me any information about adjusting doses as they seem to want to take it slow, which is annoying because I'm eager to be 'normal' again. My mom has mentioned DAFNE but I haven't really looked into it, I'm seeing my clinician tommorow so I will ask!
Click to expand...
They want to take it slow for a very good reason, if levels suddenly change from very high to normal it can cause more damage than good, therefore they want to bring your levels down gradually, I don't know what the care you receive is like in your area and it seems to vary a lot depending on where you are, my team had me carb counting and adjusting my insulin myself a month after I was diagnosed, although I have spoken to a few Type 1's who still have no idea how to carb count and are still on set units years after being diagnosed x
 
Talk to them. My diabetes team said that normally take it slow with people so as to not overload people with information but I said I was keen to get back to the way I eat and such, so they were happy to teach me.

It's a lot to take in so they try and not freak people out. But they won't know you're embracing the diabetes unless you tell them 🙂

When's your next appointment?
 
Hi and welcome 🙂 it's good to hear you're seeing your team tomorrow, keep a record of you're readings and what you've eaten and write down questions you want to ask. I hope you will be offered your local equivalent of the DAFNE, I found it really helpful. As others have said it is much safer for your levels to be bought down gently. Good luck x
 
I took it you were 'new' Luke - only joined on Saturday and on fixed doses of Humalog - so that's why I tried to keep it simple and reassuring rather than launching into anything that required too much thinking about (for you or me LOL) at that time of night !

(Don't do it again in the next few days though cos we're going away over the Bank Holiday - so I shan't be handy late at night to ask! - just joking 😉 )
 
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