Insulin intake

[Barney01]

hello
can anyone help answer this question
if your sugar reading is within range i.e. 5.6mml ( first reading in morning) what should i do regarding taking my insulin?
do i wait until after food then re check ?

 

[Leadinglights]

hello
can anyone help answer this question
if your sugar reading is within range i.e. 5.6mml ( first reading in morning) what should i do regarding taking my insulin?
do i wait until after food then re check ?

You have started a new thread with your question so you need to give some detail about what insulin you are taking and what would your normal routine be.
If in doubt contact your diabetic nurse.

 

[Barney01]

i am taking Humulin 30/70
i usually take 15 minutes before breakfast and dinner but being near lower range i am hesitant to take.

 

[Leadinglights]

i am taking Humulin 30/70
i usually take 15 minutes before breakfast and dinner but being near lower range i am hesitant to take.

I was hoping somebody who is more familiar with insulin would jump in to help. I think that is one of the issues with the type of insulin you are on as it is less flexible being a mixture of slow acting which you would take anyway and faster bolus insulin which you would either not take or take at a reduced dose.
If you are going to be taking insulin for a long time than you should ask for a basal/bolus regime.
Sorry that doesn't help you for now.
Ring your nurse for advice.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

It will take a little while for the rapid part of the insulin to get going (called the onset time), so injecting immediately before eating might be wise rather than waiting the usual 15 minutes?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I’m not sure if what you are taking is similar to Humulin M3 (which is a 30:70 mix), but the DUK Meds and Kit supplement suggests that has an onset of around 30 minutes

There’s a graph on page 13 here

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/resources-s3/2019-11/diabetes-uk-meds-and-kit-2020.pdf

 

[Barney01]

Thanks for your help

 

[gll]

Hey Barney 🙂
Hope brekkie worked out okay.

Just to touch on the initial should I still take insulin when at good numbers, I don't know if its been explained to you properly what your insulin does.

So mixed insulin has basically short acting (bolus) insulin in with longer acting (basal) in the same jab.
The short acting insulin is used to help deal with food and correct high blood glucose and the long acting is to deal with the glucose trickle that happens in your body throughout the day and gives your the basic energy to live.
Taking mixed means you can't really skip a dose without impacting the rest of the day (as you are not getting the longer acting cover).

If the mixed isn't suiting you and you want some more flexibility, asking for a separate short acting and long acting can provide that flexibility. Shouldn't be an issue to arrange that.
Downside, more jabs in a day.
Upside, can choose to reduce/increase each dose per meal as needed (with some guidance) and can be flexible with mealtimes or skip a meal entirely without leaving you without background cover.

Mixed works for some people with fixed meal patterns and routines. If it works for you, crack on but there are other options available to you if you wanted to go down that route 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Because the 'fast' is mixed with the 'slow' it's never going to reduce the blood glucose very quickly and with the older insulins the instructions were to inject 20 to 30 -ish minutes before eating, hence I'm much inclined to agree with what EDUAD said.