Insulin query

[kellie01]

Evening everyone, just a quick question, i have type 1.5 or lada and have my insulin 4 times a day, am i likely to stay on that amount of times a day or are they likely to change it once my levels have stabalised a bit ? Tia x

 

[Tdm]

Thats typical. I take one basal, long lasting insulin (abasaglar) once a day, and a quick acting insulin (novorapid) with (well, 15 min before) food.
I could skip breakfast but would still have to take some insulin as my levels go up in the morning even without food due to the dawn effect. So i may as well eat something.

 

[kellie01]

Thats typical. I take one basal, long lasting insulin (abasaglar) once a day, and a quick acting insulin (novorapid) with (well, 15 min before) food.
I could skip breakfast but would still have to take some insulin as my levels go up in the morning even without food due to the dawn effect. So i may as well eat something.

Thank you x

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Evening everyone, just a quick question, i have type 1.5 or lada and have my insulin 4 times a day, am i likely to stay on that amount of times a day or are they likely to change it once my levels have stabalised a bit ? Tia x

4x injections a day is intended to mimic the way the body regulates blood glucose levels - a background trickle of insulin that mops up the glucose that the liver drips out 24 hours a day to keep things ticking-over, and then a splurge of insulin with each meal (bolus literally means ‘lump’).

So it‘s a flexible and adaptable way of taking insulin. You can eat larger or smaller meals, you can skip meals, or eat them earlier or later. And your insulin can be adjusted to suit.

There are systems with fewer injections a day, but they lock you in to a rigid timetable - eating to satisfy the insulin.

I prefer basal:bolus any day!

 

[Inka]

Evening everyone, just a quick question, i have type 1.5 or lada and have my insulin 4 times a day, am i likely to stay on that amount of times a day or are they likely to change it once my levels have stabalised a bit ? Tia x

That’s the normal regime for Type 1/LADA @kellie01 Our own pancreas releases tiny amounts of insulin throughout the day. Obviously we don’t want to be injecting every five minutes so the basal/bolus regime is a good compromise that gives flexibility. If your levels stabilise and they were to stop your insulin, you’d just go high again (or be unable to eat without going high!). Insulin isn’t a drug to cure you. It’s a hormone replacement of the natural insulin you’re no longer able to produce. There’s currently no cure for Type 1/LADA so we need insulin. It’s a blessing not a curse 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

You could need to inject more frequently than 4 times a day, depending on circumstances, but I would say 3-4 injections a day is minimum.
For instance if you go out for coffee mid morning and fancy a scone or cake with it, you would inject for the cake/scone, so that would be an extra one. Or perhaps you find your levels go high before bed and you don't want to go to sleep with your levels so high and your evening meal bolus insulin is spent so you might inject a conservative correction of fast acting insulin to bring your levels down whilst you sleep, so that would be an extra jab.

I had a really bad day the other day when my levels just kept going upwards and I had to inject correction after correction to try to keep them in range. I injected a total of 16 times that day 14 injections of fast acting insulin and 2 of my basal Levemir which is designed to be administered in 2 doses, No idea why but my diabetes was just not cooperating that day. 🙄

 

[DaveB]

Hi. You are likely to stay on at least 4 injections per day which may increase a bit if your own insulin production goes down further. You may need to split your Basal into two parts or have more correction doses. Let's hope not but I'm afraid it is for life and you do get used to it

 

[kellie01]

Thank you all for your replies, it is a learning curve for me as still don't know too much about it all, but thank you all for taking the time to reply x

 

[Kol]

Exactly as rebrascora says.
I have minimum of 5 injections a day, plus any corrections as required