Is it okay and effective to distribute your long term (night time) insulin ?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Great to hear that just changing the timing of your Lantus to morning has improved the situation for you. That can make a significant difference for some people.

Personally I am another huge fan of Levemir for flexibility. I would fight tooth and nail to keep it over Tresiba which I am certain would not suit me at all because I need to regularly adjust my doses and I need much less insulin at night than during the day. I would suspect that you are the same since changing the timing of your Lantus has improved things.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't change to Levemir but keep Apidra but I think an education course like DAFNE (or your local equivalent) would be really beneficial for you if you haven't done it already or perhaps a refresher course if you have. It helps you to understand your basal needs and how and when to adjust your basal insulin doses to improve your diabetes management and the effects of sickness, exercise and alcohol on your levels and how to keep yourself safer in those scenarios.

Hopefully the change to morning Lantus dosing will continue to work well though and you will manage much better now.
 
rebrascora said:
Great to hear that just changing the timing of your Lantus to morning has improved the situation for you. That can make a significant difference for some people.

Personally I am another huge fan of Levemir for flexibility. I would fight tooth and nail to keep it over Tresiba which I am certain would not suit me at all because I need to regularly adjust my doses and I need much less insulin at night than during the day. I would suspect that you are the same since changing the timing of your Lantus has improved things.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't change to Levemir but keep Apidra but I think an education course like DAFNE (or your local equivalent) would be really beneficial for you if you haven't done it already or perhaps a refresher course if you have. It helps you to understand your basal needs and how and when to adjust your basal insulin doses to improve your diabetes management and the effects of sickness, exercise and alcohol on your levels and how to keep yourself safer in those scenarios.

Hopefully the change to morning Lantus dosing will continue to work well though and you will manage much better now.
Click to expand...
thanks..
 
The peak of Lantus' activity is approx 4 to 5 hrs (ish) after jabbing it, and bearing in mind the human body's natural (and being a primeval bodily thing this can't be changed) lowest BG is at approx 2.30am to 3.30am this frequently coincides with the height of the insulin's activity this almost automatically leads to 'overnight' hypos - if you always jab it before bed! (caveat - assuming you usually sleep overnight, of course)

My GP was amazed that I even wanted to change from one jab (of Lantus) to 2 (of Levemir) - I said try looking at it from my POV please - I already take (nominally) 4 insulin jabs each day - one of long-acting and three of fast acting - which you know as well as I do, doesn't deliver perfect control of my blood glucose over each 24 hours. All I seek to do is get better control of them - hence increasing to 5 insulin jabs per day, providing those timings don't interfere too much with my lifestyle, is surely a very small price for me to have to pay to try and achieve that?

But anyway - you personally have now swapped the Lantus jab to when you get up anyway - so hopefully, that's you sorted!
 
Tresiba and Novorapid 🙂 by novonordisk is what I am onto now...

benefits being - Flexibility: Tresiba can be taken at any time throughout the day – for example, 8 am on Monday, 12 pm on Tuesday, and 7 am on Wednesday. The insulin lasts for an impressive 42 hours (at least), and doses must be taken at least eight hours apart. Novorapid aint very different to Apidra....just had to get RID of Lantus....way too many hypos and since I dont follow an orthodox eating timetable..Lantus was simply too horrible for me. I take 29 units of Tresiba....depends on how much the individual weighs..thats what my GP said. thanks for all the help. extremely benficial...I am in love with this forum.

Lunch time....😛
20210515_054709.jpg
 
Last edited:
Really depends on your body. Tresiba was the worst basal I’ve tried. I started on lantus, tried levemir and tresiba, and went back to lantus as it’s the best of a bad bunch to me.
pearlzo436 said:
I read the same...youtube vids suggest Tresiba is the very best out there...🙄
Click to expand...
 
Lucyr said:
Really depends on your body. Tresiba was the worst basal I’ve tried. I started on lantus, tried levemir and tresiba, and went back to lantus as it’s the best of a bad bunch to me.
Click to expand...
Lantus peaked for me after 6 ish hours and the hypos were intolerable....you are right ..depends on the individual body type, excerise and eating / drinking habits...I suppose.
 
pearlzo436 said:
Lantus peaked for me after 6 ish hours and the hypos were intolerable....you are right ..depends on the individual body type, excerise and eating / drinking habits...I suppose.
Click to expand...
Many women find the inflexibility of Tresiba does not work for them as their basal requirements change every month.

I was fine on Lantus for about 12 years as long as I took it at a time that ensured the peak occurred whilst I was awake.
It gave me the flexibility to adjust my basal for exercise and for a week each month.
I now have a pump which gives me even more flexibility. I still have Lantus as a back up but expect, if I stopped pumping permanently, I would try to get Levemir.

When I was diagnosed, it seemed everyone had Lantus and we were all assumed to be the same. i think it’s great that there is so much chose and our different requirements are understood much better most of the time.
 
pearlzo436 said:
Cool...then ...extremely helpful reply.

I had always thought that Lantus and Apidra work together best.

Say if I were to try Levemir....can I still stick with short term insulin Apidra ??

Word around the campfire is that Novorapid and Levemir work best together as short and long term...atleast thats whta I had always thought.

Fantastic reply..and very informative...so many thanks .
Click to expand...
Bit late to this party... but when I was on MDI I was originally on Lantus and Novorapid. I was switched to Levemir almost as soon as it came out as I was struggling with my weight and my nurse said that there was less weight gain with Levemir. Fast forward a while and I was on Levemir and Apidra which was the best combination I came across on MDI. Still couldn't rid myself of late afternoon hypos, so eventually I got a pump. I have been pumping with Apidra for almost 8 years now. It's slightly faster than Novorapid, but not by that much!
 
trophywench said:
The peak of Lantus' activity is approx 4 to 5 hrs (ish) after jabbing it, and bearing in mind the human body's natural (and being a primeval bodily thing this can't be changed) lowest BG is at approx 2.30am to 3.30am this frequently coincides with the height of the insulin's activity this almost automatically leads to 'overnight' hypos - if you always jab it before bed! (caveat - assuming you usually sleep overnight, of course)

My GP was amazed that I even wanted to change from one jab (of Lantus) to 2 (of Levemir) - I said try looking at it from my POV please - I already take (nominally) 4 insulin jabs each day - one of long-acting and three of fast acting - which you know as well as I do, doesn't deliver perfect control of my blood glucose over each 24 hours. All I seek to do is get better control of them - hence increasing to 5 insulin jabs per day, providing those timings don't interfere too much with my lifestyle, is surely a very small price for me to have to pay to try and achieve that?

But anyway - you personally have now swapped the Lantus jab to when you get up anyway - so hopefully, that's you sorted!
Click to expand...
That would check out with why my blood drops low at midday, 1-ish when I inject Lantus at 9:00am and similarly goes low at 2 in the morning (bedtime) when I inject at 10pm.
Since my blood always rises late afternoon, maybe I should move the AM lantus up a bit, though that would shift the evening one and risk early morning lows.
 
Supratad said:
That would check out with why my blood drops low at midday, 1-ish when I inject Lantus at 9:00am and similarly goes low at 2 in the morning (bedtime) when I inject at 10pm.
Since my blood always rises late afternoon, maybe I should move the AM lantus up a bit, though that would shift the evening one and risk early morning lows.
Click to expand...
From past experience the basal injections do overlap so it doesn't matter exactly how long apart they are. I used to take it when I got up and before bed... those were flexible.
 
I'm the same with Levemir. I take it 7am on a morning when I wake up and anywhere from 10pm to 1am in the evening when I go to bed. It is nowhere near an even split though. Currently 22 units in the morning and between 6 and 8 units on a night depending upon how active I have been.
 
Well I’m wondering now whether to split my morning Lantus of 33 to say 15 at 8:30 am and a further 18 at 11:00am.
Would it lessen the lunchtime drop and combat my regular afternoon spike?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top