Is my insulin off? Why am I constantly high?

[Hellospringett]

Hi everyone,
Bit of background - I am 8 months into been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I inject 8 units of Lantus every night before bed and my Novarapid I am using i believe low amounts of insulin, most dinners are around 5/6 units. I used to inject 1/10 ratio but then I went into my honeymoon stage so had to start injecting less.
The past three days I have been high and I cannot get it down at all, i thought maybe it is something to do with my pens.
I have checked my box in the fridge and it expires in April 2022 so that’s not the problem, and I use them within 4 weeks so that’s not the problem. I have just thrown the pen away incase there is an issue.
Anyone else found this issue where the cannot get their levels down?

 

[Hellospringett]

Forgot to say I also upped my lantus from 8 to 9 two days ago because i want to try and get my levels down. Not seen the effect yet. Should I up it more?

 

[SB2015]

Things do change, and I am always amazed at how often I need to adjust the ratios I use, and also my basal doses. In the early stages there are also the remaining Beta cells playing, some of the time. Perhaps yours have had a bit of a blast and are now back in strike again.

Having said that it could also be your pen. So worth changing them just in case. How long do you have them in use? When I was on small doses I used to find that it still had insulin in after 28 days which is the limit for the insulin being out of the fridge. I used to put a sticker on saying the discard date, 28 days on from when I removed it from the fridge. I know the insulin may have worked for longer , possibly changing it’s potency, but I didn’t want anything extra to deal with, so happy to discard as recommended.

 

[Kaylz]

I'd definitely look at doing a basal test as if your basal dose isn't as near to perfect as it can be then your other doses won't work as they should xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear this @Hellospringett

You are right that sometimes insulin pens can go 'off' but it is rare. Always worth thinking about though, especially if the pens are a long time out of the fridge or may have been exposed to extremes of temperature. It's also worth visually inspecting the cartridge if you can see it - eg a clear insulin must stay completely clear without bits floating in it 🙂

Sounds like you are doing all the right things though and approaching things analytically and logically.

Do you have email contact for your DSN? It sounds like you could do with some more input from your clinic.

Let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[trophywench]

No good expecting to see much of a change in results within 2 days of changing a dosage of Lantus - takes a full 3 days to show properly what if anything it's going to do for you. Still a very low dose of Lantus for a normal sized adult though - so yes - you do need to talk to the Doc or DSN for proper advice.

 

[Midnightcatpatrol]

Hi everyone,
Bit of background - I am 8 months into been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I inject 8 units of Lantus every night before bed and my Novarapid I am using i believe low amounts of insulin, most dinners are around 5/6 units. I used to inject 1/10 ratio but then I went into my honeymoon stage so had to start injecting less.
The past three days I have been high and I cannot get it down at all, i thought maybe it is something to do with my pens.
I have checked my box in the fridge and it expires in April 2022 so that’s not the problem, and I use them within 4 weeks so that’s not the problem. I have just thrown the pen away incase there is an issue.
Anyone else found this issue where the cannot get their levels down?

Did you accidently mess up the dose of your brownies?!