Levemir

[allisonb]

Hi everyone, I don't post much but read (and learn) lots from you guys and would appreciate any advice or knowledge you have about Levemir. My DSN recommended that I change my basal from Insulatard to Levemir because I was getting a lot of night time hypos and as I'm sure you'll all know, Insulatard peaks so we thought this might the problem. So....took Levemir last night and this morning for the first time, still woke with a high blood sugar though but suppose it's early days!

Any tips would be hugely appreciated.

 

[AJL]

I moved from Insulatard to Levemir several years ago and although it's not perfect I am doing much better with it than the Insulatard. When moving onto the Levemir I did find that it took several weeks to ge the dose right -and that I have had to change it several times. I was told that when altering the dose to not make any other changes to it for three days each time as it can take that long for the new dose to take effect.....


and also that I needed to have an additional dose in the mornings
i.e. at the moment 40 units of Levemir at approximately 9pm and 6 units at approximately 9am

One problem that I do have with it sometimes is that my sugar is high in the morning but it may be because it has gone low in the night - but I can never pinpoint when the night time hypo has happened.

What I really like about Levemir is that I can walk the dog in the morning and the Levemir doesn't affect my blood sugar. When I walked her when on Insulatard I found that I had to have extra carbohydrate to stop my sugar going low during the walk. The same applies with going to the gym

 

[Freddie99]

I've been on levemir for the past four maybe five years now. What I've found is it's better as a split dose. At the moment I take 11 units in the morning and 26 in the evening. Though the downside is it takes quite a while to work out the right doses and I'm still tinkering with the doses. I tend to be a bit carb heavy on my breakfast so despite the levemir I still end up with blood sugars at around 16mmol/L + about four hours after breakfast.

 

[Munjeeta]

Hi. Yes, I changed to levemir recently from lantus. I'm the same as Tom, I split my dose to ensure it doesn't 'run out': 14 in the morning, 16 at night. And yes, I would agree that it does take a while to get the basal dosage right. I have, however seen an improvement in my blood sugars since changing (HbA1c down 1.2% in 3 months) and I do find that my sugars have been generally more stable. I did find, though, that my sensitivity to food seemed to go up... I'm not sure if this is normal. A small night time snack really affected my morning blood sugars and now I find I don't need one at all which I really like... Good luck with it anyhow. I was sceptical at first but it does seem to have made a difference!

 

[Einstein]

Many moons ago I was on Lantus and never got on with it, changed to Levemir and have got it about right now, but every so often just need to fine tune it a little.

It works best if take split dose as something tells me it has a maximum working life of 18 hours, unlike Lantus which is supposed to see the who 24 hours from one dose.

The other thing I was told when I started it, was that it was supposed to stop weight gain - well, I never gained any more, but lost not much either. Recently I've lost a stone, can't drink because of the pain killers I'm on, what is surprising is that I didn't drink that much or that often.

Hope all works out well for you.

 

[diagonall]

I've been on levemir for the past four maybe five years now. What I've found is it's better as a split dose. At the moment I take 11 units in the morning and 26 in the evening. Though the downside is it takes quite a while to work out the right doses and I'm still tinkering with the doses. I tend to be a bit carb heavy on my breakfast so despite the levemir I still end up with blood sugars at around 16mmol/L + about four hours after breakfast.

Tom,
The levemir is nothing but a basal. If you are sky high four hours after eating then your bolus is wrong. IE your insulin to carb ratio.
If your blood sugar is in range when you wake up then it's down to the amount of carbs you are eating and or the ratio being wrong.
Try cutting back on the carbs a bit and have some scrambled eggs or an omlette as an extra to fill you up. Or trying a different breakfast all together.
If you are not in range ie 6.5ish or less than it's your basal as well that's not right.

 

[squidge63]

I was changed to levemir from Insulatard last year, but am not sure if I am any better off yet... like others I am now on a split dose 66u in the morning and as of yesterday my DSN told me to increase my night time dose to 40, and this could change again next week... I cannot get my morning BS below 10 lately.. I had an epidural last week and so the steroid injected did upset my sugars, I had readings of 28.4 although what worried me was that I felt perfectly fine at that level!!!... My reading this morning was 8 but I am sure that is because I gave myself extra of novorapid before I went to bed.. the way I feel at the moment is that I should have a tanker outside my door with Levemir in, as I am sure I will be on a vial a day soon...

 

[rossi_mac]

I still new to it all but was started on Levemir, seems to work fine for me at the mo, my nurse did tinker with my dose over the phone every week, and as was said before I was told to only amend one at a time to get it right before moving to the next one. I inject all the levemir at night about 9:30 (was later but found it annoying if I wanted an early night!) And I'm waking at 6-7 so all good really. Sometimes I'm a bit high pre dinner, but I put that down to snacking biscuits in the afternoon, not the levemir running out, so am trying to cut down on that!

 

[allisonb]

Hi Guys. Thank you all so much for you responses and your comments and advice. Been on Levemir for almost a week now and things have improved considerably. I was having lots of night time hypos on Insulatard, probably caused by the it's peak, and then waking up very high with a banging head! Also noticed that Insulatard dragged my BS down during the morning even when I'd not eaten anything so didn't have any quick acting in my system which was resulting in more hypos!

Things so far seem much better, am still tinkering with doses slightly, splitting my dose, 6 units in a morning and 14 at night but so far so good. Also have lost 4 pounds in weight in the last week which I think is due to the reduction in biscuits to treat hypos......it's all good!!!!

 

[Northerner]

Great news Allison, glad to hear that things are working so well!🙂

 

[sofaraway]

Sounds great, seems like levemir suits you much better. and great about the weight loss!

 

[allisonb]

Umph! Just when I thought everything was going well it's all gone pear shaped again. Have woken with very high BS for the last few days, this morning up to 18.2 (went to bed at 7.4). Have been gradually increasing my night time dose of Levimir but doesn't seem to be having any effect yet. Am seeing my DSN this afternoon so will see what she thinks, it's hard work this diabetes!!!

 

[insulinaddict09]

Umph! Just when I thought everything was going well it's all gone pear shaped again. Have woken with very high BS for the last few days, this morning up to 18.2 (went to bed at 7.4). Have been gradually increasing my night time dose of Levimir but doesn't seem to be having any effect yet. Am seeing my DSN this afternoon so will see what she thinks, it's hard work this diabetes!!!

Hi allison , you may need to reduce your levemir at night , if you are going to

bed at 7.4 and are high in the morning it does sugget you may be going too

low during the night [hypo] and your liver is kicking in with an overload of

glucose , im the same today , i went to bed at 2am and was 9 , but at 7am i

was 23.4 😱 hypo during the night i think , i usually wake up but didnt

so its The Dawn Phenomenon again lol . I would mention it to you DSN when

you see her though. good luck 🙂

 

[sofaraway]

Allison have you tested at 2-3am at all? that will help you rule out that the high morning blood sugars are caused by rebound highs from going low during the night. Possibly not the reason as you said that you did have this happen on insultard.

Do you take it once or twice a day and at what time?

Hope you DSN will be able to help you today

 

[allisonb]

Well... DSN gave lots of good advice but I still feel like I'm in the same boat. Went to bed at 8.3 last night, did a test at 3am and it was 11.1 and then this morning when I got up it was 11.3. Does this mean I had a hypo before 3am or that I didn't have enough Levemir in my system to keep me stable til lunch time? Have to say didn't feel like I'd had a hypo when I woke up, usually leaves me feeling rubbish. Am wondering if I should set my alarm so that I wake a few times in the night to test and see what's happening, not ideal but seems like the only way!

 

[sofaraway]

I wouldn't wake up too many times because I think that would mess things up. maybe test at different times on different nights.