Levimir and holidays

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

Can I ask has anyone tried keeping their watch on British time and injecting levimir at their normal uk times and not changing time zone? (Usually inject at 6am and 10.30/11.00pm) I’m thinking of trying this next time I go away as just two hour time difference makes a big impact on my bs? Mostly because I had a bizarre experience a couple of weeks ago, injected levimi at lunch by mistake, was at work and crazy busy snd just picked up wrong pen, had much better night time bs numbers that ever before, so have been experimenting and injecting about 9pm rather than before bed and the change is miraculous so I don’t want to go back to night time highs??

 

[Inka]

9pm is a perfectly reasonable time to inject your Levemir @Aybrice (Blueduck) Just inject at the morning and evening times that work for you. When going away, it depends how long you’re going for, and what the time zone difference is. If your body gets used to the new time zone, keeping your watch on U.K. time re your Levemir wouldn’t work anyway as your body clock would have changed and that affects your hormones, etc.

 

[rebrascora]

I vary the time I take my Levemir according to what my body needs and what is convenient to me.

For instance, I inject my morning dose as soon as I wake up. If I wake up at 5am like this morning I take it at 5am. If I wake up at 9am I take it then. My morning dose is partly to cover "Foot on the Floor" so injecting it before I get out of bed is the important bit and if I took it 4 hours before I got up it could quite possibly cause me to hypo. My evening dose is generally when I go to bed which might be anywhere from 9pm to 1am, if I need any Levemir at all.... my night time doses are small and impacted by activity during the day so if I have been active or been for a decent walk/run I may need none. The only exception to this is about 6 weeks around the winter solstice when I seem to need to bring the evening dose forward to about 7pm.

2 hours time difference is pretty minimal so in your situation I would continue to take it when I woke up and whenever I took it in the evening.
I will be travelling to Tenerife next month which I believe is an hour different and certainly don't plan to make any changes to my Levemir routine. The heat and perhaps extra activity will have more impact on my levels than changing my Levemir by an hour or two.

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

Thanks very much
We are also going to Tenerife in 3 weeks, just checked and no time difference at the moment, so should be no problems

Really interesting to hear how you manage, my dose is low and Ive never considered not injecting . 6 units morning 4.5 evening for me, but last night I fell asleep on the sofa so was back injecting at 10.30 woke up at 12, that’s the difference it makes

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

9pm is a perfectly reasonable time to inject your Levemir @Aybrice (Blueduck) Just inject at the morning and evening times that work for you. When going away, it depends how long you’re going for, and what the time zone difference is. If your body gets used to the new time zone, keeping your watch on U.K. time re your Levemir wouldn’t work anyway as your body clock would have changed and that affects your hormones, etc.

Thank you so much for reply, many things to juggle, two hours makes a big impact for me and I’m usually high whilst on holiday even injecting more, luckily just looked up and no time difference this time

 

[rebrascora]

Really interesting to hear how you manage, my dose is low and Ive never considered not injecting . 6 units morning 4.5 evening for me, but last night I fell asleep on the sofa so was back injecting at 10.30 woke up at 12, that’s the difference it makes

My morning dose is quite large at 20-22 units, but my evening dose is anywhere from 0-5 units. The more exercise I have done during the day, the more I have to reduce the evening dose. Generally I reduce it by 1.5-2 units for 2 nights if I have been more active than usual, and it goes back up if I have been more sedentary. If I am very active 2 days in a row, I reduce it the second night as well etc. until I am down to zero.

Did you wake up hypo at 12 and did you double check it with a finger prick?

If you fell asleep on the sofa, was that perhaps because you had been more active than usual or the heat had made your normal activity more draining. If so, then that may be why you hypoed at 12 rather than when you took the Levemir.

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

My morning dose is quite large at 20-22 units, but my evening dose is anywhere from 0-5 units. The more exercise I have done during the day, the more I have to reduce the evening dose. Generally I reduce it by 1.5-2 units for 2 nights if I have been more active than usual, and it goes back up if I have been more sedentary. If I am very active 2 days in a row, I reduce it the second night as well etc. until I am down to zero.

Did you wake up hypo at 12 and did you double check it with a finger prick?

If you fell asleep on the sofa, was that perhaps because you had been more active than usual or the heat had made your normal activity more draining. If so, then that may be why you hypoed at 12 rather than when you took the Levemir.

I woke to a scan of 12, at 6.00am, but I’ve been finding since I started injecting at 9.00 I wake with numbers between 6 and 7 and I’m very happy with that

Previously I could not understand why I went up
In the night and now realise my levimir was running out

I did not finger prick, I only usually do that in the first couple of days with a new sensor so I can check its about right, unless it tells me hypo and then I always check.

Its like living an experiment, I know this won’t last as usually I have good numbers for a few weeks or months then something changes and I’m back to experimenting thank goodness I seem to be over menopause as that was a nightmare

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Its like living an experiment, I know this won’t last as usually I have good numbers for a few weeks or months then something changes and I’m back to experimenting

Yep! That’s the familiar game we all play isn’t it.

Get things tweaked and ‘sorted’, enjoy it for a few days or weeks, then off the goalposts go, galloping over the horizon with us grumbling in experimental pursuit.

If only the doses stayed put, and worked every time it’d hardly be like having diabetes at all!

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

if only !!

 

[trophywench]

I had to do exactly that with my evening dose of Levemir - we went to bed at about 11pm so I gradually needed to move it nearer to the end of our evening meal, in the finish roughly 9.30 pm.

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

I had to do exactly that with my evening dose of Levemir - we went to bed at about 11pm so I gradually needed to move it nearer to the end of our evening meal, in the finish roughly 9.30 pm.

Thanks Jenny, and did this work for a long period or did you end up changing it again?

In the weeks I’ve been doing this I cant believe what a difference it’s made and I feel rather stupid that it didn’t occur to me before

 

[rebrascora]

I think it depends on your dose as to how long Levemir lasts. The smaller the dose, the shorter action time it has and obviously the tail end of that dose is going to be very minimal too. My 20 units lasts until bedtime most of the year but I can see how 5 or 6 units would easily be running out in the evening.

There is a 3D graph which shows the activity profile of Levemir which can be quite helpful in understanding this....

Thread 'Levemir Activity Graph'

Dec 17, 2021

Grateful thanks to the former Diabetes Support Forum for sharing this graph.

• everydayupsanddowns
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Links

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

I think it depends on your dose as to how long Levemir lasts. The smaller the dose, the shorter action time it has and obviously the tail end of that dose is going to be very minimal too. My 20 units lasts until bedtime most of the year but I can see how 5 or 6 units would easily be running out in the evening.

There is a 3D graph which shows the activity profile of Levemir which can be quite helpful in understanding this....

Thread 'Levemir Activity Graph'

Dec 17, 2021

Grateful thanks to the former Diabetes Support Forum for sharing this graph.

• everydayupsanddowns
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Links

Thank you, that’s logical, don’t understand the graph though

 

[benj84]

I'm on 0 units levmir .. all my averages dropped significantly, hba1c down to 58 from 67.. I struggle with dawn phenomenon anyway even with levimir split on 2 does 12hrs apart.. I use my insulin like a pump, if not eating carbs in day normally 2 units every 3-4 hours will keep me in range... T1 since 2012.. the only other time I experimented with no background was on the carnivore diet.. well very low carb to treat hypos..but with 3 months hba1c dropped to 52 but I couldn't afford the diet.. 3 months no levimir now and my time in range is much better.. yeah might not be good for everyone obviously diets, metabolism etc but for me my control I'd much tighter on just novorapid

 

[Aybrice (Blueduck)]

I'm on 0 units levmir .. all my averages dropped significantly, hba1c down to 58 from 67.. I struggle with dawn phenomenon anyway even with levimir split on 2 does 12hrs apart.. I use my insulin like a pump, if not eating carbs in day normally 2 units every 3-4 hours will keep me in range... T1 since 2012.. the only other time I experimented with no background was on the carnivore diet.. well very low carb to treat hypos..but with 3 months hba1c dropped to 52 but I couldn't afford the diet.. 3 months no levimir now and my time in range is much better.. yeah might not be good for everyone obviously diets, metabolism etc but for me my control I'd much tighter on just novorapid

I'm on 0 units levmir .. all my averages dropped significantly, hba1c down to 58 from 67.. I struggle with dawn phenomenon anyway even with levimir split on 2 does 12hrs apart.. I use my insulin like a pump, if not eating carbs in day normally 2 units every 3-4 hours will keep me in range... T1 since 2012.. the only other time I experimented with no background was on the carnivore diet.. well very low carb to treat hypos..but with 3 months hba1c dropped to 52 but I couldn't afford the diet.. 3 months no levimir now and my time in range is much better.. yeah might not be good for everyone obviously diets, metabolism etc but for me my control I'd much tighter on just novorapid

I'm on 0 units levmir .. all my averages dropped significantly, hba1c down to 58 from 67.. I struggle with dawn phenomenon anyway even with levimir split on 2 does 12hrs apart.. I use my insulin like a pump, if not eating carbs in day normally 2 units every 3-4 hours will keep me in range... T1 since 2012.. the only other time I experimented with no background was on the carnivore diet.. well very low carb to treat hypos..but with 3 months hba1c dropped to 52 but I couldn't afford the diet.. 3 months no levimir now and my time in range is much better.. yeah might not be good for everyone obviously diets, metabolism etc but for me my control I'd much tighter on just novorapid

Blimey that’s quite radical, how do you cope through the night? I suppose we all spend our time experimenting and have to go with what works for us individually, that’s a lot of injecting.

 

[SB2015]

I'm on 0 units levmir .. all my averages dropped significantly, hba1c down to 58 from 67.. I struggle with dawn phenomenon anyway even with levimir split on 2 does 12hrs apart.. I use my insulin like a pump, if not eating carbs in day normally 2 units every 3-4 hours will keep me in range... T1 since 2012.. the only other time I experimented with no background was on the carnivore diet.. well very low carb to treat hypos..but with 3 months hba1c dropped to 52 but I couldn't afford the diet.. 3 months no levimir now and my time in range is much better.. yeah might not be good for everyone obviously diets, metabolism etc but for me my control I'd much tighter on just novorapid

Is there any reason why you are not on a pump?
Sorry if you have already told us

 

[benj84]

I was only given libre 2 in 2022.. was supposed to be on a pump actually this week but I needed to move address and I need to go through referral and funding again.. screw that nhs are crippled.. injection average is about the same it all depends on carbs and eating times.. I'll try not to eat carbs at least 5 hours before bed and will suffer for it if I do.. even on background my night peaks were out of control.. daily over 20 on waking with massive over correction and more hypos.. without background is much easier to control..