No basal tonight?

[gillrogers]

So like the last heatwave , I found myself down to one unit of levemir at night. I’ve got a bar to run tonight which means me on my feet for 5 to 6 hours so I usually drop a unit of basal or I’ll hit the alarm at around 3am going low. So if I do that tonight it means I won’t have any insulin for the night. Will that be ok as it’s basal?

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Hi @gillrogers - if it's not too late to reply to this, my personal instinct would be to cut out the basal tonight, as you're down to 1 unit already. In normal circumstances I'd just say reduce it, but these are not normal circumstances!

There are a few people with pumps who set them to stop supplying them with insulin for part of the night, and @Northerner has found he doesn't need basal at all, so you wouldn't be the only person ever to do this.

The only thing is, I'd be careful to do plenty of bgl tests tomorrow as you may run a bit high for part of the day and need a bit more bolus. But as your basal is split-dose Levemir, you'll probably be fine.

 

[rebrascora]

I sometimes need to whittle my evening Levemir down to 0, particularly if I have done consecutive days of exercise for a few days, even in the winter, so yes this is a sensible strategy if you are only on one unit and need to reduce it further.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Mornng @gillrogers

How did things go overnight? And what did you decide to do in the end?

On the one hand 1u of basal insulin spread over 12-16 hours really isn’t going to be having all that much effect, so I guess it would be fine to drop it - but I completely understand how nervous it would make you feel to go without the insulin you need to stay alive.

I guess to me it suggests that you might still have a few functioning beta cells which are able to provide some of your basal insulin needs, and that the levemir is just ‘topping up’ where needed?

 

[gillrogers]

Hi @everydayupsanddowns , I actually had my 1 unit as I had forgotten at the time that the last few evenings I had been whizzing round doing other stuff. It worked fine. Just had my supper of 50g of Greek yogurt and seed mix and I was fine.