not sure what to do- forgotten if i have taken my levemir

[hbpeanut]

Hi,

sorry if this isn't allowed on the message board,

I frequently forget if I have or haven't taken my levemir.

Tonight was one of those nights. Luckily the dosage is split into morning and night.

I don't know what I should do, if I should take it now or not?

 

[Robin]

Hi,

sorry if this isn't allowed on the message board,

I frequently forget if I have or haven't taken my levemir.

Tonight was one of those nights. Luckily the dosage is split into morning and night.

I don't know what I should do, if I should take it now or not?

Don’t take it if you might have already taken it, because there’s a danger of having a hypo if you’ve got double the usual dose on board. Keep an eye on your levels, and if your levels rise, if you know how to do a correction dose with short acting, then try that.
For the future, I use a Novopen Echo to inject my levemir, it records when you inject, so you can check if you’ve done the dose or not, It’s saved me several times from that awful 'Did I didn’t I?' moment. So ask your diabetes team if you could have one of those.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

If you can’t get hold of an Echo there are commercial products (Timesulin was one in the old days) which are a replacement cap for your insulin pen and which automatically records the length of time since your last dose.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

For the future, I use a Novopen Echo to inject my levemir, it records when you inject, so you can check if you’ve done the dose or not, It’s saved me several times from that awful 'Did I didn’t I?' moment. So ask your diabetes team if you could have one of those.

I have an insulcheck (same idea, but it fits on a normal pen). (Catch is that it seems to run through the batteries a bit.)

But yes, you don't want to risk injecting twice the amount, especially at night. Levemir lasts for a bit more than 12 hours, so with any luck if you have forgotten, you won't be too high tomorrow morning.

You could consider trying to create some kind of a routine. I do that with Novorapid at lunchtime: I take out the Novorapid a while before lunch and put it on my desk, and once I've injected I put it back in my bag.

 

[Kaylz]

I use a Novopen Echo for bolus so don't have this problem but its just become natural to inject my basal before bed, the Novopen 5 does the same (recording dose and when it was last taken) it just doesn't do half unit doses like the Echo is capable of

The Diabetes UK shop has pen caps available here - https://shop.diabetes.org.uk/collections/pen-clips-caps-1
xx

 

[Bonnie23]

Hi

I have no advice on the meds themselves but could you put a tick list on your phone or a whiteboard in your house for each day of the week?

I'm terrible for remembering my medication so I have a little pill box with the days of the week on, I'm not sure if they offer an injection version you could purchase? I just got mine off amazon.

 

[missclb]

I can still remember the words of my very first diabetic nurse (incidently I was her very first diabetic patient, although she didn't tell me that on day one) – she said "if in doubt, leave it out". Not having enough is not really a deal breaker on the odd occasion, but too much could mean trouble overnight.

Next time you are sat trying to figure out if you did or didn't, you'll hear those words too! And I must insist you hear them in a Scottish accent, just for fun! Lol.