NOVORAPID take now?

[Markmids]

Hi Guys
I came out of hospital yesterday after suffering from Covid. While I was in there I was taking my daily Semeglee and taking 6 units of Novarapid just before food... I was also on steroids so the Novarapid was also for that, however I have just checked my bloods and they are 26.5 and this is worrying me! Can I just take Novarapid to correct this, the last time I took it was about 6 hours ago with food. I'm completely confused what to do... Thank you

 

[Lilian]

Yes. 1 or 2 units of insulin will reduce number by 2-3 mmols. I would have a very small snack with the correct insulin for it, plus the rectifying dose. I always find the snack helps the insulin to work faster somehow. When I have rectified without a small snack it takes much longer to come down. Don't forget to check in the night to make sure it has not gone down too far.

 

[Markmids]

Thank you so much, I'll try that now. I'm stuck untill Monday.
New to all this.
Thank you

 

[Lilian]

Don't worry. You will be OK. Just make sure you check during the night. Glad you are getting over this virus though.

 

[rebrascora]

Firstly, wash your hands and do another finger prick test just to be sure that it really is that high?

Have you only ever been told to take the NovoRapid with food. Many of us use it to correct high readings when we are not eating, but usually this has been sanctioned by our team as a result of us gaining knowledge and experience.
The general advice is that 1 unit of insulin will probably drop your levels by 3mmols. You should always be conservative when using corrective doses and use less rather than more and bring things down slowly and carefully rather than give yourself a big correction dose in one go and find it was too much but don't overlap the corrections. Make sure they are at least 5 hours apart.

@Lilian's suggestion of taking the NR with a small snack is a good one, but do double check your reading before you give yourself any extra insulin as it is easy to have a minute amount of something sweet on your fingers which can compromise the reading. I had eaten an apple the other day and a tiny bit of juice must have run onto my fingers and that gave me a reading in double figures half an hour later, so always best to wash hands and check again before giving a correction dose.
The other thing you can do is drink plenty of water to help flush the excess glucose out through your kidney's.
Set an alarm to wake up through the night and check your levels if you do use a correction dose and let us know how you get on.
Alternatively, if you are not confident of using the insulin like this, you should ring 111 and seek professional advice.

 

[Paulbreen]

Be aware the steroids may also push up your BG readings, a while back I had Cortisone and had to quit them after 2 days because I couldn’t get my BG under control

 

[Markmids]

Yeah thank you for the advice, I came off the steriods 2 days ago....

 

[Markmids]

Firstly, wash your hands and do another finger prick test just to be sure that it really is that high?

Have you only ever been told to take the NovoRapid with food. Many of us use it to correct high readings when we are not eating, but usually this has been sanctioned by our team as a result of us gaining knowledge and experience.
The general advice is that 1 unit of insulin will probably drop your levels by 3mmols. You should always be conservative when using corrective doses and use less rather than more and bring things down slowly and carefully rather than give yourself a big correction dose in one go and find it was too much but don't overlap the corrections. Make sure they are at least 5 hours apart.

@Lilian's suggestion of taking the NR with a small snack is a good one, but do double check your reading before you give yourself any extra insulin as it is easy to have a minute amount of something sweet on your fingers which can compromise the reading. I had eaten an apple the other day and a tiny bit of juice must have run onto my fingers and that gave me a reading in double figures half an hour later, so always best to wash hands and check again before giving a correction dose.
The other thing you can do is drink plenty of water to help flush the excess glucose out through your kidney's.
Set an alarm to wake up through the night and check your levels if you do use a correction dose and let us know how you get on.
Alternatively, if you are not confident of using the insulin like this, you should ring 111 and seek professional advice.

Thank you, I've taken 2 units and they have already started to come down.
Thanks

 

[Kaylz]

You aren't stuck, 111 are always at the end of a phone to help in such incidents as we aren't actually supposed to give out dosing advice via the forum as it's different for everyone so if in any doubt please do ring 111 and talk to someone there xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yes. 1 or 2 units of insulin will reduce number by 2-3 mmols.

As @Kaylz says, we aren’t really able to give dosing advice on the forum - we can only share our own experiences.

It can be quite dangerous to offer precise dosing advice because we just don’t know how sensitive to insulin other members might be. And while it might be fairly standard ‘starting advice’ for T1s to be given 1u = 3mmol/L, that coild easily be half that.. or double that! And where the current BG is in the 20s, small mistakes in those ratios can get you in trouble pretty quickly!

Glad a conservative correction helped you @Markmids

Hope you can get a phone call with your GP or clinic to get some dose advice from the HCPs who know your case and situation.