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Novorapid

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LittleSunflower

LittleSunflower

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Another question for all of you if you can help!
I was supposed to be on 0.5 units for every 15g of carbs but the other week I took 2.5 units of Novorapid for an 80g carb meal, blood being 7.2mmols before eating. The libre alerted me around one hour later that I was having a hypo and continued to drop to a 2.9 (for the first time ever). My blood read 4 and it wiped me out for the rest of the evening once I had got my levels back up with orange juice, jelly babies and a digestive biscuit.

I’ve gone back to having 0.5 units for every 20g of carbs now which seems much better for the 80g carb meal. I sometimes wait around 7-10 minutes before eating, otherwise I am injecting and eating straight away to avoid dropping whilst eating (which is what I was struggling with a few weeks back).
I am wondering why I am rising around three hours after injecting/eating now though. Have any of you experienced this?

For example; at 2pm I took 2 units of Novorapid for 80g of carbs. My blood sugar was 6.0mmols. At 5pm, I had risen to a 12.4mmol without having eaten anything and even having been on a walk!
I am a bit reluctant to take 2.5 units after that hypo I had the other week but I’ve upped my carbs as I still need to gain weight.

I am still on 3 units of Levemir in the morning but have also woken up in the middle of the night a few times to the libre low alarm - blood being around 4.9mmols too. I was advised never to go to sleep with a reading under 7mmols.
I usually have a biscuit, wait for my levels to rise and go back to sleep.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks
Hope you are all keeping safe and well.
Little Sunflower
 
It’s good your upping your carbs @LittleSunflower That will make you feel better longterm 🙂 From what you’ve said, I’d look at possibly having different ratios for the different meals eg you might need 1:15g for breakfast, 1:20 for lunch and evening meal or whatever. That would be normal.

On the occasions where you’re going high 3hrs or so after eating, are you eating anything particularly low GI or/and high fat? Those foods can cause a delayed rise. Another thought - if I eat a late lunch my blood sugar will often go stubbornly high even if I just eat the same lunch as normal. For that reason I try to eat lunch before 1pm, ideally just after 12.30pm when I can.

Final thought - perhaps it’s your basal if you’re frequently rising some hours after meals? Perhaps you need a tiny bit more? The smaller doses of Levemir don’t last as long as bigger doses too, so if this is happening at a certain time of day (pre-evening meal) then perhaps the Levemir is tailing off then?
 
@Inka thank you. I’ve upped my Levemir to 4 units in the morning since yesterday which seems to have helped with the spike in the evening/before bed.
Another question, I am still only injecting in my stomach as I mentioned that I was told the nurses weren’t sure on how much muscle mass there is in my thighs and said they don’t advise to inject in arms anymore but the circular area around my belly button (from 2inches away) has become slightly firm, certainly a lot harder than I’ve noticed it was before? I don’t know if this is injection/insulin related but if I try to inject in that area, the needle struggles to pierce the skin and I have to almost force it in. I’ve been injecting outwards towards my hip area as the skin is much softer. Any idea what this is or have you heard of this before?
 
@LittleSunflower Sometimes you can get a kind of hardening or thickening of the skin. I get that sometimes and it’s a sign to let that area ‘rest’ and move on to another area. Unless you have freakishly abnormal thighs - and I’m sure you don’t - there’s no reason why you can’t inject in them. The injection goes into the subcutaneous layer not the muscle. I ‘pinch up’ before injecting in my thigh to make sure I don’t hit a muscle. I also use my arms for boluses sometimes.

I criticised the treatment you’d received earlier in your original thread and I stand by that criticism. I see no reason whatsoever why you can’t inject in your thighs. But don’t take my word for it - Google and see that that’s recommended on all the injection site diagrams and by numerous HCPs.

You really need to rotate your injection sites to avoid skin problems and this includes using different body areas. X
 
Sorry to hear about your nasty hypo @LittleSunflower

Hope it hasn’t shaken you up too much. Well done for making tweaks and changes to try to prevent the same thing happening again.

For what it’s worth, that seems to be pretty much my experience of the ongoing fun and frolicks of pancreas impersonation… identify a bit of BG chaos, experiment a bit, find a fix… notice it‘s no longer working… tweak again… fixed again… tweak… fix… tweak… fix… hang on, what on earth is going on now??!?!? develop new strategy… and repeat!

All part of the rich tapestry of life with T1 🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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