Took long acting insulin instead of short acting one

[Slatesugar]

Hi, newbie here. Just newly diagnosed. I accidentally injected myself with 6 units of Lantus before dinner instead of 6 units of Aprida. What should I do?

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Stay relaxed, you aren't the first to do that and neither was I. It's a nuisance but not necessarily downright dangerous.

I'm not particularly familiar with the performance properties or profile of Lantus (nor Apidra). But Lantus (often also known under the generic name of Glargine) is nominally expected to build up in performance slowly and last for about 24 hrs. A general graph of Glargine's profile is here:

lantus insulin profile - Google Search

So you will definitely need some or all of your Aprida to cover your imminent dinner, then be aware you will gradually accumulate continuing active insulin from the extra Lantus that is in your system. Since this is your first post - do you have a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) such as Libre 2 or are you solely dependent on finger pricking?

 

[Merluza]

Just keep an eye on things. You will certainly need to take your usual dose of Aprida. I expect you have some form of blood glucose monitoring. Check things after a few hours. These things all work differently for each of us but I used to take Lantus and 6 units doesn't sound like a lot to me, I took 12 units twice a day as a guide to where I'm coming from. Adjust your regular dose of Lantus when it's due if it's reasonably close, if it's 12 hours or more away then I would only make a small adjustment.

We've all done this, it's worse if you take the fast acting instead of the background stuff but even then a finger prick, or a CGM, will be your guide.

 

[SB2015]

6 units doesn't sound like a lot to me,

it is difficult for us to comment on whether a dose is a lot or a little as this will always depend on the individual, so it is good that you showed your normal dose for a context. Everyone’s doses will be different.

@Slatesugar as others have said you are definitely not the first to do this. Effectively it is your basal that you have taken extra off, assuming that you have still taken your quick acting (Apidra) to cover your meal. When is your next dose of Lantus. Do you take it in the morning? You might want to set an alarm during the night to do a check on your levels.

Looking ahead do you have different coloured pen for your basal and bolus?
Do you have half unit pens. Not relevant to your current situation but if you are getting different pens the half unit ones are so useful. It enables you to make smaller adjustments to your doses, which are often lower at the start. Worth asking about.

Do come back with other questions. There is loads of experience to tap into on here.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

@Slatesugar, I was asking whether you had CGM or just finger prick and meter to then offer suggestions about how to proceed for the next 18+ hours. I noted that you are newly diagnosed and from that I presumed (guessed) that the whole business of Diabetes management is new to you; yet as someone new to Diabetes it is fairly unusual for an individual to be both diagnosed as T2 and immediately started on insulin, even more unusual to start with both basal (slow acting) and bolus (fast acting) insulins. This is known as Multiple Daily Injections (MDI).

If you consider 6 units of slow (Glargine/Lantus) roughly following the profile on the graph at post #2, you can perhaps imagine a relatively small amount of insulin getting into your blood cells as active slow release insulin each hour. Sufficiently small that for most people this extra insulin could be managed by your body quite easily. However you posted at 4.30 pm and the first 3 hours could be insignificant; thereafter that extra basal will be building up into and through the night - a period when you are generally least active (good, not using up excess glucose from exercise) but normally sleeping and thus less alert to feeling any hypoglycaemic symptoms.

In your circumstances I would consider checking my BG before going to bed and if my BG was at 7 or lower I would eat a piece of toast and have a milky drink to give myself some carbs for that additional Lantus to work on during the night. I might also (as already suggested) set an alarm clock for somewhere in the small hours and do a further check on my BG, ready to eat a couple of cookies if appropriate.

I'm not in any way medically qualified, so can only try and think what I would do. However I'm surprised that a newly diagnosed T2 is started on MDI and can't help wondering if you have some other medical condition that has influenced the medical decision to start you on MDI. So I'm trying to be ultra cautious in offering my thoughts on what I might do in this circumstance, knowing absolutely nothing about you and your introduction to Diabetes.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

How did things work out @Slatesugar ?

Did you have any pesky low BGs overnight?