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wrong insulin!

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B

bev

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi all!
Last night i gav alex his novorapid instead of his levermere by accident! I cant believe i did it. Anway, we gave him 7 jelly babies and 500ml of milk and 1 biscuit. I was expecting a hypo during the night so set my alarm for 2 and checked his level - it was 12! Then at 7 this morning it was 13! Can anyone explain to me how this could be? I thought his levels would plummit? The carbs from the sweets and milk came to about 50g which wouldnt have come close to the 8 mls of insulin i gave him (he couldnt stomach anymore sweets or milk) I am really confused now! (his level just before all this was 17 as he had only eaten about one hour and twenty minutes previously)
On a different topic, he got very upset with me over the weekend for 'fussing' over him when he went out to play in the snow and i wanted to check him after an hour - he was 10 minutes late so of course i was petrified something had happened to him. I completely understand he is frustrated with all the changes diabetes has brought - but i dont know how to appear 'relaxed' about it all - and i know i worry too much when he is late - does anyone have any advice on how to maintain a balance betwen being sensible and smothering him?Bev
 
The long acting insulin is designed to keep blood sugars on an even keel throughout the day so without it levels are likely to rise. The other thing that occurred to me is that the food seems a lot. I have been told only to have 15-20g then wait 15 minutes before eating anything else. I usually only have 3 or 4 jelly babies. But we are all different of course.
 
Lizzie said:
The long acting insulin is designed to keep blood sugars on an even keel throughout the day so without it levels are likely to rise. The other thing that occurred to me is that the food seems a lot. I have been told only to have 15-20g then wait 15 minutes before eating anything else. I usually only have 3 or 4 jelly babies. But we are all different of course.
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Hi lizzie, agree with what you say about the long acting - giving novorapid instead of levemir, the novorapid would have stopped working after about 4 hours, meanwhile the liver is putting out a steady supply of glucose that the levemir would normally handle. Also, bearing in mind that there was no levemir in addition to the novorapid, you probably wouldn't need quite as much carbs to cover the novorapid - I have this in the evening when my lantus is running out, I don't need as much novorapid to cover my evening meal.

However, I think bev was right to give what she hoped would be enough to cover the novorapid - as though he'd had a normal meal. 15-20gm would be ok if she was treating a hypo, but she wasn't in this case, she was hoping to avoid one.
 
Hi Bev, you are not the 1st to do this or the last. You acted correctly. IE no panic just treated the overdose, well done.

Did Alex have his Levemir as well?
If he didn't then that would account for the high morning reading.

Regarding Worrying about Alex and over fussing as he calls it.
You will always worry that's what Mum's do 🙂
Alex is with friends so any problems and someone will come and get you. Even though it's very hard not to worry and demand he comes in after an hour just makes him stand out as different from everyone else.
Just make sure he has some glucose tabs in his pocket for any hypo and let him get on with life. He doesn't have to test if he is hypo he knows he is so can fix it himself. Just make a pact with him...... He must say where he is going to play so you know where he is.
 
bev said:
Hi all!
Last night i gav alex his novorapid instead of his levermere by accident! I cant believe i did it. Anway, we gave him 7 jelly babies and 500ml of milk and 1 biscuit. I was expecting a hypo during the night so set my alarm for 2 and checked his level - it was 12! Then at 7 this morning it was 13! Can anyone explain to me how this could be? I thought his levels would plummit? The carbs from the sweets and milk came to about 50g which wouldnt have come close to the 8 mls of insulin i gave him (he couldnt stomach anymore sweets or milk) I am really confused now! (his level just before all this was 17 as he had only eaten about one hour and twenty minutes previously)
On a different topic, he got very upset with me over the weekend for 'fussing' over him when he went out to play in the snow and i wanted to check him after an hour - he was 10 minutes late so of course i was petrified something had happened to him. I completely understand he is frustrated with all the changes diabetes has brought - but i dont know how to appear 'relaxed' about it all - and i know i worry too much when he is late - does anyone have any advice on how to maintain a balance betwen being sensible and smothering him?Bev
Click to expand...

As he had no levimir he would have needed fewer carbs to cope with the novorapid than normal as there would have also been the background glucose present which the levimir would usually deal with, and then once the novorapid had run out there would still be that glucose but no background insulin which is why it is likely to have stayed high. Think you absolutely did the right thing though and managed to avoid the hypo which is fantastic, and there have been plenty of posts on this board from people who have, or have come close, to doing exactly the same thing of mixing up insulins. I've never done it but did once have the novorapid (instead of lantus )needle in (and set to 24 units) and was just about to press the button before i realised what I'd done!
Not being a parent I don't know if i can be much help on your other question, other than to say I don't think it's necessarily just an experience for children. When I was diagnosed one of the overriding feelings was feeling a lack of control over everything, and for kids I'd imagine that'd be even worse and feeling different from everyone else just at the time when fitting in is so important. I guess the trick is to give him some freedom while also having reassurance. Can he do his own bloods, maybe he could take his meter with him when he goes to play and have a watch alarm or something to tell him when to test with a deal that he comes in if it's under a certain number, to give him a little independance but also a responsibilty to reassure you...?
 
Hi Bev

It could also be the milk having an affect. Did you give full fat milk?

We have had to experiment over the last year about stopping all hypos at night, which as you can imagine is a nightmare really. We have tried cornstarch which taste foul and all it did was rise the levels to the 20's and keep them there all night regardless of how many bolus' I gave. We then changed to porridge which had the same effect as the cornstarch.

We then went on holiday and the fat from the evening meals and eating later kept my daughter's up all night.

When we got home I tried to replicate that and so gave her 100ml of full fat milk at 11 pm. It worked in as much as it raised her levels a bit and kept them there. There was basal insulin in the background as well as my daughter is on a pump but the fat did the trick.

Adrienne
 
Hi all!
Thanks so much for all your replies - it all makes sense. But i forgot to put on the post that i spoke with the ward and they advised me to give him 6 units of levemeer rather than his normal 8 - so he did in fact have the night time one - which puzzles me even more about why he didnt have a hypo with all that spare novorapid and not enough food for it? Am i being thick? Also school rang me at lunch time to tell me his level was 17.1!?

the other point about the liver dumping a load of glucose if you sleep through a hypo - is this what causes the liver damage later in life? Bev
 
bev said:
...the other point about the liver dumping a load of glucose if you sleep through a hypo - is this what causes the liver damage later in life? Bev
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I'm not aware that this causes any damage - the liver does this naturally in non-diabetics, the only difference would be that the stress hormones released in response to a hypo might result in more glucose being released from the liver than otherwise. Again, though, that happens in non-diabetics when they get scared or excited - it's all part of the 'fight or flight' response. The difference with diabetics is that the pancreas doesn't respond with appropriate levels of insulin to keep the blood glucose levels within range.
 
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