Hi I wonder if anyone has any suggestions. I take the following insulin everyday: 22 units morning and night - Levemir Novorapid with meals Just the past few days it seems that the Novorapid is having no effect at all. My blood levels have been over 200 and normally they dont go over 150ish. I have tried to change the location I am administring the shot. I started to use a new pens as well in case the other was spoiled. Then last night around 2am I had a massive low… as thought he insulin somehow had a major effect much later than administered?! Any wise and well weathered diabetics out there with some advice? Thanks in advance Shea
Did you mean to say that you take a basal dose of 22 U of Levemir in the morning and in the evening? And that you use Novorapid as a bolus insulin with your meals? How do you determine the dose of Novorapid?
Changing the location & switching to a new vial are pretty much the first goto answers that pop into my mind, but you said you have already done that.
It is hard to speculate more without additional details such as whether anything, especially anything about your diet or activity level/exercise, has changed over the last few days when you were either too high or too low.
What feedback did you get about this from your physician and/or his/her staff when you asked about this?
Completely unrelated to your question and just out of curiosity what part of the world are located in? My understanding is that the marketing name Novorapid is used outside the US (e.g. Australia, UK & Canada). In the US for who knows what reason it is called Novolog. ![]()
These kinds of questions are always hard to answer because there are so many variables involved. One question: when you say–
–I wasn’t sure if you mean you have always routinely rotated your injection location or you were just trying it in response to this situation. Probably you already know this but if you have been using the same spot you can develop scarring that interferes with insulin absorption.
It is possible for insulin in a pen to lose potency over time, so switching that out seems like a good idea. I certainly experienced that a few times when I was on MDI, particularly if your pen was accidentally left out somewhere where it was exposed to heat. Left one of mine in the car in summer one time, and discovered that, yes, heat really does degrade the insulin. Another factor is that even the “rapid” insulins take some time to reach their peak effect, in the neighborhood of a couple of hours, so if you were inadvertently “insulin-stacking” in trying to knock down a persistent high, the cumulative effect might have taken a while to appear because you had the high BG to work down first. Then the insulin was still cranking away after getting it down to normal and away you went.
My evil OCD self is forcing me to point out that the inside of a car in summer is more what I would think of as extreme heat, not just “heat”. ![]()
You get no argument from me on that one. Direct sunlight can also do it. We live in a loft with windows all the way around, and I’ve learned not to leave any insulin out on the counters because they can get really quite hot, even in the winter if it’s sunny.
Incidentally, one thing I learned when I switched to a snap pump is that the reason insulin can last so much longer than in pen injectors than in pump reservoirs is that the reservoirs are plastic whereas the cartridges in pens are glass. Something about the plastic causes the preservative to degrade more rapidly. The Snap cartridges are—er, WERE—the same ones used in injector pens, so that was why you could go for seven days or so without change 'em out.
Hi John Thanks so much for getting back to me, I really appreciate it. I am based in Israel, truth be told I don’t know much about insulin, this is what my doctor recommended and up until now it’s been doing pretty well!!
Yes that is correct. The calcuating of Novorapid has just developed somewhat naturally over time with us. I used to try carb counting etc - my patience wasn’t up to it…
I am hoping to speak to my Doctor tomorrow…
I found it strange that it didn’t have an effect all day and then at 2am I woke up with an awful low…
I suppose I can look on the bright side and say this is my first difficult experience with the diabetes!!
Thanks again for being in touch
Ah see I did leave the old vial in a plastic bag on the bus in direct very hot (middle eastern) sun, and that’s why I changed it… problem is the new one is having the same non-effect…
This is very helpful information - thank you very much! ![]()
Did ou test for Keytones?
