So. Third time now taking wrong dose of insulin. I’m on 12 hour and fast acting. I have pens and vial. I’m out of pen needles so I use syringe for both at moment. So before it’s been the 12 hour night dose taken in morning. But this time I took fast acting with the dose of my night 12 hour. So frustrated that this is happening. I try to tell husband and kids not to talk to me while I’m taking insulin. I don’t know why I’m so absent minded when I know better. Soon as I’m done I realize the mistake. Any suggestions? I do keep separate bags and one in fridge. But not sure how to correct for future.
I’d definitely consume enough carbs to cover the fast-acting insulin injection or you’ll be dropping low. I have to shut my kids out of my bedroom when I’m changing my sons insulin components so I make sure I get things right. Maybe be sure you isolate yourself when you’re doing what you have to do to be sure you don’t have accidents!
1 Like
Thank you. Yes. I do most in kitchen. So I should definitely change that. I found orange juice and that calm me down a bit.
Yeah, Crystal be prepared to wolf down a lot of carbs. If you’ve already had some juice, some bread would be good. Toast with butter and jam.
I’ll bet that’s a lot of insulin you just bolused.
1 Like
This is something that people who don’t use insulin can not grasp no matter how badly we want them to
1 Like
Oh, yes. I’ve done that. Seemed to be doing it about every six weeks for a while. Thankfully, my Lantus dose is only about 25% of my typical TDD, so all I had to do was to eat another typical dinner’s worth of food. However, I usually take my Lantus just after dinner, so it was eating another meal about one hour after the first.
Like you, I find that it usually happens when my partner and I are really busy talking about some other subject entirely and just not focusing. My partner usually gives me my Lantus, too, (so he can hit a spot I can’t reach - in the butt) so it takes two of us not noticing before we make the error. I’ve put the two types of pens in different locations and it has been several months since we last goofed, so maybe this is working.
I typically have a higher carb beer as part of my extra carbs when I make that mistake. Or I’ll use the opportunity to eat fruit, which I rarely eat otherwise.
Keep an eye on your BG and good luck.
1 Like
Another option would be to switch to a pump. No chance of getting your two types of insulin mixed up because you’ll be using only one kind: rapid-acting.
2 Likes
Yes. I ate good and orange juice helped. I checked it every 30 mins. It went from 161 to 124 then 106. I did decide to not take the 12 hour night due to my error. So no bad low. But dealing with morning high of 234 and feeling rough today.
I don’t know how long you’ve been a diabetic, but this is something that does happen to those of us who have had it a long time. I’ve had it for over 50 years. I had to stop using my pump because I kept having bad sites and I was just fed up with it. So I stopped for a month and a half. I accidentally grabbed my humalog and had the 19 units of that at bedtime instead of my lantus. Oops. Thankfully I realized what I did. But it is something that does happen. I don’t need quiet or anything special when I take my insulin, even when I was using the syringe. I just grabbed the wrong bottle. So don’t beat yourself up as it does happen. Just be glad you realized as quickly as you did.
3 Likes
It might be an idea to purchase a glucogen pen, just to have for peace of mind.
1 Like
once i did it injecting my long acting dose with my fast acting. i got to eat a boatload of gummy sharks. it was pretty good looking back.
2 Likes
Everyone with D should have an emergency glucagon kit. This can make the difference between life and death.
1 Like
It has been a long time since I took injections but I have heard that this happens once in awhile with all of us. But I think someone talked about using an insulin cozie ( it’s like a beer cozie). They put one kind in he wrap and left the other as is. That way they knew which was which. I’m really not sure if they still make them. Most people use them to keep the bottle from breaking if it drops. Sorry that I have no idea what they are called or where to find them, but it might be an option. Good luck and don’t beat yourself up on this one. Like I said many of us have done this.
1 Like
Everyone on MDI should have a plan for the major errors.
Double injection of basal or bolus
Injecting bolus instead of basal
Injecting basal instead of bolus
Forgetting injection
If you think through all these scenarios beforehand and how you will handle them it will go a long way to avoiding panic and emergencies.
Injecting a rapid bolus instead of basal is the most serious and taking additional protections against this can reduce the risks. One technique I use is to take my basal as a combination. I usually take my basal in the morning, but I also always take a bolus to beat down my Darn Phenomenon. If I do a combination where I take my bolus first and then switch my pen needle to my basal and take a second injection if has an inherent protection against this problem.
2 Likes
I did this once and did not realize the error. It led to
a 911 call at 2 a.m. and an ambulance trip to the ER. It took me about 24 hours to pull the hyperglycemia out of the clouds! The ER protocol is to cure the acute condition and let someone else treat any consequence. They will overtreat with massive overdoses of dextrose and carbs, but that’s their job.
As others have suggested, I would place your long-acting pen in a different place than your short acting dose. You could place your long acting insulin on your night stand and your short acting in the kitchen, for example. Almost everyone has made this mistake. We are not machines and we take so many doses of insulin that it can just be a blur in our life.
I’m glad you’re ok!
1 Like
This is one thing I like about the tresiba / novolog pens. They are completely different and unmistakable. The tresiba pen is physically larger and has the auto inject spring loaded mechanism… even in pitch black darkness it’d be hard to mix the two up unless one was having a major brain fart.
I have several times taken an 8 of Afrezza when I thought I was taking a 4 and realized shortly after… which wasn’t a big deal I just ate a piece of bread or something and never had any problems, but it’s pretty forgiving…
1 Like
At the time of the incident I was on Regular and Lente using syringe and vial. I kept all my insulin in the butter compartment of the fridge. Looking back it seems like an accident waiting to happen.
As I was drawing up the wrong insulin I was listening to my wife at the time talk long distance to another member of my family about critical health care for one of my elderly parents.
1 Like
Knock on wood. I’m on MDI, Levemir and Apidra. I haven’t made the mistake of wrong dosing since I got a Timesulin cap for each of my pens. In case you haven’t heard of them, the cap will tell you how long it has been since the last time you took a shot (actually, how long it has been since you removed the cap), but not how much insulin you took.
1 Like
Wow. Thank you all for the feedback. It’s different world of issues and glad to have all advice and experience from others. Most time close family is like OMG I can’t believe you did that. Pay attention. So we all know we try. It’s great advice to have that emergency plan and glucagon pen in hand. Also different storage too. I do forget alot if and when I took. To time-lapse sounds great. Again. Thankful for this site.
1 Like
Sally7
But I think someone talked about using an insulin cozie ( it’s like a beer cozie)
I found it it’s a securitee blanket. Pretty neat. Comes in different colors and only about 9 dollars. Thanks.