Been on very low carb (appx 10), high fiber, but accidentally took fast acting instead of Levemir last noc.
Caught it even b/4 I pulled needle out, but jeez…
What a dumbo! Have you ever done this?
I think many of us have done that. I do LCHF (High Fat) which means that my basal/bolus ratio is more like 80/20 or 70/30, so my basal dose is much higher than a typical bolus.
I presume at this point, you have survived. The proper thing to do is of course eat the right amount of carbs to offset the dose. You will sometimes find that a huge insulin dose actually absorbs less effectively than a small dose. When I have done that in the past I’ll do something like eat half the carbs that would be covered by that dose, eat a bunch of protein and then “wait it out.” If you overeat you will just end up high and then you will ride the rollercoaster all night. Typically after 5 hours with a modern analog insulin you will have survived the duration of action. However a large dose may linger.
I actually have some routines to avoid this mistake. I keep the pen needle on my rapid all day (but you could just keep it on after dinner). Then I have a two step process, I take the pen needle of the rapid, put it on my basal and then inject my basal at night.
Yes, I have done this a few times. I have also given the unit dose of Basal for the meal time bolus, another words I gave 25 units of Novolog when I should have only given 7 units. That was really scary. I realized what I had done after I had injected and looked at the pen. I wish I had noticed before completing the injections. My daughter gets very mad at me when I do this. I have put a Timesulin cap on the Novolog so I am less likely to make a mistake now. Amazon has them for $6.99 for Flex-pens.
I’ve given myself basal for bolus and vice versa several times. Since my most common meal dose, 8 units, is the same amount as I take daily in basal, it isn’t usually too big a deal for me. I usually take my dinner bolus at 5 PM and my basal at 6 PM, so when I took fast acting instead of basal, I just had to eat one dinner (or the equivalent carbs thereof) right after another. But for someone who has a much higher bolus-to-basal average, that could prove to be a lot of extra food to eat!
JoAnn - I searched for the Timesulin but haven’t come across one for Levemir or Humalog. Anyone know if Timesulin is interchangeable with these?
I always get a little frustrated that there are increasing numbers of “safety” messages and screens included on insulin pumps while the most dangerous thing we can do is mix up our insulin when on MDI.
Fortunately those of us with diabetes are fairly resilient and I trust that you are doing OK today.
Laddie, thank you!
It wasn’t a big deal since going low carb I decreased my long acting bedtime dose from 20u to 3u. I was more upset that it wrecked my low carb diet and probably took my body out of ketogenosis.
So I only had 3u fast acting. Had 2/3 Hershey bar, 16 carbs - over daily self imposed limit of 10.
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I use Timesulin with Novolog, Levemir and Tresiba. The pen top for the basals is wider and fits both just fine. The pen top for fast acting is narrower.
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Daytona, thank you so very Much!
Great to hear it works on Levimir!
Anyone know of any Timesulin for Humalog?
I used to have a Timesulin cap for my Apidra, but I threw it out. On three occasions it gave me the wrong time. I knew it was wrong because I had recorded the time on my BG spreadsheet. What I needed the thing for was for those rare occasions I would inject but forgot to record it. But even though it was accurate most of the time, if I couldn’t depend on the accuracy, I considered it worthless. Hope you have better luck.
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Until I found this forum, I thought I was the only one who did this!
Nice to know it’s common. Like someone said - it becomes so routine. Like breathing.
Brian - LOL - I hardly ever change my needles! My insurance would only pay for 3 a day so I learned to deal with it. I inject probably 10-15 X’s/day to keep tight control. 