When I started, I was told 3 units of Humalog before each meal, + 5 units of Lantos before bedtime. And I was to increase the Lantos every 3 days by 1 unit until my BG was down to 70-100. OK. My original BG was in the 400+ range and now it is in the 100-200 range so something is working. I am up to 8 units of Lantos and about to try 9. I don't eat many carbs unless I eat some sushi rolls with the rice. I am wondering is there is a maximum # of units of Lantos one should take. So far, what I am taking doesn't seem to bother me. I eat 20-30gms of carbs for breakfast and dinner and zero carbs for lunch. Should I drop the lunch Humalog from 3 to 1 or 2? When I went to my endo a few days ago, he said I was doing fine and to see him in 6 months. So, I am experimenting on my own here.
I used to take 40 units of NPH (primitive Lantus). I'm not a big fan of worrying about the total daily dose of insulin or any particular shot until you get your BG numbers where you want them.
Re bolus, that's food to cover meals, snacks or elevated BG (the latter referred to as a correction bolus...).
What many, maybe most of us do, rather than shooting a fixed amount and eating for it, is to use a ratio, like 10G of carbs/ unit. If you have say a regular breakfast that matches up well with your 3 units and can calculate the G of carbs in that and then figure out a ratio, it may serve you much better. That way if you eat 15G, you'd have a unit and a half ***IF*** your ratio is 10. If the ratio is 5, you'd have the 3 units, etc. If you then ate a 60G of carb sushi roll, you'd take 6 units. This can balance things more flexibly and help you live more freely while getting better results.
Thanks. I can do the math. I treated myself to sushi rolls today and will wait a few hours and check my bg. That is more carbs than I usually eat. I am curious to see what that reading will be. I like having a formula (tailored to me). Bea
thank you for your clear and straightforward descriptions.
the heartache with insulin is how it works on your paricular body and thusly there is no real chart of weight versus dose that works on everyone and thus one starts out with Doctor's best guess safe dose and then adjust up and down from there. next step is to work out the carbs versus dose ratio for you.
Best wishes and good luck with health and insulin.
? I think some of the books have weight-based calculations but they are totally guessing. I was very impressed with the job my endo did to calculate my rates and ratios when I got my pump, a few minor tweaks and I was golden. Change has always been part of it and I've learned that sometimes, very small "fine tuning" increments (the Revel pumps will calculate .025U/ hour basal rate adjustments and .1G/U carb ratios...) can make a big difference at getting smooth responses BG wise. I know there's people here who do it with MDI and get excellent results too.
One thing I'd add as far as Bea's experiment is that I am very lazy about lunch, there's not really anywhere convenient to go eat by my office and I find I get better results with smaller lunches and that's where I do most of my "calibrating" and rate explorations. In the evenings, I eat (and drink...) much more horribly so I don't really even bother messing around with using those results for calibrating rates and ratios.
Ah. My bg jumped to 270 from 160 after all that rice with the sushi. I used 3 units of humalog before lunch. I will repeat that experiment using 4 units and see if there is a difference. Lots to learn. Surprisingly, this is sort of fun. I do love sushi.
If you have an idea what you eat for meals where you have ended up at a more reasonable number than 270, you might be able to sort of rough in a ratio and come up with something that will catch the sushi? Sushi can be tough although I love to eat it and it's sort of inevitable every once in a while. It's one of my favorite things to carb load with a couple of days before a big race as I like the feeling of eating good protein and all the wasabi sauce is sort of cathartic too but it can be hard to estimate exactly how many carbs are in a roll.
Sigh. Lunches are the hardest for me. I do eat our a lot, Chinese (no rice or a little rice), sushi, and next week, a fish restaurant (either a fish salad which should be OK) or a sandwich will be harder... At 83 years old, I don't run anymore but I do try to walk up/down baby hills ;-)
oh, if you are 83, you already "won" by beating the "life tables!" Congratulations on a tremendous victory!!! I love going out to eat lunch but, when I did that all the time at work 1) I weighed 275 lbs (now about 190, 195 after a month of not running due to injury...:-( but I got back in the saddle today...) and 2) it costs a ton of $$$. I hope you enjoy your lunches and are able to get the insulin stuff figured out so you can enjoy as much as you want, you've earned it!!
