Has anybody ever accidentally taken their insulin dose twice? I've been Type I since 1987 and have made this mistake twice in all these years. For instance, I woke up and took my insulin...then for some stupid reason forgot I took it and took it again.
The only good thing that came out of this is that I got to eat a lot of food!
Am I the only ding bat that's ever done this?
No. I've done it when I was on MDI. Worse, one time I took Regular at bedtime instead of my long acting insulin. About three hours later, this ding bat went to the ER!
A pump with a better memory than mine was the solution that totally fixed this problem for me. I know there are insulin pens that have a last dose memory. Perhaps that's the MDI solution.
This is a common mistake. I've forgotten a number of times and double dosed. Not only my basal but my bolus as well. Sometimes I just look in the mirror and realize how totally stupid I am at times. Fortunately I've thought through exactly how to respond to each circumstance and it has not been a problem. As long as I am honest and recognize how clumsy and stupid I behave I am never caught by surprise.
Nope plenty of bats here...
I just looked at it as a RARE opportunity to double down on the Carbs too. :-) Almost impossible now, to do it on the pump....unless you really, really try.
You're not alone. I came really close to injecting 21 units of Humalog into me instead of 21 units of Lantus. I didn't notice until I had the needle in my skin and I looked at the color of the pen and realized that I had the wrong one.
With my pump, I'm guilty of also double dosing and checking my pump every 20 seconds to make sure that I took my bolus and that it delivered (I'm guilty of forgetting to bolus for breakfast and not noticing until I am in class 1.5 hours later and at 250 with no IOB).
Yep...several times. I started counting out my pin needles every Sunday for the week and could tell buy how many was left in the glass along with the pin...
Be as systematic as you can. I take two doses of basal a day. One in the morning and one at night. When I take the night time dose, I load morning and night dose into the same syringe for the next day. Then I take half in the morning and half at night. Easier to realize when something isn't right. Then keep that insulin in a different place than bolus. The syringe stays with the vial, and has a L (Levemir) written with a sharpie.
My mistake was in taking Apidra instead of Levemir once. Caught it, and ate a lot of sugar.i didn't think we could do that, load up a syringe like that because it doesn't keep the insulin sterile?
No...you're the only one who's ever done this... :-)
I've double dosed Levemir and then had to chase it all day long with glucose tabs and/or extra food... Not fun.
Then one evening I injected my nighttime Levemir dose with my Novolog pen...yes...despite the fact it was orange. It was a long day and I was working with half a brain. The scary part was that I did not realize it at the time and I only figured it out when I checked my BG right before bed. Had I not done that, I probably would have died in my sleep.
Spent the next several hours knocking back glucose bottles like I was doing shots at a frat party... Thankfully I had a good supply of them. Finally went to sleep at 3AM with my BG stabilized but pretty nauseated from all the glucose I had consumed.
I'm more likely to forget to take my insulin. Then I notice none of my needles have been used. oops!
Scott. Are you saying that you pre mix Apidra with Levemir? Back when I would premix NPH with HumulinR. Stopped mixing when I switched to Lantus with Humalog. Am currently using Levemir And Humalog. Thought I had read not to mix Levemir with Humalog though sounds like your doing fine with the Apidra. I pre-draw my split dose Levemir
Once I took my fast acting instead of my basal which was a huge dose for me- lovely people at tu D talked me through that one, some oj and food got me through that mistake. And once I took my basal instead of a bolus, I called my endo and they just said to test a lot, for some reason, it seemed to make no difference at all to my body that day, I have no idea why, lol!
People here I think told me to put a rubber band on the basal pen which I always do now and I think to myself before injecting, is the the basal and feel for the rubber band each time. You have to try not to be distracted at all when you inject.
I don't think I have ever injected twice, but I often forget right after I inject if I injected or not, lol!
My novopen echo records your last dose for you which is good for both basal and bolus because sometimes I bolus and then think, how much did I take? lol. Usually I record it in my phone on the ibg star app right away though so I can look back and see. I don't know why all the pens aren't made this way, also with a date/time etc. The novopen echo has a little clock with sections filled in as time passes to tell you how long ago the dose was but I think a specific time would be better.
Making big-time "bat noises" in response to Tiki's question.
Nope not remotely the only one, not by a long shot. Happens every single day, that would be a different issue, but once in a while oh yeah... done some dumb, dumb stuff before too
P.S. What the heck is a "glucose bottle" ?????
I assume you're talking about normal soda... maybe?
A lifesaver...literally. Nothing counters a dangerous low more effectively short of a glucagon injection.
I think if I were on MDI I would get one of these
http://timesulin.com/
getting a system helps with this. i set out 4 needles everyday so i know if i have taken my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime dosages by looking at the countertop.
the bigger problem i have is accidentally grabbing the fast acting at bedtime instead of my Lantus pen. Always do a quick double check and sometimes it helps to say what you are doing out loud cause sometimes your eyes will see one thing out of habit and your brain will do something else.Marie, I don't think Timesulin is available in the U.S. I'd love to have one for each of my two pens. I make mistakes when I'm distracted even though, as marky357 suggests, I have a good system.
oh darn it
Yes! I have glucose drinks everywhere. This will raise you FAST and it has saved my life a few times I'm sure. I hate the way they taste though and they do usually spike me later.