I recently just changed my insulin Humalog to Apidra.
I've just been through the worst night of my life.
I have been playing roller coaster since last night going from 1.9 to 20.0 in 2-3 hours. Never happened before. It is like I totally lost control.
Do you have any recommendations?
My active time on my pump for insulin is 4:00.
Normally, I wait 20 minutes before eating but I noticed with Apidra, I have to eat immediately.
With Humalog, I can eat 10g of carbs 2 hours after a bolus without having to bolus at all. Last night , I tried to eat a small piece of chocolate without bolusing (like I usually do with Humalog) and I spiked at 15.0 right after.
I decided to switch insulin because I was noticing some cloth (bubbles ) after 2 days with Humalog. It was very long to lower my Highs too.
Apidra does start very quickly compared to Humalog. It also has a much shorter tail. So for correcting bad highs, it's the insulin of choice because it has such a powerful peak. The downside however is that for slow food, it can run out of steam and you have a second post-meal high. On the pump you can offset this by using a dual-wave bolus. A second downside is that it can loose some of it's potency after 2 days in the pump. Novolog fits between Humalog and Apidra and I prefer to use it in my pump. I do have Apidra Pens in the fridge for bad hypers. I often do my post-meal test after only 1 hour and depending on my BG, possibly do a second small bolus. Like everything in diabetes, you have to experiment.
I've always found it easier to fiddle with the settings on my pump than to bother changing insulin, although I do find the Apidra intriguing.
Re bubbles, I get the bubbles to the tube end of the reservoir and then they usually seem to prime out pretty reliably. I haven't ever noticed any problems with bubbles since I started doing it that way.
Hi there Alan - I am intrigued about your Apidra as well. I use an OminPod now - I was on Humalog pens and Lantus. I am the same as acidrock in as much I move my settings on the pump rather than change Insulin. The temp basal option is my preference if things start going a tad pe-tong. Re the bubbles - its just a question of always insuring that you squirt them out first, but I guess I use a syringe to fill the reservoir in the pod and can therefore tap them to the top and get rid of them.
I think you have to fix your basal settings, perhaps you were relying too much on long tail of insulin action of humalog. Don't have fear of going low after 2 hours. Check more to feel sure.
Apidra could have a short action as short as 3 hours, test and if it's so change setting in your pump
I found that when I switched from Humalog to Novolog my post-meal blood sugars were quite a bit lower and my correction boluses worked faster. I'm not sure how changing pump settings would have achieved the same results. I'm usually below 6.0 (108) at 1 hr post-meal. I was unable to achieve that with Humalog unless I took my meal bolus considerably earlier. Analog Insulins are not natural and can behave differently amongst various people depending on how they react with your immune system. So it's worth trying Humalog, Novolog and Apidra to see if your body happens to have a preference or not.
I really CANNOT help you. I heard so many good things about Apridra that I changed a couple of weeks ago from Humalog to Apridra. I changed over again after 3 days of H****! Here is what I wrote down at the time. It kept on for 3 days until I couln't handle it anymore so just changed back and have been better since.
"I just changed to Apridra from Humalog and am having a terrible time. Yesterday, I changed around 4pm. Dinner time at 19h. BG 1.11, Bolused and 2 hours later I was at 308. I bloused again and 2 1/2 hours I was at 349. I then changed site, reservoir to be sure it wasn’t a technical problem. Bolused ignoring the IOB. And then, after 8 HOURS (nite) I was at 47!! Second day, high until 4 hours later. THe next day high all day. I just could not adapt and decided to forget it and work more on my Humalog. I can't believe that 2 rapid insulins could be SO DIFFERENT! Personnally. I know there are loads of people who prefer Apridra. Good Luck! Just wanted to share my experience.
