I was wondering how much insulin you all use. Because reading several posts I was wondering why I’m using 50 units of Novolog both morning and night and I have a sliding scale for regular and have had to use that a time or too and I have had a few lows that scared the hell out of my 4 yr.old and grandkids. Just wondering since I’m new to Novolog I have used reg and nph before. Thanks
I count carbs and do my insulin according to carbs. For my lantus, I take 10 units at bedtime and then 60 at lunch.
i take 34 lantus in the morning and take 10 novolog breakfast lunch and supper. the novolog is also on a sliding scale. i still have lows but is is usually when ihave a lot of pain and take more darvocet. altho i am new to this so i can’t really say if this is the way it will stay.
I use Humalog on a sliding scale before I eat. I usually take 1 or 2 units based on my diet. I’ll take an extra unit if my pre meal reading is higher than 150. Humalog knocks my sugars down too fast. I’m sensitive to insulin. At night, I take 26 units of Lantus.
I experienced too many lows while I slept and the doctor reduced the Lantus to 26. So far so good, no lows over night.
I do have to get up in the morning by a certain time because I begin to crash.
I take 6 units of lantus before bed and 1 unit of humolog per 15 carbs at each meal. Pills didn’t work for me and I am very sensitive to insulin.
I take 32 Lantis, but this still isn’t enough. I then take 1 unit of Novo Rapid for every 10 grams of Carbs I eat - but for slow release carbs I have to split the insulin or I go low.
You really can’t measure how much insulin you use against other folks - it’s very individual. You need to take enough to maintain good control of your blg’s. I take one unit of humolog for every 15 carbs of food I eat, plus anywhere from .5 unit to .85 units of humolog per hour for my basal rate, depending on what pattern I’m using. It would be the same as 15 to 20 units of long acting insulin per day.
First of all, most of the people here are probably type 1 diabetics and you are a type 2 so your body reacts different to insulin. Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance so you need more insulin to do the same thing in a type 1 diabetic. It’s not uncommon for a type 2 diabetic on insulin to take twice as much insulin as someone with type 1 diabetes. As Maureen said, it’s VERY individual and you should focus on making sure that your insulin matches with a healthy diet and that your blood sugars are mostly within a good range (a target that should be set with your doctor’s help).
I agree with Maureen and Allison. Please do not measure your insulin usage to other’s. We are all very different in many ways.
Thanks for the information. I was just wondering since I was new to novolog I wanted to talk to the doctor if there is something better for my bs control. I am basically trying to cope with all these new insulins since I’m not sure of what would be best I can’t really afford to see the doctor too much since I have no insurance and I don’t want to go back to doing nothing for my diabetes and having my bs run wild. I had to go back to the hospital yesterday because of my infection is not clearing up and they had to lance my breast to find out why it’s not getting better. The Dr. there told me the reason for the large amount was they are trying to control the spread of infection since it’s been almost 4 weeks and really no big improvement they don’t want the infection to get back into my blood stream like before. Once they get a handle on it they told me that my need for insulin should decrease some. I had asked the Dr.at the clinic but he told me to continue with the insulin therapy and really no answer from him. So I thought I’d try and see on my own since it seemed like the Dr was telling he was God and who was I to ask,but the Dr I saw last night talked to me. I dislike being made to feel like a child and have no say so. I mean this is my body and I wanted to know if there was a better acting insulin maybe a cheaper one that would do the same as Novolog but I felt like the door was slammed in my face and since it’s a clinic you have to take the as$hole along with the good ones. Sorry for the rant but I have been trying to control my diabetes by being on the Atkins for years because I couldn’t afford the help I needed and then to get an arrogant dr who thinks I’m stupid for not taking care of myself when your homeless with three kids the only thing I thought about was shelter and food for them not medicine I needed. I worked for years even while homeless and here’s this holier than thou dr making a judgement call like I was stupid and no matter how I tried to tell him I had just enough money for us to live he’s telling me that’s no excuse I wanted to strangle him. So sorry again for the rant I was just trying to get a handle on the usage so I don’t look uneducated idiot he seems to think I am.
Bonnie,
When you have an infection your blood sugars will normally rise. That is how my doctor and I can tell that I am getting sick. Since insulin is a hormone you never know how your body is going to react from one day to the next. Thursday night I spiked to over 400, it took me over 12 hours to get my sugar under 200 and I had about 150 units of fast acting insulin in me, then I realized the insulin might be bad, so I got a new vial out and within 30 min I was at 135. So it was a bad vial of insulin, but my point is everybody’s body reacts differently to insulin. What works for me might not work for someone else.
(((((Bonnie))))
I’ve been homeless too. It sucks. Crappy drs and others that do not understand how we struggle to care for our family and then take care of ourselves. sigh… Then add that crappy dr that only wants to get cash from you and treat you like an idiot. GRRRRRR!!!
Just wanted to let you know; I’m here and I do understand the feeling of being kicked everytime ya get from teh gutter to the sidewalk… heaven forbid ya make it to real house!
sigh…
Meadowlark
Hi Bonnie:
I take 12 units of Lantus soon after I get up and about 12 hours later I take
10 units of Lantus. I am on a sliding scale with Humalog so it depends
what I eat. Usually 15-18 units Humalog for the day.
When we go out for Chinese or some meal similar, that would be 7 units
Humalog and 5 units Humalog a few hours later(just for that one meal).
Pizza, I only have one piece once a month, so that’s 5 and 3 humalog.
When I have 1/2 a sub, it’s about the same. Most of those foods are Bad
and fattening anyways.
Hi everyone
You all been real informative on the different kind of insulins, I’m looking into the difference so I can see if there is something better for me. Money wise as well as health wise I’ve always been one to research and second guess me and my health. I’m not planning on using anyone’s insulin usage to try and cope with my need especially now since I have a nasty infection but I feel like I have to do something or go crazy. MedowLark it does suck to be homeless and try and deal with the misconception about us.Terrie8 Everything that tastes good is bad for you. If salads were chocolate flavored we’d all be eating them 24/7
Type II newly diagnosed in the last few months, and I’m 18 weeks pregnant; was diagnosed after they ordered blood work at my first OB appointment at 8 weeks. A1C of 6.6 (I’ll get that tested again this week). Nice timing, just in time for all the baby’s major organs to already be formed. 
I will worry about that until this child is a healthy adult, I tell you…
I use 16 units of Humulin NPH only overnight, not during the day at all, and my doctor is stunned at that - at my weight (now it’s around 215; I’ve LOST a few pounds since first seeing him in January, baby or not, from cutting out the carbs I didn’t need), he expected me to be injecting much more from the start, but I just don’t need it because my fasting numbers are where he wants them, in the 80s. (Could I stand to be a LITTLE lower - yes, probably… and that 16 units will have to be increased soon just because of pregnancy and increased insulin resistance.)
I also use roughly 3 to 3.5 units of the Humalog Quik-Pen per every 10 grams of carbs when I’m eating a larger meal (that’s just how I did it with gestational diabetes and a different endocrinoloigst 5 years ago, so many units per 10 grams, depending on how my numbers are looking as the pregnancy progresses… seems to be working this time around as well).
However, at this stage of the pregnancy, if I’m eating, I’d estimate, less than 20 grams of carbohydrates (or perhaps as high as 25), I don’t need the fast-acting insulin at all. I’m sure I will need it at every meal regardless of my carb limit in the coming months, since my insulin resistance will worsen with advanced pregnancy, but for now if I have, say, an egg with cheese and turkey bacon, with or without my 9 grams-of-carbs Carb Counting bread, I’m fine with no insulin. (With gestational diabetes in my first pregnancy, I think I was in my 7th or 8th month before I needed insulin for my under-20-gram snacks… and that was my idea, when I got too many high snack readings in a row - so the endocrinologist agreed with me!)
My readings are still under my goal numbers when I have TWO slices of that bread as part of my sandwich at lunch, even with a few carrot and celery sticks, and/or with veggies like celery, onion and tomato chopped up inside the sandwich (tuna, eggs, whatever). Add an apple or other carb to the equation, and that’s when I wind up going over my goals… I’ve found that if I bring anything resembling dessert for lunch - fruit, Fage yogurt with berries, whatever - I tend to save it for an hour or two after lunch, turning it into my late afternoon snack. Just seems to work out better that way…
I find it’s useless to try and eat at, say, Subway, even if I use their nutrition guide online to decide how many units of the fast-acting insulin to inject. I swear their online guide is WRONG, at least where the carbs are concerned. I always come out too high, so I just make my own lunch every day now…
I would NOT be able to do ANY of this right if I didn’t keep careful track of my carbs and test so much. I’m obsessive, I tell you… I keep a food/glucose log on my computer and test probably 7-10 times per day. I will not sit back and allow this disease to kill me slowly like it did my father and his sister, rest their souls, over the course of 20-30 or so years; I am fighting it and learning where my limits are and how to help myself… I want to be like their eldest sister, who also had Type II diabetes and had it the LONGEST, but was strict with herself (at a time when they didn’t know as much about diabetes as they do now - so she must have had a forward-thinking doctor, or she herself somehow figured out the carb connection way back then- ?) and outlived them to almost 80.
BTW, I DO have insurance, but the copays are killing me right now, as I am in what’s considered a high-risk pregnancy because of the diabetes… So I e-mail my logs to the doctor to cut down on visits, and he can and does call me if he flags something.