I just have a question for anyone that uses lantus insulin. I have been taking it for a long time and I always take it between 4:30pm and 5:00pm everyday. I live in the Midwest and I am going to the west coast which is a 2 hour time difference. When it is 5pm here, it is 3pm there. I went there when I was younger and just took my lantus at 5 like I do here cause I didn't think about the time difference, and I remember getting sick a couple of times from low blood sugar which I never really have a problem with. My question is should I treat it like no time difference and take it at 3pm there which in reality is the time I would normally take it or make some sort of adjustments to deal with the earth's rotation or whatever the hell the reason time is different. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I was on lantus but I switched to Levemir. What I did with the time difference is change my basal time to the normal time I was taking it at first and that seemed ok with me. This time I ended up changing it due to it kicking in when I was teaching and sometimes making me go hypo with my meal insulin. I guess you can try adjusting the time and see if that helps your lows.
If this is a short term change in your life, then simply adjust your injection times, and remember that your day starts earlier... so for you, if you normally eat at 8am for breakfast, you would now have to eat at 6am instead.
For me, I have found that Lantus has roughly 36 hour window, If I am early OR late, doesn't really matter much. Especially since I also take direct meal coverage shots at whatever time I do eat. So, if I oversleep, and miss my normal time of taking my daily Lantus dose, I just take it anyway, whatever time of day it is. I just have to pay closer attention to my actual BG levels. The next day, technically, I would be taking the short before the normal 24 hour window is over... but since Lantus basically stays with you regardless, all you really have to do is just watch the BG for the day. I have missed a shot entirely, still taking normal meal coverage shots of course, and actually had very minimal BG rise overnight. Not enough to worry about. If I miss more than 36 hours, that is when my BG starts to rise.
If this is a permanent move for you, then just follow your old schedule, and take your shots as you normally would, do NOT make adjustments for the time difference. Worst case, you may have issues the first day, although typically not much of an issue.
I take lantus and travel frequently. I take it when I go to bed for the evening, and don’t put too terribly much thought into what the clock says or what time zone I am in
I agree with Sam.
I don't see any need to try and take it at the same time as your normal timezone.
When I travel to different time zones, I also just take the shot just before going to bed. The first day you may have either a overlap (traveled East) or a gap (traveled West) after that you're just like normal.
Thank you for all of your input I appreciate it.