Is it OK to mix insulin from one vile with another? Is it OK when you change out your site, if you still have insulin in your reservoir to go ahead and refill that reservoir from another vile? I’ve done it a couple times and my blood sugar hasn’t seemed to be affected. Anyone have any experience with this. I was wondering because if I have insulin that’s been in the pump maybe a couple days and I top it off with fresh new insulin from the fridg–is that a no-no?
I’ve always done that if the insulin is still good and clear (if it’s started to fog in any way, absolutely not). I go through a vial of Apidra every two weeks, so if I mix from an almost empty vial into a new one, I know that the insulin isn’t going to be in there but another two weeks, so I don’t worry. No one has ever told me not to. I’ve done it for 8 years of pumping…
Thanks,
That’s useful info. No one told me I could leave the working vile out. And I certainly didn’t know that refrigerated insulin caused “aeration”. I have noticed once or twice, after changing out the reservoir that the tubing had air bubbles in it that I knew were not in the reservoir when I installed it. Now I know. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!
I go through a vile in half that time. I try to keep my carbs around 60-65 per meal, but I’ve noticed some of the folks on this site are talking about 30 or 40. That doesn’t seem like much food for a growing boy. Unless your eating a lot of protein.
Now I assume Apidra is another type of insulin? I wonder how it compares to Novolog? How many different types are there? My Dr.s said he prefers to prescribe Novolog, but it wouldn’t matter to me, because I don’t know enough about the different types of insulin.
Apidra has been out on the market close to 5 years now. It’s a fast-acting insulin. Others are humalog, novalog, and regular. Some people use mixtures like 70/30. Then there are the slow-acting (basal) insulins. If you use an insulin pump (like me), you don’t use these.
The different fast-acting insulins all have about the same duration of activity, but their peak times might vary a little. Apidra is supposed to peak a little faster than novalog, I think. I’ve only used regular, humalog, and apidra, so I can’t tell you how it compares to novalog.
There is a huge debate in the diabetic community about carb counts at meals. Look through the forum and do a search for carbs or low-carb here and you will catch a glimpse of it. The general debate is that the ADA and many diabetes educators often advocate a high-carb diet because they fear kidney problems with high-protein intake while new research (like that of diabetes doctor Dr. Bernstein) suggests that insulin works better against smaller amounts of carb and that with a high carb diet you’re just chasing food with more insulin that you don’t need. Advocates of low-carb have lower A1cs and better glycemic control, so I think there’s something to it…but I love carbs so I find the change hard. I shoot for under 30 at breakfast, under 45 at lunch, and under 60 at dinner, personally. Kind of splitting the difference. I average about 130g per day. My CDEs recommend 180 and the low-carbers in our community here shoot for as low as 30 per day!