"See Food and Shoot!"

1

That was the phrase my endo told me to remember about the difference between shooting Novo-/Huma-log and shooting Regular.

Back in the day when I used R/NPH, were I high before a meal, I'd get out in front of it by an hour or so with my R injection to 'yank' myself back down before I started ingesting food that would no doubt start pushing my sugars back up. As often as not, I'd catch it in the perfect arc and everything would sum up to be okay. Not always though (especially since there was no lunchtime injection at all -- wow, those were the days)...

But, when I (finally) switched over to more modern meds a few years ago, I was instructed to treat Novolog (and Humalog?) quite differently: I was directed to shoot at every meal and wait to inject until the food was on its way, that I was to "see food and shoot."

So, I've been living like that for several years under this new(er) regimen of Novo-/Huma-log and Lantus. Then, I got a Dexcom 7+ a few months ago, and I have been watching what happens as things trend by, and it has affected my shooting (yep, still on MDI -- probably always will be). Now, if I am high, I find myself shooting out in front of my meals by an hour or so with my Novolog injection to 'yank' myself back down before I start ingesting food that will no doubt start pushing my sugars back up (sound familiar?...). This doesn't always work, and I am wondering if I am missing some important key factor about Novolog? Novolog seems to be functioning EXACTLY as Regular did for me, unless I just don't understand it.

Anyone care to comment?

Let me know.

Thanks,

/\/\

2

I got pretty good at shooting good old R (Regular) insulin using the same techniques as you had discovered. And I too don't feel that I've fully mastered the new fast acting insulin.

What is most frustrating for me, is when I eat and take my fast-acting insulin, but for some reason it kicks in way too fast and I go hypo despite the fact that I just ate. It doesn't happen often but it's a doozy when it does happen.

There was a certain gentleness to R that made it a good match for high-protein slow-absorbing meals, and maybe the fast acting analogs are just too fast for that good match.

All that said... I am trying to learn the ins and outs and tricks of fast acting insulins and think I'm slowly making progress. It's a little unfair for me to think that after just a few years on the new stuff, I would have mastered it in the way I spent 30 years mastering R.