The doctor switched me from Lantus to Levemir this morning. I have been getting such burning when I injected Lantus it made me cry sometimes. I had been using Lantus since I was diagnosed Jan 2015. The burning started when I moved here from Japan. At first it only burned occasionally and wasn’t so bad. It got worse and worse so the doctor had me split the Lantus dose to half twice a day. This worked for only a week then the burning started again. It got so bad it felt like a bee sting and made me cry. I had to inject the noon dose at school and it hurt so much the nurse almost called the ER. I haven’t injected any Levemir yet and I’m afraid it might burn like Lantus.
I’ve read that Lantus burns for some people but why was it ok for over a year then start burning. What will I do if the Levemir burns too. I will have put up with the pain or go without a basal insulin. Does anyone have experience with this problem, I would like to hear from them.
Madison
I had been taking lantus for several years when I went to my doctor and asked for a sample of levemir instead. He told me, you don’t want that-- you want this instead and handed me a sample of tresiba. I was very skeptical because levemir was what I had asked for, so I pressed the issue and finally he caved and gave me a sample of the levemir too. He said on his way out " I’m only giving you the levemir so you’ll stop pestering me. I want you to use the tresiba sample first, if you still have any interest in trying anything else then go ahead with the levemir"
Well I followed his instructions and used the tresiba first instead. There was no turning back. There is no desire whatsoever in my mind to ever try s different basal (or a pump) after using it. I’d recommend you mention it to your doctor instead of levemir or lantus.
A lot of people like levemir. I think it’ll work fine for you, and I’ve never heard of it burning. I think tresiba might work spectacularly well though.
Madison, I also had the same problem with Lantus, which is what the docs at the hospital gave me when I was first diagnosed. It didn´t start straightaway, that burning, but when it did, it would only be sometimes. Sometimes a couple of minutes, sometimes up to half an hour. Then it was every time. The stinging was enough to make me put off giving myself the dose as long as possible, giving it to myself later and later! it really hurt.
I looked it up online at the time, don´t remember where I saw the info, but read that it has a different pH and that is why it burns. I went to the doc and asked for levemir and it was painless. this was like four years ago. i have never had a problem with Levemir. I love it.
I know a lot of people are really happy with the new Tresiba and that is also something worth looking into. For right now, I ma happy with Levemir. I know the dosing, I know how it works. If its not broken, I am not fixing it.
One thing I found when I switched from Lantus to Levemir is that my dosing went up. At the time I was in my glorious honeymoon stage and the Lantus dose was like 2 units a day, had to up it to 3 (split into 1 in the morning, 2 at night) when I started Levemir. That was thru trial and error though, so see what your doctor has to say about it.
Tresiba! I am loving this stuff!!! I never had luck with lantus. I might have well been injecting water! Levemir was lovely but Tresiba simply takes the cake for my betes! No DP. Flat overnights. No need to split the dose.
I had also tried Toujeo but had the same results as I did with lantus… Like water! A pharmacy rep mentioned that if a person does well on lantus, toujeo will work well. And if levemir has been the favorite, then Tresiba should like your diabetes.
I have friends who do Amazing @Duck_Fiabetes on Toujeo. My body just did not!
I would love to hear more Tresiba stories! Or anyone who has tried both Toujeo and Tresiba. Curious!!
I started with Levemir and never used Lantus. It was my choice at the time and one of the reasons for that choice was the well documented fact that a great many people do experience burning with Lantus. I have never had the slightest problem with Levemir; I’m completely happy with both its comfort level and its efficacy.
Like others who commented here, I have heard good things about Tresiba. I’ve never tried it because I’m so satisfied with Levemir that I don’t see any reason to fix what isn’t broken. But people have been singing Tresiba’s praises, so to speak, so that may be an option worth considering too.
Hi Madison. I went from NPH to Lantus, but preferred the NPH because Lantus gave me a constant headache. In time I changed to Levemir. Levemir works great, at least for me–I don’t get lows when the Levemir reaches its peak. I take 4 units in the morning and 5 units at night… Like David-dns, I see no reason to fix what isn’t broken.
Isn’t this the very definition of human innovation and progress? Imagine where we’d be now if a million years ago we stopped fixing what wasn’t broken… Still swinging from tree to tree
Hmm, didn’t know I was making a controversial comment. For me, Lantus is really no good, NPH is better.
then Lememir was invented. Levemir is so good, I’m not motivated to try anything better at the moment. Maybe I’ll try Tresiba when my insurance will cover it–not before. I’m happy to have advancements occur–I’m just talking about me. Personally, I’d love to see a cure for Diabetes–yep, advancements are nice.
No controversy at all… I’ve just often been thinking that the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ mentality has come to be detrimental to the diabetic community worldwide lately. Seems as though when major breakthrough innovations have come along the world has been tending to lack interest… Seems to me we (meaning diabetics worldwide, not specifically you or I or others in this thread )decided many years ago that an insulin pump and a cgm was the pinnacle of diabetes technology and nothing could any longer be improved upon… I think that is unfortunate
When I read that Tresiba is only once a day I am sold on it. I hate the noon shot because I I’m in school. I have to carry 2 different insulins with me and I usually go to the nurse’s office to inject.
It was not my regular doctor that put me on Levemire, he was out of town. I saw a GP that was covering for him. Maybe he didn’t even know about Treshiba.
Are those of you that are using Levemire doing 2 shots or just 1? I don’t like doing 2 shots because of school.
I’m going to ask my doctor if I can switch to Tresiba. I get my meds from Tricare Express Scripts usually by mail order. My real father was in the military when he died so I’m covered by Tricare until I’m 21. My mother lost her Tricare when she remarried. Tresiba is in the Tricare formulary with the same copay as Levemire so insurance won’t be a problem.
Madison, Levemir doesn’t last for 24 hours, so I believe that most people find it works better to take 2 shots daily. I take it when I get up and when I go to bed. Since I test my bg at those times, taking basal then is no problem.
I was using Levemir and split the shots, one in the morning (7:30 am) and the other at night (7:30 pm) and that worked fine. I switched to Tresiba 2 weeks ago and take that at night (8pm). This week my morning BGs have been between 80 and 90 and stay pretty stable all day. To get there, I increased my basal units per day with Tresiba but at the same time I’m using less total bolus units per day (Humalog).
When I was doing 2 shots of Lantus the doctor told me to take every 12 hours or close to it. They didn’t say with Levemire, if I took it at bedtime and when I get up it would be only be about 7 hours between shots. I have been taking at 11:30 AM and 11:30 PM.
