OK, after 32 years of Type 1, things have become pretty routine. Right now, that routine is 16 u of lantus every morning, and Novolog before meals. So here I am at work, highly distracted by huge deadlines, and ready for lunch. Yep, I just took another 16 u of lantus rather than the Novolog. (I know–the other way around, 16 u of Novolog, would have been much worse.)
I don’t want to call my dr., although of course I will if I need to. In the meantime, it doesn’t seem like an emergency since Lantus is so slow acting. Do I skip my short acting stuff for the day? I usually only need 2-3 units before meals.
thanks for any tips…
It is probably best to call your doctor.
I would not take any insulin for your meals and you should measure your blood sugar regularly (every 30-60 minutes). I would go buy a big fruit juice or regular soda and drink it sip by sip throughout the day. I would aim to keep your blood sugar around 200 until the morning. You will be dropping constantly. So being at 100 would be dangerous in my opinion. I would treat 100 like a low for one day. Better to be a bit high today than risk a dangerous low.
I haven’t done it yet… but almost… the other night I was drawing up my night time lantus at a friend’s place and thank god i looked closely at the vial before i shot it because i had accidently drawn up 30 units of novorapid instead of lantus… would’ve been an interesting night to say the least if i had screwed that one up… As for any tips i would just monitor your sugars closely. Maybe cut back on the short acting a little… throw a few more small snacks in… you’ll be fine.
Oops! I’ve done the reverse. I agree you’ll be okay. Lantus is essentially short-acting insulin modified to metabolize over time, so if your dose lasts 24 hours, just divide it out to calculate how much “short-acting” will be metabolizing per hour and consume carbs according to you I:C ratio plus a little extra as a safety margin. That’s what I would probably do and will do because that is a mistake I’m sure to make eventually!
I would call the doctor too, and test, test, test. Don’t beat yourself up for doing this, one of my best friends is a RN and she mixed hers up once too!
I’ve done the reverse, or thought I did. I was sure I had taken Apidra instead of Levemir before bed. Panic set in & I was downing sugar like a mad woman, phone in hand to call 911. I couldn’t exhale until I was over 300 because that much Apidra would have lowered me by 300 points. Turns out I had taken Levemir because BG continued to climb steadily. Was 6 AM before I could get it back down. Never got any sleep that night. Now, don’t you feel better!
Agree with the others about not taking your rapid acting, or taking it in much smaller doses.
I’ve done it several times when I was on shots, which was years ago. As Marie said test, test, test…and continuing testing until you talk to some medical person.
How are you doing Sarah? Hope that the day goes by without any trouble.
yes, please tell us how it all worked out.
It can happen to the best of us. If it makes you feel any better, I had a nightmare for a whole 3 and a half weeks!
I was taking novorapid as usual prior to meals and supposedly taking Levemir at night. I was going hypo at 2am every night. Then having rebound HI’s in the morning. I was on the phone almost daily to the doctor and nurses. I ended up then taking Levemir for the morning and night trying to sort things out. Costantly LO blood sugars with re bound HI’s were driving me insane. I know you’re all going to tell me that it was REALLY obvious but what I was actually doing was taking Novorapid thinking it was Levemir… and taking my usual novorapid on top of it. How I didnt kill myself or end up in hospital I’ll never know. It just goes to show that you need to look at the bottles of insulin when you put them in the pens! It wasnt as simple as it sounds, it was all new to me as it was a research study and the bottles were not familiar to me.
I survived the experience but would not recommend it to everyone!
Im 37 years Type 1 and took a high does of Humalog thinking I was taking my lantus. I called in that day. did not leave my juice. Did you know in order to administer insulin in the hospital the nurse requires a two person verification. Make sure your Dr. or CDE is aware of the situation. Also make sure that who ever lives with you (if that is your situation) is aware on how to react if needed.
Tuesday…24 hours later after my absent-minded dose…
Thank you everyone for your e-mails. It was quite reassuring to hear from others who knew exactly what I was talking about from personal experience. I’m happy to say I only had one lowish moment around 6 p.m. Other than that, I have been fine.
Along those lines–in the course of these 32 yrs as T1, I’ve tried the pump (as early as 1984), pens, syringes…and am soon to be returning to the pump, along with a CGM. I find that I am somewhat ambivalent about the great technology that arrived at my doorstep recently. The last year I’ve been very “low tech”-just Lantus and syringes or pens. It’s been so nice to not have anything clipped to my waist!
Do any of you find yourselves going through alternating phases of wanting just the basics, and then being motivated to integrate all the latest equipment? I guess one mood is low key, attentive but not hyper to the diabetes, and the other is more proactive and aggressive and involved, and diabetes plays a bigger part in one’s daily life.
I guess maybe this should be a new discussion…