Konnichiwa (^_^)/)~
I'm Jay, a 17 year old type 1 diabetic. About 8 months ago, December 2012, I was diagnosed. Since then, I've been on Lantus and Humalog, but because I'm honeymooning, I only take Lantus nightly. However,recently, I've been failing to see the purpose of this. WIthout Lantus, I'm perfectly fine. My blood sugars stay relatively low, I stay steady throughout the day and my post-prandials are fine. With Lantus, I wake up low (in the 50's), I constantly go low throughout the day and I have to snack all day just to avoid going low. I reduced my doses to 15 units to no avail. Anything below this would be pointless right? I understand that not taking Lantus can cause my honeymoon to end sooner, but other than this, I see no downsides to not taking my Lantus. Any advice?
Hi Jay: 15 units is actually a lot of insulin during the honeymoon period--when I was in the honeymoon, I couldn't possibly have taken that much basal. On TuDiabetes, some people have mentioned starting off at 3 units per day of long-acting (Lantus or Levemir). So yes, you can definitely go lower than 15 units per day and have it be effective, and really it's whatever it takes to maintain good blood glucose control without too many lows. I would definitely talk with your doctor about this. Best of luck to you!
I went for about a year and a half without lantus and currently only take 7 units once a day. For me, it’s definitely not pointless. I still have enough natural function left to maintain
Fasting levels in the normal range with just the little extra help from the small dose of lantus. I’d consider reducing your lantus doses significantly but staying on it even if its just 3-4 units a day… If you are waking up in the 50s and going through your day worrying about lantus driving you low, you are taking too much. I firmly believe though that small doses of lantus are prolonging my honeymoon. Sorry about the split reply… iPhone…
Since you are in your honeymoon, your Lantus "supplements" your own insulin. You actually will slow down and turn off your own natural insulin production when you take Lantus. So I believe that taking Lantus may actually be better than not taking Lantus even if you still have good blood sugars because it allows your beta cells to "rest."
That being said, you should adjust your Lantus to a level which maintains a normal blood sugar around the clock during times of fasting. Going low between meals is a sign that your basal (Lantus) is set too high. A good way of establishing is a basal test. This is described by Gary Scheiner quote well on his site. Gary also has a very good book, "Think Like a Pancreas" which is available at many public libraries. I'd very much recommend that you use these techniques to work with your doctor low appropriately lower and adjust you Lantus dosing.
Then your dosage is off. There's definitely a point to it or they wouldn't have prescribed it. I was diagnosed at 14 (almost 4 years ago), and took a nightly 9u plus boluses for about a year. I would try dropping your Lantus even more significantly, even to 11 or 12 units. Totally ride that honeymoon phase as long as you can, the real deal sucks.
hi jay! when i started with this D malarchy almost 2 years ago, they started me on 15 units of lantus and i had to go down to two units for a while. its creeping back up and now i do 6 units of levemir at night and 2units in the morning. 2 units seems ridiculous, but got to be done.
i would agree with posters to reduce your lantus little by little till you can wake up with non-hypo numbers.
15 units of Lantus is not small. It sounds entirely appropriate (especially given the continual hypos) to reduce the dose. Use the words "continual recurring hypoglycemia" if it helps you get attention from your docs to help you adjust the dose. Eventually you will be able to tweak doses on your own.
Hi Jay,
I reduced my dose of lantus after dka until am hypos went away. It won't be pointless to take lantus because you need a background insulin to cover you between meals. If your bg is good in between meals and overnight and you're going hypo I would try to reduce the dose by one unit each few days and see if that helps the hypos. Many people in the honeymoon are on very low doses, is is very variable. I was having some weight gain with lantus and spiking when it ran out so I switched to levemir. Now I'm on 8 units at night and 3 units am. I had reduced it again a bit since due to some reason I was having hypos, maybe the change in the seasons.
Lantus can help your beta cells recover, help protect them and rejuvinate them hopefully, a low dose is a good idea even if it seems you don't need it.
Ok 
thanks guys
I’ll try slowly decreasing my dose nightly until I no longer wake up low.
One thing to always remember about basal is that while it says it lasts 24 hours, it actually lasts longer. So you should always look at several days before making any conclusions about a dose change. I generally look at a weeks worth of averages before deciding whether a basal change works.
hi jay, it definitely sounds like you need to back way off on the lantus but keep some, my other thought are you having a small bedtime snack with protein or fat, that has really helped prevent nighttime lows for my son something like crakers and cheese one piece of toast with peanut butter or something ...eventually as Jacob was coming out of his honeymoon period he would need a small amount of novolog with his bedtime snack and then just starting eating a big snack with more insulin...he is always hungry and craves carbs I don't know about you...he is 15. anyways best of luck it sounds like you are 'owning' your diabetes and thinking things through, just joining here will be a huge help for you, emotionally and with figuring out the day to day stuff. best of luck, amy