Yes, you can eyeball a 2 1/4 unit dose, but trying to dose a 1/4 unit just doesn’t work. There is too much variability in how much insulin is in the tip of the needle and in the needle and actually makes it into the injection site.
1 Like
When this happened to me several years ago, it turns out I am allergic to Novolog. When I switched insulin, I never had another “pump bump.” In retrospect, I learned that the pump bumps also degraded the site absorption on the 2nd and 3rd days.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing this! I may just try Novolog (rather than Humolog for me), if I can get Kaiser to approve it…
If your pharmacy benefit favors one insulin brand, the use of the word “allergy” by the doctor will often grant you an exception to that policy.
On the other hand, be aware that you may be allergic to the infusion set itself.
1 Like
This is the evolutionary medicine explanation for type 2 diabetes. It’s a gene governed trait that was beneficial in starvation conditions and passed from parents to offspring.
Though it’s hard to do at night, insulin AND physical activity work much better than insulin alone. Barring that, I will often drink to get my BG down (just water or SF punch).
1 Like
With both my pregnancies, it was a 9-month game keeping my bloodsugars down. When there were tough times where stress levels were high, it was impossible until I calmed down. I like Humalog and have had it since 2001 but now that I was switched to Novolog due to insurance, I actually think Novolog is more effective in dealing with high carb meals and just normal living. The worst was two years after my first kid was born, I kept taking Humalog for three days straight dealing with high blood sugar that just would not come down. I finally had to go to the ER for insulin thru IV. When I came home, I kept with the same vial of Humalog and blood sugars went back up. I then realized the vial of whatever was in there was not working. To this day, I believe it was normal saline. So in my experience, there are a number of factors including high-carb meals that cause sugars to sky rocket, but I now believe Novolog works way more effectively. You might try to switch or at least buy a vial to test out… Live long and prosper!!
I know the experience but I wonder if this might be related to how we perceive the situation.
Imagine your house is flooded with water. The rate is one liter per minute. You have a pump with a rate of one liter per minute. The flooding starts and at the same time you start pumping. Your house will not fill with water - the pump handles the situation well.
Now imagine you came 20 minutes too late. You start pumping but 20 liters have already entered your house. Your pump just prevents that the level will rise further but the 20 liters will be there until the rate of new water will decline. All the time you will think that the pump is rather useless. But this is just your perception of the situation. Even with two pumps it just takes time - and we are rather impatient.
Basically it is just the fact that we do not see the carbs continually flooding into our blood stream. We also do not see how the liver is dumping additional glucose due to hormones and biorythm. Same is true if our blood glucose is already high. Adding carbs on top and hoping that the bolus and correction will handle the situation will just not cut it - at least not as fast and as efficient as we would like it to happen.
I hope this image makes sense.
And yes, in these situations I will stack insulin as well. I just can not stand to have high numbers 
1 Like
I agree–hard to do but sometimes necessary. On the other hand, I’ve done too much on occasion and have been woken up by the low alarm. I am going to talk to my PCP at my next appointment about Afrezza for those recalcitrant highs at night (and the occasional pizza). 
1 Like
I know your insulin resistance does increase as your blood sugar is high, but I am not sure on the science as to why.
However, it does make sense that if you would have taken an additional 5 units if you had judged correctly, it may take more than that to bring it down.
I am actually trying to fix my correction ratio right now by having different rates based on how high my bg is. I found that I was going low when i was under 200, but stayed high if i was over 250, so my ratio was only accurate if my bg was between 200 and 250.
The most effective advice I have seen to bring me off a “high” plateau lately that works is to give myself a corrective dose in my muscle versus dialing in more insulin from my pump and waiting… Thanks for the reminder that I need to also raise my basal dose due to insulin resistance when high. It is much easier to avoid a high than it is to correct one. I use symlin which has helped me to avoid the highs I used to get post eating but it does add another thing to try and calibrate my insulin dual wave dose.
1 Like
CatLady06, interested to hear what your PCP says about Afrezza, please let us know.
Thanks and good luck.
1 Like