hypoglycemia
hey everyone. just wondering if someone can help me on the
topic. ok heres my problem. im taking fast acting novolog
with the lantus injection at night, and im having frequent
episodes of hypoglycemia from the novolog, even though
my 2 hour post prandial reading is good. ill give you an
example of what happens.,..ill eat my quantity of food,
take the novolog, and 2 hours after, it will read something
like 120..which is great…BUT THEN…the novolog is still
working for another 2 hours, sort of, its tapering off,
so i get paranoid that my levels are about to drop, and
ill eat something, and this boosts my levels in the
hyperglycemic direction…
if anyone is on the fast acting insulin, can you tell me
what you do to avoid hypoglycemia?
your help is very much appreciaited…sincerely, bassem
March 14th, 2003 at 1:03 pm
Hi, Bassem,
I just went from Humulin L and R to NPH and Humalog a week and a half
ago. This is what I was taught. You should probably talk to a CDE
about your own case.
You expect 30% of your rapid-acting insulin to be gone every hour
after you take it. You learn how many grams of carbohydrate are
cancelled by each unit of insulin. In my case, I think it’s something
like 15, so I’ll use that in this example.
So it’s two hours after you injected 3 units of NovoLog. You know
that 60% of it has been used. It’s as if you had just injected 1
unit. You check your blood sugar, and it’s 120. If you’re afraid of
letting it drop below 120, you know that you only need to consume 15
grams of carbohydrate to cancel out all of the rapid-acting left in
your system.
But like I said, you need to work with a CDE or endocrinologist to
determine how your insulin works on your food.
Jerry
March 17th, 2003 at 8:43 pm
Bassem -
I was diagnosed last month with acute Ketoacidosis - I was at 412. I
have been going into a Diabetes Care Center in SEattle at the UW
Hospital. I have already had my insulin regimen changed 5 times.
How many units of Novolog do you take? How many times a day? I was
getting hypoglycemic so often ( about 2 times a day) that they
reduced
my Lantus dosage by 50%, and my Novolog doses have also been reduced.
Do you have a number to call your doctor/diabetes care team? I would
let them know asap about all your lows. They may reccomend something
that will help.
I also reccomend this book - “Beating the Blood Sugar Blues.” from
the
American Diabetes Association.