mistake in insulin

[timmyo647]

what should I do if I give myself 25 units of regular humalog insulin at night when it should have been 25 units of lantus? this happened last night at 10:00 and at 10:30 I drank a lot of juice with sugar loaded in it, and about 8 oz. of peanut butter that I figured would be broken down later to aid me if this over abundance of insulin was to overcome me. I waited until 11:30 and was exhausted and fell asleep. I was awoken at 1:30 A.M. in a seizure, my body convulsing. If I were to make this mistake again, is there any thing I can take to offset such a gross input of regular insulin in my body. I am afraid of severe consequences of this mistake. I am thankful that it resulted in a seizure that I recovered from, but would not want to go through such an ordeal again, and am interested in any suggestions regarding this type of mistake. Thank you

[DennisIDDM]

Good advice so far by my Fellow t1's
Been there, done that myself
> I pre loaded My Insulins a week in advance
and when this happened?
1. I took a magic marker t the syringes with the Lantus in them
2. Later , I got the Insulin Pen for the Novalog..

Might add? Know your Sensitivity factor ..
ie: How much 1 unit lowers your Blood Sugar
and how many carbs to treat that 1 unit..

if you have a Sf of 1 unit treats A BG of 30
And 1 unit takes care of 10 carbs..x 25 units ? 250 carbs are in order,
and forget the Peanut butter trick..won't last long enough in your system.... get out Reg. Pop or Gaterade.. and a 3-5 candybars..( I use 3 Musketeers , easy to chew and disolve)

and yes, afraid you have to Set your alarm for every 2 hrs
and you took fast acting> Humalog, last about 2-3 hrs.. so you should be fine after waking up after 2 hrs and have a few more Candy bars..
Better to wake up with a 200 than go super hypo, don't you think?
Can take a CB to get the 200 back down..

In the Old days, using R and NPH? I used to put Duct tape on one to tell me which was which..even on the bottles and kept in seperate trays in the Frig..




I

[3ms]

My son, concerned that he may also do this made a point of keeping his Lantus in the bathroom where he gives himself the shot right before bed, and keeping his Humalog in his "pack" that he carries with him throughout the day.  Thus the two insulins never cross paths.

[JDRF Volunteer SG]

Oh, you poor thing!!!! I understand completely how easy it is to make a mistake like this. I've occasionally done similar things. You could set an alarm for 2 hrs. after you go to bed, and then reset it for every two hours if you do this again. Better to mess up your sleep than to have a severe or dangerous low. The exhaustion you felt may have been the blood sugar dropping quickly as the insulin worked... I feel it when dropping quickly even if the numbers are normal. And of course certainly if you do this again, call someone like a family member and have them call you the next morning to check on you.

I occasionally have to pull all-nighters for my work deadlines, and I feel tired the next morning but do OK if I can get a good sleep the next night. You would probably do fine setting the alarm every 2 hours -- this would prevent you from dropping dangerously low or at least you could catch it before it became dangerous.