Posts Tagged ‘Lantis’

Lantis vs. NPH

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

When I was taking NPH, I would take 30 units in the morning, 30 units at lunch, 30 units at dinner time and 60 units when I went to bed. That’s 150 units a day of NPH. The NPH was just for the basal rate, and I then would take boluses of Humalog at each meal to cover the food I ate. At that time, I was also taking 1 unit of insulin for each 2 grams of carbs I was eating, so a cup of milk, which is about 12 cabs, would need 6 units of insulin to control the rise in blood sugar.

Over the last few years, I’ve increased my muscle mass, decreased my carb intake and actually had my body become more sensitive to insulin. I don’t weigh any less than I did, but my body seams to be working better. I now take 45 units of Lantis per day and am down to 1 unit of Humalog per 4 carbs. When I started with Lantis, it took more than 60 units per day to maintain an even blood sugar, without eating of course, for 24 hours. I can now do with 35-40 units on days when I ski, and 45-50 on normal days.

My insulin pump is now set to deliver around 42 units of Humalog in a 24 hour period, so the Lantis is pretty close. I don’t like to use the pump very much though, because I still have to put 300 units of insulin into the same hole over 3 days, and that still gives you really nasty infections.

What types of insulin are the rest of you using?

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Posted in Insulin Information | 2 Comments »

Insulin Pumps & Insulin Resistant Diabetics

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

The reason I don’t use a pump very often is because I’m insulin resistant. When I got my first pump in the 90’s, I was supposed to take 1 unit of insulin for every 2 carbs I ate. Since they don’t have any pumps that you can dial down that tight, I had to do the math before I took any insulin. It was a pain in the butt.

But worse, were the nasty infections in my belly. I know that I said that you could use insulin as a topical ointment for wound care, but when you try to pump 600 units of insulin into the same hole in 3 days, you can count on ending up with a nasty infection.

So, I tried using the insulin pump for basil stability only, and used a needle for boluses after eating. This actually worked pretty good, but there were still infections from time to time. But, putting 150 units through the tube, was way less stressfull on my body that pumping 600 units throug in the same 3 day period.

What I’m doing now is using Lantis, AKA the poor man’s insulin pump. Lantis is a 24 hour insulin that can give you pretty good daily control. You just take it once every 24 hours. lantis has done a great job of keeping my blood sugars under control without infections and the added expense of insulin pump supplies. (At $100.00 per bottle, I’m not sure where they came up with the “poor man’s insulin pump” BS, but it does work.)

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