SPLITTING LANTUS DOSE

Hi all,
Seeing I cant get much help from my Practice nurse at the G.P, ( I think I know more than her) I was wondering if any of you lovely people can help?

I'm on around 18units Lantus which I do full dose at 6.00am... but I find if im more active than expected etc I cant alter it obviously and end up eating more!

So do you think if a split it for teatime at 6.00pm, maybe just start with a couple of units first, which blood sugar do I check for the teatime lantus?.. I know the morning one check is late afternoon .. but when is the teatime one?
Hope you can give me some guidance?
Many Thanks Chez

Which Quick Acting insulin do you take CHEZPEZ? Please tell us how many Blood Glucose tests do you do a day?
Regards
Garry

Hi Chez

I'm also on a single daily dose of Lantus for the last 5 years or so (which I take around 11pm at night) plus Novorapid doses at each mealtime/snack. If I was taking Lantus at the same time as you I'd work out my 6pm dose based on what my blood sugar is at 6am the following morning as compared to my bed time blood sugar and work towards getting it to a level result. If that doesn't work well after a reasonable period, could I suggest talking to a diabetes specialist nurse about changing to a different type of long-acting insulin - maybe Levemir? That sometimes works better for people who have variable levels of physical active on different days of the week, and is often easier to manage. Hope that helps. If you think I'm just talking rubbish then ignore me. Good Luck.

Kind Regards

Dave

Lantus is a 24 Hour Basal Insulin.... splitting it will probably most likely result in a stacking situation. The only real reason you would split dose is if you are aware (like I was) that the lantus was only lasting 18 hours... In which case, you might be better off switching insulins instead

Thanks for your replys, I've been slowly spiltting my Lantus and its been so much better! I have split it before under instruction of Diabetes specialist nurse about 4 yrs ago, I stopped coz I split it before bed and breakfast and found if I was out, it was difficult to inject at nightime so ended up putting full dose in morning, but it just didnt work for me, I couldnt get my ratio's right... anyway so far so good with the split, feel much better!
Many thanks again
Chez

Hi Chez

Good news that you're making progress. Most importantly - you're feeling better than you did before. That's always good to hear. If it goes wrong again while you're splitting it keep in mind about considering a different type of insulin.

Good Luck

Dave

Have to agree with the other posts, if you want to split your background insulin then you should be switching to Levemir which is often used in split doses, Lantus is known to last longer which is why not many people split it. If you are needing to split it then its probably more than just exercise that is causing the issue.

Hi I am a new Dafne graduate since May and use Lantus as my BI. Was taking 20 units in morning but started splitting 10 am and 10 before bed. This resulted in am low BG so reduced gradually. Have now settled down at 8units am and 6 units before bed and this has resulted in good am BG's and fewer hypos during day so am very pleased that I tried it, though accept it might not be right for someone else.

I split my Lantus when I found that my BGs were rising post dinner, but increasing QA always gave hypos. It worked well for me.

I've since switched to Levemir which worked better for about 15 months with my active lifestyle, but for the last couple of months every injection of Levemir leads to painful lumps which last about a week (even brand new injection sites), so I appear to have developed an allergy to Levemir or the preservative that it uses, and I expect to go back on Lantus in August when I next see my endo.