Lantus - Splitting

I've seen a lot lately about it being the best thing people have done to split their lantus - I know we are all different. I've also read an article somewhere that lantus can be a split injection.

I'm currently taking 18u of Lantus once a day at bedtime & seriously considering doing a split.

I'm unsure whether to start with a straight 50/50 split 12 hours apart or do I take slightly more when I do the am dose with it being during the day & being more active then slightly less when I do the evening dose & being less active.

Any help would be appreciated x

Hi,

I was taking 18u of Humulin i like you once a day at bedtime, then did the Dafne course and my dose is spilt now and it was the best thing for me. I take 12u at 8am and then I take 10u at 10pm and my control is great now.

Maybe you could do a straight 50/50 and see how things go.

I split my Lantus early last year after consistently getting higher BGs between dinner and bed time. I tried to up my QA at dinner, but that just gave me hypos. Splitting gave me stable BGs all day. I split 50/50 and it worked well.

Oh, and when you split, what you do is drop a unit at night, and add a unit in the morning each day until you get your 50/50 split. Don't just drop half your evening basal at night and add it in the morning or you will have wicked highs. If you are on 18 units, then it will take 9 days to get to the split, and a couple of more days after than before things stabilise so don't panic too much if you find your BGs are a little out of control over that period.

You may also find after you have split that 18 per day is not enough (because I assume that you are running out of basal now), so you will need to up your basal a little, probably to 10 units in the morning and 10 units in the evening.

All the best with it.

Warwick.

Hi,

I switched from Lantus to Levemir few years ago, but as far as I remember my Lantus was one dose a day before bed as it worked for 24 hours. I have am/ pm doses of Levemir now.

Cheers

Oh, and when you split, what you do is drop a unit at night, and add a unit in the morning each day until you get your 50/50 split. Don't just drop half your evening basal at night and add it in the morning or you will have wicked highs. If you are on 18 units, then it will take 9 days to get to the split, and a couple of more days after than before things stabilise so don't panic too much if you find your BGs are a little out of control over that period.


So to clarify I'm on 18u at the moment then
1st night take 17u & just 1u the following morning
2nd night take 16u & 2u the following morning
3rd night take 15u & 3u the following morning
4th night 14u & 4u........
5th night 13u & 5u.......
6th night 12u & 6u......
7th night 11u & 7u........
8th night 10u & 8u.......
9th night 9u & 9u ?

Now could the same be done like this if you were going back onto a single dose?

Yes, and yes. You have it exactly right.

I heard you can't split Lantus. I had tried taking it just at night for a while and then in the morning for a while but it really didn't work for me. During my dafne course this week I have switched to taking Levemir twice a day. It's early days and I'm only on 10 units twice a day to start with but the truth is Lantus didn't work for me. If you want to try a split insulin I recommend you ask your healthcare team about switching to Levemir or another type that CAN be split.

I think you received bad advice there. My endo had no issue with me splitting Lantus, and it worked fairly well for me. The reason I switched to Levemir was that I do long-distance endurance events and I had to mke changes to Lantus about three days prior to my events to avoid hypos during the events. Levemir seems to be better at responding to changes.

Hi there,
Few weeks ago I went to my GP for some infection I had. We together reviewed the history of my HAB1c. Surprisingly my HAB1c were much better than when I started using the Levemir, I have been using the Levemir for two or three years now. I talked to my GP about switching to Lantus. Back then I use to have between 17 to 22 unit of Lantus at night and she suggested to start with 17 and keep monitoring my BG levels and adjust accordingly. At the moment I take 12 units of Levemir in the morning and 15 unit at night. I got the lantus today from the chemist and was very excited to start using it but now I am a bit worried and don't know where to start from. I am worried that the 17 unit to start with will put my levels high during the day and I am not sure when it is the best time to inject, specially after reading the posts about the Lantus. Any advice please?

Muna