What Should Be Done After Taking A Higher Dose Of Insulin?

Posted on Sat, 1 Aug 2015

Sat, 1 Aug 2015 Answered on

Mon, 24 Aug 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi am in Australia and recently changed to insulin for my type II

about to go to bed and accidently took 8 units of novarapid instead of the 12 of lantus. Have had some toast but not sure what else to do. BSL was 9.8 prior less than 2 hous post dinner
any advice?

Answered by Dr. Shehzad Topiwala (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Diabetes

Detailed Answer:
Sorry to note the error. It is not uncommon. As it is not the purpose of this forum to give you specific advice on exact treatment, I will tell you what I guide my patients in general when they commit similar mistakes. I ask them to check their glucoses with a home glucose monitoring device. This could mean every 15-20 minutes to every hour to every couple hours or even less often depending on how low their sugars are dropping if at all. Rach time it is below 5.5 it would be important to eat something like crackers or drink as glass of juice or non diet soda or milk. If they seem to remain pretty steady and stable in the safe range of 6 to 8.3 then it is probably ok to go by symptoms. Of course it is best to eat a meal and prevent the likelihood of a low sugar episode by rather being a touch high than low for one night.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar