Insulin dose

J

J

Anyone put on insulin and had a big increase in dose? My dr started me at 10units and it wasn’t working so upped it to 16. Just seems like such a big increase but I also don’t know much about insulin in general.

143 views • 1 upvote • 11 comments

COMMENT (11)

Ca

Posted at
I started at 10, am up to 36 and need to go up again (for overnight insulin) and am only 25 weeks. If your numbers were still a good way off target the larger increase is warranted. I have guidelines for adjusting my own dose and I go up by 3 after 2 days off target, so one bump up by 6 isn’t crazy

Ka

Posted at
My fasting numbers have been the issue too bc I've been pretty strict w diet... They just increased me to 16 today so I hope i have the sams success as you at getting better numbers!

Ch

Posted at
I started at 18, then they upped it to 22, then they upped it to 28. I don't know what's normal but that's where I am

J

J • Feb 9, 2019
I’m finally getting good fasting numbers so I guess it was the right thing to do. I just don’t know a whole lot about it.

Na

Posted at
Hard to say without knowing the timeframe. I started with 8 units over night in mid-December and I’m now at 16. Just a few more days until my due date so I assume that’s where I will stay. When they started me on 8 they were actually fairly sure it would turn out not to be enough, but wanted to try anyway. So I was up at 10 within less than a week. After that it increased more slowly, maybe every 3 weeks or so. It’s normal for your values to get worse once the pregnancy progresses. But I did find that diet still had a big impact, too. I know someone who was relieved when she got insulin because she took it as meaning she would no longer need to follow the diet - she needed a lot of insulin in the end. I try to still follow the diet as though I’m diet-controlled and do find that it makes a difference. Whenever I have a “cheat meal” for dinner I can tell that the amount of insulin I normally take is not sufficient for that kind of food. But that does mean that I have at least some control over how much insulin I need. The rest, though, is all hormones. Better to take more insulin than to risk affecting your baby.

J

J • Feb 8, 2019
Thank you! I’ll look into those!

Na

Nabi • Feb 7, 2019
It definitely takes some time in the beginning to get this established. I only ever had problems with the fasting number, too. It’s definitely trial and error. Many of the things that worked for other women on here, diet-wise, did not work for me. I would recommend reading about the dawn effect vs. Somogyi effect if you haven’t yet. By testing your levels around 2 a.m. you can get an idea of which one is causing your high fasting levels. For me it’s the dawn effect, which meant I have to eat an early low-carb dinner to positively affect my numbers and skip late snacks. But if your problem is the Somogyi effect it’s basically the opposite. It helped me to see that there is at least some explanation for why such different things work for different people. I tried all sorts of combinations of dinner and late snack until I figured out what works for me. And still, 3 weeks later I would be eating the same foods and get high numbers again. In the end you can only do so much when it’s mostly hormonal.

J

J • Feb 7, 2019
The 10 to 16 was after a week but I started the 16 last night and my fasting number was still not good. I guess it really is just trial and error. Even on the insulin I still watch my diet, the only number I have trouble is my fasting. I’m not sure if I should cut out or change my snack. It’s all frustrating to me now haha

Gi

Posted at
By the end of my pregnancy i was put on 24 units which i felt like was a lot. That was for lunch and dinner only.

Gi

Gina • Feb 6, 2019
I was pregnant with twins and had 2 placentas so my hormones were all out of wack! I delivered them at 30 weeks and by that time my diabetes was so out of control even with eating all the right foods

J

J • Feb 6, 2019
Mine is just a slow acting one at night to help with my fasting.