Monday, May 25, 2009

Absorption

On Saturday evening before I took my Lantus, my blood sugar was 145 and it had been a couple of hours since supper. Two hours later as I was heading for bed, I checked my blood sugar again and it was about 220. So I took 2.5 units of Novolog and went to sleep. In the morning when I woke up, my blood sugar was 236. I corrected with another 2.5 units of Novolog and went back to sleep. Two hours later I was 179. I had breakfast with a correction (total of 8 units Novolog), and then went to help out an elderly couple that I visit most Sunday mornings. I walked to their place and back, a mile each way. When I got home I was 204, so I took 2 more units of Novolog. Went and volunteered at the library, shelving on my feet. When I left I was in the 230s again. Took 2 units of Novolog, walked a mile to the Clark bus, walked a half mile after getting off the bus and went to a friend's house. Two hours later I was 159, and an hour after that, before supper, I was 136. I ate a very small supper and injected for it. When I got home and got ready to take that night's Lantus, I was again in the 230s. I took 2.5 units Novolog and pondered.

I had a problem. That day I'd taken 9.5 units of correction and 10 units to eat with for Novolog. The previous night I had taken 10 units of Lantus. I knew that I hadn't had nearly enough basal insulin in my body that day. I would have thought that I hadn't taken the Lantus at all, except that I remembered taking it- it had been a particularly painful injection. Should I take more basal insulin on the chance that I'd merely grown very insulin resistant? Should I take less, banking on the possibility that that one shot had absorbed poorly? I took 10 units of Lantus.

Two hours later falling asleep I was 124, and when I woke up this morning I was down to 61. While this doesn't prove the hypothesis that Saturday night's Lantus injection wasn't absorbed well (if at all), it strongly supports it. This is the first time that I've really thought I had insulin that wasn't being absorbed (excluding during that I-PORT trial), and I'm wondering what (if anything) I should do to prevent a similar future occurance.

2 comments:

Vivian said...

Jonah, is it possible that the site where your insulin is being injected is knotted from previous injections? Sometimes that can cause a barrier that prevents absorption. Keep asking the questions and figuring it out, you are awesome. I have a gift for you on my blog, hope you can stop by and check it out.

Viv

Anonymous said...

thanks