Dual bolus for certain foods - just a thought

[Gary_W]

Hi all,

Many folks seem to think that for 'difficult' foods (lasagne, pasta, Chinese etc) that doing a bolus before eating and then another after an hour or two is a good thing. I've done it myself and had a fair amount of success. The only times I've not had success with this is due to forgetting to do the second bolus. I guess I should use a watch alarm etc to make sure, but just had a thought.

I always inject Novorapid in my arms these days as they are the fastest sites for me; 4 hours and it's absolutely all gone which works well for the bulk of my diet. At 6pm last night I injected in my stomach for a change and it took until midnight for all the insulin to go; I almost did a correction shot at 9.30 but thought I'd wait and see. I was back down to 5.2 at midnight (94), and woke up this morning at exactly the same level (I'm soooo glad my basal is working so well these days).

As my stomach takes 6 hours and my arm takes 4, how about next time I have a pizza fetish I whack half into my stomach and half into my arm before the meal? Is there any reason not to do this, as it may do what the dual bolus is doing without the usual factor of my brain letting me down for bolus #2 :)

Gary

[ant hill]

As my stomach takes 6 hours and my arm takes 4, how about next time I have a pizza fetish I whack half into my stomach and half into my arm before the meal? Is there any reason not to do this, as it may do what the dual bolus is doing without the usual factor of my brain letting me down for bolus #2 :)

Gary

Gary, since that it takes 6 hours in the stomoch is to do another one again there for bolus #2 three hours later so over the whole duration it lasts 9 hours! As for reminding yourself i have a mobile phone that has a countdown alarm and it's quite handy. ;)

[June91]

I think it's a bit risky, as I am sure that insulin action is not at all that consistent depending on injection site. You would probably have to do a lot of tests, and I don't think it's worth it either. Much safer to go with the alarm.

[REDLAN]

can't see any reason not to do this - it would certainly be worth the experiment - and it would save having to do a double bolus if it works.

just keep a careful eye out for the pizza effect (",)

quite frankly I'm amazed that you can get 6 hours action out of your insulin.

I find mine is pretty much all gone by 3 hours.

[LancetChick]

That's essentially what I do, but I use Regular insulin for the 6 hour action, mixing it with Humalog or using it alone depending on what I'm eating. It's odd, though, that your stomach area is delaying absorption to that degree.... have you got lipohypertrophy?

[REDLAN]

last time I had some education...

I was told that the stomach was the fastest absorbed area , due to good blood flow.

although I have learned one thing from this forum - there is no one fits all.

[Gary_W]

That's essentially what I do, but I use Regular insulin for the 6 hour action, mixing it with Humalog or using it alone depending on what I'm eating. It's odd, though, that your stomach area is delaying absorption to that degree.... have you got lipohypertrophy?

No, but I do have loads of lipoma's. These started turning up about 5 years before I was diagnosed as type 1, so way before I ever started injecting.

I never inject near one of these sites, so figure that they shouldn't play a part.

Redlan - I was always told that stomach was fastest as well, but not in me it isn't. For me, it's arms, stomach, legs then rear end. For the lantus, I always use legs as again I know what it does there. I am overweight, but not badly so (I have about another 14lbs to go to be considered normal weight for my height, so I'm probably better than average) so my middle definately has more meat on it than my arms so perhaps that is it...

Gary

[Funnygrl]

You can also use R insulin if you want a more prolonged absorption. I don't really notice a huge difference in injection site absorption speeds with my Novolog.