Switching Program Tonight!

[drewgolden]

Wish me luck!

Tonight I toss my bottle of Humalog and Humulin L and switch to Lantus and Novolog.

Initial thoughts:

Happy about the pen. I was a big user of the NovoPen when it first came out, but was more a fan of the pen and less of the big guage needles and of the Novolin. I just got the NovoPen 3. Close enough to the original pen, plus I like the 3ml capacity of the vials. 1.5ml needed changed too frequently.

I am very excited about not having to juggle a vial, syringe and case on my knee. This is going to be much simpler.

Humalog to Novolog. Should not be too big a switch.

Humulin L to Lantus. I hope this is not a big switch.

BIG SHOCK: Lantus is CLEAR! Oh, my, goodness! I always knew the night stuff as it was cloudy; Lantus is clear! My brain hurts! How is this possible?

OBSERVATION: Lantus bottle is shaped different than the Lilly bottles. Is this on purpose?

I am happy to stick it to Lilly. I am kind of mad they dropped L.

Humm, I should be mad at Novo as well. ******, I loved that original pen!

I am dialing my doses as follows:

Going from 15u of Humulin L to 12u of Lantus. Will test every three hours and track meals to see if my basal coverage is good. As I inject at night, I will wake up at 1-2am to check basals.

Novolog dosing? I am going to assume it's the same as Humalog and take my chances (and have LOTS of sweets with me.)

One question:

When looking at Novo's website, it looks like they have an improved pen, the NovoPen 4. Is this available in the US? I froogled around and could not find it. How can someone in the states get their hands on it?

Thanks for all of the support. Having been a diabetic for 20 or so years, I have found myself somewhat dated in my treatment. Coming here and reading all of your posts convinced me I *WAS* dated and needed to get of my @$$ and see an Endo. Well, I could not be more pleased. So many new toys, new insulins, and SHORTER THINNER NEEDLES!

It's like emerging from a time capsule!

drew

http://faultandperformance.com/pens.jpg

[Tokyo Cate]

Good luck with the transition! You will likely have to make a few corrections initially, but my experience says that it is quite a good tool. My A1C dropped quite quickly without huge fluctuations in blood sugar.

I love the pens. I now have a disposable Humalog (which I hate because of the waste), the NovoPen 300 Demi (which I love because it is colourful, has a good weight to it, has a satisfying click and delivers in 0.5 unit doses) and the Lantus OptiClik Pen (which I would like better if it fit the pen needle that I like).

I don't know if this is an obvious pen trick or not, but when I first started using the pen, the inner shield annoyed me because it was so small and always wound up falling somewhere or if I could find it, it was too finicky to put it back on the needle after the injection. But now, as soon as I place the needle on the pen and remove the shield, I place the shield in the pen cap so that when I recap the needle, all the waste is together in one tidy spot.

[Cinnabon]

wish u the best of luck. U r better running a lil high as you adjust and get used to the new insulins, which by the way are great. Please keep us posted if u can...

[drewgolden]

Yesterday was very apprehensive. I was cautious and measured my blood 20 times, or rouguly once per hour. Far too aggressive, but I was cautious nonetheless. Ran a little higher than I liked to; and had one 'oh ****' moment when I tested and realised I dropped to 35.

So after my first day, I have run through all of the numbers and have calculated out the following:

1.) 1u novolog drops my sugar 15mg/dl

2.) 1u novolog seems to handle roughly 12g of carbs going into my mouth

So based on those assumptions, I will try exact dosing today.

Just a gut check: novolog appears to work very much the same as humalog; with perhaps a faster 'kick' after injection. The charts appear to suggest it's fully powered within a half hour. That's pretty cool.

I think the Lantus is also a near match with Humulin L; without that nice LARGE curve 6 hours in. Eventually, when I get a pump I assume I can adjust the basal rate for morning wake up to simulate that curve.

Oh, and the pen is a must. It's amazing. Fits nicely into jeans pocket and is very easy to handle with one hand. Significantly different that then whole "kit" I had carried for the past nearly 20 years.

drew

[Cinnabon]

Very nice...
You have done a great job. As the days go by your body will react to perfecting this. So glad u are ok and everything worked out well.:congrats:

[DeusXM]

Just a gut check: novolog appears to work very much the same as humalog; with perhaps a faster 'kick' after injection. The charts appear to suggest it's fully powered within a half hour. That's pretty cool.

I think the Lantus is also a near match with Humulin L; without that nice LARGE curve 6 hours in. Eventually, when I get a pump I assume I can adjust the basal rate for morning wake up to simulate that curve.

That sounds very consistant with the suggested action profiles for each of those insulins. You must have a very good understanding of your control and how to interpret your monitoring results.

Oh, and the pen is a must. It's amazing. Fits nicely into jeans pocket and is very easy to handle with one hand. Significantly different that then whole "kit" I had carried for the past nearly 20 years.

I keep telling people this, but everyone seems to have trouble understanding just how brilliant the Novopen is. Do you use a pen for Lantus too?

When looking at Novo's website, it looks like they have an improved pen, the NovoPen 4. Is this available in the US? I froogled around and could not find it. How can someone in the states get their hands on it?

I think it's still only available in Scandanavia at the moment, or possibly the EU. In any case, from what I've seen of it you're not really missing out too much. The Novopen 4 is supposed to be even sturdier than the 3 but I think it's also slightly bulkier, so really it's a question of how much punishment you give your pen in relation to how portable you need it to be. I find the 3 to be a good balance - it's tough as **** anyway and dead easy to carry around. I've only ever broken one and that was when it popped out of my pocket on a fairground ride and smacked onto the concrete and metal below. And even then it was still usable; there was just a small crack in the plastic cart housing but the needle, cart and dosing mechanism were all fine.

Still, I get free Novopens anyway so it doesn't really matter if one gets bust. I think I've got about 5 or six of the things hanging around because I tend to get a new one whenever I go on holiday so I've got undamaged pens for travelling.