I have been struggling with my blood sugar rising from bedtime until breakfast time, gradually, so much that I will wake up at 2 a.m. and be high and need to do a Novolog correction.
Asked my Endo about it. He said that instead of taking all 25 units of Lantus at breakfast time, I should do 13 at breakfast, 13 at bedtime.
What do you all think?
I know it's technically only "licensed" as a 1-per-day dose, but on the other hand I have read about people who have had great control using the splitting up, twice per day strategy.
Split dosing is pretty common. It doesn't last a full 24 hours for some people.
Also, ask your doctor about recent research studies that show insulin is still effective when Lantus and short acting insulins are mixed in the same injection. Might save you a couple shots.
i agree splitting lantus is common, however, I am sure you are not supposed to mix Lantus with *anything* because it will interfere with the protein chains that cause it to be long acting. PLS check with a doctor.
Novo is working on a mixed long acting, but it's not Lantus. it'll have different licensing and literature. cheers and good luck.
I should have mentioned that my Endocrinologist suggested the idea in the first place, when I told him that my blood sugars were rising overnight.
He told me how to transition, and I tried doing Lantus twice a day for the first time yesterday, and I actually woke up a little low this morning! (which isn't perfect but, hey, splitting the Lantus seems to have worked for me).
I've been splitting my Lantus for the last few years. We tried for about 6months or so to make the single dosage work, but it became apparent that no matter what we did with the actual dose, it wasn't lasting 24hours.
I don't think I have met IRL a single person on Lantus who isn't splitting it come to think of it...
Before I was moved on to Levemir, I discovered that I also had to split dose Lantus because I found that after taking it at around 10pm at night, it would run out around 2pm or 3pm the next day, making me high without fail for the evening. Not long after this discovery, my team suggested I try Levemir because it is one designed to be a split and I've never looked back.
You may have to do an odd type of split, like 8 u at bedtime and the rest in the morning. It doesn't work for 24 hours for some people and I'm positive (from my own experience) that it spikes, just like every other medication. When I worked during the day I would take it at 10am. Now that I work evenings, I don't take it until 11pm. I take a very low dose (9u) and get pretty good coverage. YDMV.