Well, I made that FAMOUS mistake last night. I prepared dinner, my daughter gave herself her shot, and i was cleaning up when i realized, I PUT THE WRONG INSULIN IN THE SYRINGE!! I put 6 units of Lantus in the syringe instead of 6 units of Humalog!!! My heart dropped! The first thing i did was call the emergency after hours number. Explained my situation and asked for a doctor to call me back ASAP! Guess what, 25 minutes later no one had called back. So, I called for a 2nd time (which i feel is totally unacceptable!). We have diabetic (excuse me Type 1 diabetic) children, i feel if/when we call an emergency number someone weither it be a doctor or nurse, but someone should call back ASAP. Anyways, (just needed to vent for a second) I again explained to the operator my situation. She told me to stay on the line and she connected me directly to a doctor at the hospital (now why wasn't that done the first time). Well, long story short we got my daughters insulin straightened out and the doctor told me her numbers maybe a little weird today but not to panic. She also told me NOT to "beat myself up" over it because it is one of the most common mistakes people make...I'm one of those people that if i can learn from my mistake then i won't beat myself up over it. And TRUST ME i did learn from it. The first thing i did after getting my daughter back situated and eatting was to totally seperate the two insulins all together. One is on one side of the frig and the other is on the other side......I still just can not believe it did that. I know now she is OK, but i was so scared but i knew i had to keep calm for her because she would have paniced if mommy paniced....I also learned that when it is time to give her her shots, then mommy can NOT multi-task (i'm so famous for it).. This takes all attention and this is something that i can't make a mistake at....
So am i the only one who has done this, or can someone make me feel alittle better and let me know i'm not alone :)
OMG, I fail to pay attention when I take my insulin ALL the time. It's like driving -- it becomes "motor memory" and you do it so automatically that you zone out. Consider this to mean that you've become such an expert at drawing up syringes that it's automatic, lol.
I always tell myself to focus but still forget. I try to make it a habit of glancing at my pen needle before I push it down, but it's not foolproof.
In an extreme emergency, the hospital can always give her a dextrose drip. Once I took a full dose of NPH (my old insulin in college) and proceeded to throw up with the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down. The hospital was very helpful and I survived without a low!
Years back-Almost happened-I caught it before giving it... I remembered seeing this in blogs. I looked for you--title Wrong insulin by bedi---page14. others talk about it too-don't be to hard on yourself about it. I had to do what you said and put my focus just on that....
So far no but I am always scared I will. I have bent a needles while drawing the insulin and my hubby poked himself after drawing up the first insulin Riley gets and had to dump it. Other than that so far we are good.
i've taken novorapid when i meant to take lantus before. and I don't remember it, but I'm pretty sure my mom's done that before when I was little and she did my shots for me. i've even gone to give myself a needle while cross-legged(was playing a game on the floor) and dropped the needle by mistake and went right into my inner thigh! (this was before i got the 8mm short needles, it was one of the long needles).
It happens; the only really important thing is that you realized it the mistake, and were able to deal with the situtation, even though it took a bit of effort it sounds like to get the information you needed.
We have 2 pens for our son. One is orange for Novorapid and one is green for Levemir both with 300 units in them. I must say I am surpise to see that some of you are using syringes...is this because you need to get very precise doses?
It is just what they started her on at the hospital novolog and nph. This morning she was on 25nph and 0.5 novolog. I dont even know if they make the insulin she is on it pens. Oh wait i think novolog is generic for novorapid but still no clue its what we got a script for.
Oh so not all insulins can be purchased for pens? Did not know that. it seems so much easier with pens. But the thing is we can only give him whole or half units, nothing more precise than that.
I wish we where given pens, but we where given syrenges and bottles of insulin. And of course the bottles just so happen to look exactly alike. The only difference is they have differnt colored labels. To be honest, i'm surprised i didn't make this MISTAKE sooner. But like i said, you can best believe i learned from it. I think we where also given insulin this way because she is so new and we are basically adjusting her units with every meal.
Update: I just talked to the babysitter and so far so good!! Shyla's numbers haven't been wacky (yet) she is staying around 100 so hopefully all will be well! The doctor said last night that around dinner time tonight is when we may see her numbers go crazy because she won't have as much of her Lantus in her, but by that time, she will be with mommy and you best believe i WILL be watching her like a hawk :)
BUT THANKS EVEYONE for your support and making me feel much better.....YOU ALL ARE THE BEST!!!.....
I'm pretty sure almost all insulins are available in pens, but probably fewer are available in the children's pens that allow for half doses. Also, I think hospitals generally start w/ syringes at diagnosis.
I love my pens compared to syringes, but each person finds different preferences (pump, shots, pens, etc). But, my Lantus and humalog pens are just differing shades of gray, so I've almost made mistakes before.
Just last month I made a mistake with insulin. I prepared Brandan's bedtime dose of Levemir (1unit), went to him in his daddy's lap, injected it........... then the thought occured to me: "I think I gave him Humalog!" I went to the drawer I keep his stuff in to see if the placement of the bottles would indicate which one I had given. No such luck. So here were the scenarios: If I gave him Humalog then he needed to eat something, but if I gave him Levemir and I make him eat 30g cbs (because he's on a 1:30 ratio) then his sugar is going to sky rocket. Plus, if I gave him Humalog then he still needs his Levemir. Since I had no way of knowing which one, it was inevitable that he was about to have a bad night. Since his BG was a little high before the mishap I decided not to make him eat. I checked him in 15 minutes and his BG was slightly higher, but in another 30 minutes it was on it's way back down. I checked every hour. Down, down it went. Humalog. But by then it was the middle of the night. He never went low, eventually he went high, higher. Yep, it was a bad night.
My lesson: Put the conversation on hold while preparing insulin.
We have 2 pens for our son. One is orange for Novorapid and one is green for Levemir both with 300 units in them. I must say I am surpise to see that some of you are using syringes...is this because you need to get very precise doses?
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We tried the pens for a while. The dosing was an issue because with the Humalog pen you can't give just .5 unit, which is what Brandan needs for most snacks and if I remember correctly the Levemir pen only does whole units. Plus, we were told to count to ten when injecting and Brandan ended up jerking his arm away and since the needle is so tiny it came out and scratched him.
Shortly after i was diagnosed, i switched by insulin around. I never switched it during the day, only at night. I didn't really get upset the first time, but then i did it twice in one week and got really upset! My mom was at work so when she got home i had to tell her and we new what to do by then so every hour we were checking all through the night. I went on the pump soon after that so i didn't have anymore mishaps like that, but when i went off the pump and went on lantus i forgot one time to take it and i had a horrible day. But it gets better with time and you learn from mistakes. I have been diabetic for five years and i kinda feel like a pro at it!
I dont think I will make that mistake with my daughters insulin. Her Lantus we draw up in to a syringe but her novolog is done from the pen so they are completely separate in how its done. Saves me one headache.
I remember the horrible days of mixing insulin. *shudders*. I take lantus twice a day, and then humalog as my short acting, though I also have it in the pen. I LOVE the pen. It does save a lot of confusion that way.
I gave myself my lantus-dose of Humalog - didn't realize it and went to work. Went into the wrong (and vacant building) and was found 4 hours later with my face black and blue, seizing. My then-fiance found me and glucagon was ineffective (my liver had given all it could) I was in a coma for the next 2-3 days because it took so much Ativan to make me stop seizing. Subsequently was catatonic for 2 weeks because the half-life of Ativan, especially in really high doses, is quite long.
Its very dangerous. The best way to avoid this is to use a pen for one insulin and a vial for the other.
I have not taken the wrong one yet but I have taken it then forgot how much I took. Did I even take the right amount, too much or too little. I am sure at some point I will take the wrong one I have been moments away from doing it. You are definitely not alone.