Could I ask you to start a new post when you want to start the R experiment? That way people can see that this is something new happening.
A few cautions first with R.
- To start, you will shoot R and Levemir at the same time. You don't want the R and L nadir to conicide and shooting at the same time is a good place to start with Levemir. As you gain more experience, you may find you can shoot R after nadir if the blood sugars are on their way up.
- Be very careful to keep track of which you are drawing and shooting. We have had people mix up the R and Lev doses and you don't want to shoot 22 units R! I used cartridges for Lev and a vial for R, so that helped distinguish the two of them. Some people put down different coloured sticky notes, one with R on it, one with L and lay the syringes with insulin on those sticky notes before shooting. Some always shoot the Lev first and R second. Try to come up with something that will help you to not mix them up.
- R you should shoot in the scruff. Levemir can shoot elsewhere.
- Don't change the Levemir dose when you are doing an R experiement and don't change the R and Lev doses at the same time.
- Maybe sure you aren't giving R on a cycle where the bounce is about to break. The goal with R is to lower the blood sugar about 100 points, to give the Levemir a lower number to work with. If it's a bounce breaking cycle, the extra momentum of R plus the bounce breaking could be a steeper drop and cause yet another bounce.
- As you can see, learning when not to use R is equally as important as learning when to use R, which is why it helps to have someone "sit" with you the first couple of times.
I see a PMPS listed on the spreadsheet - have you shot the Lev yet? If it's too late now, could we start the experiment in the morning for you (my afternoon). Not sure I have figured out exactly when your shot time is yet so I can be around. What is your shot time in Istanbul time. I can always Google when that is.
When you shoot R, you want to test every hour after that for 4-5 hours. You need to figure out R's onset, nadir and duration. Typically onset is +2 and it lasts for 4 hours. Neko wasn't typical and everything was later. Once you figure out what the R cycles look like with a couple of experiments, you can lay the curve on top of the Lev curve to see other times it might be safe to give R.
Over time you'll build an R scale - basically it tells you what dose to give based on the blood sugar values at the time. Sandy had a great
R scale in Black Kitties spreadsheet. Note that it changed over time and she was using Lantus.