Stuid question about shed

Status
Not open for further replies.
Charliemeow

Charliemeow

Member Since 2010
Charlie will soon be starting on levemir and I have a question about the storage shed. Is it a literal thing or more of a figurative idea? The sticky states that before the body can really adequately use the insulin you must first fill the storage shed that is underneath the skin- making it sound literal- like a bubble of insulin in his skin. Does that mean I need to shoot in the exact same place every time? I really don't like that idea because...well, 1st: that's nearly impossible, and 2nd: injecting too frequently in the same spot has been shown to cause tumors. So I'm hoping it's more of an analogy- that the extra "shed" insulin is actually in the blood stream instead of literally being help under the skin. Any clarification you can offer is appreciated
 
Hi Claudia,

You will still vary the shot location.

Let me see if I can find the video on the "shed." I posted it in Lori's condo a while back.

brb
 
As Beth said, you will still want to vary the injection site. It is not necessary to shoot into the same place repeated to build the shed....the insulin is stored under the skin wherever it is injected and absorbed slowly into the bloodstream. Lantus and Levemir are slightly different in the way they are stored and released, but the action is basically the same with both insulins. Here's a link to an explanation...the video didn't work for me for some reason?

http://www.diabetesclinic.ca/en/diab/2t ... evemir.htm
 
Lantus and Levemir are part of a group of medications that are, in pharmacological terms, called "depot" medications. What these type of drugs do is form a deposit so that the drug can be slowly dissolved and used by the body. Some drugs of this type can take weeks to be used (for example, there is a drug for osteoporosis that you take once a month) or with Lantus and Lev, the shed doesn't have that kind of duration. What differentiates Lantus and Lev from other kinds of insulin is that the formation of the depot, or shed, allows it to dissolve over the course of at least 12 hours giving considerably greater duration of action of the insulin and allowing it to be much gentler in it's action. If you were to compare this with Humulin N, which doesn't form a depot, the insulin is very quick to onset and is metabolized quickly, as well-- it hits like a ton of bricks and then is gone often by 6 or 8 hours.
 
Thanx for asking that question because it was nice to read the replies as a fellow newbie starting out on Lantus! We are currently "building the shed" over here with my kitty. Just started Lantus yesterday. Good luck!!!
 
Not a stupid question at all. I think we are all a little vague on exactly how it works. That video was great, it froze up on the broadband setting, but worked fine on the modem.
 
Thank you all so much. It makes more sense now! Learning a whole new insulin is gonna be tricky. Especially since they don't come much easier than prozinc which we are currently using. I need to unlearn that and relearn levemir.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top