June 18, 2003
Insulin Analogs, Insulin Pumps
Question from Newberry, Michigan, USA:
My daughter, who has been pumping for three years is going to a spiritual warfare camp where she will be doing intense physical exercise, so we have decided that she not use her pump and go on Lantus with Humalog for the week ( to minimize the chance of low blood sugars and to protect her pump). Since she has as never been on Lantus, I have several questions:
How long before the camp starts should she go on the Lantus?
What ratio to her total basal amounts of basal should we use?
What time of day would be better, day or evening for the Lantus?
Answer:
It usually takes about two weeks to make a transition from one type of insulin regimen to Lantus or vice versa, in my experience. This is all very individualized, of course. The more monitoring and the more consistency of timing and food, the easier will the transition be.
You should discuss this with your daughter’s diabetes team and figure out a system that works. It makes sense not to use a insulin pump with such an arduous camp project. Lantus coupled with boluses of Humalog or NovoLog should work fine.
SB
