August 23, 2005
Daily Care, Insulin
Question from Kansas City, Missouri, USA:
My 21 year old daughter has had type 1 diabetes since she was 4 years old. Three years ago, she started using an insulin pump. Last night, her pump malfunctioned and she was unable to use it. Another pump was to arrive the following day. However, we have never had a back up plan if the pump broke. We ended up doing injections of NovoLog to get us through until the pump arrived this morning. If we had been unable to get the pump so quickly, what would be our other option for injections? Her daily basal rate is 29 units of NovoLog. And, if it involves long acting insulin, would we need a prescription for it?
Answer:
At our center, we routinely talk about a back-up plan for pump malfunction. Patients are told to have short- and long-acting insulin on hand and available for such a problem. This should also be part of an emergency plan for traveling. The usual manner for making an adjustment to intermittent injections is to use your basal insulin dose for long-acting insulin and bolus dose for short-acting insulin. Since there are several ways to make these adjustments, I suggest you contact your physician supervising your pump therapy for their recommended dosing schedule and any prescriptions you might need.
JTL
