May 10, 2006
Insulin Analogs
Question from Fishers, Indiana, USA:
My insulin pump quit working this morning and my replacement pump will not be here for 26 hours. I’d like to use Lantus to cover my basal insulin needs. What is the dosage in comparison to my usual NovoLog dosage? My endocrinologist is at a conference, as is his wife, who normally would answer my question. The other CDE is out sick today. They are paging him, but I just wanted to know if I could figure this out for myself! I realize you may not answer this quickly enough to really help me today, but thought I would ask anyway since others may have the same issue I’m having.
Answer:
It is best to have an emergency plan worked out in advance with your physician. Our responses are not intended to be recommendations for treatment outside a physician’s care. In general, we suggest to our patients they take half of their total daily insulin as basal insulin. You can also approximate your basal need by adding up the amount of insulin you receive as basal insulin. The other half, the bolus insulin, would follow what you take with meals.
JTL
