For years (minus the years I was on an insulin pump) I have always taken two daily injections of Levemir (long-acting insulin). This was always prescribed by my endos and I never thought about doing things differently because they told me that the insulin was supposed to be taken every 12 hours. (And good little girls always listen to their doctors, don'tchaknow?)
I recently saw another member of one of my groups talk about how she takes 3 smaller injections of Levemir every day and, after noticing that my blood sugars always rise before I'm due for another shot, I asked her how I would go about doing what she does to smooth out my small unwanted blood sugar rises. She explained that your dosage depends on your weight and gave me the amounts of Levemir and times of the day that she takes her injections. I've decided to try taking my shots at slightly later times than she does since I don't seem to have dawn phenomenon (when your blood sugar rises during the early hours of the morning). She also gave me a helpful link to a website that explains how to do basal checks, which I intend to do more of to make sure everything is correct.
Based on my current injection doses, here's what the change would look like:
Currently:
13 units at noon
9 units at midnight
9 + 13 = 22 / 3 = 7.3
7 units at 12am
7 units at 8am
7 units at 4pm
This means that instead of taking 2 injections of 13 and 9, I would take 3 injections of 7 units every 8 hours. Based on my weight, I could even go as low as 3 injections of 3 units each. I would of course do basal checks/experiments to make sure I am taking the right amount. A rise or fall of 30 mg/dl would indicate not enough or too much insulin in my basal for that time frame.
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