Lance's New Regimen

We just made a change to Lance's insulin regimen. When he was diagnosed, the doctors put him on a combination of Humalog (H) and Novolin (N). The Humalog is a fast acting insulin and the Novolin is a long lasting one. It lasts about 10 hours but peaks after about 5 hours. So we used a combination of H and N in the morning. The H counteracts the breakfast carbs and the N would peak around lunchtime to counteract the lunchtime carbs. At dinner we gave an H-shot to counteract dinner carbs and before bed we gave an N-shot to keep him steady throughout the night.

This regimen worked well for us. It had one benefit in that he usually did not need a lunchtime shot. So at school or camp he just needed to be tested but did not need a shot unless he had unusually high blood sugar levels. It also has a drawback. His meal time and carb allotment had to be strictly enforced. All meals had to be at the same time every day. The amount of carbs per meal also had to stay the same. There was no room for adjustments.

We switched to a Lantus regimen. Lantus is a long acting insulin that stays in your system for 24 hours. This is the background insulin that Lance needs. Then, he must take an H-shot at every meal to counteract that meal's carbs. Now there is always a lunch time shot, but our schedule is a little more flexible. Meals do not have to be at the exact same time every day. The amount of carbs can be varied slightly and adjusted for with the amount of insulin if we want. Afternoon and morning snacks are no longer mandatory. This will give Lance a little more independence as he gets older and enters Kindergarten.