Apidra Blog ptII
Scott Benner
Back in February I wrote about my experience with changing from Novolog to Apidra. This post is a continuation of that writing...
This part of the story begins in March. Arden had her endo appointment in March and though I knew we hadn’t been using Apidra long enough to see any improvement in her A1C, I was stunned when her test came back 0.8 higher then the previous quarter. Shocked is actually too polite of a word, I was devastated. Arden’s A1C had always been within .3 of her original test (after diagnosis). It’s not as low as I’d like but it is in the lower portion of the range for her age. Always room for improvement but not bad to say the least.
I promised our NP three months ago that the Apidra was working much better for Arden then the Novolog and I said that we would definitely see a better number at her next test.
Which brings us to yesterday...
Arden’s A1C dropped .9 to 8.0, which is .1 lower then the test from six months ago and the lowest number that she has had since mid 2009, in fact, it ties her lowest number ever. and here is, in my opinion, why...
(For Arden) the Apidra has a shorter action time then Novolg but more importantly it doesn’t have a tail like the Nov did and it doesn’t cause accelerated declines. Here’s something that the CGM users will gasp at... Arden has only seen three, that’s 3, double arrow down readings on her DexCom since we switched to Apidra. For my money that’s a huge improvement because it allows me to be more aggressive with borderline BGs. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to bolus those numbers with Novolog.
Some more reasons why Apidra helped me bring Arden’s A1C down.
Shorter action time allows for quicker readjustments of poorly calculated meal boluses.
No significant BG declines allow for less overnight bolus stress.
Slower acting time allows for very aggressive pre-meal bolusing.
As mentioned above, adjusting borderline BGs is less frightening.
Fasting BGs are beautifully steady.
Our NP told us yesterday that even though the literature she refers to doesn’t show a statistical reason to suggest Apidra over Novolog, she just switch another patient based on Arden’s results. In the future if you are interested, I think I’d like to take each of the above bullet points and expand on them one post at a time. Thoughts?
The stuff at the end - I’m not nearly a medical person. I’m just a guy that takes care of a little girl with type I... I just happen to have an opinion, a keyboard and an idea about how to post a website. Please do your research, speak to others and then go over everything that you’ve learned with your healthcare professional. Please also know that this site is not supported by any ads, hand outs or pressure from any pharmaceutical company or device maker. I’m just trying to spread good information to the people that need it the most, as best as I can.
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The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.
Hi! Just popped over from D-Mom's Type 1 Tuesdays. So glad I did!
Bean (my 7yr old) has been using OmniPod for 9 months and we're on week two with the DexCom. I always 'knew' that she would spike after a meal, but to SEE those mountainous graphs are just plain yucky! I was figuring it might be that her basals are off or her ratios needed to be tweaked, but now I'm thinking it could just be the NovoLog. Her averages are pretty good, but those mealtime spikes are wreaking havoc on her, her A1c and me!! ;)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Apidra is definitely on the list for our next appointment!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - 06:17 PM
We are indeed needed to change every 2 days now and it is decidedly because of the insulin change. I was very resistent to draw this conclusion as I know there are others, like Arden, who do not have this issue.
Caleb never did gets alarms though. Just unrelenting highs at the magical 48 hour mark.
It's definitely made everything "softer" though, like your point about calmer overnight corrections. I don't think Caleb ever had a lot, if any, double arrows down before, and I can't remember seeing double arrows in any direction in a while for that matter. :)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 04:54 PM
Scott
How are things for Caleb since to 48 hour pod changes or did you switch back?
Friday, July 29, 2011 - 01:13 PM