First Impressions of LANTUS^®

"At the hospital, they trained me about everything so there were no surprises. But when I got home, I realized that no one showed me how to use the meter. My sister-in-law sat on the bed next to me and we tried to figure it out. The instructions were good and we got it to work.

"I took LANTUS® right from the beginning, as part of my treatment plan. I only need it once a day, in the evening."

Insulin is taken as part of an overall diabetes treatment plan, which may include diet, exercise, and other diabetes medications.

You must test your blood sugar while using insulin, such as LANTUS®. Do not make any changes to your dose or type of insulin without talking to your healthcare provider. Any change of insulin should be made cautiously and only under medical supervision.

Starting on LANTUS^®

"The first time I gave myself an insulin injection, I didn't know how much pressure I had to use. I rammed it in like I was trying to drive a railroad spike. The doctor said, 'Bill, it's not necessary to insert the whole syringe into your stomach.' I did it so hard. I just wanted to make sure the needle went in. Now I know it takes virtually no effort, but if you've never done it, you don't know that.

"I started off with vials and syringes. One day when I dropped a vial, of course on a tile floor, that was the end of that. I had read in a magazine about the LANTUS® SoloSTAR® pen and asked my doctor about it. He showed me how to use the pen. When I switched to the pen, it was like night and day. It's really, really easy. You don't have to draw it up in a syringe, so you eliminate that step. It makes taking my insulin a lot easier. I've been using the pen ever since."

It is important to keep the injection button pressed all the way in and to slowly count to ten before withdrawing the needle from the skin. This helps ensure that the full dose will be delivered.

"It takes a while for the doctor to know how your body is doing on insulin. It took me about three or four months to get to the right dose. One of the most important things I did was journaling. You've got to keep track of what you're doing — what you're eating, how you're exercising, and take frequent finger stick tests so you know where you're at. I did all that and my healthcare providers kept telling me, 'I've never seen anybody keep track of things like you do. It makes my job easier.' Without that journal, it would've taken a lot longer to get my insulin dose adjusted."

Living with Diabetes

"I call diabetes a decision disease because it makes you make decisions 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of your life. There are no vacations from the decisions you have to make. There's not even a recess. None of these decisions are particularly difficult. It's just that there are lots of them and they're constant. If you don't have the right attitude about them, they could bother you and make you a very unhappy person.

"There are two ways of looking at things — things you have to do and things you choose to do. When you look at things as 'have to do's,' it means someone else has made that decision for you. I choose to do the things that would help me. Once I adopted that attitude, things became much easier. I'm choosing to do these things because I want to help control my blood sugar. I choose to do the things to manage my diabetes because I want to be well. That's how it works. After a while, you basically reprogram yourself to choose to do the right things, like eating right and getting exercise.

"A diabetes diet isn't any different than a normal healthy diet. It's what you should be eating — stay away from fast foods and try to eat more frequently. I used to not eat that much during the day and pack away a lot of food at nighttime. Now I eat more regularly and count my carbs. But I've found that if I have terrible cravings for something that's not very good for me, I just don't eat very much of it.

"Once your blood sugar is balanced, it's a beautiful thing. Because once it's balanced, it's easier to stay in balance. The LANTUS® SoloSTAR® pen helps make it easy."

To help ensure an accurate dose each time, follow all steps in the instruction leaflet that comes with your pen. Otherwise, you may not get the correct amount of insulin, which may affect your blood sugar levels.

First Impressions of LANTUS^®

"At first, I took the advice I usually give patients. I got my exercise routine back into a regular order. I started watching my eating habits — tried to eat healthier, fresh fruits and vegetables, and in good amounts. I went back to the doctor after about a month and my blood sugars weren't much better even though I was doing 'everything' right. So he started me on some oral medicines.

"As time went by, my A1C started to slowly climb. I knew where it should be and knew I wasn't getting there. So I told the doctor, 'I know I can do it better with insulin.' He said that he's never had a patient ask to be put on insulin before."

Insulin is taken as part of an overall diabetes treatment plan, which may include diet, exercise, and other diabetes medications.

You must test your blood sugar while using insulin, such as LANTUS®. Do not make any changes to your dose or type of insulin without talking to your healthcare provider. Any change of insulin should be made cautiously and only under medical supervision.

"My doctor put me on LANTUS®. We liked the idea of an insulin that mimicked what your own body should be making but isn't able to. There were other insulins but they had peaks, and you had to watch things much more closely."

Starting on LANTUS^®

"I've been a nurse for over 30 years and have given insulin shots all the time. But giving one to myself was a little different. I remembered a class where we had to give ourselves saline injections. Well, I just stood there with that needle next to my stomach wondering, 'Will I ever give myself that injection?' But when I really needed to do it, it didn't hurt. Getting past that first injection is usually enough.

"Once I knew that LANTUS® was starting to bring my blood sugars down and realized that there was something I could do, I wanted instant gratification — I wanted it all to happen today. But it took me a while to get to where I was; that didn't happen overnight. It's just like losing weight. You're not going to lose it all today. You need to do it in a healthy way. It's the same with getting to the right dose of insulin. We got there; it just took a little time."

Living with Diabetes

"I have patients tell me all the time that they know when their blood sugar is out of control. They can feel it. Well, you can't go by how you feel. The only time you really feel it is when you're at the extreme low or the extreme high. So checking my blood sugar is the best way of seeing how I'm doing. It keeps me in the know.

"I do stay on top of my blood sugar. If my numbers start to go up, I check more often to see where I'm at. It helps me get back on track. And different things can change my blood sugar. Like things get busy at work and I might miss lunch. I know I'm not supposed to skip meals, but it happens. I want to prevent my sugar from going too low or going too high because that's preventable. So I carry around glucose tablets in my purse just in case."

The most common side effect of insulin, including LANTUS®, is low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which may be serious. Other possible side effects may include injection site reactions, including changes in fat tissue at the injection site, and allergic reactions, including itching and rash.

"I don't let diabetes keep me from doing what I want to do. I started traveling internationally as a medical missionary. I've been to Russia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo. I was in East Africa last fall in Tanzania. So I learned how to travel with the insulin. I use the bottle and syringe when I'm at home, and take the LANTUS® SoloSTAR® pen when I travel. It's easy. I like that you just turn a dial on the pen to get the dose you need. And sometimes I don't have my glasses with me, so while I wouldn't be able to see the lines that well on a syringe, I can see them on the pen."

To help ensure an accurate dose each time, follow all steps in the instruction leaflet that comes with your pen. Otherwise, you may not get the correct amount of insulin, which may affect your blood sugar levels.

"I like LANTUS® because it gives me that baseline insulin that my body's not able to make enough of. It helps me control my blood sugar throughout the day and helps to keep it from fluctuating a lot. Once I get my fasting blood sugar where we want it to be, LANTUS® helps keep it there all day long."

First Impressions of LANTUS^®

"LANTUS® was the first insulin I was on. I was using the little bottle with a separate syringe. When I was in the hospital, they would come in and give me my injection. They did show me how to inject myself. But I still needed help.

"Lucky for me, there's a lady in my building who's had diabetes for 25 years. She was always telling me, 'If you have any problems, just call.' So, I called her one night. 'I just can't do this. I just can't do this.' She said, 'I'll come downstairs, just be calm.' So she came down and showed me how to do it.

"LANTUS® works for me. It's helped me keep my blood sugar under control ever since. It took work. But one day, I made a decision. 'This is what I have to do.' I guess it's just something in the back of my mind now. It's part of my routine. I just do it."

The most common side effect of insulin, including LANTUS®, is low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which may be serious. Other possible side effects may include injection site reactions, including changes in fat tissue at the injection site, and allergic reactions, including itching and rash.

Starting on LANTUS^®

"After a few years, it's second nature, but I had to take those first steps. I was constantly on the Internet, reading up on diabetes, following up with my doctor, doing whatever she wanted me to do. I worked with a whole team. It wasn't just me by myself. We worked together and that's how I got to this point."

Insulin is taken as part of an overall diabetes treatment plan, which may include diet, exercise, and other diabetes medications.

You must test your blood sugar while using insulin, such as LANTUS®. Do not make any changes to your dose or type of insulin without talking to your healthcare provider. Any change of insulin should be made cautiously and only under medical supervision.

"For about the first year or so, we were constantly changing the dosage because the doctor wanted to see what worked for me. So we kept at it — increasing the dose, decreasing it — until we got it right. It took time. But we got there.

"In the beginning, I used LANTUS® in a vial with a syringe. The most frustrating thing was trying to put that needle in that little bottle and measuring the exact dose. Now I use the LANTUS® SoloSTAR® pen. It's so easy. I just turn the dial to my dose, put the needle on and go."

To help ensure an accurate dose each time, follow all steps in the instruction leaflet that comes with your pen. Otherwise, you may not get the correct amount of insulin, which may affect your blood sugar levels.

Living with Diabetes

"Now that I have diabetes, I'm more conscious of eating right and keeping active. I'm doing the things I need to help keep my blood sugar where it should be. Sometimes I go out and dance. I also do a lot of walking, like I walk around my apartment complex a couple of times every morning.

"I worked closely with my endocrinologist. She was like a friend, a motivator, everything. In the beginning, the doctors figured that LANTUS® was the best medicine for me and it's still working to this day.

"I also learned a lot from other people with diabetes and asked them how they managed it. I got into a support group, read as much as I could, and did things on my own to learn more.

"Today my blood sugar's under control. And I love it because it means I'm doing something right."