Insulin doesn't work!!

[bleemster]

I have been diagnosed since haloween 2007...
My diabetes (1) has NEVER been under control/hba1c lowest was 11

my doctors won't listen...
the diabetic nurses won't listen...
i find it so hard to lose weight going from 12st before diagnosis to 15.5 stone

I am so close to saying blow it and not take anything
i am on nova rapid, lantus 20/20 split, & 2g metformin (slow release)

I ate last night a small curry 2x poppadoms at 9pm giving myself 20 units of nova rapid. tested before food 17

tested at midnight 18.2 .... gave myself a 20 unit correction!!!!!! plus 20 lantus

woke up to 17.6 at 10am
had 2xbrown bread, 1/2 can heinz beans.
tested at 12 and I'm 18.6 so gave myself another 30 units to correct !!!

this is so out of control, i have given myself 70 units of lantus in 12 hours for beans on toast.

The doctors on my review just say i need to work harder at it for the last 3 years... i have now refused to go because they are NOT HELPING at all. and just make me feel rubbish.

Is someone ele experienced what is happening to me? I am pretty much in tears daily cause I'm trying so hard and completely failing.

Please help me ;-( Please
Lee

 

[ladybird64]

Hi Lee and welcome.

I'm type 2 but thought I would drop a line as you sound throroughly fed up.

First thing that strikes me is that your diet could be contributing to your high sugars? Please don't get me wrong, I am not somebody that follows a low carbohydrate regime (nothing against it though, whatever works for the individual) but it sounds to me like what you are eating could be raising rather than lowering.

I'm sure on of the mods will be along soon with a helpful post but in the meantime, try not to get to down. Many of have been or at the same stage of "banging your head off the wall" that you are at this moment.

There is often a lot of debate on this forum about the correct dietary approach to take regarding carb intake but I think we are all agreed that if we eat too much carb, our sugars go up.

First thing I suggest is trying to lower your carb intake a bit..for example beans on toast would send mine through the roof! Try and reduce your bread, pasta, rice and spuds, smaller anmounts to start with..it can make a whole heap of difference. The key is to test regularly to find out what foods affect you badly so you know to stay away from them and find suitable alternatives.

You will get lots of helpful advice so don't despair, we'll help you.

 

[WhitbyJet]

bleemster - welcome to the forum.
I am type 2 so not much use to you, but just wanted to say to you dont despair, there have been many diabetics in similar situation as you are now.
You say your medical team are useless, hmm, how about changing doctors, do you think that would help?
I agree with the previous poster, try a reduction of carbs and do lots of testing because you are on insulin, you dont want to risk a hypo.

I am sending you a link, I found the article interesting, maybe there is something in there to help you?
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=23162

and this one too, here you can see how other people achieve good diabetes control

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=23168&p=210609&hilit=dillinger+low+carb#p210609

Please dont despair, dont feel alone, we are all there with you.

All the best

 

[daisy1]

I'm sure on of the mods will be along soon with a helpful post but in the meantime, try not to get to down. Many of have been or at the same stage of "banging your head off the wall" that you are at this moment.

Hi Lee and welcome to the forum
Although I am not a Type 1, my first reaction on reading your post was what a lot of carby foods you are eating. I agree with ladybird that your problem is probably due to your diet and I also agree with her on what you should try to do to improve your control. I know you are not newly diagnosed, but here is some information we give to new members and I hope this will be helpful to you.

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

 

[smidge]

Hiya Lee!

Sorry to hear you are in such despair! Try to put what has gone behind you and make the decision to take control from today.

Firstly, I agree with the others - your diet is too carb-heavy. However, what you described you ate yesterday should not have caused you to use so much insulin. For two slices of bread I would take about 3.5 units Apidra (similar to your NovaRapid I think) and for the beans, about 3 units, so the total for that meal for me would have been about 6.5 units. However, I would not eat that! If you're having beans, keep it to about 2 tablespoons. Bread is very difficult for many diabetics and often we choose not to eat it.

So, you can see you are taking an awful lot of insulin for that meal. There might be something else going on e.g. are you Type 1 or do you have 'double-diabetes'? It seems like you might have some insulin resistance there. Please keep a record of everything you eat (including portion size) and how much insulin you jab for it. After a week take your record to your doctor and ask to be referred to a specialist. It might be that you need to change to a different type of insulin. Either way, it needs investigating.

If you really can't face going back to the doctor, you could try to reduce your carb intake dramatically (I often keep mine at 30 - 40 grams of carb a day). Do this for a week or so and see if your BGs come down - but be careful of hypos. If your BG starts to come down significantly, and your insulin useage is much lower, then you could experiment until you find a level of carb/insulin that is right for you.

Good luck, Lee. Let us know how you get on, but don't despair - we've all been there!

Smidge

 

[bleemster]

Thanks everyone fro replying...

I had a curry last night as its "friday night take out" night... its my treat night once a week, Ive been on a diet for as long as i can remember.

We only buy brown instead of white. I used to have 3 sugars in tea until "THAT" day happened and changed to 1 spleda in my tea. I usually have special K for brekkie (again i know its carbs) I drink coke zero, or diet drinks, NEVER EVER full fat drinks. or sugar free cordial juice.

My portions are pretty small, and can hardly ever finish a full plate even when trying. I pretty much live on weight watchers meals (people in the UK will know what i mean) daily for lunch. and a veg dinner for tea.

Its horrible when you live on rabbit food and small portions and for what... not to lose a single pound/oz and to never "feel" healthy.

I have asked my doc to change insulin but he said he can't authorise that and a specialist needs to "ok" it... he said he will write a letter to "sell oak diabetic clinic" for me to ONLY see their top dog... and when i got there, again i was booked into see a registrar/intern. who told me my sugars are to high and I'm not trying hard enough, and to see the dietician. Which i do and they say the diet I'm telling them shouldn't be how it is behaving. and basically calling me a liar, and that then starts all over again on my next review. This has been my diabetic experience and has been awful, i feel the care provided has been very 'supermarket checkout' next please!!

Regarding my diabetic level... they said i was a diabetic 1 (after a whole year) and never said anything else... they gave me metformin to help with weight loss which what i believe is also given to type 2s.

I will take the advice of all the posts and STOP eating bread for one. Zero carb is pretty difficult as i did the atkins yarrs ago and found it hard living off meat.

Anyway tested at 3pm and was 11 had spag bol... very little pasta... and will test again in two hours.

also i have been in hospital a few times with operations and EVERY time nurses comment saying its taking ages for my sugar levels to come down. And these are professionals. So i think my body is really struggling using the injected insulin.

 

[phoenix]

I have been diagnosed since haloween 2007...
My diabetes (1) has NEVER been under control/hba1c lowest was 11

my doctors won't listen...
the diabetic nurses won't listen...
i find it so hard to lose weight going from 12st before diagnosis to 15.5 stone

I am so close to saying f*&k it and not take anything

These are a few thoughts
Has anyone helped you to work out how much insulin to take for each meal or corrections?
How has your lantus level (seems to be 40units) been decided? There are courses to help you do this. If you haven't been on one you could ask for one (DAFNE) . There is also a good course on line
http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

I think that the advice to write down your daily intake is important. Write down all the food you eat, try to work out how many carbs are in the portion . Write down the before and 2 hour readings . Write down the amount of insulin you took and anything extra that might influence things like exercise.Only then you can look for patterns. The fact you use ready meals will be of an advantage here as you can write down the exact carb count. For example your breakfast

woke up to 17.6 at 10am
had 2xbrown bread, 1/2 can heinz beans.

2 slices (hovis) 30g carb
I/2 large can ? 27 g carb
total 57g
insulin ?

tested at 12 and I'm 18.6 so gave myself another 30 units to correct !!!
Whatever amount of insulin you gave for that 57g of carb was about right.(in fact possibly a bit much) At 2 hours your level had only risen by 1mmol/l.... my own target is a rise of not more than 3mmol . However, the rapid insulin still continues to act for another 2-3 hours so you don't want to be too low at this point Your problem was not the amount you took for that meal but the fact that you were starting from far too high a level

this is so out of control, i have given myself 70 units of lantus in 12 hours for beans on toast ](do you mean lantus here or Novo?, your basal insulin is not meant to cover meals)

If we look at the night before there was a similar small rise of only 1mmol/l.
The rapid insulin you take seems to be working effectively to 'cover' your meals.
(though with something like an Indian there is always the likelihood of a later rise as the fat content may delay absorption of the carbs)
But then you gave a correction of 20 units rapid and were still high next morning. So what happens to your glucose levels during the night?
Do they gradually rise, do they fall and then rise or is there a rise at the time you wake ?
It's often a good idea to take some readings at different times during the night to see what's going on. It's better if you do this that you eat a bit earlier in the evening so that the rapid is not still working and having an influence... however if you have given a correction dose (like last night)it is also very important to find out the result 2 hours later.
When you've got a few days written down you could post them here and others may be able to help you spot patterns

 

[Tracey69]

Hi
Iam a T1 diabetic and a mentor. i have been a diabetic for 36yrs. Ususally it would be novarapid that needs adding extra too if sugars are high through the day, your lantus may also need adjusting at night. I have three novarapid injections a day and Lantus solar star at night. If your sugars are high add a couple of extra units of novarapid as this is your Fast acting injection. Lantus is the slow lasting insulin. Give this a try but please make sure you test your sugar more than a couple of times a day in case your sugars start dropping. Please feel free to contact me if you need further help.
Hope this is of help, just remember this is my experience as i now know how to do my own sliding scale.
Tracey69

 

[Tracey69]

Sorry i meant to say your not alone we all have ups and downs but we are here for you. I have had a lot of complications through not listening, so please don't give up, once you get back in control you will find the weight may come off slowly, but it may be worth asking your GP to test for an under active thyroid as this can cause weight gain.
Just remember your not alone.

 

[bleemster]

this is so out of control, i have given myself 70 units of lantus in 12 hours for beans on toast ](do you mean lantus here or Novo?, your basal insulin is not meant to cover meals)

I meant nova rapid - sorry was getting worked up towards the end of my rant.

I take 20/20 split because i did the DAFNE course and was originally on 50 before bed and they changed it, but by the end of the course i felt the others were looked into and i was 'over looked' when they were trying to work out ratios etc... my ratios seem to be 4 or 5 :1 AT LEAST in most cases. I have reverted back to pretty much 20 units of nova for EVERY meal and then also 20 corrections.

In dafne they bought us that to correct you ONLY ever give 1 unit for 2mm over. so for 18 id need to correct 6 units... this NEVER has fixed the issue from the day they told me to do this. I tried it, and told them it didn't work but they didn't advise anything else. So i doubled... trebled...

For the breakfast this morning I gave 20 units.

Usually i will have 1x metric cup of special k and 1x metric cup of s.s.milk ... 1 cup of tea (1 splenda) and give 20units. This seems excessive to me but my sugars climb.

Im not the most active person in the world, I fix computers so spend a lot of time sitting. I take kids swimming once a week for an hour or two but thats really it. (*ashamed*) but thats being truthful or i won't get this fixed.

I have done fasting readings in the past, and throughout the night readings. and they always seem to climb. it just seems that i should keep increasing lantus to over 80 units a night (which it has been before) which in turn adds massive weight gain.

for example..
I can fast til i am 7.0 and steady... eat an exact measured carbs for e.g. 50g. i can give my self 20 units, test two hours later and be up at 17... can nova rapid not work for some people?

 

[smidge]

Hiya Lee!

Just a couple of thoughts for you:

1. Brown bread and white bread is pretty much the same carb wise. Brown might be healthier in some ways, but in terms of BG there's not much difference.

2. Special K is one of the worst cereals for your BG. It is extremely high in sugar (one of the highest sugar content cereals on the shelves!) and very little fibre to off-set the sugar's action. If you could switch to a lower-carb cereal (or even a slower acting one) that might help a little - I used to love Special K and thought it was healthy, but it would regularly send my BG very high, so I had to cut it out. I think weetabix is better, but you'd have to check

3. If you have some form of insulin resistance on top of the insulin deficiency, I believe you could find that insulin isn't as effective for you as it should be. Obviously if you are insulin resistant, losing a bit of weight would help - but the more insulin you have to take the harder that will be for you to achieve, so it's a vicious circle - the insulin might well be at least partly responsible for the weight you have gained. Could you manage to do half an hour exercise a day? It doesn't have to be very strenuous, but a half hour walk before your evening meal could work wonders for decreasing any insulin resistance and possibly enable you to use less insulin and therefore give you a better chance of losing some weight.

I really do feel for you as it is an exasperating situation to be in. Get your food, insulin and BGs recorded over the next few days and post back so that we can try to help you.

All the best

Smidge

 

[MushyPeaBrain]

Hello Lee

Firstly where are you injecting? Are you rotating enough? What length of needle are you using? You might find the insulin is not getting absorbed properly and this would lead to the issues you are describing.

Other posters are right about doing more blood tests. Yes blood testing sucks but more readings will help solve the issue faster. You should try as many as you can of: first thing on waking, before and after meals, last thing at night, 3am. Diabetic doctors only work on these results and if you don't do enough they don't feel you are really trying.

Lastly Lantus could be an issue. I was put on Levemir after years of being diabetic. I gained 3 stone and watched my control spiral before it was identified that I was allergic to the insulin. However this is rare so you need to look at the other things first.

Also when sugars are over 14 you need to give one and a half your correction dose as ketones make you insulin resistant.

Finally I know it's hard but don't let it get you down. You can beat this. I thought I was dying with the Levemir and nobody could help but I did solve it and you WILL solve this. We are all here to help you through it.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Agree with all the comments ref bread, cereal etc....folk are saying to go to 0 carb....but lesser carb...the qty and food you may decide to try instead may well make big differences...i.e boiled egg with 1 or 1/2 a piece of toast or 1/2 a grapefruit (not if taking statins)...or a few small pieces of mixed fruit with a low carb yogurt etc......there are loads of choices out there which are lower carb -try according to your taste buds.

Weight watchers meals may be ok for limiting carbs/cals but essentially they do have a lot of other things in them that aren't so good for anybody-let alone diabetics. A plain meal of a roasted piece of chicken (30 mins) and loads of veg (I have asparagus, mangetout, leeks) makes a complete huge meal me for-believe me the plate is stacked with veg...(max 10 mins in a steamer)...and all fresh and filling with very minimal effort (hooray!!!!just picking and slicing for me!!!!) and absolutely not an artificial ingredient in it (depnding where you purchase the chicken i.e.added salt!!).....cals and carbs are far less than weightwatchers and everything is good eating without added preservatives, e numbers etc.......

I was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia years ago, and magically since it has been undiagnosed....the only thing I can put this down to...is everything we eat now is fresh food....nothing that is manufactured.....I no longer have to have B12 injections.....

lectures over, but i would certainly have a go at changing the carbs that you are eating.....our meals very rarely include pasta...we have a bolognaise or chilli and majority of time we have it with veg, and it is just as tasty-better in fact.....

It certainly appears as if you are on a roundabout and finding it difficult to get off with ur diabetes control, but the advice here so far is all from experienced diabetics( Me, type 1 26 years)...and think most of us have found ourselves unable to get off the roundabout at some time or other..... you will do it.....and the advice and support here is good.

 

[Pneu]

ok some comments here...

although some people may find the amounts you are inject massive and they are I was in the same position a few years ago... some evenings I would inject 150+ units of novorapid?! and still have out of control BG's...

You have a number of factors working against you here:

1. Your high starting BG's mean ALL of your insulin is less effective
2. Your carb intake is on the high side

I would not normally make such direct suggestions but I believe in your case I have lived through the same so I can tell you what I done...

1. In the short-medium terms you are going to need to reduce your carbohydrate intake drastically.. I would suggest 20 - 25g per meal initially. This will stop fuelling those high fasting BG's... you can find loads of ideas on low-carb food in the forum on here.

2. You need to get your fasting sugars under control.. what I would suggest is set a day aside.. make sure you have someone with you, glucose tablets and a testing machine with loads of test strips... Take a measurement of your BG's and start correcting.. test every 30 mins, keep going until you can get the readings down... for now aim for 10 - 12 mmol/l you need to be careful because as you drop the insulin will increase in effectiveness.. for your meals inject as usual and spend the whole day if you need to getting your bg's right..

3. Inject you lantus as usual before bed... set your alarm for every 2 hours and test your sugars.. record what your bg's do... if your readings increase then you need more lantus.. so in your morning injection increase the units... then again its going to be a matter of testing and seeing what the bg's do.. This is going to take some time to get correct but you just keep monitoring your BG levels over fasting periods until they stay stable.. it doesn't matter to much now if that level is say 10 - 12 mmol/l as long as its consistent! This will probably take a couple of weeks until you get your lantus correct..

4. once you have stable basal you can begin to work on bringing those fasting sugars down.. start by working out your correct novo ratios... then day by day bring those 10 - 12 mmol/l levels down to 7 - 8 mmol/l.. as these levels drop your insulin sensitivity will further increase so keep a watchful eye and TEST TEST TEST...

5. now your levels are generally lower you will probably need to adjust your lantus so repeat step 3... then back on to step 4 and reduce your fasting levels until they are correct.. repeat and rinse as necessary..

At one point I was taking 200 units+ levemir a day and could inject 300+ units of novo in a day and still have mid-20 BG's in the evenings.. Now I inject 55 units of Insulated and take around 30 units of Novo / Apidra for the whole day..

 

[DTGTaylor]

Lee

This is a hobby horse of mine. Please see my post on "why doesn't my insulin work anymore"

I have been diabetic for 63 years and have been having this problem for several years and the more I look at this web site the more I realise the problem is prevalent.

I am 100% convinced that when insulin does not bring sugar levels down then the problem is caused by too much insulin. My DSN agrees but her boss doesn't!

Both exerise and too much insulin can cause a hypo and I am convinced that after a while of constantly low levels the body protects itself by releasing Liver Glucose/Glycogen to increase the BM level.

The problem is that there is only one medication that brings sugar levels down - insulin, and the professionals don't even want to know about or investigate these problems that we the patients are having to endure. If BM is up then you're either eating too many carbs or not taking enough insulin. BALDERDASH.

Another way to prove my point is take some energetic exercise for half hour: test before and after: if the level does not decrease ask yourself what carbs you took during the exercise?

 

[yucww210]

Agree with all the comments ref bread too

Yes Weight watchers meals may be ok for limiting carbs/cals but essentially they do have a lot of other things in them that aren't so good for anybody-let alone diabetics. A plain meal of a roasted piece of chicken (30 mins) and loads of veg (I have asparagus, mangetout, leeks) makes a complete huge meal me for-believe me the plate is stacked with veg...(max 10 mins in a steamer)...and all fresh and filling with very minimal effort (hooray!!!!just picking and slicing for me!!!!) and absolutely not an artificial ingredient in it (depnding where you purchase the chicken i.e.added salt!!).....cals and carbs are far less than weightwatchers and everything is good eating without added preservatives, e numbers etc.......

 

[dafne-jim]

I have been diagnosed since haloween 2007...
My diabetes (1) has NEVER been under control/hba1c lowest was 11

my doctors won't listen...
the diabetic nurses won't listen...
i find it so hard to lose weight going from 12st before diagnosis to 15.5 stone

I am so close to saying blow it and not take anything
i am on nova rapid, lantus 20/20 split, & 2g metformin (slow release)

I ate last night a small curry 2x poppadoms at 9pm giving myself 20 units of nova rapid. tested before food 17

tested at midnight 18.2 .... gave myself a 20 unit correction!!!!!! plus 20 lantus

woke up to 17.6 at 10am
had 2xbrown bread, 1/2 can heinz beans.
tested at 12 and I'm 18.6 so gave myself another 30 units to correct !!!

this is so out of control, i have given myself 70 units of lantus in 12 hours for beans on toast.

The doctors on my review just say i need to work harder at it for the last 3 years... i have now refused to go because they are NOT HELPING at all. and just make me feel rubbish.

Is someone ele experienced what is happening to me? I am pretty much in tears daily cause I'm trying so hard and completely failing.

Please help me ;-( Please
Lee

:| hi lee im new on here but have had diabetes type 1 for 41 years i just want to say how impressed i was with how others are willing to encourage you and let you know your not alone .With all that each one has learnt and experienced over the years im sure you will find an improvement in how things are with your control i wont confuse matters by throwing more stuff at you but i really found a lot of what was said to you was good stuff especially penu advice and dont try to fix it all at once getting your background lantus as he said first and then go on to your nova rapid ,it saved my life and once i got into dafne it has given me a new leash of life . I would gladly talk with you if you ever so wish :wink: take care dafne-jim

 

[janabelle]

Hi Bleemster,
I've not been on the forum much lately,but was interested by your post, & wonder if the answer to your problem may lie in the title of it. I agree with previous posters, cutting carbs will definately help. However you are not on insulin but "insulin analogues", which for many people don't work and aside from not controlling their diabetes can result in unpleasant side-effects too. If the insulin type you're taking is not working, you are perfectly entitled to ask your doctor for a change. It doesn't sound like they're being much help to you with regard to your diabetes control. I had a similar problem with my care team and they didn't listen to my concerns, I believe they thought my erratic control was down to me not managing my condition. I had no consistency in BG numbers from one day to the next and I was up and down like a yo-yo, no matter what I did or ate or how much I exercised.
I'd been on synthetic "human" insulins since '89 and my clinic put me on Lantus in 2004 with Humalog. My health and diabetes control deteriorated within months, but I never recognised the link, especially when my diabetes nurse assured me that Lantus was the best thing since sliced bread :evil:
LIke you, I had the experience of my rapid-acting insulin appearing not to have any effect some days, even when I took double doses or more! My BG could rise and rise, even when I'd not eaten anything. Other days I struggled to keep my BG up, and would go hypo throughout the day without taking any Humalog at all. it was crazy. I'm now on pork insulin and it works for me, better than anything I've been on previously, and proved to me that analogues, particularly Lantus, was absolute rubbish and didn't act as it claimed to.
Look in to all the insulins / insulin types available, and you might want to contact the IDDT too for further info / advice on your probs http://www.iddt.org/here-to-help/contact-us/
take care
Jus

 

[Gianna]

I am feeling desperate! I don't know if I can keep on taking the insulin (Lantus 20 Units a day). I had a crisis last January when I was burning ketones,lost 20lbs in weight and my blood sugars went sky high - I ended up in hospital with heart problems and was put on insulin. I have tried and come off insulin 3 times since diagnosos 18 years ago with type 2 and feel like stopping again-The dose just keeps going up and my blood sugars won't ccome down. My weight has gone up by 1 stone, eating is out of control and I feel starving especially at night. I crave and give in to sweet stuff but I have a huge fear of putting on weight as I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which gets worse the heavier I get. I have also suffered from Bulimia over the years and this coping mechanism makes me feel dreadful and depressed.
Sadly, my doctors just tell me to get on with it, take exercise and keep taking the insulin-they want me to take short acting as well as the Lantus, but I am terrified of getting huge and all that means.
I am a strong woman with a really responsible job, on the outside I cope well and carry everyone with optimism and laughter, but actually, I am terrified! If I could just get back in control I'd be fine I think, but I'm ashamed of the bulimia and can't see the wood for the trees! help- where do I start?

 

[janabelle]

Hi Gianna,
so sorry you're having a tough time of it with your diabetes. I don't know anything about type-2 and insuln, hopefully someone will come on and advise. Although if the analogue insulin (lantus) is not working for you, perhaps you should ask your doc if you can try a different one, it can't do any harm, and if your sugars are not coming down your doc should be offering you more help and support in achieving better control. From my personal experience, Lantus made me put on weight, I always felt hungry, also had fluid retention and looked rather puffy too, especially in my wedding pics
I suggest you contact the IDDT where at least you'll get the support & advice your doc is failing to give you. Here's a link to the IDDT website http://www.iddt.org/here-to-help/contact-us/
Don't give up hope, with the right support and treatment I'm sure you'll be able to get control of your diabetes and life again. Maybe you should ask your GP to refer you to a specialist if he's not willing to offer you more helpful or useful advice than "get on with it".
Best of luck
Jus