Hi Princess
Sorry to hear you are having difficulties with your blood glucose (BG’s) levels and there is absolutely no need to apologise – it was interesting to read your comments “my insulin does not appear to always work” and “where it just seems to do nothing, feeling like I may as well drink it for all the good its doing.” :roll:
Are you by any chance using the GM synthetic analogue insulin Lantus as your basal – as your comment is a frequent comment made by some users and many ex users of Lantus. :shock:
Lantus does work well for many but it is also an unreliable analogue for others.
Very generalised but Lantus either works extremely well for you and you feel great using it or you feel absolutely c*** :!: using it due to the horrid side effects and/or it gives a user very unstable BG’s. :shock:
Do you have one injection of your basal a day or two? – whilst Lantus was marketed as a once a day basal insulin many users find it does not actually last for 24 hours hence have a split dose and take it twice a day.
Have you been provided with plenty of BG testing strips so you can take and record you BG levels – this can really help you analyse what might be going on and also help you see patterns within your BG’s.
You have to analyse:
1. Are you experiencing the dawn phenomenon (DP)? BG’s lower before bed and during night but high on waking.
2. Despite being on insulin and despite the modern idea that a Type 1 diabetic can eat anything as long as they take the insulin to cover the food you may still find that certain foods are a definite no no as they sky rocket your BG's – I have a list of no no foods which I would never ever ever eat despite the dietitians insistence that I should :lol: :lol: :lol: .
3. Do you know what your ratios of insulin to carbohydrates are – this will probably vary during the day – many diabetics are more resistant to insulin in the mornings and hence have a higher ratio of insulin to carbohydrate however not every one is the same so…
4. What time of day are you most resistant to insulin?
5. Are you finding your menstrual cycle affecting your resistance to insulin? (apologies if that does not apply to you).
6. Are your injection sites ok – have you got any fatty deposits
which can reduce the effectiveness of the insulin?
7. :idea: Have you considered a change to another insulin be it animal, human synthetic or another analogue. You can change basal and/or bolus? You can also mix and match to find the right insulin combination for you i.e. an animal basal with an analogue bolus for example.
One of the many challenges for us is to get an insulin regime that is effective for us as individuals and not as a homogenised group of diabetics :!:
Also both the bolus and basal insulin’s have to work in harmony together – if your basal for example is not working effectively then the bolus insulin has in effect got to do the work of both which it might struggle to do hence BG levels remain high.
You’ve written that your consultant feels you insulin doses might need increasing – this is often a doctors immediate and only response :roll: :roll: when insulin users complain that their insulin may not be working - certainly there are times when increasing insulin can help but if insulin dose does continue to rise and rise and still BG’s remain high then its actually time to consider trying another insulin.
Whilst some Type 1’s remain on the same insulin for years and years with good effect others do get a type of insulin resistance (not the same as Type 2 insulin resistance) therefore a change to either another type of insulin or another insulin within the same group type can be helpful.
There is anecdotal evidence that some users of analogue insulin’s are getting insulin resistance sooner than those using animal and human synthetic insulin.
Sorry
I don’t have an immediate quick fix solution for you.
Hope some of the above might be helpful.
Best wishes
Txx
