Can I take my insulin even though I am not eating?

MatthewB said:

Thanks. My thought process was similar to that. However you say "When fasting, the body steadily releases glucose into the blood to our cells supplied with energy." but if I'm not eating anything at all for days where is that glucose coming from? I assume that when it says "fasting" it means normal everyday fasting like when you go to sleep.

Last night I decided to do half my normal dose of basal and I kept getting low blood sugar throughout the night. Luckily I had some granulated sugar, which I mixed into water and drank.

To answer your question, I have no money for food.

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That's just .... not good. I'm so sorry. I haven't lived in the UK for a while (this century) so I'm not sure what the current welfare provisions are, but not having enough money for food is bad for anyone and healthwise as a T1 diabetic it's even worse. (I guess you'd get food if you ended up in hospital but that seems a little drastic. )

Sounds like you need to reduce your basal dose even more? Can you get help from friends/family/ soup kitchens????? (Do charities do soup kitchens any more?)

Hoping you're OK. Hoping you've got plenty of grtanulated sugar left so that you don't go hypo...

Good luck.

Edited to add. You've probably already looked at this but this looks like a relevant thread from a year ago

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/no-food-and-jobseekers.109012/

Food banks should be able to give you some emergency food?

If you're not eating drink lots and lots of sweet drinks like soda pop and juices with high sugar make a chocolate milk shake or drink chocolate milk by the time you finished drinking all that juice you will be high enough to take a shot that's what I do when i don't feel like eating once I drank juice all day peed alot but that's because i didn't take enough insulin till lantus came in and did the work but just drink juice

Thanks guys. I'm pretty much sorted now.

I have been out of work for some time now, but I am not registered as unemployed and it takes about a month after you go and register before you can get any money off the dole. And tbh, I'm not interested in becoming a charity case. There are so many ppl in the world who have it worse than me. Also, I'm already in so much debt to my family I don't want to borrow more.

I do sort of have some money. I paid a tax rebate cheque of £68 into the bank, but on the same day, the bank decided to close my accounts due to inactivity. This was more than 10 days ago and I've been having a nightmare trying to sort out what's happened to my money. I went to complain to them again yesterday (monday), but there was nothing I could do over the weekend because they were closed. Anyway, I spoke to 3 different bank staff in 2 different branches and got told 3 different things, but in the end the conclusion was that I will get my money in about 5 days.

Luckily though, the tax people didn't give me the full refund amount I was due at first and so I had a separate cheque for £200. I have paid this into a different bank (I had accounts with 2 different banks, but no money in any of them) and this should HOPEFULLY be available in a couple of days.

I then went to my mum's house and she had saved me some of their roast dinner from sunday which was so delicious after 72 hours of no food. She also gave me a couple of tins of beans, some bread and a potato which should keep me going for a few days until the banks get their asses in gear. Also I should be starting 2 new jobs soon (then I can finally pay off my debts). I really hate being such a loser that I have to rely on family to help me out, but it was nice to get some food. I wouldn't have any of this trouble though if the assholes at the bank could do their jobs properly.

So I'm back on my normal dose of Lantus now. And hopefully this food will last me until my money comes through.

lalacakez said:

If you're not eating drink lots and lots of sweet drinks like soda pop and juices with high sugar make a chocolate milk shake or drink chocolate milk by the time you finished drinking all that juice you will be high enough to take a shot that's what I do when i don't feel like eating once I drank juice all day peed alot but that's because i didn't take enough insulin till lantus came in and did the work but just drink juice

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What?

Please do not do this.

JoeT1 said:

What?

Please do not do this.

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And why not if you're not going to eat and you get low of course you're going to drink like your life depends on it I've been type 1 long enough to know what I need to do and what works for me drinking alot of juice and insulin helps especially when you vomit to much and sick

I think lalacakez is right, that if you can't eat then you should at least drink to keep your levels up... BUT you've gotta be really careful if you're drinking stuff with really high sugar content. Just make sure you do enough insulin to combat it.

Tbh, slow acting carbs are always much better for keeping steady blood glucose levels without huge spikes and drops. I think that's why Joe said please don't do this.

MatthewB said:

I think lalacakez is right, that if you can't eat then you should at least drink to keep your levels up... BUT you've gotta be really careful if you're drinking stuff with really high sugar content. Just make sure you do enough insulin to combat it.

Tbh, slow acting carbs are always much better for keeping steady blood glucose levels without huge spikes and drops. I think that's why Joe said please don't do this.

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Yeah, this is what I mean, also though @lalacakez apologies if I may have misread some of the posts as I was in a rush. What I was saying really is that if you can not eat, then lower your Basal, rather than just taking bad sugary drinks that are fast acting and having to take fast acting insulin to combat that as well.

azure said:

You should take your basal (long acting) insulin but NOT your bolus (meal time) insulin if you're not eating @Alex_B

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Why ?