• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Experimenting

P

Paulyw74

Member
Messages
17
Hello. Ive only recently been posting on this site and the replies are always very helpful. I'm currently still injecting humilin m3 long lasting but after reading many posts on this site and also being advised by my rheumatologist I have cut carbs almost fully from my meals. However I'm seeing really low readings. 3.2 just before lunch today and could tell i was getting low. I spoke to my nurse on Monday and explained what I was doing but she wanted me to stay on the same levels on insulin until Friday. As I said I've been getting low readings and have even been eating some extra carbs just to keep the levels up. I'm thinking of missing my injection tonight "by accident" and seeing what happens. Just wondering what people think...
 

Hi there, did she say why? We cannot dish out medical advice or countermand her advice but if you are going low before your meals regularly then the long acting insulin you are on would be considered too much. With fast acting we can simply not have any for meals if none is needed or leave out a dose or adjust but it is trickier to change a long acting on the basis of ONE low as you may start to go high over the rest of the day. She may wish to see what the readings are like the rest of the week so it might be a good idea at this time to treat any hypo you do get quickly with a fast acting carb and keep a good eye on the rest of your readings. x
 
Hi. I'm probably going to inject a bit less and maybe have a small amount of carbs. I really need to get off the insulin asap. At the worst it means having another weetabix before bed.
 

Paulyw - That isn't something we can advise on, and certainly not something we can recommend, but what I will say is if you are going to adjust or miss your insulin, please undertake addition testing to ensure you're not going sky high or having any other weird and wonderful results.

Interesting that it was your rheumatoligist who recommended low carb. Might I ask why he did that?

To be clear, I'm not questioning the wisdom of doing it. I'm just curious to learn his view. If you don't want to answer that, it's absolutely fine. I don't want to be prying.
 
Hi. No problem asking. I contacted him regarding something I read regarding an injection I take for my psoriatic arthritis. When I explained my current condition he expressed an interest in diabetes and was extremely firm that I should go low carb. He also advised me to cut the insulin. He did say that not all healthcare workers are on the same page. I spoke to my nurse (who isn't always the most helpful) and explained what i was looking to do. I hadn't had much guidance on changing my diet previously, although they did say cutting certain foods would help. I have recently had information posted through regarding low carb diets which I'm going to try. The information only came out in June even though I was diagnosed type 2 back in January, possibly due to covid. The problem im having just seems to be knowing how to adapt the levels of insulin. Im due back in a few weeks for second my hba1c test and want to get off insulin and try diet, exercise and possibly metformin. Maybe I'm rushing ahead.. anyway ive reduced the injection by a couple of units and will have tea. Sorry if that all doesn't make sense, my kids are bothering me and I'm trying to cook tea!
 
As others have said, we can't really tell you what we think about what you should do with your insulin dose, it's too close to advise and that's between you and your consultant.

However, should you forget a dose, or accidentally dose less than what your prescription says, you might want to think about the amount of insulin you take. It makes a bit of a difference whether you forget a dose of 4 units or forget a dose of 95 units.

Whatever you do, use test strips like they're going out of fashion!
Paulyw74 said:
I spoke to my nurse on Monday and explained what I was doing but she wanted me to stay on the same levels on insulin until Friday.
Click to expand...
Paulyw74 said:
The problem im having just seems to be knowing how to adapt the levels of insulin.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid your nurse may be having the same problem as you have. If she doesn't have any experience or knowledge of T2's adjusting their diet to very low carb she'll be out of her depth here.
 
Hi @Paulyw74 ,

I'll let you crack on with the tea..

Is your Humulin a 70/30 mix?
Your dietary change to your recomended set amounts of insulin maybe what's causing the hypos.
Eating more carbs to treat the lows would remedy this, but as an insulin user myself, adjusting my fast acting dose to the carbs consumed is preferable to increasing the amount I eat to the wrong dosage of insulin?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I belive M3 is a mixture of fast & long acting. A more flexible aproach for insulin dependants is an MDI regime. Seperate long acting & short acting insulin to suite our meal choices & the timing of..
Understanding how insulin working profiles compliment your dietary choice.

I appreciate using insulin is uncharted new territory for you, just keep asking the questions as they crop up.

I'll tag in @urbanracer , who believe was precribed a similar type of mixed insulin.? (From memory.?)

Forgot to mention, don't stop testing & logging those numbers..
 

Thanks for clarifying. I don't envy you living with psoriatic arthritis. My father lived with RA which was bad enough, without the difficult skin challenges.

I'm guessing you might be on a bit of a cocktail of meds, so it wouldn't be too sensible for any of us to comment too much on any strategy you might adopt.

What I will say though is that some people living with RA (and lots of other "stuff") have great success on LC eating. This thread might be quite inspiring for you. I was in awe.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/my-life-since-discovering-lchf.66929/

Poshtotty hasn't logged in for a while, but the thread gives a summary account of her experiences.

Enjoy (I hope)!
 
Hi @Paulyw74 ,

Yes I used to be on mixed insulin and fixed doses. It is a very inflexible regime and like yourself, my glucose was nearly always going a bit low late morning. Unlike yourself I was not low-carbing so I got in the habit of having a coffee and biscuit around 10:30 to 11:00 am and it was usually just enough (for me) to keep the hypo at bay until lunchtime when I would eat again anyway.

Then of course, I didn't have enough insulin to cover anything but 10 or so grams of carbs for lunch and so a sandwich would see my glucose levels sky rocket in the afternoon.

If you stay on insulin, then as @Jaylee stated above, try to get yourself on MDI (2 different insulins but much easier to deal with and you can skip a meal if you need to.)

Good luck.
 
Hi. Thanks for that. My Psa is not too bad to be honest. I'm not hugely unfit, I can run a bit, ride my bike and play football (only with the kids). I think my family even forget I have it most of the time. I do think the type 2 diagnosis has been something of a wake up call. I didn't eat too much in the way of "bad" foods; cake, chocolate etc but once you see the levels of carbs in bread, pasta, chips, rice which we did have regularly and then you read the stories on here like the link you added, you just think its definitely possible that the problems might be linked. The good news is that I enjoy most things on a low carb diet so I'm keen to get going and see where it leads. Only problem is the insulin. I'm sure I'll be off it soon and then I can crack on. Just need a bit of patience.
 

Yes, I think we'd all urge just a bit of patience, until you have a plan for safely managing your insulin, or even managing yourself off insulin.

I'm pleased you found that an interesting read.

Good luck with it all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…