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Feeling chuffed but a little scared.....

S

sandie2255

Member
Hi all,
Not posted for a while as have been really busy trying to get things under control. I am a lo-carber (not the reason I am posting on here tho...) and have now lost 4stone since March of this year. I am now exercising on a daily basis and I am feeling so much better and looking pretty good as well!!!.

I have had a chat with my DN this morning and she wants me to now stop taking my Novo rapid - yes, brilliant news I hear you all shout, but to be hoenst its thrown me into a bit of a panic!!

I went onto insulin a year ago and in February this year was taking the following:
72 units Lantus
3 X 26 units of Novorapid.

I have now managed to drop it down to 10 units of Lantus and 3 X5 untis of Novorapid. I am getting rather low readings tho now, this morning fasting was 3.8and is quite often that in the mornings. Hence the reson the DN wants me to now cut it out completely.

I just wanted some reassurance to be honest, I have become so used to having 5 injections a day that to now cut it down to just 1 x 10 of Lantus scares me - pathetic I know but I just dont want to see my BS levels rise. And I have worked so hard over the last few months to achieve this and I know I should be feeling really delighted but i'm not as it took me a long while to get my head round injecting!!!

Does any of this make sense to anyone? As I am reading it I think you must be all thinking I am a complete nutball!!!
Sandie
 
Sounds great to me - good work! If I was in your position, I'd definitely be considering reducing my dose. Too much insulin in your system over the short term is more damaging than too much sugar. Just be sure to monitor your BG and adjust your dose as necessary.

Better to see your BG creeping up than to not be able to see it going down due to a hypo!
 
Hi Sandie,

I think your reaction sounds pretty normal. You've made excellent progress since going onto insulin, so it's natural to feel some worry now that you're being taken off (some of) it. Don't worry, you don't sound like a nutter!

The main think to remember is that it's YOU that's made the improvements, not the insulin. YOU were the one who took control and went low-carb; lost the weight; started exercising. The insulin is simply a tool that let you control your bloods while you transitioned into this healthier way of life, and until your body settled into its new "rhythm". That's obviously been happening - you've massively dropped the amount of insulin you need to inject, and there's no reason not to continue dropping it - in fact it's desirable.

My opinion would be to give it a try and test a lot. If your bloods go higher than you'd like, then think about whether you should re-introduce one, two or three of the injections, perhaps with lower doses. Discuss this with your DM, but if you have target blood sugars that you want then this should be your main guide - i.e. don't get railroaded into accepting higher levels than you want. But really, it's worth giving it a try in my opinion.

Finally, a massive WELL DONE - sounds like you've made excellent progress! Keep it up and you'll be off ALL the insulin soon - imagine how good that'll be!
 
Thank you Patch and Nick.

Nick - what you say makes so much sense to me now, I am so pleased with myself and if I can get off the insulin for good then that will be brilliant. I will carry on testing regularly and will set goals that I want to achieve for my BS and if it does go above that then I will think about re-introducing maybe 1 or 2 injections because I can honestly say hand on heart that I do not cheat at all on my diet and stick to it rigidly. I actually now look forward to a plate of brocoli with my meals which I had never tried until I lo-carbed!!! So I will know that I need a bit of extra help from the insulin rather than looking at my diet.

i will keep you all informed over the next few weeks, have my next blood test next week so hoping my hba1c will be in the 5's - last one in June was 5.2.

Thanks also for reassuring me I am not a fruit loop!!
Sandie
 
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