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Type 2 Going onto insulin and high bloods. Help

diabeticnewby

Active Member
Messages
30
Location
Nottingham England
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all, was diagnosed with type 2 in 2015 Oct. Been on metformin and metformin SR. Also been on sitiglipton and gliclazide. Prior to my diagnosis I lost 4 stone, now lost 5 stone with slimming world; but now gone back to weight watchers as I prefferd it. My bloods have been sky high last 3 weeks,Especially at night as waking up going to loo (number 1) and when waking up, (if I get any sleep)

Seen drs and been advised insulin it is. I need people's help. Do you get loads of hypos, what about exercise? Do I have to be careful? Just your experiences really as can't go on like this I've just done my reading before bed (now) and it 15.8
sorry to ramble on.
 
Hi @diabeticnewby welcome to the forum. Sorry to read about your high BS. With the weight-watchers diet do you eat a lot of carbs?
 
Hi @diabeticnewby. It sounds like you might be LADA, who have a honeymoon period from a few months to a few years.
It's now 13 months since I started on insulin,and since I was feeling cr*p before it, I welcomed it with open arms.
I'd liken using insulin to learning to handle alcohol or driving a vehicle. The responsible ones get it right most of the time.
I love driving, and I reckon I'm good at it (typical male!) because I'm constantly giving the road ahead my attention. It doesn't cause me to worry. It just becomes 'second nature'.
13 months in, being on insulin, I'm still learning.

Hypos ? I guess you'll have to find out your own propensity. I'd say being lowcarb has to help. Fewer carbs = less insulin = less risk of overdosing = less risk of hypos.
Any residue of honeymoon period may cause any lingering insulin production to affect your blood sugar levels. Mine fell off a cliff, so after 13 months (fingers crossed) I've never had a hypo. My HbA1c after 3 months was 38. A few days ago it was 33. Some people can run these levels hypo-free. Some can't. You have to learn your own body, and your glucose meter becomes your ally in all this.

This forum has a wealth of knowledge, and you can always use the search function e.g. 'exercise'

Good luck on your journey
Geoff
 
Last edited:
Thank you. Post has helped I'll let you know how I get on.
 
Hi @diabeticnewby as you'll see from my signature, I only managed a month on Metformin from diagnosis to insulin.

Can honestly say that personally I haven't had an issue since starting on it. I am quite OK taking Novomix - a mixed insulin that is 30% fast acting an 70% slow acting - although I haven't come across too many people on here that are using it.

I titrated the initial prescribed dose up until I was consistently recording the figures wanted by the Diabetic Clinic - between 5 and 7 fasting in the morning and under 10 after meals. With low (but not ultra low) carbing and the insulin my levels are generally well within these limits. I have never had a night time hypo, 3 times I've been down to 3.8 during the day - and not felt an effect - once down to 3.2 when I did start to feel a bit squiffy - but soon fixed.

Exercise is a hard one, as I had bone on bone osteoarthritis and apart from swimming and riding a bike, exercise was largely out of the question. I had a double knee replacement at the beginning of April - things are going very well and I hope to find out how some semi serious exercise affects me once I've finished all my physio sessions

Hope it goes well for you too - but as others have said - we are all different so what works for me - might well not be the same for other people
 
If you stop eating the high carb foods then you might be able to reduce your high blood glucose readings - I avoid all high carb foods and have normal blood glucose readings with no medication - pasta and bread would have my readings sky high - the colour makes no difference whatsoever. Potato, carrot parsnips, even peas all elevate my BG even in small amounts, porridge rice - any grain and many beans will do the same.
Losing weight does not bring any guarantee of improving diabetes - it seems so firmly fixed 'you got diabetes because you are fat, so get that weight off to be cured' - and yet there are thin diabetics.
Do try eating low carb - but watch out, it is so effective in lowering blood glucose that your medication could make you go low.
 
diabeticnewby said:
Yep all brown pasta and bread.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately there are as many carbs in brown as in white bread or pasta and you may be better either reducing the amount or stopping eating these. This also applies to potatoes and rice and other high carb foods. Do you test after eating? I have reduced my BS by eating low carb full fat and through testing I'm able to see what raises my BS. I'm luckier than many on the forum in that I can tolerate more carbs so you nay find that you can have the odd slice of bread or potato!,
 
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