Help

As discussed on your other thread, if there's any doubt that you're Type 2, then you should be given testing to rule out Type 1. Metformin is not meant to control very high blood glucose levels. If you are indeed late onset Type 1, then insulin is the next likely step. You need to discuss this with your medical team.

415 mg/dl is about 23 mmol/L and that is very high. If you are exercising hard and eating low carb then it's worth investigating if you actually have Type 1. How long ago were you diagnosed? Are you based in the US?

When you say "less carbs and sugars"... what are you actually eating in a typical day? Do you count the carbs in what you are eating? That might help with reducing the carbs.

Great that you are counting. On 150 grams of carbs and under 30 grams of sugar that's borderline low carb and certainly much healthier for you than what you were eating before. I would expect that in conjunction with metformin, your blood sugar would be coming down pretty quickly under that regime. I wonder if your doctor would give you a one off insulin shot to bring your blood sugar down into a normal range, and see where you go from there. You have a doctor presumably who gave you the diagnosis and prescribed the metformin?

How long since diagnosis? And do you know if you were given a C-peptide test and/or a GAD antibody test at diagnosis? Those are the tests that determine if you are Type 1 or Type 2. If you were diagnosed very recently it might just be taking a while for your blood sugars to come down.

To answer your question directly, if that 415 mg/dl doesn't come down to somewhere in the vicinity of 100-150 mg/dl pretty soon, then yes you might need insulin.

claymac said:

Do u take insulin spiker to be honest im scared of it..the doc didn't give a peptide test to save me money he basically told me if I was type 1 these meds wouldn't help and that was a cheaper way to find out

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Click to expand...

Well he's got a point and if you would have to pay for the test yourself I guess he is doing you a favour. I've taken insulin myself for twenty years and I can honestly tell you there is nothing to worry about. You might not like the idea of injections but believe me, you get over that real fast. The fact is they don't hurt and it's nothing more than an inconvenience. You will have to learn to watch out for hypos - low blood sugar spells - that's probably the main challenge. But all of it is manageable. I hope that you do have Type 2 and not Type 1, just because Type 2 is easier to manage in a lot of ways (not all ways). But whichever it is, you will be fine. You are already off to a great start with the low carbing and what you have done with your diet and exercise.

Are you testing every day, or several times a day? Do you have a blood glucose test meter? You can get inexpensive ones that use inexpensive strips. You should be able to do multiple blood tests each day, if you want to, for less than a dollar a day.

well that seems to be the best course of action...make an appointment with the Dr, get the insulin, get your sugar down and you will be able to think straight. you have to be going through hell at the moment. as spiker said, if it stays down that's good, if not you may be T1
either way you are going to feel better

I'm T2

See your doctor. It sounds like type 1 rather than type 2. I am a type 1 so can see a clear difference.
Also, I wouldn't recommend taking metformin either, it's not good for your body. Won't go into detail as don't want to put you off but due to personal experiences, I wouldn't go anywhere near the stuff.