High Cholesterol, high insulin resistance, consultant says there is nothing else he can do

Brettskee said:

Hi I’ve had type 2 for about 8 years now my blood sugars are constantly high at levels of 20.0 to 32 through out the day very rarely come down under 20mml my trigs are at 62.2 and cholesterol at 16 suffering with neuropathy in both hands and feet been up to 1.000 units of insulin don’t bring sugars down at all which was 9 injections a day my consultant told me last week nothing more we can do for you apart from give you a tablet called pioglitrizone which carry’s a risk of giving you cancer any thoughts

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Hi Brett, is that triglyceride measurement in American or UK units? (if it's US measurements it's high, but not too bad. If it's UK measurements that would make it very high indeed). I had trigs of 32 UK/ 320 USA, and very painful neuropathy. I dropped it to normal levels by diet and avoiding alcohol. I also took rosuvastatin at the start on doctor's advice. Once I was back to normal levels-about 3 months later, my doc took me off rosuvastatin. My thoughts for you are that if you are on like 6.2 UK measurements, you may be able to handle it with diet, but if you are on an actual UK 62, you'd probably better take whatever the doctor can give you. Your blood sugars seem very, very high as well- insulin injections don't help? I think you need to review your current programme ASAP. I certainly wish you all the best, and I'm sure there are things you can do to improve your situation. Good luck!

Brettskee said:

Hi thx for interest the docs said it’s the highest reading of trigs he had seen supposed to be 1.1/1.7 somewhere in that bracket only spoke to consultant last week was not impressed with his comment of just up tytrate your insulin another 10 units even though he knows I’m insulin resistant .trying to get someone else to speak to is a nightmare

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What do you eat usually?
I'd say at those blood glucose readings cholesterol is the least of your worries.

Brettskee said:

Don’t eat much at all anymore don’t get hungry anymore don’t eat many carbs or sweet stuff and I’m teetotal tried all sorts of different foods doesn’t matter what I eat blood sugars go very high

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Any idea what your last HbA1c was?
Sorry for the 50 questions but context is very important.

Brettskee said:

Hi thx for interest the docs said it’s the highest reading of trigs he had seen supposed to be 1.1/1.7 somewhere in that bracket only spoke to consultant last week was not impressed with his comment of just up tytrate your insulin another 10 units even though he knows I’m insulin resistant .trying to get someone else to speak to is a nightmare

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Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

What insulin/s are you prescribed?

Brettskee said:

Hi I’ve had type 2 for about 8 years now my blood sugars are constantly high at levels of 20.0 to 32 through out the day very rarely come down under 20mml my trigs are at 62.2 and cholesterol at 16 suffering with neuropathy in both hands and feet been up to 1.000 units of insulin don’t bring sugars down at all which was 9 injections a day my consultant told me last week nothing more we can do for you apart from give you a tablet called pioglitrizone which carry’s a risk of giving you cancer any thoughts

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Read a book by doctor Richard k Bernstein on American.he reversed his complication

Brettskee said:

Last hba1c was 13.8 3 weeks ago I’m on Toujeo solo star 260 units morning then at night and 100 units of fast acting hum alog with meals 4 metformin tabs max fenofibate and dapegflozin also other tabs for other health issues

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Are you under the care of a GP rather than a specialist? Insulin will get your blood sugars down but you need to dose for the carbs you are eating with every meal rather than just take 100 units of fast-acting at night. You must ask for a referral to the specialist diabetes team at your hospital. They deal with type 1's and type 2's where the GP's can't manage when you need basal and bolus for meals.

Brettskee said:

Not under GP under hospital consultant in lipids and diabetes and specialist dietary nurse . I take fast acting with meals and background insulin twice a day of 260units each time and 100 units of humalog I also weigh food and near enough no carbs in my diet tried all sorts of diets and insulin levels nothing really helps this is why the specialist are saying there’s nothing left to try apart from a tablet called pioglitrizone which has a cancer risk element

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Thank you, that's clearer. Can you try a new consultant?

Brettskee said:

Not under GP under hospital consultant in lipids and diabetes and specialist dietary nurse . I take fast acting with meals and background insulin twice a day of 260units each time and 100 units of humalog I also weigh food and near enough no carbs in my diet tried all sorts of diets and insulin levels nothing really helps this is why the specialist are saying there’s nothing left to try apart from a tablet called pioglitrizone which has a cancer risk element

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Really sorry to hear about your challenges. When you say near enough no carbs, what does that look like? What is you usual food?

It might be something in there that doesn’t seem obvious but can have unexpected impacts. I have found some foods that should spike me crazily don’t and yet others have significantly longer impact than you would expect, going into the morning after.

do you do any exercise? Again, some people find it can impact their blood levels positively

Hi @Brettskee, this must be very hard for you when you seem to be doing all you can to address this. Again, apologies for all the questions but it's the only way we can come up with any advice based on our own experiences. What is your weight as a matter of interest and your activity levels, and as someone else has said, could you give us what a typical day in your life is like, food, glucose test, activity, work, etc. Also, are you (or they) SURE they've put the decimal point in the right place for the trigs and if so, have they said whether you have FH (ie, inherited high cholesterol)? Thank you. x

Brettskee said:

I have fish poached half cup of rice .don’t eat potatoes now and again will have a baked potato and salad I eat lots of greens and fruit drink 3/4 litres of water a day so really eat drink very healthy I’m not overweight only thing I am in a lot of pain with fibromyalgia and arthritis also stenosis of the spine I do think that this is sending my sugar levels so high

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Lots of alarm bells there for me..
Rice, potato, fruit all are high carb foods and many are considered inflammatory which won't help fibromyalgia or arthritis in the slightest.
You'd highly likely benefit from a meat and fish only diet for a month or so.

Hi.
I have fibromyalgia and stenosis, so I do very little exercise - in fact I spend a lot of my life in bed. But going low carb really had a dramatic impact on my blood sugars and weight.
You say you are still eating rice and potato - both of which have far too many carbs for me to tolerate. I think that very few people can do low carb to control blood sugar and still eat rice or potato.

I dropped potato, rice, breakfast cereals, pasta and ordinary bread along with most fruit.
At first I tested before and after every meal to check how many carbs I could have and which foods spiked me. For example, for me the same amount of carbs in strawberries caused a bigger spike than raspberries.
I was lucky as I started low carb straight away so my blood sugars dropped quickly. I had to go down to 85g a day and no more than 30g in one meal - but others need to go much lower.

On a typical day I have a cereal that is mostly milled flaxseed and chia seeds, with a little coconut milk and cinnamon, served with double cream - that plus a half milk coffee is about 20g of carbs.
I often skip lunch - just having a second coffee, or will have protein and lettuce/cucumber. I might have a ham or cheese sandwich using 90 second bread made with ground almonds and milled flaxseed.
For dinner I have chicken or fish, cooked with lemon juice or curry powder or herbs, and loads of green veg plus cauliflower rice.
Dessert is full fat greek yogurt and a few raspberries, or a rhubarb crumble using ground almonds instead of flour served with double cream. Sometimes I make a low carb mug cake instead.
Bedtime treat is a couple of no added sugar chocolates or some 85% dark choc and a mug of cocoa made half milk, a dash of cream and sweetener.

Brettskee said:

I have fish poached half cup of rice .don’t eat potatoes now and again will have a baked potato and salad I eat lots of greens and fruit drink 3/4 litres of water a day so really eat drink very healthy I’m not overweight only thing I am in a lot of pain with fibromyalgia and arthritis also stenosis of the spine I do think that this is sending my sugar levels so high

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Few things here that sound healthy according to some conventional wisdom but are really not good for those who are intolerant of carbs.
What sort of fruit and veg is that?
Potatoes and rice are a problem for many
Greens may be okay, but some veg are higher carbs than others.

this is why we were asking to understand, do you have a food diary recording carbs etc? You said you weigh your food. Recording the food in an app or similar that tracks the macros is informative

potatoes/chips are one of the foods I was talking about that has longer impact on my levels. Chocolate doesn’t impact for long on me, chips I can see into the day after (to be fair fish and chips is an extreme and high portion so combination of factors there)