Hey @markpj31, I started insulin in September last year, and following the doctors advice I really battled to find stability. I recently tried the libre and made some adjustments - doing much better, but also looking for a new doc.
Does your team work with what you tell them, or do they advise by the book? I think getting stable depends on finding what works best for you,
There's no way to answer this.
Some are more or less stable very quick, some never get stable, no-one is stable all the time.
What helps a lot is using a CGM or test a LOT, and keep a food diary, counting the carbs and finding patterns.
Is it still correct you use Lantus only?
What do you mean by stable?
How are you using insulin?
Just stabbing yourself a few times a day and assuming a fixed dose of insulin with no other lifestyle change will make you “stable” will not work.
No one (not even someone without diabetes) has stable levels between 6 and 8. My partner has measured numbers below 4 and Libre graphs from people without diabetes rise as high as 9.Stable with numbers between 6-8 which I have achieved before on oral meds.
I have been set a fixed amount of units to inject per meal by by nursing team.
Worth updating your profile information, or adding this information to your question to prevent confusion.Using Novarapid now too for meals (x3) on a set amount of units per meal (as instructed to do so).
Worth updating your profile information, or adding this information to your question to prevent confusion.
I agree with @In Response , fixed doses don't make sense when not eating fixed amounts of carbs for each meal.
What you can do on fixed doses though, is count your carbs and make note of them, along with your before and after BG.
This may show you how many carbs you need for the dose you take, and you can adjust the carbs to your doses.
Or you can insist you need to adjust your doses and get the green light for that.
Still, this means the same kind of record keeping to work out how much insulin you need for how many carbs for different times of the day.
No one (not even someone without diabetes) has stable levels between 6 and 8. My partner has measured numbers below 4 and Libre graphs from people without diabetes rise as high as 9.
That is most likely due to not matching your insulin to your carbs.At one point I was a pretty steady 5-8 when measuring 4 times a day over a period of 2 weeks. Now its all over the place. I have extreme highs and lows. For example, the other day I had a low of 1.9mmol/L to a high of 16mmol/L before bed.
How long after eating did you have the low, how many carbs did you eat and how many insulin did you take for it?the other day I had a low of 1.9mmol/L to a high of 16mmol/L before bed.
How long after eating did you have the low, how many carbs did you eat and how many insulin did you take for it?
Same questions for the high.
Without this kind of information over multiple days, no-one, not even the most learned endocrinologist will be able to start working on finding the right doses for you.
There's a lot of information to gain, even on your fixed doses. But you need to do some bookkeeping to get this information.
@markpj31 That is frustrating! My doctor was also giving me advice on insulin without really considering any other factors, unfortunately I was in a tis and followed it too long and now I feel like it made me quite sick.
Are you able to see a different team/doctor/nurse? Monitoring your numbers, diet and doses would be a good starting point either way, and if you are able to do a course they sound quite helpful!
If you do have to stick to the set doses, the monitoring should help you figure out how many carbs you should have for that dose, and you could try at least match your food to your dose to avoid the extreme highs and lows - at least until you find a team who supports you adjusting your doses according to what you are eating!
So now try to find out if that's a one off or a pattern.Low came around half hour after eating. I ate around 30g of carbs.
Do you remember how many jelly beans you had? If it was too much, you might want to have less to treat your next hypo and see how that works.High I think came when I over-done eating Jelly beans to get back up from the Hypo.
So now try to find out if that's a one off or a pattern.
Does it happen again with the same amount of carbs at the same time? How long after your last dose did it happen? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself and keep track of.
Do you remember how many jelly beans you had? If it was too much, you might want to have less to treat your next hypo and see how that works.