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Type 2 How much insulin is too much?

B

bjroberts52

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Hello,

I am american, so bare with me. I have been diagnosed as being type 2 and have been prescribed almost everything. Here's my problem though...

Everything has worked. For a while. I took metformin and it helped control my sugars. For about 3 months. They added glipazide and it helped for about 2 more months. Then came Lantis. Again, that too worked. For all of 5 months. Last but not least I went to an Endocrinologist and he prescribed the hammer. A combination of Victoza, Jardiance, Toujeo, Lantis and insulin (u-100). That worked for about 8 months.

Now I'm on insulin only (his choice). But I'm taking what seems to be a huge amount. Anywhere from 60 units, all the way up to 400 units. When I wake up and test my sugars, I might read 130 and take between 60 and 100 units to get my sugars to 80-120. At lunch, I will test after (his orders) and read 300 from a salad. Well in goes 200 to 300 units. Dinner? 400 more units. And my sugars just keep going up.

So now I have 2 questions...

  1. Is up to 400 units of u-100 at meal time too much?
  2. At what point do you say "Eff it" and let diabetes take you?
 
Hey man sorry to hear you are there. You might want to take another opinion on your type of Diabetes. It seems a lot of insulin to me for a type 2. I’m needing more and more also but I do eat rice and carbs food. Sorry I’m not able to help much but never give up on diabetes. It is very difficult I know. Be strong and take it day by day,
Best regards
 
No one here can give dosing advice. This is something your specialist and you only can discuss.

It's a tough situation to be in for sure, but it would help if you could describe what you are eating at meal times. Diet is really important.
 
Tophat1900 said:
Diet is really important.
Click to expand...
This.

T1 here so I'm used to insulin but not T2. My understanding is that T2s tend to be very insulin resistant, so they need increasing quantities of insulin to process carbohydrates. T2 medications such as gliclazide help a T2 produce more insulin, but this doesn't help the underlying problem that their bodies just can't process carbs well. There is also a vicious circle in that high blood sugars combined with high insulin levels cause weight gain, which increases insulin resistance and leads to the need for more insulin.... And if you push your body to produce more and more insulin your insulin producing cells become overworked and start to burn out, resulting in the need for injections.

In @bjroberts52 's position, I'd look very carefully at how much carbohydrate I was consuming, and reduce it drastically. But, if you're on injections of insulin you have to do this carefully, in consultation with your medical team, as an overdose of insulin causes hypoglycemia which can be very dangerous.

Good luck.
 
You could be a misdiagnosed type 1 with insulin resistance too. Gaining weight can increase your insulin needs a lot. Steroids will make your sugars go up a lot in some people.

But I also have run across people that have problems with certain insulins switching types of insulin sometimes works.

I have never heard of someone taking 400 units, wow. Isn't that almost half a vial?
 
Hi. Can you let us know what your daily carb intake is. As you were on Victoza it implies you have excess weight? If so you must reduce the carbs as you may already have too much insulin in your blood thru insulin resistance and adding more will have little effect.
 
bjroberts52 said:
Hello,

I am american, so bare with me. I have been diagnosed as being type 2 and have been prescribed almost everything. Here's my problem though...

Everything has worked. For a while. I took metformin and it helped control my sugars. For about 3 months. They added glipazide and it helped for about 2 more months. Then came Lantis. Again, that too worked. For all of 5 months. Last but not least I went to an Endocrinologist and he prescribed the hammer. A combination of Victoza, Jardiance, Toujeo, Lantis and insulin (u-100). That worked for about 8 months.

Now I'm on insulin only (his choice). But I'm taking what seems to be a huge amount. Anywhere from 60 units, all the way up to 400 units. When I wake up and test my sugars, I might read 130 and take between 60 and 100 units to get my sugars to 80-120. At lunch, I will test after (his orders) and read 300 from a salad. Well in goes 200 to 300 units. Dinner? 400 more units. And my sugars just keep going up.

So now I have 2 questions...

  1. Is up to 400 units of u-100 at meal time too much?
  2. At what point do you say "Eff it" and let diabetes take you?
Click to expand...

Can I ask you what you're actually using now? I'm not entirely clear which you've used in the past and moved away from.

Have you been trained, or learned to carb count along the way? If so, what are your standard ratios? When you say you go from around 100 (I think?) to 300 with a salad, what's actually in that salad? I'm just trying to calculate the carbs a bit.

You'r ein a real bind it seems, but giving up is just accepting your health is very likely to fail, and havign seen folks with complications of diabetes, that isn't something to embrace, I'd urge.

Your insulin supplies must be costing an absolute fortune. I genuinely hope you have very good insurance.
 
From what you're saying, you appear to be eating, waiting to test and then injecting insulin to bring your blood glucose down. This isn't how quick acting insulin is meant to work, and will result in an increased dose being needed.

Most t1s test before eating and calculate a correction dose for how high the blood glucose is, then look at the meal, carb count, and add the insulin needed to cover the carbs. Is this what you are doing?

As regards the dose of insulin, if that's how much you need, then that's how much you should take.
 
bjroberts52 said:
Hello,

I am american, so bare with me. I have been diagnosed as being type 2 and have been prescribed almost everything. Here's my problem though...

Everything has worked. For a while. I took metformin and it helped control my sugars. For about 3 months. They added glipazide and it helped for about 2 more months. Then came Lantis. Again, that too worked. For all of 5 months. Last but not least I went to an Endocrinologist and he prescribed the hammer. A combination of Victoza, Jardiance, Toujeo, Lantis and insulin (u-100). That worked for about 8 months.

Now I'm on insulin only (his choice). But I'm taking what seems to be a huge amount. Anywhere from 60 units, all the way up to 400 units. When I wake up and test my sugars, I might read 130 and take between 60 and 100 units to get my sugars to 80-120. At lunch, I will test after (his orders) and read 300 from a salad. Well in goes 200 to 300 units. Dinner? 400 more units. And my sugars just keep going up.

So now I have 2 questions...

  1. Is up to 400 units of u-100 at meal time too much?
  2. At what point do you say "Eff it" and let diabetes take you?
Click to expand...

I know quite a few type 2s on insulin who are on large amounts of insulin due to insulin resistance. I’d say get in contact with your endo again and ask the possibility of you being referred to a dietitian or a carb counting course for dose adjustments. So then you can control your diet either LCHF or keto and adjust your insulin doses for it so you don’t hypo and have better BG readings.
 
There are also concentrated insulin’s so you don’t actually take as much. 2 to 1 ratio and I believe there is a 4 to 1 out there too.
 
eventhorizon said:
2. At what point do you say "Eff it" and let diabetes take you.

Never!
Click to expand...
From Galaxy Quest comes a wonderful quote for this! “Never give up! Never surrender!”

It’s best to address other aspects first than let it burn you out. It’s a tough path but there are so many amazing suggestions above that you can work on @bjroberts52
 
Caeseji said:
From Galaxy Quest comes a wonderful quote for this! “Never give up! Never surrender!”

It’s best to address other aspects first than let it burn you out. It’s a tough path but there are so many amazing suggestions above that you can work on @bjroberts52
Click to expand...


As a total aside, can I just say a huge thank you for that reference! I love that film - it's such fantastic fun.

Thank you - now back to your scheduled thread .....
 
As others have said your diet is a very important factor in all this plus a doctor sorting out what factors might be affecting the way your medications work or not.
You have not mentioned your current weight but i am guessing you may need an effective weight loss plan, one of the three recently endorsed by the ADA.
And injecting large doses of insulin into one site is not likely to give the best absorption.
You may need to consult the best endocriniologist in the State or that side of the country to find better answers.
 
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