I have come off insulin!

[St0ker]

Hi all, I am not a regular poster here, in fact I have only posted once before when I asked about reducing my insulin amount.

I have been dieting since May, and have lost almost 5 stone now. Ever since starting the diet my sugar levels have been so low I have been in danger of hypos (I used to inject Insulatard twice a day and Novarapid before meals) - After about a week of dieting stopped injecting regularly, just checking myself after meals to make sure I was still under control.

I went to see my HCP and to my surprise he took insulin off my repeat prescription immediately! This gave me a slight panic - What if I needed some! How would I cope knowing it wasn't available? Well everything has been fine. I have had a small supply still in the fridge in case of emergencies but have not needed to use it at all.

I have lost almost 5 stone now - I am delighted to report that my levels seem really really good, fasting levels around 4.5mmol and 2 hours after eating is between 5 and 6mmol. This weekend I went to an italian restaurant for lunch, had starter, main and very sweet pudding - Tested myself at home and it was a very reasonable 6.5, so whilst I don't want to say something crazy like "I'm cured", it's looking good.

I'm due a Hb1Ac in a couple of weeks so it will be interesting to see what that says...

I'm not normally one to blow my own trumpet, but the benefits have been so great it is worth sharing my success with others and hopefully inspire someone else to do something about their weight (if that is a contributing factor to their diabetes). When I was diagnosed a few years ago, the various healthcare practitioners I met said it would help if I lost weight, but if someone suggested I would have to inject insulin any more, I would have given this a try long ago!

Cheers all!

Adam.

 

[smidge]

Hi Adam!

Well done you!!! That's a fantastic achievement! I think once you get your levels down and stable, your body can tolerate more carbs than it can when you're always running high, so that might be why you had such a good result after your Italian meal. Treats occasionally are great and you certainly deserved a treat after such a fantastic achievement!

Smidge

 

[lucyunited89]

congratulations!!!! you sound like you have done really well and you deserve a big pat on the back!!!! health related achievements should never be classed as blowing you own trumpet, they take a lot of hard work, strength and energy, so well done!!!!

 

[Ann19]

Hi Adam, losing that much weight is a brilliant achievement and you've come off insulin! All you're hard work deserves a pat on the back.

Ann

 

[borofergie]

I have been dieting since May, and have lost almost 5 stone now.

Wow 70lbs, that's incredible! Well done!

What diet did you use to lose all that weight?

 

[Fallenstar]

WELL DONE YOU
That is such a good post to read, so positive. Get on and enjoy your non injecting life You know what you need to do now!
And well done on the weight loss, I bet you feel so much better for that alone..CONGRATS all round!

 

[RussG]

That is a great acheivement. Well done!

 

[St0ker]

Wow, thanks for the response everyone!

I didn't mention the diet because I wasn't sure if it was allowed, but seeing as you asked... I'm doing Weight Watchers. I'm not going to any of the meetings, I'm just doing the on-line version and tracking all my food using their website tracker. Weighing myself at home on some pretty accurate scales once a week.

I am still on Metformin, and now that I'm consuming sensible portions of food I'm sure it is contributing greatly to my weight loss. I mentioned to my HCP at the last visit that I haven't been able to tolerate more than 1000mg without upset stomach and he immediately put me on the slow release version which I am taking the full dose of (2000mg) without any side effects at all! The non-slow release version made me... erm... very windy, so I'm pleased with this change, but possibly not as pleased as my wife!

Anyway, the reason I posted is because I wanted people to know that weight loss can make a massive difference. It sounds obvious, and plenty of HCPs have told me to watch my diet and lose weight, but for some reason I didn't get the message "If you lose weight you might not have to inject any more." I kind of got so used to injecting that I didn't remember what it was like not to.

I had reached the point where I was almost eating whatever I wanted, and just countering it with enough insulin to keep my sugar levels reasonable. No wonder I ballooned from around 16 stone to over 19. Now I'm just over 14 stone, which is the lightest I can remember being!

Cheers all!

Adam.