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Immunity to your insulin.

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dean1

Newbie
Messages
3
Location
Belfast
Has anyone heard of a case or has it happened to anyone were they become intolerant to their insulin?
I worked with a guy a few years back who was also diabetic. He was diagnosed with type 1 in his early 30s. I just bumped into him a few months back and he was telling me about a terrible time he had with his insulin. Bare in mind his insulin was working for him for 3 years previous. He was feeling really run down, couldnt get his blood sugars down at all etc etc. He phoned his clinic explaining his problem and was told to increase his dose "DOAH" as if he hadnt tried that!!! Nurse told him to increase his BM tests and his insulin accordingly. He was adamant their was a problem but no one listened. "Long story cut short" he went to Spain on holidays and 3 days in, after he felt like he was going to die his wife took him to hospital were he was told he was intolerant to his insulin and admitted for 2weeks. By the way, this happened within 20 minutes of arriving at the hospital. I didnt ask what type of insulin he used previous but, I definitely recall seeing his pen and it was blue and orange.
 
Hi Dean,
I had a problem on a particular 'synthetic analogue' long-acting insulin,which could have been described as insulin intolerance. Although it was not me that was the problem,but the drug. It failed to work the way it claims and resulted in me having erratic inconsistent blood glucose control. I was so ill during the time I took Lantus and suffered numerous unpleasant side-effects which included joint & muscle pains, and debilitating exhaustion. I would regularly accuse my husband of trying to poison me, and felt like I was dying. Some days all I could do was lay down and cry, convinced I was dying. No painkillers took away the awful symptoms and it was very very frightening. Many people suffer similar side-effects on that insulin. Problems with BG control tend to be blamed on the patient and many doctors appear reluctant to change patients' medication.

I changed to porcine insulin over a year ago, and have seen a drastic improvement in my health generally. I really feel like a different person, and my diabetes is now well controlled. there is no doubt in my mind that Lantus just didn't work for me, for whatever reason. The fact that more and more people come on this forum reporting similar problems gives me even more cause for concern.
I have been type-1 for 20 years,and prior to Lantus had always taken synthetic 'human' insulins. I'd never had great BG control on them, but never suffered anything like I did on Lantus :evil:
If your friend was taking a synthetic analogue insulin it's entirely possible that he was experiencing something similar. Be interesting to know what insulin he was taking at that time.
How is your friend now?
Interesting story,please keep us updated :)
Jus
 
Years ago I was given a type of insulin that didn't seem to work on me. They took me into hospital during school holidays, promising the new stuff was 'best thing since sliced bread'. Had already done masses of blood tests etc to make sure I wasn't about to go down with anything. I didn't become intolerant, it just didn't work from day 1 despite doses being doubled each day. After about a week they gave up, when I became delirious with high bs. Put me back on the old dose of the old stuff and bs came back down.

Smashing holiday that was!!

At least it was clear from the start that it wasn't right for me. That was better than the first so-called 'human' insulin in the 80s that caused no end of problems, not all of which we realised were due to the insulin until everything settled when I went back to porcine.

Guess I must be weird or something :wink:
 
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