Insulin pen needle use T1 following low carb

a good friend of mine from twitter, in fact the person who introduced to me low carb and dr Bernstein’s approach about 10 months ago, so I have a lot to thank him for. He has been now told by his medical insurance they will restrict his insulin pen needles to a certain amount and think he’s is using excessive amounts to achieve his very good control following a low carb lifestyle like so many of us here do. He is is Switzerland so has to have medical insurance for his diabetics meds, needles, test strips etc...

He was asking how many other type ones following a low carb are using per annum approx.

Mines in the region of 2500 - 3000 depending on correction doses but he knows my figure.

I’d you could take a minute to answer for us we would be most grateful. No names or anything are needed or will be passed on.

Thanks in advance.

helensaramay said:

Probably in the region of 2000 before I changed to a pump.

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Thanks Helen

slip said:

This throws up more questions than answers! So how many is he currently using?

Surely it depends on his treatment regime? someone who is on a mixed insulin would use 2 a day (730/yr! now theres a cost saving option!), on basal/bolus MDI, minimum of 4 or 5 + x number of correction dosages, I guess 'x' is where the 'excessive' use comes from? (1825+)

And I thought the idea of low carb was to reduce the fluctuations and there fore reduce the corrections.......ergo less needle usage.

Has he told his insurance company that to reduce the needle usage he would like to use a pump instead?! If he's having to do multiple corrections a day then perhaps a pump would be more suitable.

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He uses the same treatment regime as me, split basal (levemir) and then one each time he eats (humulin s or another regular insulin) then a rapid if needed for corrections.

I need a shot when I wake up middle of the night as my dp starts kicking in around 4ish. Then as I wake up I have another small shot of novorapid to stop my numbers rising. Then have my humulin s for my breakfast. This never happened before my dad past away last year, it’s slowly getting better now so hopefully the middle of the night shots will stop. 2 for my levemir and then 2 more for my lunch and dinner.

The corrections on low carb come from waking up in my case and I imagine my friends. He’s flat lining around the clock on his libre. The smaller doses we need to use on low carb the shorter the insulin action lasts. I’m on tiny amounts of levemir and humulin s. I don’t think it saves any needles, you use more. I was 1 lantus and 3 novorapid before going low carb, corrections where hardly used before as I wasn’t aiming for really tight control. 5-9 was the target before.. (shaking head)

He’s a veteran pump user, it actually messed his diabetes up, rubbish control as problems with canulars etc.. loads of people have problems with them. Hes been on mdi for the past few years trying to undo the mess from the pump.