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Insulin resistance

R

rbbrown2448

Member
Messages
11
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. Does anyone have any information regarding insulin resistance in a girl aged 13 Please. Regards Roger
 
@rbbrown2448 Type 1 diabetes and insulin resistance are two completely different things: insulin resistance is when our body is unable to efficiently use insulin (usually type 2 diabetes) whereas Type 1 is where our body does not create any insulin. It is possible to experience both at the same time but this i not common and even more rare for a 13 year old.

Perhaps if you could explain the problem we may be able to provide some advice.
 
My granddaughter, now 13, has had type 1 diabetes since being 10 years old and until the last year or so has had no issues. She now has occasionally needed hospital treatment to deal with high keytones despite managing her diabetes in the same way. Her sister who is 2 years older also type 1 from the same age and has had no issues. My daughter is receiving criticism and less than helpful support from her local clinic and would like some advice regarding whether insulin resistance development could be one reason for her issues
Roger
 
At 13 I'd expect it's puberty hormonal changes affecting her diabetes, not insulin resistance.

While insulin resistance in children is not impossible, it's very rare.
Whereas it's very common to have blood glucose going haywire from puberty hormones alone, often combined with puberty behavioural changes.

I think it's not fair to compare her with her older sister, no two people are the same.
 
I agree with you completely that it's hormonal. The issue is that her clinic continue to insist that insulin must work and therefore the issue must be poor management which I personally know is not the issue. They refuse to accept my daughter's contention that the insulin is not working sufficiently. I'm hoping to possibly pay for advice from a private consultant sometime but not sure where to look. Both of them are so stressed
 
The clinic isn't being very helpful. Does you granddaughter have a lot of excess weight? If so she could be T1 with insulin resistance? In this case keeping some control of the carbs may help. Has the clinic offered her a Libre 2 sensor so she and they can monitor her insulin behaviour? I assume she is using two insulins (Basal/Bolus) and has received good guidance on their use?
 
She is not at all overweight is sporty and has done an still does a great number of ballet sessions a week. She has a libre2 and uses basal/basal and has received guidance
 
she is currently a good weight for her height and exercises 9/10 hours a week.
All guidance is followed and have weekly meetings to make alterations on basal and bolus. She is wearing her libre and it is monitored by the diabetes team weekly.
 
rbbrown2448 said:
Basal/ bolus
Click to expand...
Has she been offered and would she like an insulin pump? My (possibly incorrect) understanding is that she should be eligible, but I don't know whether it would help....
 
Hello @rbbrown2448

Sorry to hear of the really poor care your grand daughter is receiving from her team, I can understand your frustration, they should understand that puberty and hormones would directly affect her control, so blaming the patient is really poor care, personally I would start with a letter of complaint regarding her care to try and alert them to the fact that this is being mis-handled, this sort of message at a young age can really impact on her ability to manage her condition so it's not acceptable to blame her.

If she's following advice to adjust her insulin and they can see her readings then this should reflect that she is doing all she can to help manage her condition.

Why has she ruled out the pump option ? A pump would allow her to adjust her ratios for her basal and to really fine tune her control, she can also use a system like the Tandem Slim pump with a Dexcom G6 sensor which is a closed loop system and once ratios are set it would do a lot of the work for her, with just minor adjustments from time to time.

There sounds like work to be done in regards to getting her current bolus/basal system fine tuned which will take time, things do go awry with control for all t1d's from time to time, but having an understanding and sympathetic team is vital.
 
Thanks for your really nice response which I've passed on to my daughter. She been accused so long of not managing her condition and accusations of refusing to accept blame that without medical evidence to support her claims my daughter has largely given up the battle now. All she can hope is that when she changes clinic at 16 things will improve.
Regards Roger
 
Hi @rbbrown2448 ,

Welcome to the forum.

One thought comes to mind. It can be very easy with an insulin regime whilst on the go to automatically use a favourite site for injecting.? This can if used to much & not rotated, cause issue with insulin absorption??

Best wishes to you and your family. I empathise with your granddaughter’s disenfranchisement with her hospital team..
I still have “professional differences of opinion” with mine.

What basal (long acting insulin) does your granddaughter use, Lantus perchance?
 
Thanks again for your response. I've advised my daughter to draft a letter. I think it is lantus
 
My daughter say she didn't get on with lantus so now is using treseba . She had a few lumps on the injection site so is now swapping around
 
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