Insulin treatment

A few YEARS?! WITHOUT insulin?! Wow! I never thought it was possible with t1. Apparently, you were very lucky with the early diagnosis.
Virtual hugs to you. I hope you will quickly get used to all these injections

Hi @Favy welcome to the forum.
As @Zhnyaka suggested, living with Type 1 for years without taking insulin is very unusual. As an auto immune condition, most of us start taking insulin as soon as we receive our Type 1 diagnosis. I imagine it must be like starting again with getting your head around it after so long after diagnosis must be a shock but many of us do it and live a very full life.
What is it about taking insulin that is making you depressed? Are you struggling with getting your dose correct? It can take a fair amount of trial and error

It's quite extraordinary that it has taken so long for you to be prescribed insulin therapy. If you could provide more details about about how you are measuring your blood glucose levels and a general idea as to what they are like I'm sure you'll receive many supportive suggestions..

Favy said:

Hi everyone , my name is favy, im new to this group.
Ive had type 1 diabetes for some years now, buh i recently started taking insulin treatments last 6 months, and it has really been depressing.
Im so happy i found this forum online , hopefully i get to meet nice people that will encourage me through this journey.

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Hi @Favy ,

Take a warm welcome to the forum.

What do you wish to know? What insulin/s have you been prescribed?

Hey everyone.

I am too one of the people who were diagnosed with T1D but lived without insulin for around 2 years.

For me personally, I went to the hospital with A1C % of 10 and fasting BG of 20. Was instantly put on insulin. However, within a few weeks my insulin needs kept on dropping and within a month I was without any insulin. Was still wearing a CGM which usually showed a bg of around 4 - 6.

However, the doctor said that test show it may be T2D. However, they weren't certain since my A1C and fasting BG was so high and it developed very suddenly.
I personally assumed that it was simply the honeymoon phase.

After a year my bg started getting worse and being around 7-8. And within 2 years it got to the point where it was constantly 11 - 13. So I started insulin again.

However, my doctor still says its likely that this is still T2D. However, I am not sure if I believe it cause they didnt do further tests. Might be LADA or 1.5 I guess?

Hi Favy,

Welcome to the forum, I am recently new here too and already find it helpful and hope you do too. Very friendly bunch around here you'll find and quite informative.

It is a journey, but one you do not have to take on your own, especially now you found this forum.

Zhnyaka said:

A few YEARS?! WITHOUT insulin?! Wow! I never thought it was possible with t1. Apparently, you were very lucky with the early diagnosis.
Virtual hugs to you. I hope you will quickly get used to all these injections

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I' ve always thought that the definition of Type 1,diabetes was that your pancreas ceased completely making insulin and therefore you'd need insulin injections to make up for this lack of insulin production. If you are on insulin jabs now that is the best thing that could ever happen to you from now on in. At least you have a chance of getting your blood sugar under control. I've had insulin dependent diabetes T1 for 62 years now so nowadays it is quite possible to live a normal relatively healthy life. You just have to watch your carb intake and balance that against insulin intake. It's a **** big balancing act. Do plenty of blood tests and if you haven't got a Libre 2 glucose monitor- Get one! Use finger prick tests as a back up. Keep your insulin cool at all times in a cool bag and fridge- but don't freeze it. There really is no need to be depressed- remember you have a good life to lead still if you follow the basic balancing act rules! Good luck

Captain_Sensible said:

I' ve always thought that the definition of Type 1,diabetes was that your pancreas ceased completely making insulin and therefore you'd need insulin injections to make up for this lack of insulin production. If you are on insulin jabs now that is the best thing that could ever happen to you from now on in. At least you have a chance of getting your blood sugar under control. I've had insulin dependent diabetes T1 for 62 years now so nowadays it is quite possible to live a normal relatively healthy life. You just have to watch your carb intake and balance that against insulin intake. It's a **** big balancing act. Do plenty of blood tests and if you haven't got a Libre 2 glucose monitor- Get one! Use finger prick tests as a back up. Keep your insulin cool at all times in a cool bag and fridge- but don't freeze it. There really is no need to be depressed- remember you have a good life to lead still if you follow the basic balancing act rules! Good luck

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I'm not sure when you can diagnose T1D. I'm a long standing T1. My family enrolled on the Trialnet diabetes research. My brother was found to have 3 of the 4 antibodies they were searching for in relation to T1. They told him then he was technically a T1. This was 8 years ago. Presently he has no symptoms, or problems with his blood sugar. It's a strange world.

Favy said:

Ive been prescribed humulin insulin 70/30
I take 24 in the morning and 18 at night.
There has been alot of myths around insulin therapy like it causes certain issues which contributed to me not taking it for a long time.
Im just soo scared and feeling depressed having to take it every day of my life.
Im glad i can see folks here that can truly understand how i feel

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Hi, and welcome to the forum. I hope you can find some help, reassurance and comfort here.

I have been type 1 for almost fifty years now and seem to be in better physical shape than most of the people I know of comparable age who haven’t got the condition. It is a daunting regime to get used to but I can assure you that it does get easier with time. As a teenager I had to boil urine in a test tube to assess its sugar content as there was no home blood testing available. The syringes were huge glass and stainless steel things that had to be sterilised in alcohol and the less said about the needles the better.

Nowadays I use Freestyle libre 2 for constant glucose monitoring and insulin pens for Lantus (slow acting) and Novorapid (fast acting) insulins. Normally four injections a day in total but these are not really a major issue. The needles available are variable in quality and you need to make sure you are being given good quality ones. I use BD microfine needles and have no problems with them but a former doctor kept changing them to a cheaper brand that came from Korea. They caused painful injections and bruising as well.

An important thing is to ensure variation of injection sites to mini risk of long term tissue damage as this will adversely affect insulin uptake.

Try not to despair about a life of diabetes management as it will get easier as you become more accustomed to it and take notice of the massive advances there have been in treating the condition. There will undoubtedly be more progress made in the coming years so we must all remain optimistic about the future.

I wish you every success with controlling your diabetes well and coming to terms with it.

Quinapril said:

Hey everyone.

I am too one of the people who were diagnosed with T1D but lived without insulin for around 2 years.

For me personally, I went to the hospital with A1C % of 10 and fasting BG of 20. Was instantly put on insulin. However, within a few weeks my insulin needs kept on dropping and within a month I was without any insulin. Was still wearing a CGM which usually showed a bg of around 4 - 6.

However, the doctor said that test show it may be T2D. However, they weren't certain since my A1C and fasting BG was so high and it developed very suddenly.
I personally assumed that it was simply the honeymoon phase.

After a year my bg started getting worse and being around 7-8. And within 2 years it got to the point where it was constantly 11 - 13. So I started insulin again.

However, my doctor still says its likely that this is still T2D. However, I am not sure if I believe it cause they didnt do further tests. Might be LADA or 1.5 I guess?

Click to expand...

I was initially DX'd as T2 in 2017 when I was 69. They prescribed Metformin, but I didn't like the effects, so I stopped it. I went on low carb and exercise and kept it under very good control. Then in 2019, I had a very serious DKA episode and ended up in ER for 4 days. Turns out after the correct blood tests that I was actually T1. Certainly took the doc and specialists by surprise. One of the specialists said he's never seen that in his 30 years. However, he has seen it once or twice since. I'm 75 now, still low carb and it's a pain getting the dose correct. It is very frustrating and scary some days.