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Insulin

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Vera Bout

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How long do you think it takes insulin to kick in on the first time you use it? I start insulin on Tuesday and to be honest cant wait to do so in the hope it makes me feel better than i currently do. I am currently feeling very lethargic and low on energy due to my sugar levels refusing to come down on tablets, this week had 24.4 which is the highest i have ever had and felt absolutely awful all day, currently running at 15-18 so still far too high but i am really hoping the insulin will help get my sugar down and also improve on the way i am currently feeling.
I am trying to lose weight to help the diabetes long term so lots of work to do on it, just want to feel a bit more human.
 
You should (provided they get you on the right starting dose) feel better within a day or two, good luck and hope all goes well!
 
Hi. Good luck as I also start on Monday! If you are still overweight then do control the carbs as low as you can to try to get the sugars and weight down. If you don't have the right diet, which maybe you do have, and go onto insulin it may cause you to increase weight as you may have some residual insulin resistance and hence the insulin can't do it's job properly.
 
You will *probably* start feeling better in a few days, but a word of warning - don't count on it! I started on insulin (quick-acting with meals and slow acting every night) after my blood sugars shot up from normal to 19-20 over a two week period (I'd been on gliclazide before that, and my nurse reckoned my pancreas had more or less packed up).

They started me on a low dose of insulin (2-3 with meals, 9 every night), and kept putting it up every few days, but it was a whole month before I was up to the dose I needed (7-10 with meals and 39 every night!) and I felt dreadful for the whole month. Seems I have high insulin resistance as well as low insulin production. It's all sorted now, and I feel great, but I was starting to despair that I was never going to feel well again as the weeks went on.

Chances are you'll feel well long before I did, but if it does drag on, remember - you'll get there in the end! :)
 
I am trying to eat as low as I can on carbs but not possible to avoid them all. I am trying to get my head round what the carb counts are all about, i'll get there eventually. I am hoping for quick results from the insulin but my body is not taking much effect to 320mg of glicazide currently so i do worry how much effect the insulin will have. Positive thoughts though! :)
 
Gliclazide makes the beta-cells in your pancreas produce more insulin, but if your pancreas is no longer capable of producing insulin because the beta-cells have died, then the gliclazide won't help - this is what happened to me. So the insulin should work where the gliclazide didn't.
 
Hi Carandol. You're absolutely right ref the Gliclazide; I wish my DN who is actually very good would take me off them as they are now a waste of time and money. If you don't have beta cells to prod then the result is predictable. I think having insulin when you are insulin resistant is a difficult path to tread, as you found, as the body may be swimming in insulin and injections just add to it. I guess it's always advisable to overcome any insulin resistance by the appropriate diet etc before injections where you can so that there is a good reference point to start from.
 
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