Is it me or my medication?

[enamor]

Hi, A brief history: In 2010 I had gestational diabetes and was on insulin injections. After having my baby the diabetes went away. Exactly a year later after loosing a lot of weight and feeling very poorly I was diagnosed as T2 and given tablets, I continued to feel ill and loose weight and eventually ended up in hospital where they diagnosed T1.5. Since then the medical team don't mention it as T1.5 or LADA but treat me and tell me I'm T1. Which is fine as I understand treatment is the same.
After what seems quite a lot of changes of insulin, I was on twice daily, then changed to a nighttime long acting and daytime short actiing, both of which the type of insulin has already been changed.

For the last 6 months I take lantus at night and humalog as short acting. I have been on carb counting course and match 1 unit to 13 grams of carbs and I am very careful about weighing and measuring etc to get the balance right, but just don't seem to be able to make any sense of it. My morning readings range from 3.2 to this morning it was 16. During the day I can drop to 2.5 or rise to 26, I read the forum regularly and kind of know the things that can affect me but still, apart from the obvious things to raise or lower which I'm aware of, I fail to understand why I can't get a gripv of myself when I try so hard!!

I have the same breakfast everyday, I try to keep lunch and dinner similar too to try to keep order of my levels or find some kind of pattern. I have a teenager, a toddler a full time job where I work 2 nights and 2 days and I go to the gym 3 nights a week, so it is difficult to keep any two days consistently the same.

I'm seeing the consultant again at the hospital next week and I normally take his advice, he regulary tells me to see the dietician, which I have but feel there is not much more they can tell me as they are now just beginning to repeat advice already given.

I'm beginning to feel frustrated and about ready to just give up, but I know that control is something I can and will gain but, being a novice, have run out of my own ideas.

Do the different types of insulin make a difference? Should I ask my consultant to try a different one? or is there something I'm completely missing?

Any help would be great as I'm at a loss and feel completely out of my depth.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Sounds like you are doing all the right things. I wonder whether your Day/Night work pattern is causing your body to get confused with regard to background insulin? If this is the problem, I wonder what can be done apart from trying to revert to a job with a stable pattern; not easy probably. In general changing insulin types doesn't have a great effect with some exceptions. I wonder what sort of diet the dietician has recommended as some can offer some rather silly advice for diabetics. Are you trying to keep the carbs down and low-GI? If advised to keep the fats down, don't worry too much about that as it's the carbs that are the problem for us. Although you can match the insulin to the mealtime carbs, keeping them down will minimise blood sugar swings and reduce possible weight gain

 

[academicdiabetic]

Hi,

I'm not sure its either you or your medication... I am equally frustrated with control (from extreme low to highs of 24+ with the same routine) and it seems to be a fairly common thread of '1.5' as far as I can see... I have cut down on my insulin as I ended up in hospital with severe hypos three times, and since, overall, my HbA1C is actually worse since I have been takeing insulin (14) than it was before doing so (10-12) ... I have tried exercise, not exercise, low- to very low carb, normal carb, more insulin, different insulin, less insulin (the latter improves things a bit as BGs even if high don't zoom about so much) and I am now going to try a vegan diet (I'll let you know!).... the only factor I can see as a constant so far is that if I am stressed my BGs shoot up regardless of whatever esle I am doing....

I empathise with you on the nightmare this is, I suspect it is just that this particualr condition is not very well understood ...

stay sane and try and keep happy

Does anyone else with '1.5' have a comment on the unstable patterns of BG?

 

[hanadr]

It's common for diabetes to reappear in women who had GD. It can be either t1 or T2 that appears.
Hana

 

[enamor]

Thanks for the response I really was beginning to think I was doing something wrong.

I've seen the consultant at the hospital and for the first time really felt like we had a conversation rather than me just taking instruction. Talking through it all he concluded I'm just "one of those people", it didn't sound uncommon that no matter how motivated a person might be the levels still fluctuate.

He has put me on the waiting list for an insulin pump as he thinks I could benifit from it. Don't know much about these either so a little more research and talking ahead of me again, I've got another appointment at the beginning of February so still plenty of time to try to get to grips with it and think about the pump.

 

[elaine77]

Hi enamor..

I'm LADA too but I'm not on insulin yet. I have a great consultant though who answers all my questions even when they're not relevant to me yet and I discussed this with him and this is what he told me...

He told me that LADA is a heck of a lot harder to control than type 1 diabetes because most of the time you are still producing some of ur own insulin. The problem is that u don't know how much u are producing and so how on earth are u supposed to know how much to inject when u don't know how much is already guna be there?? He said this is why he won't put me onto insulin until it is absolutely necessary as it can just make control even harder for us!

So don't be too disappointed, it's impossible to know how much ur producing and so it's impossible for u to be able to inject the correct amount even if u weigh ur food religiously.... The pump i imagine would be a good option for LADAs who need to go onto insulin as it does apparently help with the swings.....

Hope this helps


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 22 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.