I've gone 'cold turkey' on my insulin - need advice!

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stephenT2

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62
Hi,

I'm type 2 and after nearly 2 years on ever increasing oral medication, I was put on 'levimir' 4 months ago. From starting on 10units/day I was up to 170units/day on Sunday. My BS was still fairly constant at around 9-11 before breakfast. I was so depressed at pumping over a full vile of insulin into me every two days and still not reducing my BS, that I just stopped. After three days, my BS level is still around 9-11 in the morning, so taking the insulin seems to have no effect whatsoever. (I still take my oral medication of 4 x Metformin/day and 30Mg Atcos/day plus various other pills for cholesteral, BP etc.)

I haven't confessed yet to my medical team about me stopping my insulin.

What next?
 
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stephenT2

Well-Known Member
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62
OK, I appreciate the humour, but my BS levels are stable, and I feel fine.

Realistically, I've been told I have a high insulin resistance, but most of you guys here are always talking about adjusting you insulin levels by one unit here and there, or even half unit. When you get to 170 units, and it doesn't make a dam bit of difference, you'd get pretty frustrated too!

If I had remained undiagnosed, I would be no worse off than I am now.
 
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fiona35

Well-Known Member
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212
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Maybe go and see your GP and ask what he thinks of Byetta? Might be better for you to take that rather than inject huge amounts of insulin which doesn't seem to be helping.

If you go to the Diabetes Discussion Page there is a very long thread about Byetta and this might help you.
 
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hanadr

Expert
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See your doctor ASAP and try low carbing! It might be enough , especially with a bit of help from the Metformin
 
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sugarless sue

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stephenT2 said:
OK, I appreciate the humour, but my BS levels are stable, and I feel fine.

Realistically, I've been told I have a high insulin resistance, but most of you guys here are always talking about adjusting you insulin levels by one unit here and there, or even half unit. When you get to 170 units, and it doesn't make a dam bit of difference, you'd get pretty frustrated too!

If I had remained undiagnosed, I would be no worse off than I am now.
Click to expand...

Stephen ,you may feel your BS is stable but at levels of 9-11 these are far to high.Before stopping your insulin try restricting your carbs for a week and see if that makes a difference in your overall levels.You may find by doing this that you can indeed safely reduce your insulin.
 
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stephenT2

Well-Known Member
Messages
62
Stephen ,you may feel your BS is stable but at levels of 9-11 these are far to high
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right, I know they are high but I meant they were stable in the sense that they weren't rising dramatically since I stopped the insulin. I've rarely had any readings that are lower than these. Approaching a 'hypo' level is something I aspire to!

I have now got an appointment to see my diabetic specialist Dr. tomorrow. I'll let you know what he says......
 
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stephenT2

Well-Known Member
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62
Well, I saw the diabetic consultant today. I showed him the print off I made from my daily BS levels plotted against my insulin doesage (finishing @ 170units/day), and agreed that insulin was not working for me. Apparently, I'm quite rare as this high an insulin resistance is associated with people who carry around a bit of weight, and I don't.

He also examined my body visually to see if I had any abnormal fat dispersion which can also explain the resistance, but I looked nomal!

We then discussed the way forward and I said I was quite keen to trial new treatment using Byetta. He agreed to this, so I start this weekend on getting my first prescription. Yes, my method of getting my treatment changed may have been unorthodox, but I'm glad I did it. You'll all agree that no-one knows your body better than you, and I just knew insulin was not helping me.

I'll let you know how I get on with Byetta, and I'm quite excited at starting it, the optimism of something new that may work on me!

stephen
 
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Trinkwasser

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Messages
2,468
stephenT2 said:
Well, I saw the diabetic consultant today. I showed him the print off I made from my daily BS levels plotted against my insulin doesage (finishing @ 170units/day), and agreed that insulin was not working for me. Apparently, I'm quite rare as this high an insulin resistance is associated with people who carry around a bit of weight, and I don't.
Click to expand...

Long shot, get him to look at this (after you;ve read it)

http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/diabetesgenes/index.htm

look at the glucokinase form of MODY

technically as MODYs are mongenic you will almost certainly have one parent and other relatives with the same condition but it may never have been diagnosed

Also see if you can get a Full Lipid Panel, the ratio of trigs/HDL is indicative of insulin resistance. Mine was 16 and is now unity (sorry those are in US numbers, forgot where I was for a moment, in UK numbers it went from nearly 7 to under 0.5) and I've always been skinny.

There are several other weird forms of diabetes, I have more than a little suspicion that Byetta would be a suitable treatment for at least a few of them, like my reactive hypoglycemia which involves a hosed control circuit.
 
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