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New to insulin

J

Janetn

Newbie
Messages
2
Hi, I have been a diagnosed T2 diabetic for 15 years but in the last week I have had to start on insulin twice a day. Because of the COVID situation all my instruction has been given over the phone, although my nurses are very good I’m feeling a little lost and alone with this situation I’m now in. I don’t seem to have got the dose quite right yet as still having high readings, can I ask how long it took others to feel injecting is normal and how long did it take to get your glucose levels under control or is it constantly adjusting, thank you!
 
Hi. Can I ask whether you are also having a low-carb diet and whether you have any excess weight. The latter can result in the insulin not being very effective due to insulin resistance. The insulin should take effect with a day or so if there is little insulin resistance. You do get used to taking insulin. I now regard it more as a nuisance rather than as a problem
 
Reactions: ert

Hi @Janetn and welcome to the forums.

Can I ask what insulin regime you have been put on, insulin type? frequency?

Please note that we cannot give advice on dosing but maybe able to help with more general aspects.
 
I was warned to take it slow at the start and only increase my insulin dosage slowly. I was using finger prick testing and for the first fortnight my figures were almost all in double figures (and more than a few over 20). After about a month, they were mostly single figures. But everyone is different and there are some who would say I got it real easy.

This was using Novorapid and Lantus so my experience may not be relevant if you are just using long-acting insulin.
 

thank you for your reply, I am on a low carb diet and i'm a normal bmi. The insulin that I'm taking is Humulin a long lasting insulin. It has reduced my glucose but noto enough to bring it into the parameters it should be. Does it normally take a little time to get the dose adjustment correct?
 
Hi @Janetn . It can take a while to establish an optimal dose of basal insulin and even then the optimal dose can change over time. I would suggest that you keep a diary of your carb intake and test results for two or three weeks and then contact your diabetes team to see what they suggest. I started at 5 units, moved up to 22u and I'm currently on 14u. It might also be worthwhile asking to discuss your situation with an endrocrinologist and ask if it might be worth having tests to see if you are insulin deficient rather than insulin resistant and if the former is true you may have to go onto bolus insulin in addition to basal.
As far as getting used to injecting, it becomes just a normal part of lfe after a few weeks.
 
Hi. It may be worth asking for a Bolus insulin to be added. My nurse added that 1 month after starting me on the Basal as it wasn't enough. The Basal/Bolus regime means around 5 injections per day one (the Bolus) before each meal an typically twice a day Basal. It sounds like you might actually be a LADA which can come on very slowly. You could ask for a C-Peptide test to check.
 
Humulin what?... there’s humulin I, humulin M3... one is intermediate, one is a mix. You don’t need bolus insulin.
 

How confident are you that you are T2 rather than T1/LADA? Hw long since T2 diagnosis?
 
EllieM said:
How confident are you that you are T2 rather than T1/LADA? Hw long since T2 diagnosis?
Click to expand...
Starting insulin 15 years after diagnosis would support T2.
 
ert said:
Starting insulin 15 years after diagnosis would support T2.
Click to expand...
I don't necessarily agree. My LADA took around 8 years for me to need insulin so beta cell decay time can vary greatly. My GAD was negative but I have low C-Peptide. I believe a virus caused my beta cell damage. This is something the medics have yet to accept is a cause in addition to antibodies.
 
On average half of type 2 diabetics, without well-controlled blood sugars, start insulin 10 years after diagnosis as their beta cells deteriorate in the presence of high blood sugars. Also, a lot of patients may have had diabetes for than 10 years without knowing before they were diagnosed.
 
Last edited:
ert said:
On average half of type 2 diabetics, without well-controlled blood sugars, start insulin 10 years after diagnosis as their beta cells deteriorate in the presence of high blood sugars.
Click to expand...

So do they stop producing insulin altogether? I've always hoped/assumed that they'd still be producing some insulin so it might be easier to manage highs/lows, but I realise this may be naive/optimistic.
 
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