Hi, I have been newly diagnosed diabetic. At first I was told that I was type 2, now I am told I am type 1 and have to go on fast insulin as well as slow. I think it more likely that I am 1.5 LADA since I already have another autoimmune condition. I have been told to inject before meals with 2 or 3 units, or maybe none, but am not really sure exactly what to do. Of course I have to do all this in French as I live in France and I have it all very distressing. Any help appreciated. Thank you.
Toujeo is the slow insulin I have, 6 units a day,
i have toujeo every day 6 units and have apidra solostar insulin for before meals. The names may be different in France and they use mg/dl to measure blood sugar. I have been prescribed a freestyle patch but can’t use it until August, so have to prick test 6 times a day. They told me the blood sugar should be between 80 and 120 in the morning and before meals and no higher than 180 an hour and a half after meals. Mine is usually fine in the morning but every time I eat it goes up to 300-350. I have not yet started on the fast insulin, i was told to finish the glibanclamide pills first.
Thank youHi @KCov Welcome to the forum!
1.5, is just not really used anymore. There really is just type 1 or type 2. LADA is a type 1 and it just distinguishes it as being gotten later versus earlier in life, just like a few other descriptions. 50% of type 1's are diagnosed after the age of 30.
LADA/type 1 is slower occurring usually than when you get type 1 at a younger age. So you make insulin still for years until it slowly peters out. We call that the honeymoon period and the time it lasts varies per person. So you need to expect control will really vary because one day you might make more insulin naturally versus the next day. So you have to keep that in mind in dosing.
But it depends on your doctor what protocol he follows. A long acting "basal" insulin is a set dose each day to compensate for the blood glucose your liver will make on it's own. A fast acting "bolus" insulin is what you take to make up for the food you eat. As time goes on your insulin levels will increase.
So the take some and maybe not take some will depend on what your blood sugars are doing. Hopefully they will give you some guidance on how much and when to use it. Some of it will depend on how many carbs you are eating too.
One of the most important things to learn is to start carb counting. this is something you will have to learn and it will give you more insight to how you are responding to what you eat. You also need a blood glucose meter. That way you can tell if you are starting out at higher numbers or not. A lot of this will be trial and error on how much insulin you need. But how much you take will depend on how high your blood sugars are or what you are eating. It takes a lot more insulin to handle a plate of spaghetti versus a piece of cheese on a cracker. Right now if your body is still making some you might not even need any insulin for eating a piece of cheese on a cracker.
But start a log of what your sugars are when you first get up (fasting), then before you eat, 2 hours after you eat, and before you go to bed. Testing and then the more information is better.
Also keep a log of the food you eat and the carb count in it. Then if you are taking insulin at all make sure to make notes of how much you are taking. This will help you determine what your needs of insulin will be.
We eventually have insulin to carb ratio, correction amounts etc. But it has to be figured out and as you are in the honeymoon phase you need to be safer about dosing as you are still likely to be making some insulin.
It will get easier and become old hat. It's just a steep learning curve at the beginning.
I hope this helps and be sure to ask any questions you have. There are a bunch of people here that will always help. We just can't give exact dosing advice because we aren't allowed although people can share their experience of what they do.
Hi. With carb-counting you typically start by using 1 unit of Bolus insulin for each 10gm of carb. If in doubt start with a bit less insulin and make sure you use the meter to avoid a hypo. You can then change the 10:1 ratio as you gain experience. In my opinion dietician aren't always that useful. You need to be sensible with the carbs to avoid weight gain. It's up to you but I would suggest keeping to something like 150gm/day or less of carbs. You can have fats and proteins quite freely and of course veg and non-tropical fruitI am recording my blood sugar and I had an appointment with a dietician. I kept a food diary for a week and showed it to her and she just said that I do not need to change anything in my diet. What no-one has told me is how much carbs to have. How much is too much? How much is not enough? I know that if I leave out the carbs completely, I have a hypo. I would like to know about carb counting but if the dietician did not give me the info, how can I do it.
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