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Sensitive to insulin, trying to get by even after years

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Dragonfly79

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Arrogance of others, rage, hatred towards others, intolerance.
Sorry it's me back and trying to control my diabetes... I am some days negative some days positive and well I came back to this forum admittedly in a time of need. I note a lot of threads stating that DAFNE will help but I am in the Isle of Man and do not have that option. I have a dietician that means well but well I hate to say it just states the basics of snacking after two hours of breakfast etc. They have given me a new metre which helps calculate my carb / insulin ratio but no solution for testing it etc so don't want to use it also tbh with it I am a bit lost. Secondly re the snacking I don't want to snack .. the whole point of Novorapid I thought was to eat when I want and not snack all the time. I was given the option of Novorapid and Lantus so I could be more flexible with my meals but now the last time I had a meeting (2 weeks ago) I was told that I am to eat at breakfast lunch dinner with snacks at regular times . Now I am not being funny but why the heck was I given this new insulin then and why couldn't I have just stayed on Humalin and Humolog if that is what I was supposed to do. Instead I am on a new insulin which I thought would allow me to be flexible. Also this new insulin happens to make me super sensitive to hypos when exercising etc. It also gives me very unpredictable results. So what is a girl to do?

I think the main problem with me is I don't always know my carbohydrates... even after 14 years! Sometimes packets say they have a certain carbohydrate on them but it doesn't always work as some days I go sky high and others I don't. Also some days I just eat and say 'oh right I am eating a baguette that must be approx 45 carbs' and calculate the ratio I think it will be but that doesn't always work either. It sucks not being able to control my condition all the time and I am always in a rush so can't write a diary for the dietician but she and the nurses don't sympathise with me.

Does anyone have any suggestions? If I exercise also, then I also have hypos despite snacking etc. I just want a normal life I know it's selfish and I should be more coherent but when I don't get it right I start to get depressed and wish I didn't have this condition anymore. I am emotionally and physically drained from it all.
 
Dragonfly,

There's no need to snack on MDI unless of course you want to, perhaps the nurse is advising you to snack to avoid post-prandial hypo's if you are experiencing them on a daily bases, it's difficult for a dsn to advise on dose adjustments if the nurse doesn't have a record/diary to work from so do keep this in mind. I hardly ever snack between meals and eat breakfast around 7-7.30am and don't eat again till 12.30-1.00pm, I use the same insulins as you do that being lantus and novorapid.

It's a shame that there isn't a DAFNE course on the Isle of Man as this is an excellent course that teaches the principles of carb counting and adjusting insulin doses to suit, however there is a on-line version you could take a look at which covers the same theme as DAFNE, just click on the link:

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

Nigel
 
Hey Dragonfly
I don't really think I'm in a position to help you but I can certainly empathise with your situation and feel your level of frustration. You and I sound like we might be in a similar situation.

I, like you had better control on the mixtards back in the day :lol: I am finding control difficult now,I never used to really try, well not like I do now, and I had better control. Like you I'm on Apidra and Lantus and find that my insulin sensitivity at times is such a bind....With me it does seems to be hormone linked (as in time of the month) and it's so out of my control sometimes.

I have got to the stage where I eat the SAME things day in day out, same thing for breakfast ,lunch and tea . I do the same run everyday ,12 miles ....I never hypo now on my run's as I have that control down to a T...I was told to miss my fast acting with the meal before my run's which works for me fine, I start with them a bit on the high side then dwindle them down and it works. You could try this for your exercise. There is nothing worse than going Hypo during your sport, If I go low I stay low while running.
I have a balanced lunch and need very little fast acting with that (except when they flip to a high trend) to compensate for the "afterburn" and then my normal dose with my evening meal.
If you saw what I ate , my exercise regime you would think I was Autistic spectrum :wink: I mean it is RIGID!

I will go along for a week or so, steady ideal control at these insulin levels with the food I eat and my exercise...Then wham, I have a day doing exactly what I have done the previous day's and I'm Hypoing all over the place, all day and night...with no adjustments to my routine :shock: ,no less carbs ,no more exercise :shock: :( ....So I try and adjust gently, not knee jerk to get back on an even keel...because we are talking constant low.....Then I get back on to an even keel and I'm doing the same regime diet ect and they will settle so I will gently start to need to get back to my small but regular regime and they will settle for a week or so and I think great we are back on track....Then Wham they climb into the 20's/30's for no apparent reason. I could understand this if I deviated from my diet for a meal, ate a load of rubbish for a day ,missed an injection, missed a run...but no, they just start on this monumental climb which gets to ridiculous highs,say over 2 day's .
I am going on the DAFNE course ,I don't know if it will help because I have such extreme patterns to my control but I'm willing to try, and hope, and keep an open mind.
My control seems to really be effected by my Monthly cycle so it really does seem to be hormone based .The only other Diabetic I know is male so he does not have that problem, but it does seem that I can handle the extremes compared to him .Where he would be in hospital with sugars in the late 20's . I don't kick out a single ketones in the late 30's and feel OK, well a bit thirsty ... It's the same if you compared our lows. It's weird ,it's like my body is used to the extremes even though it is a pretty recent thing. It's not like there is any pattern I can identify as to "oh, this time of day is when I go low or high....it is like huge swings for no obvious reasons.

I know how you feel it is frustrating and difficult , so a virtual hug for you :) . I hope someone can come along with some practical help. Sometimes trying to adjust this ,and tweak that for some of us is not quiet as simple it seems as Comorbidity can exist and it makes good control hard to achieve at times ,no matter how hard we try....so try not to get down about it, or beat yourself up over it. You do your best.

It would be good to try and push for them to start the DAFNE course where you live. They have only just started it where I live, So I'm one of the first in my area to try it so you never know it might be imminent for you also. Fingers crossed for you Hun. Sorry I could not be of much help but I wanted you to know you are not the only one out there feeling the frustration.
Hopefully things will get better for both of us. Hey and I'm 20 years with Type 1 and counting and never used to be like this, maybe we should go back to the mixtard..I do wonder this sometimes :?:
 
Nigel .. thank you very much for the online link there. I will definitely look into that. Fallenstar.. yes I fluctuate based on hormones etc too. I can't exercise a lot... I just hypo even with snacks beforehand and supping lucozade before and during. It's a nightmare and I get so tired. I also have shoulder pain and cocodamel for this and wonders if this has an effect. Thanks for your advice both of you. Btw Fallenstar just a piece of advice is whilst you are low and exercising I do advise stopping and popping a glucose tablet or two down - just it seems a bit dangerous to me to not treat the hypo whilst exercising. Anyway thanks again .. I still fight on.
 
Ooo no I think you may have read that wrong Hun, I have got my training sessions down to a T with my control and never Hypo during a run. I used to start out after breakfast with them a bit on the high side and dwindle them down....but now I run as soon as I get up on no breakfast and just my Lantus since I have reduced my dose and my Sugars are staying at the 7 t0 8 mark for the entire run...Whey hey :D I'm a happy bunny.
Sorry to hear about your shoulder that can't make things any easier ,hope it sorts itself out and hopefully you will find they run a DAFNE near you soon.

Good Luck and take care :D
 
Hi Dragonfly,
You are on Lantus, have lousy BG and shoulder pain. Here's a link you might be interested in, plenty of comments about shoulder pain. I was on Lantus for 4 miserable 4 yrs which prompted me to do my own research. It's great for some but as the comments in this link show, the similarities in the associated side-effects are striking. http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/lantus-ins ... /#comments

Jus :)
 
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