Oh
@alison2006 I so feel for you. I was misdiagnosed as a type 2 for years. To this day there is still such a misunderstanding amongst some in the medical field.
When you get it older it takes time to totally lose the production of insulin, but that varies per person, it can be weeks or years. In your case because of being misdiagnosed, the process is probably farther along. But it still comes down to you needing insulin. The mixes aren't the best route usually, they are cheaper and simpler if you stick to the exact same diet. Life doesn't usually work that way. It's what people used to have to do back in the days. But we lose the ability to make insulin, so we have to take insulin to make up for it to stay alive. Insulin plays a part in the process of converting the carbs and some protein into the fuel that our body needs to function properly.
Our liver will produce some glucose to supply fuel all day even when not eating. But our body still can't do anything with it without insulin. That is where a basal insulin comes into play. It is a level dose every day to take care of the glucose your liver produces and not supposed to deal with the variables of food.
Then there is the food we eat and we use a bolus insulin for that. A piece of whole grain bread is about 12 carbs, we need a different amount of insulin for that than we need for a bowl of lettuce which might be 2 carbs, or a whole apple which is 20 carbs. So first we need to learn carb counting for the food we eat and then we need to figure out what ratio of insulin we need for the carbs we eat. It doesn't really matter how "good" our diet is, we need insulin even for the broccoli we eat.
At first they have a tendency to give you a"soft" ratio because they don't want you to drop too low. Because that is dangerous. But staying too high can be dangerous for us too. Not only does it cause damage to our body over time, but we are susceptible to something called DKA when we don't get enough insulin. I will post a link on that because at high numbers it can end up being a risk within hours once it starts. If you show the signs of it, get to the hospital emergency room.
The mixes are a set ratio of basal and bolus insulin. The hope is depending how you eat you can try to keep your numbers at decent levels. That's actually pretty hard to do, people did it, you ate the exact same amount of carbs with every meal and stuck with similar food. Because an orange will hit your system faster than the piece of bread. The mixes also have some weird curves of when they hit the system. In the long run, it really isn't the best option available nowadays.
Optimally you get a long lasting basal insulin that you take the same amount every day, and a separate short acting bolus insulin that you can vary depending on what you are eating.
You need an adjustment of some kind. Contact your doctor/nurse to find out what they recommend. If they can't seem to help, you might ask for a referral to a specialist. This could be so dependent on where you are located though. But they might have started out with a really low ratio to make sure you don't drop too much. Then they have a tendency to make small adjustments to be safe so you don't go to low.
Always, always make sure you carry a hypo treatment with you. By the bed, on your person etc. There's glucose tablets, but a lot of us carry some kind of candy. Jelly Bellies, gum my bears(US) usually work pretty good. Life throws curves and exercise, stress can make our blood glucose levels can change. As time goes on and you completely lose insulin production you will need an increase in amounts.
Find out about diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), including what the symptoms are, when to get medical help and how to prevent it.
www.nhs.uk
