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T2, insulin resistant and not sure where to go

It's still changing - today BG has been pretty low even without taking a correction dose. Also I've been reducing the amount of insulin before my 2 meals, but had to eat extra around lunchtime because it dropped to 3.8 and stayed there, despite some crisps, a boiled sweet and a Mars bar! That finally got it up to 4.2. Right now it's at 6.2 - an hour and a half after my 2nd meal. I'd cut the insulin down to 10 u below my normal but didn't dare go further than that. Something is working - not quite sure what or how, but I will reduce the insulin again tomorrow and see what happens.
 
It is not unknown for type twos who were on insulin to no longer need to use it once they reduced carbs and their glucose levels.
Maybe have a chat to your HCP in charge of your treatment and see what they advise?
 
My health care team are not exactly singing from the same hymn sheet. They advise totally different approaches these days. I'm going to do what I can and then present them with a fait accompli. Then I'll have proved which one is right. I am beginning to think, though, that I am not really insulin resistant, just a badly managed diabetic. Now that would be something to be able to prove. Looking forward to tomorrow to experiment more - plus to be able to eat because I am actually pretty hungry, despite having my 2 meals plus today.
 
Something is happening to my glucose levels - I'm reducing my doses of insulin and eating pretty much as I have done for months now and my BG is still dropping - mostly around 3 in the afternoon and continuing into the evening. I'm not complaining but it does seem very odd. Keeping a close eye on the BG - the Libre helps with that. Currently rising at 4.4 from a low of 3.4 (I hadn't noticed the drop after lunch because I was in a Zoom meeting. The Libre reminded me. Something is going right even if I don't know what it is.
 

I’m so glad for you that you are getting better results and taking less insulin.. along with the fact that you’ve been brave enough to make changes for yourself

There will be bad days though but don’t let this get you down it just happens

I hope that things continue in the right direction for you.. and that you start feeling a lot better for it
 
Some people have noticed they get more insulin resistant when their BG is higher. So starting out at a higher level means they need more insulin to stay level than when being lower.
It could be you have something like this going on.
 
Hi Annb I’m 48 with quite a lot of health issues stenosis arthritis fibromyalgia I’ve been trying different levels of insulin for the last 2/3 years I’m type two and told by the consultant I’m severe insulin resistant I’ve been on as much as 260units of background insulin in the morning and 100 units of humalog with breakfast wake up to bg of around 20 prob only go down to 18 then 2 hours later bg will be at 25 then ile prob have another 100 units of humalog then they will go down to 23 2 hours later they will be back up towards 30 then comes dinner time by this time I’m wondering what to do so do as advised another 100 units of humalog and 260 units of background finally start to come down around 7pm still only come down to when I wake up around 20 test my bloods around 9pm find there on the way up usually about 24 to 27 I check them through the night as don’t sleep much same as you there usually around 23 I’ve only just gota 2cnd opinion yesterday as my consultant did say to me frw weeks back there’s nothing more we can do for you the doctor I spoke to yesterday said of course there’s something we can do for a start liner sensor and some different tests I am fuming that the last consultant has not done anything for me as he nows that I have bad neuropathy in my feet and told me that I have severe insulin resistance but just keeps on saying up your insulin hope I get app to c this doc soon
 

Oh Brettskee, you've been having a worse time than me. I thought I was bad, but not compared to you. I don't think it's acceptable for any doctor to give up on you when you obviously have need of medical help or support of some sort. However, if you are getting a Libre sensor, that might help you to identify what it is that is causing the rise in blood glucose.

I thought when I discovered the low carb way of eating that it was the answer, and to a degree it was but it wasn't the total answer. Now that I have the Libre sensor, I can see what is going on throughout the day and night and what I was doing when the BG rose (or rather, 10 minutes before). I also keep a food diary and keep track throughout the day with what causes a rise or a drop. For me, any carbohydrate food causes a rise, fats, meats and many veggies don't but there are some veggies that should be pretty low in carbohydrates but they can, on occasion cause a spike. You would need to check this for yourself and see what causes your BG to rise - it might not be the same things as me.

I would certainly look into the low carb way of eating, if you are not already doing that. Perhaps your new doctor could advise you on that - it seems that more and more doctors are coming around to that way of thinking these days. If you haven't tried it, there are lots of people on this forum who could point you in the direction. Maybe @Antje77 could advise there. There is a sub-forum called "What have you eaten today" for T2s but I don't know how to tag you into that.

I do hope things go better for you when you see your new doctor. Keep well and keep trying - there must be an answer which could offer a hope of improvement for you.
 
Annb said:
If you haven't tried it, there are lots of people on this forum who could point you in the direction. Maybe @Antje77 could advise there. There is a sub-forum called "What have you eaten today" for T2s but I don't know how to tag you into that.
Click to expand...
@Brettskee , usually I'd advise to start a thread of your own to have more people looking at your questions, but you've already done this a while ago and people seem to be doing their best to think along with you there: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...-says-there-is-nothing-else-he-can-do.181608/
I agree with @Annb the Libre sensor is a great start, and very good you went for a second opinion with a doctor who isn't going to give up!
The thread Annb wanted to tag you in is this one: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/page-2238#post-2405095
 
Yes have tried a no carb diet last year worked for a few weeks then don’t no what happened tried again the other month to no avail.I’m actually in hospital as I write I was on Monday too can u believe they discharged me with bgs of 28.8 and blood pressure of 115/165 I woke up 2 weeks ago today with severe pain in my rib cage I’ve had to put up with this for 2 weeks there doing all sorts of blood tests been in here since 9am but they keep saying that I must of injured myself somehow why don’t doctors listen
 
I'm so sorry to hear you're having such a hard time, @Brettskee .
This doesn't sound like you've had very good care.

I don't have any advice for you, as I have no experience with any of your issues, but I do want to send you some virtual hugs and strength.
 
Antje77 said:
Some people have noticed they get more insulin resistant when their BG is higher. So starting out at a higher level means they need more insulin to stay level than when being lower.
It could be you have something like this going on.
Click to expand...

That is certainly the case for me.
@Annb, do you know how much insulin you are still producing? My understanding (possibly incorrect) is that long term high blood sugars damage the insulin producing abilities of T2s, but they can improve if your bgs normalise.

Anyway, it sounds like you are doing an awesome job at normalising your levels. Just be careful of hypos. The libre isn't always accurate at very low levels and has a small delay relative to blood sugars. Don't hesitate to get your glucometer out to double check the libre.
 
@ellie, I don't know how much insulin I am producing - I had a c-peptide test something over a year ago (a bit before the covid lockdown) which I was told indicated that I am producing insulin but, although there was plenty of insulin in my blood both produced by me and injected, it wasn't making much difference to my BG levels. I had thought that, perhaps I had some other form of diabetes than T2, but it seems not. I am hoping that, once I get the BGs under control, it will reverse the insulin resistance. There does seem to be some hope for that in current developments.

Got it a bit wrong last night with too little insulin for the meal I eventually had, and was still high during the night and early morning but I shall be careful not to do that again. It's all trial and error, but as long as I learn from the process, that's OK. I don't check the Libre against my meter all the time, but I do check it and it seems to be about 0.6 points lower than the meter. The delay on the Libre is a bit of a nuisance, but it does sound an alarm when it thinks BG is below 4 so I know I have 0.6 points as a buffer.
 
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