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Tresiba Insulin

A

Angm44

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi i have been Type 1 for 44 years and used to take Lantus for my basal twice a day, a year ago my DSN suggested trying Tresiba which you take once a day, i have tried taking it at breakfast but by the time i get up at 7a.m. my blood sugars are around 12-14, so i changed to taking it at bed time hoping that would help but it doesnt, also after ive eaten and take my Novorapid ratio 1-5 my sugars spike and are often 19 or 20 an hour later, tried cutting down carbs to 30 or 40 g per meal but that doesnt help either, also tried taking Novorapid half an hour before i eat , I’m always taking correction doses also but it never seems to drop below 10
can anyone help? Thanks in advance
 
I started treseba 12 months ago after 3 months nearly gave up , i couldnt get good figures and was disapointed as this was sold to me as fabulous! Anyway , i kept at it and to be truthful the secret was in adjusting the background i guess as with every insulin ,but treseba is very fickle! It sounds like ( what do i know )? but your background needs to be higher. I messed around with it ..up ,down ,up ,down until i decided that i needed 23 u ..you can get the 100 pen which delivers 1u instead of 2 at each increment,. Do a fasting and take it from there ...bear in mind treseba will take 5 days in my experience to settle after each increment change and go slow ie2 u everytime up or down. It will settle down i guess just it sounds like your basal is to low and your bolus isnt even touching it. I might be wrong good luck keep at it x
 
Have you tried cutting carbs to 30 - 40g a day?
 
Sorry didn’t realise you were type 1 so previous reply might not apply to you
 
I always got highs in mornings from 3.30 onwards using Tresiba. Highs were going from 5 to 20 in under 3 hours.

Increasing it just made me low all day.

In the end now I have Insulatard at 3.30 each morning, another insulatard at 7 or 8am plus a small novorapid and a 1.5 unit daily of tresiba at aroubd 4-6pm.

Thats the best solution for me. Its taken a lot of time to get this far because hospital didnt like splitting insulatard and I'm rare that I'm needing two basals.
Consultants didnt figure this out. I did. They just tell me to rweak myself as they havent been able to find any of their standard average recommendations thats come anywhere close to this regime.

Benefits are that if my levels are 6 or under at 8am I can lower my bolus down to 1 unit for getting up. If they are higher then I decide whether to give 1.5 or 2 units. It allows me some flexibility (more than tresiba) on my activitys and being able to lower them or raise the basal depending if busy, or not.

Its not perfect as my stomach, colon and bowel also impact upon my blood levels. So this can cause me chaos sometimes. I am very grateful though as when my hubby died recently the stress around it all allowed me to play around more than tresiba would have let me...

Just , if you are increasing tresiba... just be careful that it does not then give you hypos during the day..
 
You have to get your basal right, and to do that you need to basal test - take a look at https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/

Making changes with tresiba will be a long drawn out affair as already mentioned above. A CGM/FGM will help immensely when basal testing.
 
 
Sorry, I was trying to delete something I'd written, because I changed my mind about what I was going to say, but I accidentally posted it by mistake.

Anyway, what I decided to say was @donnellysdogs raises an interesting issue. It's strange how at the same time we have insulin pumps offering far more flexible management options, those of us using injections keep on being offered less and less flexible basal insulins.

Maybe there needs to be some new thinking on this.

I think @donnellysdogs is leading the way, and being super innovative.
 

Chuckle!! Its only because I was so cheesed off with the "standard" advice not working!!

It really has been a struggle though. I had a pump that was perfect for 5 years.. then my skin started blocking insulin as soon as a new cannula in. Also moved house (twice) and hospitals 3 times and each hospital kept making me retry pumps and ending up in A&E's. Then the standard routes again, lantus, levimir, tresiba... but it was a person here that said dtaff are specialists, we are the experts. Got me looking at ways all the insulins worked and figured out if I could split the insulatard it would peak and drop when I needed it. I cant have more insulatard on 8am dose aa it throws me low in afternoons. I cant have more at 3.30 as when asleep it acts quicker and will throw my low by 7/8am. So the only extra way to stop climbs in mornings was to add a small bolus which would be out of my system by 1pm. (When I need less). The tresiba small dose keeps me level at night and helps also during the day. I rarely change that dose....

The trouble is my routine is not routine!! Or in text books and I dont know anybody else trying to combat DP and waking with this concoction.

I think because of Nice guidelines that specialists cannot suggest anything like this routine... and it has taken a lot of figuring out especially when my circumstances and life has been in turmoil. However, its only my perseverance thats got me over that tuemoil. Can honestly say the hospital could not offer anything at all besides me tweaking. It isnt an easy route to go down when you havent really got the back up of staff or any other alternative to try.

Thank you for your comments... and for this post, as it highlights to me that its not just me that struggles...
 

So sorry about your loss.

I hope and pray for God to give you strength to carry on with life’s journey.
 
I've been using Lantus, and had a very low blood sugar, and switched to splitting it. But I still find it peaks after 4 hours, which is about the most inconvenient time imaginable, and then I have to wait to see if my blood glucose will go back up by itself, because if I correct it then decides to go crazy high.

Really annoying.I seem to be staying awake all night adjusting it. So I'm switching to Levemir. I tried it once before, but at that time the advice was once a day, and it just didn't work for me then, on one dose a day. Now it's accepted that you need two it should be easier.

I don't know anything about tresiba, the website says it has a flat and stable profile. Is that what people really need though? In theory it sounds like a good idea, but would our pancreas be pumping out a steady dose of insulin 24/7? no, it wouldn't.

It's not very useful to have a flat and stable basal insulin if it doesn't give you decent blood glucose readings.

I think maybe go back to the DSN and talk to them, and maybe return to Lantus, if it worked for you. I think there is some growing realisation now that Lantus is better split too.

I've had type 1 diabetes for nearly 42 years, and I have seen a number of times when they come up with new ideas, and think it's great, and it turns out not to be.

Give the DSN who prescribed it some useful feedback.
 
Angm44 said:
Thanks everyone, im going to try taking 2 u more of Tresiba for a few days and see what happens
Click to expand...
 
Well , " flat and stable " are words used by dns , i wouldnt say im that but the lows are less and i can go for long periods ie 8 hrs without eating ..providing all the variables are taken care of so it is good ..for me ..nights are brill i could never manage 8 to 8 on levimir but i can now .
 

Everyone is different. The thought of a basal insulin that lasts for three days just freaks me out, I really couldn't handle it, to me it would be like it controlled me, not the other way round.

But everyone is different, which is why it's good to have different options, rather than all being pushed into doing the same thing.
 
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