TheClockworkDodo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Just read through this thread and want to send you some more hugs, Emma x
I have odd diabetes too, so I understand how difficult it is when you keep trying and nothing works. I'm only thankful I don't have depression - that must complicate it so much more.
It's really obvious that my pancreas is still producing insulin after nearly 11 years of type 1. I'm definitely a type 1, my GAD antibody test was through the roof and I had DKA when I was diagnosed. It sounds to me as though you are also a type 1, an unusually slow-onset type 1 maybe, but everything you've said about your diabetes sounds quite normal to me.
I have also had a reflux-like reaction since being diagnosed with diabetes, but I don't think mine is caused by the Novorapid - I have dysmotility, which is similar to (though much milder than) gastroparesis - my digestive system doesn't work properly so the timing of food moving through my system isn't predictable, and I can't always get the timing of my insulin right to fit in with the food.
I very often spike after eating - immediately after eating, as if I have reactive hypoglycaemia - and then plummet at some random time between then and my next meal. Received wisdom for spikes and plummets is to deal with the hypos and the spikes will take care of themselves. This doesn't work for me - I have to deal with the spikes by injecting slightly more bolus than I need, and then using my Libre to try to get the timing right to eat biscuits before I plummet.
Despite the spikes and the hypos, my time in target (which I've set between 4-9) is about 80% so well over the level for avoiding complications. Eating carbs and dealing with the spikes they cause with insulin has done me no harm at all.
I am on very low doses of insulin and my ratios vary wildly depending on the time of day, time of year, things like whether I'm stressed, and sometimes apparently completely at random. My morning ratio is always between 1:9 to 1:11 though, and I have to inject as soon as I get up in the morning and then wait about half an hour before I have breakfast. My lunchtime and evening ratios vary between 1:15 to 1:28 and I have to eat almost immediately after injecting to avoid hypos. So I would advise initially being a bit more cautious about ratios than others have suggested, especially for lunchtime and evening doses (though I agree with all the other advice you've been given and hope you will be able to start eating more carbs and injecting insulin again soon, though I appreciate that this will be difficult for you).
I'm using Tresiba as a basal, and it is much better than Lantus, which I was on before! But I am planning to ask to change to Levemir next time I see a consultant, as I think it would be more suitable for me because my insulin needs vary so much. I was given Tresiba only because I asked to try it, because I hated the Lantus, so it is worth asking your consultant for Levemir if you think that will be better for you - don't feel you have to accept whatever you're given, they won't know you want to try something else unless you ask. Levemir is the basal recommended by the NICE guidelines for type 1, I believe, and even if they're not convinced you're type 1, the consensus seems to be that you're not type 2, so they should be treating you as type 1 and that should mean Levemir.
I have odd diabetes too, so I understand how difficult it is when you keep trying and nothing works. I'm only thankful I don't have depression - that must complicate it so much more.
It's really obvious that my pancreas is still producing insulin after nearly 11 years of type 1. I'm definitely a type 1, my GAD antibody test was through the roof and I had DKA when I was diagnosed. It sounds to me as though you are also a type 1, an unusually slow-onset type 1 maybe, but everything you've said about your diabetes sounds quite normal to me.
I have also had a reflux-like reaction since being diagnosed with diabetes, but I don't think mine is caused by the Novorapid - I have dysmotility, which is similar to (though much milder than) gastroparesis - my digestive system doesn't work properly so the timing of food moving through my system isn't predictable, and I can't always get the timing of my insulin right to fit in with the food.
I very often spike after eating - immediately after eating, as if I have reactive hypoglycaemia - and then plummet at some random time between then and my next meal. Received wisdom for spikes and plummets is to deal with the hypos and the spikes will take care of themselves. This doesn't work for me - I have to deal with the spikes by injecting slightly more bolus than I need, and then using my Libre to try to get the timing right to eat biscuits before I plummet.
Despite the spikes and the hypos, my time in target (which I've set between 4-9) is about 80% so well over the level for avoiding complications. Eating carbs and dealing with the spikes they cause with insulin has done me no harm at all.
I am on very low doses of insulin and my ratios vary wildly depending on the time of day, time of year, things like whether I'm stressed, and sometimes apparently completely at random. My morning ratio is always between 1:9 to 1:11 though, and I have to inject as soon as I get up in the morning and then wait about half an hour before I have breakfast. My lunchtime and evening ratios vary between 1:15 to 1:28 and I have to eat almost immediately after injecting to avoid hypos. So I would advise initially being a bit more cautious about ratios than others have suggested, especially for lunchtime and evening doses (though I agree with all the other advice you've been given and hope you will be able to start eating more carbs and injecting insulin again soon, though I appreciate that this will be difficult for you).
I'm using Tresiba as a basal, and it is much better than Lantus, which I was on before! But I am planning to ask to change to Levemir next time I see a consultant, as I think it would be more suitable for me because my insulin needs vary so much. I was given Tresiba only because I asked to try it, because I hated the Lantus, so it is worth asking your consultant for Levemir if you think that will be better for you - don't feel you have to accept whatever you're given, they won't know you want to try something else unless you ask. Levemir is the basal recommended by the NICE guidelines for type 1, I believe, and even if they're not convinced you're type 1, the consensus seems to be that you're not type 2, so they should be treating you as type 1 and that should mean Levemir.