Hello, Please Advise me, recently diagnosed T1

[Northerner]

Hi Again!

I have another question to ask please .... on the MDI, would you still be at risk of having hypos? As I have mentioned I am on the 'novomix 30' twice daily and if I miss or delay a snack, I can feel the onset of a hypo coming on, thus I have to eat something when I am not even hungry!

Does being on MDI limit the chances of hypos?
Sorry if this is a daft question 😛 but I'm still learning

Thank you.

Not a daft question at all! Yes, you can still have hypos, but because you have greater control over the timing of your insulin doses, and being able to more closely match the doses to changing needs, you should have fewer - usually when you do have a hypo you can find a reason for it happening and adjust things to try and avoid it in future under similar circumstances 🙂

 

[Matt Cycle]

With MDI you don't need snacks and the fast acting (bolus) insulin covers the carbs in each of your meals. So although I wouldn't recommend it at first you are able to miss or delay meals. The long acting (basal) insulin is the background insulin. It gives you much more flexibility and control. With that control there is there is less chance of hypos. However, remember this is diabetes we're talking about so hypos can still occur without warning or reason!

I've been on MDI for 28 years and can still remember the feeling of freedom, flexibility and control when I first went on it after a year of twice daily Humulin I.

 

[KookyCat]

Hiya again
Glad to hear you're getting your head around it, it's all a bit overwhelming isn't it?

Having been the lucky recipient of Novomix 30 and MDI my choice would always be MDI. I had horrible hypos on the mix because I'm not great with consistency when it comes to food, and I ended up alternating between crashing hypos and stunning hypers in the 20's. There's a complicated back story there but it just didn't suit my body at all. In the interest of full disclosure though, I still have a good number of hypos on MDI, but they're much more gentle lows and I can manage them much better. Unlike Matt and others I can't miss a meal on MDI but it's become more obvious over time that I don't have a stable basal insulin requirement (that's the insulin you take to cover your basic insulin needs without food) and my increase in requirement for insulin happens outside of the window for compensation with mealtime insulin. Anyway I'm rambling, what I'm really trying to say is MDI isn't a magical answer but it is significantly more magical than Novomix. I hated having to eat so much food when I didn't want it, MDI gives me more flexibility but there are still some restrictions. Also the hunger whilst normal (because your body has been starving quite literally) for me calmed down massively once I moved to MDI because I wasn't crashing into hypo town every few hours, being hypo makes you hungry because your body needs fuel to correct itself, so you might find your appetite stabilises when you get the insulin sorted to match your needs. Good luck it all, hope you find the right solution 🙂