Help!!

[Lottiegrace]

Hi!
I’m a recently diagnosed diabetic (type 1) I found out in July and had no real problems till about October. I can eat meals and still be at a suitable and safe level without any insulin. This means I hardly take ANY each day. The most I take is about 4units. I take 16 Lantus at night. This doesn’t seem normal and I’ve tried to reach out to my nurse but have had no luck. I am worried this will affect my long term health and also causes several hypos which i struggle to get out of. Any help would be so so appreciated or if anyone has experienced this, how did you help it!!!
Thank you, Lottie 🙂

 

[Inka]

@Lottiegrace It sounds like your Lantus dose is too high. Have you done a basal test? Often our insulin needs decrease temporarily a little while after diagnosis because the injected insulin gives our remaining beta cells a rest and they recover a little temporarily and can make some insulin.

If it was me, I’d consider cutting reducing your Lantus dose by a few units. You might then find you need more meal time insulin, but that’s normal. Generally Type 1s take 50/50 basal/bolus or maybe 35/65 - something around that area.

What times of day did you have your hypos? You might be better with a twice daily basal instead of Lantus eg Levemir. The beauty of that is you can take less/more for your morning dose than your evening dose, getting closer to your body’s needs.

If you’re struggling to get out of your hypos, that’s potentially dangerous - not for your longterm health but for your immediate health. What do you mean by saying you tried to reach out to your nurse with no luck? Was this a hospital DSN?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear you are struggling @Lottiegrace

Sometimes people’s flagging remaining beta cells can get a bit of a second wind when they start taking insulin, and you can get some ‘home grown’ insulin added to the stuff you are injecting, which can confuse things for while!

This ‘honeymoon‘ period might last weeks, months, or years - depending on the person.

If you are having hypos, it could be as @Inka says that it might help to balance your basal (background) and bolus (meal) distribution a little more? Which might help f your current basal dose means you are generally drifting downwards when you don’t eat (your background / basal insulin is supposed to hold you level overnight and between meals or if you skip a meal).

A handful of members who have been diagnosed with LADA (a more gradually evolving form of T1 that comes on later in adulthood) have been started on basal only. And while it’s not recommended as a starting point for standard T1, it can sometimes work out if there’s a bit of homegrown insulin confusing things?

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

It sounds to me too as though you need to reduce your Lantus dose, @Lottiegrace - having hypos you struggle to get out of is very dangerous.

Doses are never fixed, all sorts of things can effect them, they will all need to keep changing. If you're not used to changing your own basal doses yet, you should probably try again to get in touch with a nurse, but personally I wouldn't wait until you can get through to one, I'd reduce the Lantus in the meanwhile. It's safer to end up being a little higher than you should be for a week or two than to be so low you're struggling to recover.

Incidentally I was put on 16 units of Lantus when I was first diagnosed, and I had a hypo in the middle of the night every night for the first week ... after which they reduced it to 6 units! So the doses they put you on at first really are their best guess for the time being, and may well need to change quite drastically.