Newly diagnosed and confusing insulin impact

[Dan90]

Hi All

Sorry for the long text but I’m looking for some advice. Before Christmas I was suddenly drinking / urinating a lot (particularly in the night),very dry mouth in a morning, weight loss and tiredness.

I went to the doctors and they did a finger prick which was 29, then a HBA1C which was 96. They are treating it as type 1 due to me being 34, very slim, sudden onset of symptoms but I’m waiting for my antibody test for confirmation.

For the last 5 weeks I’ve been taking lantus in a morning and Novorapid before meals. This has been working and my levels have settled to around 6 when I wake up. Suddenly the last few days my levels keep dropping to around 3 in between meals (it happened twice in between lunch and dinner yesterday) so I keep having to have jelly babies.

I took my lantus as normal but didn’t take my novorapid before my evening meal yesterday or my meals today and my levels are going to about 11-12 before going back to 5/6 after a few hours.

Does anyone have experience of this or is it normal. I wondered if this suggests I only need the lantus and not the novorapid and it may be type 2 after all?

Thanks

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Dan90 🙂 It sounds like the so-called honeymoon period where the injected insulin gives your damaged beta cells a rest and they make a temporary recovery. Making some of your own insulin is very common during the honeymoon period. The production is usually erratic. You might find snacks help because your own insulin will likely kick in too late.I had this during my honeymoon period and it’s very common.

 

[Inka]

BTW, don’t let it mess with your head and make you doubt your diagnosis. I did that but it wasn’t true.

As an example @Dan90 some weeks after diagnosis I skipped my morning insulin (don’t do this - it’s not a good idea) My blood sugar went up to 13+ but came down below 4 by lunchtime. Made no difference as I was still Type 1. My consultant said it’s not uncommon and being aware of it means you’re forewarned,

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Dan90

Sorry to hear you’ve been having the runaround with your diabetes. Some people find that their last remaining beta cells have a bit of a ‘second wind’ when supported by the injected insulin.

Perhaps have a chat with your diabetes clinic about strategies for adjusting your insulin doses based on the changes in results you are seeing from the same meals and doses. Which reminds me… are you carb counting your meals?

 

[Woodywoodpecker]

Hi All

Sorry for the long text but I’m looking for some advice. Before Christmas I was suddenly drinking / urinating a lot (particularly in the night),very dry mouth in a morning, weight loss and tiredness.

I went to the doctors and they did a finger prick which was 29, then a HBA1C which was 96. They are treating it as type 1 due to me being 34, very slim, sudden onset of symptoms but I’m waiting for my antibody test for confirmation.

For the last 5 weeks I’ve been taking lantus in a morning and Novorapid before meals. This has been working and my levels have settled to around 6 when I wake up. Suddenly the last few days my levels keep dropping to around 3 in between meals (it happened twice in between lunch and dinner yesterday) so I keep having to have jelly babies.

I took my lantus as normal but didn’t take my novorapid before my evening meal yesterday or my meals today and my levels are going to about 11-12 before going back to 5/6 after a few hours.

Does anyone have experience of this or is it normal. I wondered if this suggests I only need the lantus and not the novorapid and it may be type 2 after all?

Thanks

I’m in the honeymoon period. I need to take 6 units off nova rapid to cover my morning spike after breakfast, then usually have to have couple off snacks before lunch especially when at work, same after lunch about 2 hours later

 

[mashedupmatt]

Hi @Dan90 and welcome to the forum - shortly after diagnosis it is very difficult (I know from relatively recent diagnosis nearly 3yrs ago) and as @Inka and @everydayupsanddowns have said if a formal type 1 diagnosis is pending (seems about right to me - and mine was confirmed with 2 auto-antibodies present a few weeks after) you will almost certainly be producing some insulin naturally - every now and again your pancreas decides to actually work and it causes unexplained lows - I hate the phrase "Honeymoon Period" with a passion because it definitely is anything but - It is hard but will get easier - It's still raw for me so I feel your pain! For me the Novorapid would linger in my system for quite a while and with me also producing some insulin naturally too it would cause unexpected lows a long time after eating - it is all a learning curve though - you are in the right place here though as a lot of us have been through it (or still are @Woodywoodpecker !) and we are all here to support and help as much as we can

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Hi All

Sorry for the long text but I’m looking for some advice. Before Christmas I was suddenly drinking / urinating a lot (particularly in the night),very dry mouth in a morning, weight loss and tiredness.

I went to the doctors and they did a finger prick which was 29, then a HBA1C which was 96. They are treating it as type 1 due to me being 34, very slim, sudden onset of symptoms but I’m waiting for my antibody test for confirmation.

For the last 5 weeks I’ve been taking lantus in a morning and Novorapid before meals. This has been working and my levels have settled to around 6 when I wake up. Suddenly the last few days my levels keep dropping to around 3 in between meals (it happened twice in between lunch and dinner yesterday) so I keep having to have jelly babies.

I took my lantus as normal but didn’t take my novorapid before my evening meal yesterday or my meals today and my levels are going to about 11-12 before going back to 5/6 after a few hours.

Does anyone have experience of this or is it normal. I wondered if this suggests I only need the lantus and not the novorapid and it may be type 2 after all?

Thanks

Hello, you need to talk to your consultants. My account of what I think might be happening might not equate with what actually “is.” Could be “honeymoon.” But how long after your last injection of Novorapid are you going low?

 

[Dan90]

Thanks for the welcomes and replies, they’re much appreciated!

It sounds like my optimistic hopes of everything magically fixing itself over the last few weeks might be hopeful thinking I feel better knowing it’s a fairly common thing - it has just been very confusing because doing and eating the exact same things has been fine for the last few weeks and now caused me problems!

I’ll definitely speak to my clinic tomorrow but I think the honeymoon period would make sense as having the same meals and activities yesterday have caused lows whereas last week it didn’t (I’ve been carb counting every meal so far to try and help me track).

@Satan’s little helper I had my usual novorapid at 12pm yesterday and then ate 80g of carbs. My levels went from 6 to 12 by about 1pm, then by 3pm they were just under 4, I had some jelly babies and 40g of carbs, the levels then went up to 6 before dropping to 3 by 5.30pm.

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Thanks for the welcomes and replies, they’re much appreciated!

It sounds like my optimistic hopes of everything magically fixing itself over the last few weeks might be hopeful thinking I feel better knowing it’s a fairly common thing - it has just been very confusing because doing and eating the exact same things has been fine for the last few weeks and now caused me problems!

I’ll definitely speak to my clinic tomorrow but I think the honeymoon period would make sense as having the same meals and activities yesterday have caused lows whereas last week it didn’t (I’ve been carb counting every meal so far to try and help me track).

@Satan’s little helper I had my usual novorapid at 12pm yesterday and then ate 80g of carbs. My levels went from 6 to 12 by about 1pm, then by 3pm they were just under 4, I had some jelly babies and 40g of carbs, the levels then went up to 6 before dropping to 3 by 5.30pm.

Good luck talking to your consultants. I would seriously press for that “one.” Sounds like your beta cels could be doing the “dying swan?” (Honeymoon.) Things should settle in time. Looks like early days for you? But T1 with a totally dead pancreas it can still surprise. Best wishes.

 

[DaveB]

First do a Basal (Lantus) test to check dosage. Monitor your BS over several hours without eating anything. When balanced your BS should remain fairly flat during that time as the Basal's purpose is to balance the continuous glucose output from the pancreas. Adjust the dosage if needed to keep things flat. When the Basal is balanced then adjust the Bolus for your meals. I know it's not as simple as I imply but it's important to understand what each insulin does.