No longer requiring short acting insulin?

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hfrances1

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Type 1
Hi everyone,

I am seeking some clarity as to why this is happening.

I have been diagnosed type 1 since April 2023 following a hospital admission.

Since then I have been using insulin. I have noticed that over the last 2 weeks I am no longer needing my short acting insulin, where as before my carb ratio would have been 1 unit to 20g-40g depending on the time of day. I have been staying in range and my blood sugar has not been out of range at all. I am still using my Lantus as normal and it seems to be causing my blood sugars to still drop low at certain points

Can anyone think of any reason as to why this could be happening?

I have not changed anything in regards to diet and lifestyle!
 
Hello @hfrances1, and Welcome to the Forum.

It could be that your introduction to both bolus and basal insulin in April has provided respite for your pancreas which would probably have been struggling to hold its own until your hospital admission. That's my guess; I'm sure more knowledgeable forum members will be along soon to provide better help.

Your remark that you've not changed anything in regards to diet and lifestyle made me chuckle slightly; you may not have knowingly changed anything but there are numerous factors that affect Blood Glucose, many of which are outside of our control or influence and we sometimes become aware of changed external factors because of a BG change!

Do you have CGM such as Libre 2?
Has anyone suggested useful reading material (apart from this Forum of course)? I found Gary Sheiner's book "Think Like a Pancreas" very good and generally an easy read. I have also since purchased a copy of Ragnar Hanas "Type 1 Diabetes for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults" which I often turn to when I want a view on some aspect of D management (I'm 74 and it's still relevant as far as I'm concerned - despite the Title).
 
Have you checked your libre against fingerprick? Its just we've had people posting here before whos bs became suspiciouly good and it turned out to be a faulty cgm
 
Thanks for the replies everyone I appreciate it

I monitor with a CGM but have been checking with finger pricks as well as it seems strange that I don’t require any novorapid all of a sudden. I know I’m in the honeymoon phase but I didn’t think it could change as I was previously needing to use novorapid for food.

I have never done a basal test before ? I’m not familiar with what that is if I’m honest. Ive had the same dose since April and it seemed to be OK alongside my novorapid.

Unless there’s other external factors which is causing the sudden change
 
There’s info about basal testing here:

www.mysugr.com

How To Successfully Test Your Basal Rate

Are you looking for basal rate information and testing instructions? Perfect! You're in the right place!
www.mysugr.com www.mysugr.com

All you do is skip meals over a period of days (so you don’t have to get too hungry!) and see if your basal dose holds your blood sugar steady in the absence of food. That’s its job. If, for example, you found you were dropping down too much, you might want to reduce your basal.

As this is such a sudden change, I’d also switch to a new cartridge of Lantus in case that’s affecting things.
 
hfrances1 said:
Unless there’s other external factors which is causing the sudden change
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Insulin usage can very much change, especially less than a year after diagnosis. Sometimes we can make reasonable guesses for the reasons, but not always.

(I find I usually need a bit less over the summer (when it's hotter), but since autumn my nighttime basal doses have decreased by about 20% (I use Levemir, so twice daily). So what's up with that? I can only guess.)
 
Welcome to the forum @hfrances1

Sorry to hear you are having a confusing time with your insulin doses. Diabetes does like to defy logic and expectations from time to time o_O

I wonder if it might be a combination of factors. A bit of a second wind from your flagging beta cells, but also that your insulin needs have generally reduced overall, but you’ve kept one dose at an earlier level. So that your basal is now effectively covering both things (and sometimes is too much).

Having said that, one member here @Northerner gradually reduced his basal doses until they were so small over the 24 hour they didn’t seem worth continuing, so has been using rapid-only for some years now.

Hope you are able to rebalance your doses, and regain your BG balance. 🙂
 
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