Total Insulin Resistance

[thecaretaker]

I've been a Type 2 diabetic for several years. I was referred to the local NHS hospital as I was getting severe side effects from Metformin.

I was given various other new drugs over the years, but also had side effects. The last was empagliflozin which gave me really painful thrush.

About 8 months ago, it was decided to put me on insulin. I have a Lantus Solostar glARGine pen. At the time, my blood sugar readings were in the 20's. I was told to start off at 10 and increase it to lower my blood sugars. I stepped this up to around 40 but didn't notice any difference in my blood sugar readings.

At about this time, I decided to be very careful with diet and do exercise as everywhere tells you. I have cut out all carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, rice, pasta etc). My blood sugars went down, but wasn't sure if this was due to the diet or the insulin dose.

I had an over the phone consultation with the hospital who said that's perfectly normal and they signed me off saying that they will arrange for my local GP to do a blood test in 6 months.

In this time, I have stepped up my insulin dose to approx 100 units. I say approx as the pen only goes up to 80, I'm leaving the pen stuck in me and guessing how much I turn it to put more in me.

My blood sugars are now good. Around 7-9 (I have kind of set a goal of under 10).

I suspected that the insulin wasn't doing anything (as I wasn't just increasing them by 1 or 2 units, but more like 10/20), so 2 weeks ago, I had a just table spoon of mashed potato to see what it would do. My blood sugars shot up to 15.8 despite injecting 100 units.

This week, I decided to try the opposite, I've not taken any insulin, just continued with my strict diet and my blood sugars have remained at around 7.5.

So I have come to the conclusion that my insulin resistance is total. Has anybody else experienced this? Is this common? And if so, what can I do?

I have an appointment next week at the GP for a blood test and hope to discuss it with the nurse and show them the detailed records I have been keeping.

Whenever I've discussed this with others, I'm told you shouldn't be cutting out all carbohydrates. But the smallest amount shoots my blood sugar readings up high.

I am beginning to get very depressed with it all.

My diet consists of 3 rashers of bacon for breakfast, boiled in water (so not fat). Sometimes I will have 2 boiled eggs on there own.
Lunch is a wedge of cheese.
My main meal is in the evening which consists of a lamb or pork chop, breast of chicken or fresh fish with 2 fresh vegetables (I found frozen veg often has hidden sugar added). To be honest, it is pretty dam boring everyday but it is keeping my blood sugar levels down.

If I can keep my blood sugars down without taking insulin, is this OK? Am I doing any harm by cutting out carbohydrates totally? My problem is, I can't see any alternative.

 

[trophywench]

Frozen veg does have 'hidden' sugar but not that has been added - it is an intrinsic part of the vegetables and cannot be removed ! Even lettuce and cucumber contain carbs - negligible amounts in the normal quantities anyone would or could eat them in, but 'some', same as fruit. Berries have the least but still some.

You should not be using Lantus (a longer acting insulin) to deal with food whether it's got carbs in it or not - you should be using a shorter acting insulin for that purpose so your medication regime is well past it's 'review' date. Plus if you need such high doses of any insulin, it would be much more effectively delivered by having several jabs in different parts of your body.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear you are finding your diabetes management so difficult.

It sounds like you have been doing amazingly well with reducing your carbs, and trying to get insulin to work for you.

The vast majority of folks here have absolutely no medical qualifications, and we can’t offer medical advice, but I do wonder if slightly different insulins may work better for you.

As TW suggests, it may be helpful to add a rapid acting ‘mealtime’ insulin to offer a little more coverage.

It also feels like you may benefit from u200 or u400 strength insulin, where the doses become a much smaller volume and may absorb more easily?

 

[thecaretaker]

Thank you. I wasn't aware there were different strengths of insulin. I just assumed insulin was insulin. I'll ask when I have my blood test next week.