Hello
@Cherrang, and welcome to this forum. Apologies if this reply feels lengthy - you're diagnosis is complex and I hope all below helps.
Taking one step back: the type of diabetes you have is defined by the cause, not the treatment.
So Type 1, some 10% 0f the diabetic population, is for people who can't make insulin because of an auto immune condition. Once this happens they MUST take insulin (or die), invariably taken by injection.
Type 2, some 90% of the diabetic population, is for people who make insulin, but develop a very high resistance (usually as adults) to that insulin, for a variety of reasons and so can't use the insulin they make. Their treatment tends to start with oral meds, including metformin, which help them overcome this insulin resistance and treatment sometimes ends up with insulin by injection. That change in treatment does NOT change their T2 diagnosis. Slightly confusingly, it is becoming clear that some folks are initially (wrongly) diagnosed as T2, but are actually T1 - so their diagnosis has to change, because the autoimmune condition has finally become clear.
That leaves a few other types of diabetes, which make up around 1% of the total diabetic population. A few have titles that make things clear, such as gestational diabetes, usually a temporary status and akin to T2, ie temporary increased insulin resistance. Others have types such as LADA, Type 1.5 and Type 3; there are more.
This latter group, T3, includes people whose pancreas has been damaged from a wide range of circumstances, such as (in no particular order): excess of alcohol, steroids, cystic fibrosis, hemochromatosis, serious external injury, pancreatitis with various degrees of consequent pancreatic damage, including partial pancreatic surgery (yourself); and in my case a total pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer. There are various flavours of T3, from a-k and explaining those further is tricky - since they originate in the USA, are not fully agreed internationally and often frequently neither recognised nor is the significance of these appreciated by too many UK medical practicioners; they are either in denial or failing to keep up and invariably these causes just (often inappropriately) attract the tag of T2!
By no means all T3s are totally insulin dependent and specifically NOR are all T3cs. They might be, but might also just be needing oral meds to help their metabolism deal with excess of glucose in their blood.
I am T3c. Clearly not T1, nor T2. Yet my hospital discharge paperwork records me as T1, which at least confirms my total insulin dependency and eligibility for T1 treatments; despite my claiming T3c status, still some Consultants see my original discharge record and sustain the original erroneous T1 diagnosis. My 1st DSN brushed that aside by saying accept it and move on; if I ended up unconscious in A&E most Drs there would not know what T3c was and might treat me as T2 without that paper record of T1. Damning indictment of medical knowledge in A&E - but presumably realistic. But my diabetes is not because of pancreatitis (which I infer is the original cause of your pancreatic problems - please correct me if that is wrong). I (just!) have no pancreas, with many of the T1 issues associated with insulin dependency; plus missing other key hormones including glucagon and somostatin (which balance insulin and glucagon activity); no digestive enzymes, hence total dependency on Creon; a slightly rearranged internal plumbing; and (as I've just found out following emergency abdominal surgery) scar tissue which hardens with time and can snag and block that internal plumbing!!
So you,
in my non- medical opinion, are T3c (from distal pancreatectomy) and not T2. You have a damaged pancreas, or in more medical parlance 'impaired pancreatic endocrine function' - not undue insulin resistance akin to T2. Whether you need insulin at this stage is for others to assess; you might not. But you should be under a Specialist Diabetes Team, ie a DSN and Endocrinologist.
My, non-medical but strong advice, is do NOT assume, no matter how well intentioned, that your GP surgery and the frequently encountered Practice Diabetes Nurse have any understanding of the complexity of your medical condition. I think it is highly likely that in due course your condition will alter and I would not be surprised if you at some future stage will need insulin; should I be right, my advice would be don't resist that; it will, at that stage, make managing your D easier. If you are already under the umbrella of a hospital based Specialist Team you will have somewhere to turn to if things change, without needing a specific GP referral. If you are not under such a Team seek a referral now for this; there are specific tests which can determine your pancreatic endocrine insufficiency and thus provide a starting baseline for reference in the future.
I can't speak about statins; I don't need these and have a strong personal view that I don't readily take medications I don't need. Too many chemicals already going into me daily!
I hope this (too long) reply helps with understanding T3c diabetes.
