I posted as a "New Diabetic" on this forum back in March of 2014. Things were confusing then, but even more confusing now.
Following my Type-2 diagnosis back then, things progressively got worse. A1C throughout 2015 was a 13, I was only tested once. I was taking about 20-units of Lantus daily, but I wasn't on Humalog at this point. I think we eventually bumped that Lantus up to 30-units daily.
Throughout 2015, I lost some serious weight. It eventually got me worried, so I finally went to see a new Endocrinologist in January of 2016.
Here are my results from January 2016:
I had other testing done, a "Comprehensive Metabolic Panel", mostly within range; except for my A1C of course, my "Testosterone Free & Total" was all out-of-range, my Endocrinologist compared me to an 80-year old man.
Following these test results, my Endocrinologist bumped up my Lantus to 40-units daily, 20-units in the morning and 20-units in the evening. I also started taking Humalog, basic formula at this point, i.e., 2-units for a small meal, 5-units for a medium meal, and 10-units for a large meal. She advised I stay away from "large" meals.
Once I started taking Humalog, my life went back to "normal". No more waking up at night, I stopped hallucinating. At night, post-dessert, my numbers would go as high as 550 and I would start hallucinating. Either way, that stopped. That was a crazy time, my wife used to watch me like a hawk.
In March of 2016, my Endocrinologist put me on an insulin pump with a CGM. Likely the biggest mistake in my opinion. That did nothing but make it easier for me to eat garbage because it was so easy to dump insulin into my system. In fact, she told me that a type-1 has it easier than a type-2 because there is no "guessing". You don't produce insulin, so you simply figure out your carb-to-insulin ratio, and take insulin when you eat. She told me that I could eat whatever I wanted, in theory, and I could simply cover it with insulin.
While I stuck with the same Endocrinologist office following that advice, I switched to a new nurse practitioner, which advised me to speak with the nutritionist at the office. The nutritionist was the best person I spoke with throughout the process, a lot more helpful than my Endocrinologist or the nurse practitioner(s). She actually looked at my CGM report(s), adjusted my basal rate, and more.
By the end of 2016, I had hit about 215-pounds. Back in January of 2016, I was about 160-pounds! I normally float around 180-pounds but dropped to 160 from uncontrolled diabetes.
Early 2017 was no different than the rest of 2016. My basal was about 25-units daily, and I would bolus about 50-units daily. That was consistent for a while. Even then, I was still 200-plus most of the time. My latest A1C was 8.7 I believe. Better than a 12, but still high.
Finally, early February 2017, I started to exercise and change my lifestyle. One thing I could not stop was dessert, but other than a very large and unhealthy dessert, I was doing good.
Basal remained at 25-units daily, but my bolus dropped from 50-units daily with an average blood sugar of 200 to about 20-units daily with an average blood sugar of 130 with a deviation of +/- 49. Carbohydrates down to about 190G daily, but 132G were from my dessert alone. My dessert consisted of four Entenmann's Rich Frosted Donuts and a serving of milk, for a total of 132G of carbohydrates. I ate that like clockwork because it was simple, and even though bad, 12-units of insulin square over 4-hours would cover it and I would not go above 140 at night. To me, that was good, considering what I have been through in the past.
Either way, I felt great.
However, throughout the month of February, even with my lifestyle changes, I held steady at 206-pounds. Sure, my body changed a bit, I felt stronger, I was stronger, but I was putting in a lot of work and not seeing the results, on the scale at least. I know a lot of people say "ignore the scale", but, at 5' 7", no scenario makes me healthy at nearly 210-pounds.
Enter March, I started using MyFitnessPal and tracking my calories. I wasn't losing weight because my calories IN were higher than my calories OUT. I also bought a Fitbit, which led me to purchase the new Apple Watch, all for the fitness, activity and health application(s).
I started incorporating cardio into my weight training. I weight train four days weekly, and I burn about 200 calories daily five or six days a week by running. I also stopped eating my donut dessert, and have a moderate snack at night, a serving or two of Popcorn Indiana Kettlecorn, which is about 42G of carbohydrates, in some cases 63G.
Here is where things get confusing.
My average blood sugar since I started this new routine in early March is a 122 with a deviation of +/- 22. I'm consuming about 136G average carbohydrates daily.
I do not need to bolus at all anymore. I had to adjust my basal to 1-unit per hour for 24-hours, but, every day at around 2PM I go low, so I've adjusted to 0-units basal insulin from 2PM until 7PM.
Some nights I have three servings of popcorn, which would be 63G of carbohydrates out of the 136G total for the day.
I do not bolus for the popcorn, and that's right before bed. In the past, I would have needed about 6-units to cover the 63G.
Not only do I not have to bolus, I had to adjust my nighttime basal to 0-units of insulin from 12AM until 7AM. That's 12-hours daily that my basal rate is 0-units!
I am literally down to about 12-units of insulin daily, basal only.
I do hit 200 about 90-minutes after I eat my popcorn dessert, but I rapidly drop back down to ~100 about 60-minutes following that. ~40G of carbohydrates in any meal, insulin is not even a consideration. I don't even hit 160 with so few carbohydrates.
While not accurate for some, the at-home A1C tests have always been near accurate for me. I always take the two tests from the two-pack, and they are nearly spot-on when compared to my actual A1C results. According to the at-home tests, my A1C is now a 6.1.
I want to wait until the 1st of June to actually have bloodwork again, which would be 3-months into this new lifestyle.
I guess my question(s) are, how is this possible? I have read about this "honeymoon period", but my condition(s) seems a bit unusual?
Aside from that, has anyone experienced this?
I'm at the point where I have to take off my pump as I'm dropping into lows to often.
I have not tested myself up against more carbohydrates, I am trying not to push it. On the weekends, I like to live a little and might have pancakes or French toast, but I am still cautious. Even with a few pancakes and syrup, I took 3-units as a precaution, but that did nothing but drop me into a severe low about 3-hours later.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I suppose a lot of this is good news, but, disconcerting. :vs_worry:
Following my Type-2 diagnosis back then, things progressively got worse. A1C throughout 2015 was a 13, I was only tested once. I was taking about 20-units of Lantus daily, but I wasn't on Humalog at this point. I think we eventually bumped that Lantus up to 30-units daily.
Throughout 2015, I lost some serious weight. It eventually got me worried, so I finally went to see a new Endocrinologist in January of 2016.
Here are my results from January 2016:
Code:
A1C: 12.1 [<5.7 Normal Range]
GLUCOSE: 398 [70-100 Normal range.]
TESTOSTERONE: 208L [261-827 Normal range.]
FREE TESTOSTERONE: 3.78 [4.8-25.0 Normal range.]
C-PEPTIDE: 0.578 [0.9-7.1 Normal range.]
ESTRADIOL BY TMS: 8.3 [10.0-42.0 Normal range.]
GAD65: >250.0
CREATININE, URINE: 76.20 [Within range.]
CREATININE, 24-HOUR URINE: 1829 [Within range.]
CREATININE CLEARANCE: 159 [Outside range.]
PROTEIN, URINE: 6.9 [Within range.]
PROTEIN, 24-HOUR URINE: 166 [Outside range.]
Following these test results, my Endocrinologist bumped up my Lantus to 40-units daily, 20-units in the morning and 20-units in the evening. I also started taking Humalog, basic formula at this point, i.e., 2-units for a small meal, 5-units for a medium meal, and 10-units for a large meal. She advised I stay away from "large" meals.
Once I started taking Humalog, my life went back to "normal". No more waking up at night, I stopped hallucinating. At night, post-dessert, my numbers would go as high as 550 and I would start hallucinating. Either way, that stopped. That was a crazy time, my wife used to watch me like a hawk.
In March of 2016, my Endocrinologist put me on an insulin pump with a CGM. Likely the biggest mistake in my opinion. That did nothing but make it easier for me to eat garbage because it was so easy to dump insulin into my system. In fact, she told me that a type-1 has it easier than a type-2 because there is no "guessing". You don't produce insulin, so you simply figure out your carb-to-insulin ratio, and take insulin when you eat. She told me that I could eat whatever I wanted, in theory, and I could simply cover it with insulin.
While I stuck with the same Endocrinologist office following that advice, I switched to a new nurse practitioner, which advised me to speak with the nutritionist at the office. The nutritionist was the best person I spoke with throughout the process, a lot more helpful than my Endocrinologist or the nurse practitioner(s). She actually looked at my CGM report(s), adjusted my basal rate, and more.
By the end of 2016, I had hit about 215-pounds. Back in January of 2016, I was about 160-pounds! I normally float around 180-pounds but dropped to 160 from uncontrolled diabetes.
Early 2017 was no different than the rest of 2016. My basal was about 25-units daily, and I would bolus about 50-units daily. That was consistent for a while. Even then, I was still 200-plus most of the time. My latest A1C was 8.7 I believe. Better than a 12, but still high.
Finally, early February 2017, I started to exercise and change my lifestyle. One thing I could not stop was dessert, but other than a very large and unhealthy dessert, I was doing good.
Basal remained at 25-units daily, but my bolus dropped from 50-units daily with an average blood sugar of 200 to about 20-units daily with an average blood sugar of 130 with a deviation of +/- 49. Carbohydrates down to about 190G daily, but 132G were from my dessert alone. My dessert consisted of four Entenmann's Rich Frosted Donuts and a serving of milk, for a total of 132G of carbohydrates. I ate that like clockwork because it was simple, and even though bad, 12-units of insulin square over 4-hours would cover it and I would not go above 140 at night. To me, that was good, considering what I have been through in the past.
Either way, I felt great.
However, throughout the month of February, even with my lifestyle changes, I held steady at 206-pounds. Sure, my body changed a bit, I felt stronger, I was stronger, but I was putting in a lot of work and not seeing the results, on the scale at least. I know a lot of people say "ignore the scale", but, at 5' 7", no scenario makes me healthy at nearly 210-pounds.
Enter March, I started using MyFitnessPal and tracking my calories. I wasn't losing weight because my calories IN were higher than my calories OUT. I also bought a Fitbit, which led me to purchase the new Apple Watch, all for the fitness, activity and health application(s).
I started incorporating cardio into my weight training. I weight train four days weekly, and I burn about 200 calories daily five or six days a week by running. I also stopped eating my donut dessert, and have a moderate snack at night, a serving or two of Popcorn Indiana Kettlecorn, which is about 42G of carbohydrates, in some cases 63G.
Here is where things get confusing.
My average blood sugar since I started this new routine in early March is a 122 with a deviation of +/- 22. I'm consuming about 136G average carbohydrates daily.
I do not need to bolus at all anymore. I had to adjust my basal to 1-unit per hour for 24-hours, but, every day at around 2PM I go low, so I've adjusted to 0-units basal insulin from 2PM until 7PM.
Some nights I have three servings of popcorn, which would be 63G of carbohydrates out of the 136G total for the day.
I do not bolus for the popcorn, and that's right before bed. In the past, I would have needed about 6-units to cover the 63G.
Not only do I not have to bolus, I had to adjust my nighttime basal to 0-units of insulin from 12AM until 7AM. That's 12-hours daily that my basal rate is 0-units!
I am literally down to about 12-units of insulin daily, basal only.
I do hit 200 about 90-minutes after I eat my popcorn dessert, but I rapidly drop back down to ~100 about 60-minutes following that. ~40G of carbohydrates in any meal, insulin is not even a consideration. I don't even hit 160 with so few carbohydrates.
While not accurate for some, the at-home A1C tests have always been near accurate for me. I always take the two tests from the two-pack, and they are nearly spot-on when compared to my actual A1C results. According to the at-home tests, my A1C is now a 6.1.
I want to wait until the 1st of June to actually have bloodwork again, which would be 3-months into this new lifestyle.
I guess my question(s) are, how is this possible? I have read about this "honeymoon period", but my condition(s) seems a bit unusual?
Aside from that, has anyone experienced this?
I'm at the point where I have to take off my pump as I'm dropping into lows to often.
I have not tested myself up against more carbohydrates, I am trying not to push it. On the weekends, I like to live a little and might have pancakes or French toast, but I am still cautious. Even with a few pancakes and syrup, I took 3-units as a precaution, but that did nothing but drop me into a severe low about 3-hours later.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I suppose a lot of this is good news, but, disconcerting. :vs_worry: