[dkyle]

Hello,
My name is Don. I was diagnosed in 2007 with an A1c of 8.5 and a BG of 450. We had just had a stressfull trip taking my Youngest to college
I was able to get off of the Metformin in 3 months and stayed in good shape for 16 months, Convincing myself that i was NOT a diabetic with my A1c back to 6.0...... then Back to 8.5, with no clear understanding why

The Second time it didnt correct so easily, Had to take Glipizide and met and it took 6 months, But i got back to an A1c of 5.8 and no meds
and stayed that way for 8 or so months. By this time I had learned about Diabetes Medicines and their side effects, So when my Dr suggested Actos I said NO. And Decided on Byetta, That really did not Help me much, So me moved to Lantus. That worked for a while, But I ended up taking so much I was Putting on some Weight ( 200+units perday ) In retrospect, I was trying to take enoughLantus to cover postmeal spikes, which Just didnt work. Emotionally in November/December of 2010 I just gave up. My Wife metaphorically slapped me upside the head and in Jan or this year I really started trying to control my BG. Gettinga lot more Excercise, watching my diet better, etc, but Still I could not get it under control, So I scheduled my Physical Did the Bloodwork and was of Course back to an A1C of 8.5. I have Been taking Bolus Insulin for 3 weeks now and am in great control with a TDD of about 80 units, Losing some weight, Feeling Great and Have some hope again

That about sums it up, Glad to be here

 

[Guest]

Welcome Don you have been for quite a ride there.... its nice to hear you have finally got on track with it. I was thinking when you were on the Lantus only... your endo should have put you on the bolus then. My endo didn't take long to figure out that basal insulin wasn't enough for me.... mind you that was after I insisted on getting the diagnostic tests done again and it showed my pancreas no longer produced enough insulin like it used to back in 1998. I'm sure you will find this a great place for support and info. Keep us posted on how you're doing.

 

[dkyle]

Welcome Don you have been for quite a ride there.... its nice to hear you have finally got on track with it. I was thinking when you were on the Lantus only... your endo should have put you on the bolus then. My endo didn't take long to figure out that basal insulin wasn't enough for me.... mind you that was after I insisted on getting the diagnostic tests done again and it showed my pancreas no longer produced enough insulin like it used to back in 1998. I'm sure you will find this a great place for support and info. Keep us posted on how you're doing.

Unfortunately no endo to work with here in my town. My Doctor is helpful to try treatments, but isn't really leading the way although he seemed more informed this last visit, so that was good.

At this point I would like to understand why this has progressed so fast and wonder if I will ever get off insulin, or if my pancreas is pretty much down for the count. In any case, I am very happy with the Apidra and Lantus and the focus that this therapy is imposing on me, and really the ability to finally have this under control. I feel so much better.

My gut feel says I am probably on Insulin for life.

Don

Lantus - 50 units
Apidra - about 30 units
Met ER - 1000mg 2 times per day
lisinopril - 40mg
Omeprazole - 20mg

Thanks for the welcome

 

[Richard157]

Hello Don, welcome aboard! Don't be discouraged by geing on insulin, and perhaps for life. I was diagnosed in 1945 when I was 6, and have been on insulin for 65 years. I am very healthy, and you can be too!! Good luck in the months ahead.

Richard

 

[dkyle]

Hello Don, welcome aboard! Don't be discouraged by geing on insulin, and perhaps for life. I was diagnosed in 1945 when I was 6, and have been on insulin for 65 years. I am very healthy, and you can be too!! Good luck in the months ahead.

Richard

Richard,

I am amazed by your story and appreciate so much you writing it down.

Contrary to how i may have sounded, I am NOT discouraged by insulin, it is a godsend to me right now. I am in control!!!! I was very discouraged by not being able to find any control with lantus only and I am discouraged at times about being diabetic, but never about a way to control the beast.

I wish I understood what is happening to me. I know it really doesnt make a difference in what i do each day, but the way I am put together, I want to know. why did I progress so fast? why was it so easy to get off of Meds at the start and so hard later, to maybe impossible now

I feel so good after 3 weeks with basal / bolus insulin. It is amazing! None of the side effects of the oral meds, i am losing weight now, I HAVE HOPE!

Stories like yours are so valuable to me because they are about hope and about LIFE - thank you

Don

 

[jwags]

Welcome Don. I found the website Blood Sugar 101 a lot of help for me to understand what was happening to me. I think at first I thought I could just take the meds and still eat like normal. Well, that didn't last long. After I read BS 101 I understood the reason why I spiked and what I could do about it. It has been a long 4 years with lots of experimenting with meds, food, exercise to get my bgs in a good range. No one knows if we can regenerate our worn out beta cells, but I hope so. By switching diet around I have been able to add more healthy carbs back in my diet and keep bgs very low. But like everything else with diabetes, who knows how long it will last. I have known type 2's who have come off insulin and reduced their meds once they got HbA1c under 6. It does take work, but we are all here to help you. We have some fantastic cooks here who love to share low carb recipes.

 

[Richard157]

Don, I am pleased to read your cheerful reply! You sound very positive. Your insulin resistance has probably been increasing, so the meds have become more necessary. You pancreas has probably been producing less insulin of its own, so you are approaching the point where you are fully insulin dependent. I have type 2 friends who have been using insulin a long time. A few of them use insulin pumps.

 

[Joshua Shorter]

Welcome to the forums! We are glad you're here. I hope you come back to visit and contribute often. You can take control of this disease instead of the other way around! Good luck.

 

[BamaLou]

WOW! You were taking 200+ units of Lantus a day? And I thought my 90 units a day was a massive amount, but I never have taken Lantus alone, always have taken Humalog along with it! I have manage to lower my Lantus to 55 units a day by exercising daily.

 

[Richard157]

I have a friend in England who has very bad asthma, and a thyroid condition. She is using a steroid for the asthma. Steroids raise the blood sugar level very much!!! She needs 500++ units per day to keep good levels. This has been going on several years.

 

[BamaLou]

I have a friend in England who has very bad asthma, and a thyroid condition. She is using a steroid for the asthma. Steroids raise the blood sugar level very much!!! She needs 500++ units per day to keep good levels. This has been going on several years.

The husband of a woman I work with had to have his leg amputated and he had not long been diagnosed with diabetes before it happened. I had asked her what type of insulin he was taking and he was on Lantus and on a very low dose (can't remember exactly what it was, but it was below 20 units). I guess it human nature to want to compare yourself against others... and it just kinda freaked me out because here was a diabetic who to me was much worse off than I was as far as managing his diabetes, and yet it seemed I was taking a massive amount of insulin as compared to him. It just made me wonder, why is my dose so high... but as this forum is teaching me, every diabetic is not the same. In fact, I realized that I truly don't know if I am a Type I or a Type II, because when I was diagnosed they just labeled me as a Type II... there was no blood work done other than a finger prick, and I was told that a Type I was an insulin dependent diabetic, and a Type II was a non-insulin dependent. I remember that my bgl was 280 at the time. Funny the things you remember.

 

[Shalynne]

Welcome, Dkyle!

I'm an insulin-dependent Type 2, too.

This place is fantastic ... glad you found us!

 

[dkyle]

Thank you, Shalynne,

I am also glad to find this place. I was on a different forum but it seemed that too many threads turned into a very negative discussion pretty quick. i am glad that this forum seems to be much more positive

Don

 

[Shanny]

I am also glad to find this place. I was on a different forum but it seemed that too many threads turned into a very negative discussion pretty quick. i am glad that this forum seems to be much more positive

Don

Heheh . . . a few of us know exactly which forum(s) you refer to, Don. And we vow to keep this one a safer place!

 

[breezeonby]

Hello,
My name is Don. I was diagnosed in 2007 with an A1c of 8.5 and a BG of 450. We had just had a stressfull trip taking my Youngest to college
I was able to get off of the Metformin in 3 months and stayed in good shape for 16 months, Convincing myself that i was NOT a diabetic with my A1c back to 6.0...... then Back to 8.5, with no clear understanding why

The Second time it didnt correct so easily, Had to take Glipizide and met and it took 6 months, But i got back to an A1c of 5.8 and no meds
and stayed that way for 8 or so months. By this time I had learned about Diabetes Medicines and their side effects, So when my Dr suggested Actos I said NO. And Decided on Byetta, That really did not Help me much, So me moved to Lantus. That worked for a while, But I ended up taking so much I was Putting on some Weight ( 200+units perday ) In retrospect, I was trying to take enoughLantus to cover postmeal spikes, which Just didnt work. Emotionally in November/December of 2010 I just gave up. My Wife metaphorically slapped me upside the head and in Jan or this year I really started trying to control my BG. Gettinga lot more Excercise, watching my diet better, etc, but Still I could not get it under control, So I scheduled my Physical Did the Bloodwork and was of Course back to an A1C of 8.5. I have Been taking Bolus Insulin for 3 weeks now and am in great control with a TDD of about 80 units, Losing some weight, Feeling Great and Have some hope again

That about sums it up, Glad to be here

Hi Don and :welcome: to the forum. There is a wealth of information on here so read what interests you. If you can't find something, do a search on the forum page and use the white box. I hope you will feel comfortable here and I hope you have time to visit often and take care.

 

[jwags]

I understand what you mean about taking your youngest off to college. I remember that car trip 4 years ago. She was crying all the way on the phone to her high school friends. In a month she will be graduating and off to work in Spain. What a big difference 4 years make. No one knows how quickly D progresses or why. You may want to have your doc run a C Peptide test to see what your insulin levels are. On another forum there was a thread last week about how Type 2 could be an auto immune attack too. So we are really at the mercy of our own bodies sometimes.