Long acting insulin appears to do nothing

1552 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by foodahollic, Jan 15, 2022

Chuckh1958

Discussion Starter · Jan 7, 2022 (Edited)

Anyone else experience this?

Some background
I've been having trouble maintaining bg levels for at least a few months now. I get high spikes after meals and it takes hours (3-4 sometimes longer) for the gradual decline to get me back down to a normal range. I also get lows in the middle of the night.... sometimes. Other times my bg stays flat all night.

I use basaglar as my long acting insulin (my insurance won't pay for anything else) which I normally take first thing in the morning. I use humalog as my fast acting insulin which I take every time I consume carbs based on a ratio and the # of carbs I'm eating.

The problem
A couple of times I've forgotten to take my basaglar and to my surprise when that happens I see no difference in my glucose levels. IOW the peaks, ramp up to the peak, slow decline back to normal, everything on the chart stays the same. I'm using a Dexcom G6 CGM to track the levels continuously.

What's up with that?

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mbuster

· #2 · Jan 7, 2022

I'm a Type 2 not on insulin, hopefully someone will be check in and offer you an experienced response. But in the meantime, I've heard high recommendations for these 3 books to help with insulin questions. Maybe you can find them in your local library. One of them I know you can read parts of it on line.

Using Insulin by John Walsh. He also has a book called Pumping Insulin.
Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner
Diabetes Solution by Dr. Richard Bernstein. Can read some of his book on line here. At one time, the part about splitting the dose of basal (long acting) insulin into two doses was on line.

Hope this is of some help.

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brucelegs

· #3 · Jan 13, 2022

Chuckh1958 said:
Anyone else experience this?

Some background
I've been having trouble maintaining bg levels for at least a few months now. I get high spikes after meals and it takes hours (3-4 sometimes longer) for the gradual decline to get me back down to a normal range. I also get lows in the middle of the night.... sometimes. Other times my bg stays flat all night.

I use basaglar as my long acting insulin (my insurance won't pay for anything else) which I normally take first thing in the morning. I use humalog as my fast acting insulin which I take every time I consume carbs based on a ratio and the # of carbs I'm eating.

The problem
A couple of times I've forgotten to take my basaglar and to my surprise when that happens I see no difference in my glucose levels. IOW the peaks, ramp up to the peak, slow decline back to normal, everything on the chart stays the same. I'm using a Dexcom G6 CGM to track the levels continuously.

What's up with that?

Not sure but I split my long acting into 2 - morning and night

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Chuckh1958

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 13, 2022

brucelegs said:
Not sure but I split my long acting into 2 - morning and night

I tried that too and it hasnt helped me. I am resigned to being "brittle" until they discover a cure or I die. I'm ready for either.

FWIW by the next day after my original post, things started getting worse so I went back to using the long acting insulin. It seems to take a day before I really see the difference it makes. Not sure why. I would expect it to only take a few hours.

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foodahollic

· #5 · Jan 15, 2022

Do you do any exercise. I am not looking for a lot. I know my insulin resistance drops if I exercise for ten minutes. Very gentle exercise will do. A slow walk around the block. Ten minutes on a stationary bike.

For an experiment you might try to use a traditional glucose monitor, with finger sticks. Make sure your batteries are up to date.

I have had problems with insulin, where I suspect, before I got insulin, it was left out and allowed to get warm. I know the pharmacy used to provide ninety days of insulin at one time. Insulin is only going to be useful, good for 28 days after it is opened - or should I say. Allowed to get warm. And only if it does not get too warm or cold. I once had a friend whose Insulin I found sitting in the sun through a window. I have one of the crisper trays in my fridge which has a food thermometer that I intend to keep at forty degrees.

There is another possibility. If our Insulin level is high. After awhile the liver begins to release Glycogen, I would prefer to say Blood Sugar. Since I am a Type Two, my blood glucose will keep rising until I take a bite to eat.

It is times like these when I would be very happy not to be using insulin.

Talk to your Diabetes Doc. Doctors can often tell us how to fix a problem off the top of their head. Better than worrying or experimenting.

You may have had a change in Diabetes for some other reason.

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