Does anyone here have insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetes? I'm interested in knowing how you administer insulin, frequency, what the medication options are, diet, and general lifestyle changes required to manage the condition.
Insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetes
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johnnysannie
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I am no expert but my husband was diagnosed last year (2006) with Type I diabetes so I know a little.
In his case - and I believe also in Type II - a lot depends on diet (less carbs, more leafy green veggies, no sugar) and excercise and body size. The blood sugar numbers make a lot of different in whether or not medication is prescribed or not and how much.
In the year plus since being diagnosed, my husband has been able to reduce his medication - Metformin, not insulin (he has never had to take insulin) from three times daily to two.
In his case - and I believe also in Type II - a lot depends on diet (less carbs, more leafy green veggies, no sugar) and excercise and body size. The blood sugar numbers make a lot of different in whether or not medication is prescribed or not and how much.
In the year plus since being diagnosed, my husband has been able to reduce his medication - Metformin, not insulin (he has never had to take insulin) from three times daily to two.
Thanks for the info. How does he administer the dose of Metformin? Is it in pill form? If he feels ill, can he take one to quickly normalize his blood sugar, or is it more of a maintenance drug?
I am. I take shots because I prefer the shots to the other types of devices.
I take four shots per day. Ten units of fast-acting Novalog before each meal, and forty-five units of slow-acting Lantas each night before bedtime.
There are many types of insulin, and what works well for one diabetic may not work well for another. It's often a matter of trial and error when diabetes is first diagnosed.
My diet is basically as little sugar as possible, low-fat, and low cholesterol. Healthy, in other words. Lifestyle changes generally involve plenty of exercise, and watching what I eat. Again, healthy.
In order to control type 2, insulin-dependent diabetes, diabetics are basically forced to live like everyone is supposed to live.
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Just thought I'd post a link up for the America Diabetic Association: http://www.diabetes.org/home.jsp
johnnysannie
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He takes the Metformin in pill form; one morning, one night. For about a year, he took 2 pills each evening. If his blood sugar drops too low, enough that he feels ill or weak, he eats a handful or raisins (his preference) or something. The Metformin is more maintenance, I believe.
I take four shots a day, too. With supper, I take 20 units of the long-lasting Lantus. Before each meal I shoot up with 8 units of the faster-acting Humalog. The Humalog is actually on what's called a "sliding scale," meaning I can take more or less depending on what I'm going to eat. For example, if supper is heavy on carbs, I may want to take more Humalog. The Humalog is also used for incidents of high blood sugar. If I wake up at 2 a.m. feeling sick, check my sugar and get a 300 reading, then I'll want to take a shot to get it back down. I was taught "3 units per 50 points," which would mean to hit my target of no higher than 140, I would take 9 units. But Humalog seems stronger, so I'd probably only take 6. Better to undershoot and take another shot later than overshoot and wind up in the hospital with an insulin reaction.
I used to be on Humalog, but my blood sugar went all over the place. Too high one day, too low the next, even when eating the same foods and taking the same dosage. With Novolg/Lantus I maintain about a 110 day in and day out.
Part of what makes diabetes so hard to deal with is that the same insulin that works well for one diabetic won't work for another.
Right, and that sucks because I may never find the one that keeps me in line as well as yours does for you, and vice versa.
Works
It took a couple of doctors and almost ten years to find the perfect combination for me. And there's no guarantee that it will always work as well as it is right now.
It took a couple of doctors and almost ten years to find the perfect combination for me. And there's no guarantee that it will always work as well as it is right now.
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My best friend was diagnosed as diabetic in high school.
She had this spiffy little device that clipped to the back of her pants/skirt. The device had a needle that she inserted in her lower back and the machine would check her blood sugar and administer as needed. It was really cool.
She no longer has diabetes, because she received a kidney and pancreas transplant, hence the past tense.
She had this spiffy little device that clipped to the back of her pants/skirt. The device had a needle that she inserted in her lower back and the machine would check her blood sugar and administer as needed. It was really cool.
She no longer has diabetes, because she received a kidney and pancreas transplant, hence the past tense.
pancreas
The islet, or the complete? Both transplants are showing promise, though islet transplant seems to hold the most hope. But neither is yet being called a cure. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they do work, and then stop.
The islet, or the complete? Both transplants are showing promise, though islet transplant seems to hold the most hope. But neither is yet being called a cure. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they do work, and then stop.
There's a guy in our little town that had the pancreas transplant a few years back. He was good as gold for a year or two, then got progressively worse. Three years after the surgery, he looked like a refugee from a Concentration Camp. He's still alive, but more miserable than he was as a diabetic.
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She had a complete transplant, she also received a new kidney that has failed already, but the pancreas continues to work and it has been four years. She is on the donor list for a new kidney, hopefully soon
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He probably either rejected the transplant or the immunosuppression drugs made him susceptible to something else. In a worst case it is even possible to get HIV from transplants since there is already at least one form of HIV for which there is no test. They have tests for HIV 1 and 2 but not 3.
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That is interesting if the kidney and pancreas were done at the same time and only the kidney failed, which suggests something other than rejection. I wonder if the donor had an occult congenital malformation that only surfaced when it was expected to do the work of 2 kidneys. I've seen that before
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