Guidance Please

[ozscrnwriter]

As a T2, I am a regular reader of your column, even here down under - I lecture on scriptwriting at a local Uni and my diabetes is known among the students.

This appeared in my email...it is not one of my students [the email is anonymous not using the uni-system] but the figures appeared so frightening to me - I wanted to say more than go and speak to your doctor ....

Gday, I am an Australian seeking new advances in the US. I’m a type 1, have been since iIwas 24, am now 32, apparently a virus attacked my pancreas, have no family history of diabetes. I take actrapid & protophane using a pen and i have an accucheck advantage meter with the download computer kit. My usual bg level range is anywhere from 12-25, I rarely have hypos and when i do they come at the worst possible time at work.
Last September after much family pressure I had my hb1a test and it was 9.9 or something, the GP grilled me and I committed to trying to get my levels down. i started testing 6 times a day and keeping a diary of my readings and everything i ate. this is when everything went pearshaped. to keep my levels below 10 i was injecting 5 times a day (over 150 units in total). My weight increased dramatically and my ankles swelled up. In the end i couldn’t even walk from the train station to my work (about 1k) without my legs burning up. my cholesterol went high and now I’m on lipitor as well. after 3 months of this I decided I was over it, I didn’t need to put up with this!! i decided to go back to 1 shot a day and since then my weight decreased and my leg problems disappeared but by the end of each day my levels are usually HI (over 32).

I’m looking for a 1 shot a day solution that will keep my levels below 20 and not cause increased weight or leg problems, I’m over actrapid and protophane.. what are the alternatives??


Any guidance you can give me will be gratefully received.

Jim.

[Vytautas]

Hm.. That's odd... I am on Humalog and Lantus so i'm not sure how the others work (except for Humolins R and N). It is possible that due to a greater ammount of injectons there was a reaction, because his organism was exposed to a large ammount of insulin all day. One idea would be to go to a diabetes specialist and ask for a solution... Another way would be to start using a pump...
He is injecting 25 units per injection... I myself inject a max of 12-14 units per injection... Yet another idea would be to concult a doctor on switching insulin. My friend used all kinds until he found the one that suited him best(he's on a pump now though). I myself noticed a change when i switched from Humolin to humalog...

[ozscrnwriter]

Thanx
Jim