Inhaled Insulin Formulations Continue to Show Promise
The doctor that diagnosed me “promised” the inhaled insulin. I have been on asthma drugs, and I am not thrilled with that mode of delivery. It seems to waste quite a bit of medicine.
I also have a feeling they force the patient to comply, rather than dosing the insulin on needs — that’s the beauty of the insulin pump.
Before the “Saturday binge” of Saturday a week ago, I was just experimenting with carb ratio of 11:1 (means I take the number of carbs in food and divide by 11) and it was working for most meals.
I went back to 10:1 because my insulin usage was up, and the 11:1 wasn’t working and I was chasing highs.
Now I’m chasing lows… (I write this stuff so if I screw it up, I can go back and look at it, even print it out and show the CDE or Dr.)
All weekend, two hours after I ate, I was in range of 120-130. If I am that “low” — the goal is 140, I tend to go low within two hours. I really don’t want to eat every two hours, it aggravates the GERD (the more often you eat with GERD, the more often you experience heart burn). In fact, in a perfect world, like tonight, I eat about 5:00 and don’t eat again until morning, and I sleep better. I ate enough slow carbs and protein to keep me going tonight, so far. Though I’m keeping a close eye.
SO, I think I’m going to try the 11:1 ratio again, though I hate that math (10:1 is the easiest, you just move the decimal point). If I do a 7 day average, the 500 rule works out, it’s just that nasty 70 unit day that is causing problems.
Besides, I’ll just be chasing highs rather than lows, and it takes less calories to chase a high — but more insulin.
I really hate making two adjustments at once, but that’s the way it goes — when you reduce insulin usage, you reduce it all the way around, basal AND bolus.
Fun stuff isn’t it?
And I decided to look this stuff up in Pumping Insulin. Interesting facts: According to Pumping Insulin, I should be taking 72.5 units a day, based on my weight. So at an average of 44 units over the past 7 days, I’m doing REALLY REALLY good. My exercising is paying off.
The book says decrease or increase by 5% and recalcuate everything, but I honestly am afraid that’s too much too fast.
And according to the book, I’ve done two things that cause my TDD to go down: changed my activity level (more weights, more time on the treadmill), and changed my weight — lost weight.
Anyway my goal is to make gradual changes without screwing up control. I really hate chasing highs.
Tight Glucose Control May Provide Long-term Benefits in Diabetics
And it is interesting, because of the long term results and the opinions of the researchers.
I ended up running a bit of a basal test on the new basal rate, since I was able to go all evening without eating.
It’s good.
And this morning ate breakfast, and the new bolus rate looked good. At least so far, I’m not chasing a high
As a patient, I know that there is a raging debate among endos as to whether or not tight control is a good thing or bad thing.
Some of that is up to the individual patient, few patients are as sensitive to insulin and or blood sugar as I am. Most diabetics and most doctors (my own included), tend to think I’m nuts. My doctor at least humors me.
However, I have trouble with my vision when my blood sugar is over 160 … this is a problem. I’m dizzy at 90-110, especially if I have come down from a higher number. This is a problem too. And those are just the beginning sympthoms.
But who knows if the tigher control I tend to prefer is better for me in the long run? I do run the risk of hypoglycemia. Look at the last week. If I lose my awareness, I could get into real trouble.
At least now I can point back to some research and maybe more is coming. It’s only in the past few years we could even achieve tight control.
I’ve updated my photo album, adding the Spring 2004 – Best Friends
This is the most interesting photograph. Maggie doesn’t like the camera and decided that she didn’t want her picture taken, so the photographer and I decided we’d see if we could get them to interact and maybe she would forget the camera.
I was baiting Maggie over the teeter, and I forgot that Marcie would of course, follow.
I should have grabbed the board, but didn’t think to do that, I don’t even know if I realized they were both on the board until it tipped anyway. Baiting them all the way down to the bottom assured their safety — the teeter automatically tips back into the original position.
FYI, having both dogs didn’t really work, whenever the photogather thought harder than I was thinking about food, Maggie was off.
Obviously Marcie LOVES the camera.
Glad I changed that basal rate — woke up at 3:00 am with a blood sugar of 108 and again at 5:00 am with a blood sugar of 103.
I’ve decided to go ahead and add the 1/2 hour decrease (by .05 units) in basal tonight, as it looks like I am right where I want to be.
Still seeing some weight loss too.
Since I’ve woken up with fairly low blood sugar three mornings in a row, I’ve decided to drop my midnight to 4:00 am basal rate by 0.05 unit. I’m reduced my basal by a whole .20 units 🙂 Actually every little bit helps reduce the total.
I’ve also been slowly, from midnight back, decreasing my biggest and longest basal rate during the day. I’ve been dropping by .05 unit every half hour, and am now dropping from 9:00 pm on.
It works out pretty well, the basal rates are now
12:00 – 4:00 0.85
4:00 – 8:00 1.10 — this will be the next place I change
and I half it on cardio in the morning days
8:00 – 9:00 1.00 — this is the rate I’ve been decreasing by half
9:00 – 12:00 0.95
So things are going well.
Here’s the really good news, my daily total insulin usage has dropped to 38 – 45 units a day with an occasional excursion to 78. That’s a whole lot better than it was before I started working out regularly.
And I know I’ve lost at least 20 pounds since I discovered my scale wasn’t working.