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Help understanding insulin please!!!
by marshmallow, May 04, 2008 07:00PM
Hi everyone, quick question as I think I must be lacking some education here.
I have been diabetic for 14 years, gestational and then type 2 adult diabetes, always controlled by pills (except during pregnancy but that was so long ago!)
Because I will be going in for some surgery the endo changed me to insulin injections, 2 per day, mixed insulin called Novomix 30/70 (30% fast acting, 70% slow acting).
Question:
I noticed that with my pills, if I did not feel like eating until 11 am for the first meal of the day it made no difference, I still took my pills and didn't eat.
With the insulin I have to take it at 7 am and then eat irght away. But soemtimes I don't feel like eating.
Also he told me to eat frequently. I have not been doing that, 3 meals is enough for me and they are generally small meals. Why am I always so high??? We have increased the dose.
So this weekend I was eating frequent small meals, and all of a sudden it seems that the insulin worked!
Is there any relation to the insulin working because I ate small meals probably every 2-3 hours? or is this a co-incidence?
Some one told me if you DON'T eat your sugar just keeps going UP? But I always thought that if you didn't eat your sugar would go down. Am I just confused???
Thank you
I have been diabetic for 14 years, gestational and then type 2 adult diabetes, always controlled by pills (except during pregnancy but that was so long ago!)
Because I will be going in for some surgery the endo changed me to insulin injections, 2 per day, mixed insulin called Novomix 30/70 (30% fast acting, 70% slow acting).
Question:
I noticed that with my pills, if I did not feel like eating until 11 am for the first meal of the day it made no difference, I still took my pills and didn't eat.
With the insulin I have to take it at 7 am and then eat irght away. But soemtimes I don't feel like eating.
Also he told me to eat frequently. I have not been doing that, 3 meals is enough for me and they are generally small meals. Why am I always so high??? We have increased the dose.
So this weekend I was eating frequent small meals, and all of a sudden it seems that the insulin worked!
Is there any relation to the insulin working because I ate small meals probably every 2-3 hours? or is this a co-incidence?
Some one told me if you DON'T eat your sugar just keeps going UP? But I always thought that if you didn't eat your sugar would go down. Am I just confused???
Thank you
Post Comment
Diabetics don't have a normal endocrine system (ie. you don't eat - your sugars go down kinda thing - which is correct but in a normal person the pancreas and liver work together to stabilize)
It might be that you make enough insulin but can't use it and the added insulin makes your sugars drop and then the liver gets confused and starts pumping out glycogen and then they spike or you don't make enough and you make too much glycogen and eating the small meals keeps the liver from thinking you are "dying" and need sugar energy....it's all very intricate. No one is the same.
Hope all goes well....