So, I went to the Endo. a few weeks ago, and was informed that my diagnosis was early type 1.
Basically, I’m producing very little insulin and I have positive antibodies.
Naturally I asked him what the heck early type 1 was, because I’d never heard it in my life.
He told me that I’m basically within a year, I’ll be fully insulin-dependent.
And… I AM on insulin right now
36u Levemir
15u Novolog (with meals)
9u NPH
Has this ever happened to anyone?
In a way it happens to everyone who is type 1. Insulin almost never jsut stops being produced. It winds down some folks produce insulin for logn periods of time, for others it is short lived.
Rick
Please kick me if I am wrong but how much more insulin do you need to take before you are considered insulin dependent? And your antibodies are positive? I would only have one question for your doc. WHAT???
Sorry about that Graceylou. My best to you.
saundra barragan:
I’m not sure how much more insulin, I think its just a time thing
yes, my antibodies are positive
The amount of insulin is not really the determining issue for diabetes. Absorption, type, food all play into that. The fact is that you might be experiencing the “honey moon” period. That is when your body still produces insulin but not enough to do the job. Usually during the “honeymoon period” you will take less insulin. I do note you are using a fair amount but, if it is doing the job, its right, if not or if you have lows it will need adjusted.
Rick
PS: I have been diabetic for 34 years and married for 31, I cant remember either “honeymoon period”, LOL
ha ha, thanks Rick!
I’ve heard the “honeymoon” thing but, I just don’t know much about it.
and My sugars are doing great with these amounts of insulin.
I only have one problem, I do get very low, and have to constantly adjust my lo’s, after I exercise. I don’t know how to solve this problem, because right now I’m doing the amount of insulin that my Endo. told me to do. And I need to exercise because i’ve gained a few pounds while on insulin.
Sounds like you may be in a little larger does than you need be. Talk to the endo and let them know you are getting some lows and gaining weight. My guess is the endo may back off insulin a little.
Rick
thanks for your help 
it helps to eat a snack when you exercise. I used to just time it just right so that i ate an hour after i exercised. Sounds like your type 1, your cursed just like us. Something i wish somebody told me… is that you can adjust your insulin yourself just try to do so by 2 unit incremets, untill you see how your body reacts. Ha this coming from the girl who just gave herself 25 units of humalog for pizza and a my current high. In other words diabetes is a forever guessing game. Also exercising all the time will do good things to your sugar, maybe it will help you enough that you won’t have to take so much medicine.
I am sorry Graceylou. I was being sarcastic toward your doctor in my original post. I definitely didn’t mean any thing bad toward you. And i am sorry I wasn’t helpful. You are getting some good advice here from Rick and Domo and I agree with both of them. I really do wish you well dear and hopefully your doc can adjust things better for you. Please do come back and let us know how you are doing.
In the honeymoon period the body is still producing some insulin, because there are still a few beta cells left in the body. When a person is just diagnosed normally about 10-20% beta cells are still there. Sometimes because they “worked hard” - so to speak - they stop producing insulin - they go into a “rest” sort of. When a person is diagnosed and start using insulin, they suddenly start producing insulin again and a lot of times during the honeymoon phase insulin shots is reduced to accomodate that of the body. Nobody knows how long the honeymoon phase last, sometimes 3 months sometimes over a year. Research does show that high bg results that the body destroys the betacells earlier.
When all the betacells is destroyed then bg goes haywire and the body becomes totally dependent on insulin shots.
Dr’s normally test for antibodies to make the correct diagnosis - (type 2’s normally doesn’t have pancreatic island cell antibodies.) They sometimes also test for GAD - a proteien. If it’s positive it means that the body is attacking itself - therefore auto immune disease.
Read about the honeymoon phase here.
Sorry I don’t know much yet. I just got diagnosed with diabetes. I think I was on the same type of insulin amount you were on too. I was getting too low for breakfast and going to high for dinner. I went to a class about diabetes and they put me on a ratio for carb counting. I am still trying to figure all this out but I get better results for this. I think it takes time to learn about what’s going on with all this. I hope this helps.
http://www.bddiabetes.com/us/main.aspx?cat=1&id=294 has a lot of info, i liked the “pattern management” but it’s a little complex and is based on good control. I even looked up how to inject >< just to remember how to do it properly. Fun site to look around. It made me not want to reuse needles as much… ADA says it’s okay if you need to save money, but they have a pic of what happens if you do! Good luck.
Domo
This is a very nice site.
google: laent autoimmune diabetes in adulthood…this may anwer alot of questions for you. once i read the description it all made sense to me.
Thanks!