I’m currently “honeymooning”. Just wondering if anyone else went through or is going through this stage. How long did it last? What did you do to prolong it, and did it make your life easier or more frustrating?
chloe,
i am coming up on my second year this september, and the doctors and i are fairly sure i am still honeymooning. it’s hard… half of me loves it because i require little insulin, but the other part of me kind of is ready for it to end, because my sugar is really unpredictable and changes at different times of the month and can shoot low just due to a couple extra tenths of a unit.
for some reason, i have always thought that when my body finished honeymooning, it would just stop abruptly one day, but i’ve noticed that it’s more gradual. over the past year, my insulin requirements have increased some, and i used to be able to have snacks of up to 15-20 g carb without having to take any insulin. now i bolus for everything i eat, for the most part.
laura
That’s currently how my sugars are behaving. They are very unpredictable. Running very high for a few days and almost flat on others.It almost makes it feel as if they will stay that way. Sometimes when they seem to be incredibly stable for a few days, I’ll stop the insulin just to see what happens. Unfortunately everytime I’ve done that my sugars start running high consistently, and I wind up with a higher dosage from the doc. Very sneaky…
Chloe
i know! sometimes i feel like the honeymoon can be completely frustrating because when so little insulin is required, it’s tempting to think, “well maybe i don’t really have this…” those honeymooning sugars are incredibly sneaky. right now, one unit of insulin can decrease my sugar by 125 points… craziness!
I honeymooned for almost two years, diagnosed as a child. I would have to ask my mom to find out exactly when I stopped honeymooning, but I know that my doctors at Joslin were a little surprised that I took that long to taper off.
Now I’m using all aftermarket insulin. 
(Any mechanics in the house?)
My son is type 1 (he’s 22 months old). His honeymoon period only lasted 6 weeks. It was kind of a relief because during the honeymoon he had tons of lows, I didn’t sleep much. I had to test him a lot more often, I found it more restricting if we wanted to get out since I live near a large city and traffic is a nightmare, I was always afraid he’d go low and I wouldn’t be able to pull over.
I guess I am also still in the honeymoon phase in that I have quite a bit of my own insulin left. But it doesn’t seem to kick in till about 45 minutes after I eat so I get a huge swing if I eat more than about 12 grams of carb at a sitting without an injection. I’m still getting fasting BGs of about 85 so I can have a 200 point swing in just an hour. (85-180-75) I read somewhere that the progression with adults is much slower than with Type 1 kids and I’m wondering if it might be possible to preserve some beta cell function for longer if we take care of our blood sugar levels. Dr. Bernstein writes about this, saying that you can prolong the honeymoon indefinitely if you keep BG in the normal range. He uses the extreme low carb diet but I can’t manage that as I am losing too much weight. I only need 2-3 units of Novolog with meals as I am still doing pretty low carb food. I’m nervous about eating more and using more insulin as I have sometimes gone down to 50 and other times up to 160 so it is still unpredictable.
Libby
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes January of this year and shortly after I started honeymooning. I had no idea what was going on with my body for a while until I figured out on my own that I was honeymooning. I started off with 12 units of long acting a day and over a period of a month I went down to 1 unit. I take fast acting at different times of the month, based on my menstral cycle. I eat low carb for most of the day so I can prolong this honeymoon phase but also because I find it easier to manage things if I don’t need to take fast acting.
It has it’s ups and downs. I find I have to adjust my insulin from one week to the other. I wish it could be a bit more consistent. I’ve been honeymooning for 8 months now with no signs of it ending anytime soon. Overall I would like this phase to last as long as possible, despite the inconsistencies.
I was diagnosed 1 year ago with 1.5 and so far so good. I am doing what I can to eat well and exercise. I am taking oral meds before I eat and injecting 11 units of Lantus at night. I know my day is coming but so far, I have not noticed any changes in my meds in less I change my exercise. That drastically affects my need for meds… actually by double if I do not exercise for a week or more. I am a runner and usually run 3 or 4 times a week for 3 miles. On the weekends I sometimes get up to 6 or 8 depending on my family schedule… 
My endo actually told me that exercise was more important that what I ate. I have taken that to heart but I still try to eat well and develop good habits because we will have enough on our plates when our honeymoon is over. Also my endo said that I may not become type one for a number of years… who knows right??
Not sure if the honeymoon is ending but I was on 1 unit of slow acting for several months and just a couple of days ago I changed to 2 units. Yesterday I ate something that was pretty high carb and I took my 2 units of fast acting for the high carb meal. The meal was 65 carbs. Two hours later I checked my sugar and it was at 288!! My sugars are usually in a good way so that was so out of the ordinary. I also tend to eat more low carb. I have not seem those kind of numbers since I was in the hospital. Over all I take great care of myself and my A1C is 6.3%. Lately I’ve been feeling dizzy and just feeling badly. I wonder if my honeymoon is ending…has anyone ever felt this way with a honeymoon? I made an apt. with my family Dr. and I will try to get in to see my Endo as soon as they will see me.
I’m going through the same thing! Often 2 units of insulin is too much, but 1 unit is just right. When I got out of hospital I was taking 28 units or so, and now I’m on none (or when I eat badly, 1 or 2). It is very frustrating. I was in denial for quite a long time - but I ate some KFC with fries and that proved to me that I’m diabetic.