How does some insulin production change things with a T1?

Type 1 and LADA
21

After my diagnosis (at age 9) my honeymoon lasted all of three months. It was probably very weak compared to what people with LADA get, as I was never able to stop taking insulin, but I was able to lower the dose and had more lows during that period. I still had highs and lows on a regular basis during those months, but compared to after the honeymoon ended, things were very stable. (This was back in R and NPH days, so "stable" is relative.)

All Type 1s have fluctuations in their blood sugar ... even if they were caused partly by a bit of insulin production, that same insulin production can increase during high BG and decrease during low BG, which I think would act as an overall buffer. I've sometimes wondered if a tiny bit of insulin production is one of the factors that accounts for the fact that some Type 1s have relatively stable blood sugars while others have blood sugars that have wide and/or rapid changes.

22

If the body's insulin production is stable and consistent then it would work that way, but generally those cells are probably going in and out of burnout since few of us are keeping our BG steady at 84 for any regular period of time. So the production is inconsistent and a bit random. Helps in ways, but might hurt in others.

With LADA if they get diagnosed early, they should have a nice long honeymoon period, but most of us are first diagnosed as T2 until pretty late in the game. By the time I was able to get insulin I had desperately needed it for 6 months (high BG taking metformin and eating low carb). Then I initially got on long acting. Then when short acting was clearly needed I got on that, and then over a year later I got a T1 diagnosis.