I’m still in the process of figuring out my I:C ratio as I only started bolusing on 5/13. It’s starting to look like maybe 1:10 for breakfast, 1:15 for lunch and 1:19 for dinner. I haven’t figured out if the breakfast is lower because I eat bread which is a high GI or just because different times of day are different. I’m pretty insulin sensitive and I don’t think I have any resistance.
Zoe…maybe because your insulin (basal) is working harder in afternoon and eve, like mine does!
I’ve tried metformin, with no luck, but none of the other “T2” drugs. Right now my carb ratio varies from 1:5 to 1:7 depending on the time of day. Before the symlin, my ratio’s were at 1:3 and I was still being in the 250-300 range at 2hr post. There were times when my bolus wizard wanted me to bolus more than the 25u max my pump would allow. It was very frustrating, luckily there is a thin line between perseverance and stupidity and I tend to cross that line alot… lol.
I would also think that resistance and allergy would be two different things. It was probably something else in the mix, as opposed to the insulin itself, that I was having issues with. I only noticed when infusing using the same site for a couple of days. Rotating sites with MDI didn’t present that problem, but I wonder if being allergic to it didn’t also effect the absorption
1u:25g
all the time!
For me it’s because my breakfast ratio is higher because my DP is fairly strong… if I eat a lot or a little, it doesn’t matter, I still need more insulin than “normal” to cover it.
Dear Scott.
Wow the symlin does seem to have a real beneficial effect. I also beleive than injecting more and more insulin is a loosing proposition. I would be nice if there was an effective drug to reduce the insulin resistance. Richard on this site has some success with adding avandia to the insulin. I tried avandia without insulin and it did nothing but no detectable harm except to the pocket book.
I will try to contact Health canada and see how many more years in their approval of symlin. Is it very expensive? Metformin is dirt cheap and does some good but I can’t take it for more than 3 weeks without being zombied.
I wonder if MDI are as good if not better than a continuous injection from a pump in the case of insulin resistance. If you read wiki re insulin oscillations it seems that an oscillating insulin supply is needed to minimize saturating the insulin receptors. There is probably no way to mimic the fast oscillations because where we inject. But the slower ones could be mimicked. I wonder what would happen if it is possible to program the pump to deliver a one shot per hour of basal insulin instead of a continuous flow? Would this help the resistance?
Unless you have a TON of scar tissue, insulin is usually better absorbed in the abdomen. Have you considered trying to find real estate there to inject?
8–10 g carb./1 unit for breakfast
12-15 g carb./1 unit at other times
When I exercise, I definitely have to go for the higher number of carbs/unit to avoid lows and also lower my basal rate by 20% for 4 hours after–and that’s not even vigorous exercise, just elliptical machine or walking for 30 minutes.
Sometimes, I think the standard guidelines (like 15 g carb./1 unit bolusing, 15 g of glucose to treat a low) are more misleading than helpful. Honestly, you have to to a lot of living and testing to figure out what’s right for you. And then (here’s where I start to sound old and cranky), the body’s natural aging process throws things out of whack and ya gotta re-figure it all over again.
Breakfast - 1u/5grams of carbs; lunch and dinner - 1u/10grams carbs
Correction Bolus - 1u for every 20 I am over my target of 100
Hey bud
The biggest issue it turns out I had with MDI was the lantus I took. I have 4 different basal rates (about to add a 5th I think). I have 2 rates that are nearly 3x what the other two are, a pump is the only thing that will allow me to do that.
It would possible to program the pump for a single hourly delivery (if the manufacturer’s would), but would the volume of insulin be any different?
You might check with the folks at Symlin about Canadian approval… they’d probably give you a quicker answer, don’t know if it would be any better tho… Symlin is very pricey. 3 full meals a day (which I rarely eats) is over $500US monthly full price
Dear scott.
Wow that is quite complex so many different basals.
Symlin is very expensive but beats death by obesity.
10g / 1 unit of novolog
1 unit of novolog for every 40 I am over my target of 120-130