Since April of this year I have been having trouble with insulin antibodies. I have been hospitalized in the ICU 4 times since then and have been on daily steroids.
My question is, does anyone else have this problem? If so did it go away, if so how long was it a problem? And lastly, what sort of treatment were you on?
I’m not sure what you mean - how do insulin antibodies give you trouble?
Do you mean that you’re a LADA diabetic still honeymooning?
Are you allergic to the exogenous insulin? I’ve heard that people have had insulin allergies, but I thought that was mostly with animal insulins.
I do not have this problem, but I read up on it, and what I read was that it should calm down after about a year. But during that year you may need to use very high doses of insulin to get control.
So sorry you have to go through this!
I actually am producing antibodies to insulin. So sometimes my insulin dosage binds to the antibodies and my sugars go through the roof, usually for a week or so. Then at some point the antibodies release the insulin and I am stuck with continuous lows for 3 days to a week. When this happens I am refractive to glucagon and need to be on continuous juice drinks and/or IV dextrose. It’s bad enough that I can have 5 or 6 hypotonics in a day.
I am luckily used to lows because of Gastroparesis. I have been denied for the CGMS twice now and we are diligently appealing the decisions. I am just so tired. I want a day of nice normal numbers. With GP I was able to keep my A1c below 7.8, now since this has started I am at 8.9. This frightens me considering all the lows I have. I guess I was just hoping someone else out there had gone through. Thanks for the encouragement.
I read about this in “Type 1 Diabetes” by Ragnar Hanas. Basically the antibodies turn short-acting insulin into something that works like Levemir, but unpredictably. He recommended trying an insulin pump because the constant supply of short-acting insulin is supposed to help stop the antibodies from forming. I don’t have any personal experience with it, though.
I have been on a pump for over 4 years.