Hi Everyone! I am a type on diabetic for the past 20 years. I was diagnosed at the age of 4. I currently use Lantus 23 units at bed time. I have a I:C ratio of 1:10 and I take 1500 mg Metformin at dinner ever night. My endo just prescribed me Symlin and I am going to start taking it on Monday in hopes for better blood glucose control and weight loss. Can anyone give me their input on this or what to expect?
I've heard an enormous range of responses to Symlin including: It helped my blood sugar spikes, it helped me take significantly less insulin, it helped me lose weight to I can't tolerate it due to side effects, it did nothing for my blood sugar spikes, it didn't help me lose weight.
What seems to be extremely common as that taking Symlin is nearly as complicated as taking insulin at least at first. There are a lot of variables such as the right dose, how much to reduce your insulin and how to alter timing (though I've forgotten the details of that). My own personal experience was that I was taking it to lose weight or at least stop gaining rather than to reduce spikes. It took me a very long time to figure out how to take it and once I did I gave it a couple months experiment to see if it would help. The good news is it did allow me to reduce my insulin use significantly. The bad news is I didn't lose an ounce. (I've since halved my carb intake and am losing weight slowly but steadily, a lot easier!).
I would be surprised if your endo were expert on all the variables of using Symlin, because nobody seems to be! I would start where he suggests and then go with trial and error from there. I encourage you to join the Symlin group on here. I learned a fair amount there and also discussed my own experience with dosing in detail.
I have not used symlin, but to help reduce spikes after meals here are 3 things that worked for me.
Pre-bolus, and wait 15-20 minutes before eating. (Experiment to see what works for you, as it also depends on what type of insulin)
Eat salad/low carb veggies first.
Avoid foods that repeatedly result in a spike. For me, the list includes cereals, pasta, rice, white bread etc. Some refer to this a 'eat to your meter'.