Timing effects of insulin with Symlin?

Treatment Oral Medications and non-insulin injectables
1

I’ve been on Symlin over a year. My first 3 months on it were awesome and then I actually started having worse control with it: my post prandial blood sugars are usually really good an hour or so after eating but then they often spike way up 2-3 hours later. It seems like I really just traded the timing of a glucose spike from right after eating to a few hours later.
The other issue I have is that I often get low blood sugar if I take my insulin too soon after eating. For a while I would test every 30 minutes until my blood sugar would get over 100 and then inject my novalog. Often times I was taking insulin an hour or two AFTER my meal and that just gets too hard to keep track of!
Any thoughts or tips? I’d really like to make Symlin work for me but am having a hard time with high glucose a few hours later and low blood sugar right after I’ve eaten.
Thanks!

2

Hi Kaerli,

I have been on Symlin for about 4 years now (started when it was still in clinical trials) and I’m wondering if you have ever considered going on the pump? I understand exactly what you are saying about waiting until your insulin was over 100 and then injecting – sometimes I wait to give my bolus dose like that, especially if I am low, but most of the time I just use either a square wave or a dual wave bolus, which IMO is one of the best things about the pump. This lets you absorb the insulin over a period of time and then not worry about getting it all at once.

3

Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the info. I actually have stopped using novalog with meals and instead am using regular insulin (old school!) after I eat which works more slowly and has helped me avoid many of the lows right after eating. So now I just use novalog for corrections if I’m high. I did try a pump a few years ago but honestly hated it. I know it was purely psychological but I felt inhibited having something attached to me and I thought the catheter hurt WAY more than taking multiple shots. So for now I’m on a million shots but I don’t really mind. If you have any other insight about Symlin, I’m all ears. Thanks!