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Originally Posted by Pitzi Something that has always been puzzling me over the 10-odd years since I was diagnosed is the fact that my diabetes is ever changing. There are some periods of my life that I have to reduce the insulin dosage by a lot, to avoid going too low, it almost seems as either my body produces a bity of insulin, or for some reasons itb doesnt need that much insulin. Over these periods I eat like a pig, and it doesnt affect my BG levels much. I always put up a bit of weight and generally look good, but I have to be careful of my insulin dosage, 1 single unit too much and i go hypo very easily when I am in this phase.
Then I get phases where my body needs so much more insulin, and I have to increase the dosage frighteningly to maintain constant levels, and I have to reduce my food intake. Eating the same portion of food as the week before will send my BG rocketing, whilst just a week back it barely blipped on the radar screen. I normally tend to lose a bit of weight during these periods and don't feel too great physically.
We are not talking of different environments or health states either, I live a pretty stable life, with a similar daily diet and a pretty stable stress levels as well.
I would like to know why is this? Sometimes I feel as though my body is healing itself, only for something to trigger the need for increased treatment levels for periods of up to a month, until I go back to my "mini-honeymoon" as I like to call it.
If I keep doing my daily exercise routine without slacking off too much, I can prolong the "mini-honeymoon" sometimes.
Funny how this condition displays in different ways in different people. |
I haven't had it long enough to see that pattern. I know when I was on Lantus there was a period when 6.5 units seemed to be working fine (although that may just be because I wasn't doing good pre-prandial readings), but then 9 units wouldn't work at all.
Then I switched to Levemir and settled at a split dose of 14 units and that was working well. Then I needed to go up to 16 units, and now I'm back down to 14. All within a couple months.
During this time, my bolus doses haven't varied much however.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
Weight loss or gain will affect insulin requirements.
Increased/decreased activity will affect insulin requirements.
Stress affects BG and therefore insulin requirements.
Which essentially is what Deus said.
