Bountyman

Originally Posted by Bountyman

First, a little back story. Grab a beer (lite).

When first diagnosed (July 2009) I was given a script for Lantus (among other medications)...to be taken at bedtime. I've never been a needle fan...as I assume no one else is unless they're shooting heroin into their jugular. Going from the syringe to the Solostar^® pen and a BD 5mm 31G needle made it a walk in the park. Problem was...that waiting for the clock to strike 'bedtime' was distracting. It was like sitting in a dentist's office waiting for your turn. It was too anticipative. I would rather get up in the morning, hit the coffee machine switch, sit down and do it all; take a fasting blood glucose test and inject my basal insulin...then it's breakfast time and a few pills. I mean, it's a 24-hour insulin, right? What could go wrong? What went wrong is my presumption that it had a flat curve (in me). Doesn't seem it does. Although it works great as a basal insulin I started to get night sweats in [just] my chest area. To the point that I was running out of t-shirts to change a lot sooner than planned.

I decided to experiment...as I'm prone to do...and started adjusting my injection times. First, just after dinner, around 5 PM...for 7 days. No change. Next, 6 PM...with no change. Then 7 o'clock, then 8 o'clock, then 9 o'clock...and finally 10 o'clock. After 3 days at 10 o'clock, the night sweats stopped. Which is kind of (ha ha) funny...as 3 years ago that time of the day was evident on my prescription, 25 units at bedtime. My FBG also dropped to under 100 mg/dL. Sheesh...I hate it when the doctor's right. Being the less-medication-the-better kind of guy...I've dropped the volume from 25 units to 18 units over time. Nowadays, anything over 18 units puts weight on me...and nobody really takes to a fat curmudgeon.

As an addendum here, when I'd wake up all sweaty...I'd take a blood glucose reading and it was usually around 110mg/dL, not really what I'd consider hypo' or hyperglycemic...so I never attributed the sweats to when I injected my basal insulin. I was wrong. I guess I could have asked the nurse who's replaced my PA-C at the doctor's office about this (the night sweats), but I have zero faith in this guy's opinion. I'm far from impressed with the medical community as of late. With Medicare and the small town I live close to...it seems we attract those that graduated close to the bottom of their class.