Type 1

Hi everyone, ok here I go again (I feel like I've dropped comments in most of the forum's areas) I guess I'm good for a rant - well maybe the odd explosion. Anyway just wanted to say that like "Rob65" I've been Type 1 for 34 years (no doubt Rob and I have many joint memories of glass syringes!). I'm sure there are lots of us "oldie" Type 1's out there (laughing). I'll just add that I'm one of those diabetics that didn't get on very well with Human Insulin, and eventually after 20 years (thank goodness) managed to get off the stuff and back on to animal insulin - thank goodness for pigs - I'll never have a bad word said about them!!!!

I am coming up to my second anniversary as a Type 1 so I am still very much a novice. I didn't even know ther were different types of Insulin and that some diabetics had problems with human insulin. I am still pumping my veins with the same stuff they gave me on day 1 and have I really have no idea what else there is on the market and if it would be better for me. I am pleased you have found something that suits you.

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the Diabetic Club, which tends to be one medicine suits all and you all have to take it! Strange how different and independent we all are in real life.

There are so many different types of Insulin (I'm sure they develop a new one every year). Animal insulin is becoming a bit of a needle in a haystack, there is only one company makes it now, so I am trying to be active in the support diabetics who need animal insulin field.

Its fantastic for me, I got my life back - what more can I say

Hello to everyone,
I'm so glad 'human' insulin has been mentioned. I remember when it first came on the market !!! I was told that I had no option, animal was out and human was in......so I took it. Felt a bit odd but thought I'd give it time.

After about three months I had the most horrendous hypo. I won't go into details but I KNEW that my husband was trying to get me into that house to murder me. I know it sounds silly. I was thowing my pot plants about and rolling all over the floor. It was appalling !!

When it was over, (due to my husband) I rang the hospital to find a doctor who knew about diabetis (this was 9pm) and was willing to talk to me. He said "well, you can always go back to animal" I couldn't believe it.

Went the next day without an appointment, made a fuss and came away with a new prescription for animal insulin.

It was just too terrible. If animal insulin goes off the market then I will die of diabetis as I will not take the so-called human stuff again.

Hi Buffy, wow you did great getting such a fast "off" response! Like I say it took me 20 years. The hypo's were horrendous, I could beat my husband to a pulp I was so strong, when having a hypo, the other side effects were just too many to manage - and I'd moan all night! Anyway I eventually went to my doctors, sat down and said "I am not taking another human insulin shot ever".
The doctor said I would die - I said fine. Got switched to animal - brilliant, fantastic. Like you Buffy, I will never ever, ever go back on anything human again. I'm prepared to die first. Most Type 1's are not advised there is an alternative to the human stuff, and that's just wrong. Thankfully the press picked up on the cases where diabetics had died on human stuff, and that helped spur me on to fight, the IDDT were a great help. I'd advise any Type 1's who thought they may be having problems to go check out the insulin they are on.

Hi Junglegirl,
You say you took the human stuff for twenty years......were you put on it from day one then? I was on animal insulin from the beginning until I was told that it was finished and I had to go on the human sort. I cannot imagine how you coped !!! What made you finally able to change over?

I had to go into hospital once for something entirelly different. Took my own equipment but was told I couldn't use it as I was having an operation so it would be fixed into my arm. A few days into recovery I asked what insulin was going into me. The answer was, "well, ordinary stuff" I wanted to know if it was animal or human. The poor nurse didn't have a clue.

When the doctor came round I asked him and he said it was human as they didn't have anything else. Remember, this was a hospital !!!!

The mind boggles.

Hi Buffy,

Ohhhhh no, I wasn't put on it when I started being diabetic, I was initially put on pork insulin, back in 1975 when I was diagnosed. They switched me en mass with everyone else when human insulin hit the market, told us that animal was being discontinued. Can't remember the dates exactly but it was before my son was born and he is 25 now. Within an hour of taking my first human insulin jab I knew I was in trouble. My hypo was so debilitating that my GP at the time thought I had suffered a stroke. I knew it was the insulin - from that point on I had a struggle - no one would listen to me.
Needless to say once I got of it, that was it, I will no longer take anything the doctor gives me until I have checked it out myself, so I don't take aspirin and ditched statins after 4 weeks because of the side effects. I just don't trust the medical profession anymore to medicate me.
I've only been in hospital once since I was switched back on to animal for an operation, the surgeon said I was fine to take a small dose in the morning, go straight into the hospital and he did the surgery without a glucose drip or anything. I took my own stuff (this seems the norm now) looked after the diabetes myself without any intervention from anyone. Though the nurses, bless them, kept coming to me with a glucose drip and intravenous insulin - none of which was scripted to me on the medical notes - its just what happens - said one nurse! Not to me I said.
I wish I had told my GP 20 years ago that I would rather die than take that stuff again - it ruined my life for 20 years - I wouldn't wish what happened to me on anyone.
Within 2 days of coming off human insulin, everything changed, I was back to how I was, hypo warnings came back, mood swings stopped, depression stopped, aggressiveness stopped - you couldn't believe I was the same person! I just love pigs!!!!!!

Sorry guys, first time on here just signed up and have been reading posts and a lot of people talk about hypo's like fits, what exactly does hypo mean?

Dont scare me too much ive only been a Type 1 diabetic since Jan 1st this year.

Foreehl,

You are lucky to have been Type 1 for this many months and not had a hypo yet! (I hope you are not running your sugar levels too high!)

A hypo is when your blood sugar goes too low, maybe because of too much insulin, certain type of food, exercise, etc.

People have different warnings of a hypo and also react differently. I have never had a fit (touch wood!) but I get very shaky and hot.

The diabetes website has lots of good information;
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Complications/Hypoglycaemia/?gclid=CM3A3L_M-6kCFcRO4QodwFVaWA

I have had some Hypo's beaniequeenie,

I too get the shakes or I get very hot and irritable when I get low BS. I have been having some good BS levels lately between 95 & 120. Most of the time i feel like im rolling the marble on a roulette table when I check my BS never know what im gonna get. I think if I keep my BS under 200 im good, having a 1500bs when i was diagnosed. I know the dr wants it between 90 & 120 and I will continue to try but counting every carb is a pain in my A$$, and I love to snack. No I am not overweight i am 6.5' and around 200lbs, I could use a little fat for the injections, lol. I guess im just still adjusting to my new life style.

Foreehl wrote:I have had some Hypo's beaniequeenie,

I too get the shakes or I get very hot and irritable when I get low BS. I have been having some good BS levels lately between 95 & 120. Most of the time i feel like im rolling the marble on a roulette table when I check my BS never know what im gonna get. I think if I keep my BS under 200 im good, having a 1500bs when i was diagnosed. I know the dr wants it between 90 & 120 and I will continue to try but counting every carb is a pain in my A$$, and I love to snack. No I am not overweight i am 6.5' and around 200lbs, I could use a little fat for the injections, lol. I guess im just still adjusting to my new life style.

Must be different here than there Foreehl. In uk ideal bs readings are between 4 and 7. Below 4 is hypo, but 3.6 just means you need to eat, under 3.6 needs glucose before food. Must be different monitors in US than UK.