Posts Tagged ‘diabetic’

Lantis vs. NPH

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

When I was taking NPH, I would take 30 units in the morning, 30 units at lunch, 30 units at dinner time and 60 units when I went to bed. That’s 150 units a day of NPH. The NPH was just for the basal rate, and I then would take boluses of Humalog at each meal to cover the food I ate. At that time, I was also taking 1 unit of insulin for each 2 grams of carbs I was eating, so a cup of milk, which is about 12 cabs, would need 6 units of insulin to control the rise in blood sugar.

Over the last few years, I’ve increased my muscle mass, decreased my carb intake and actually had my body become more sensitive to insulin. I don’t weigh any less than I did, but my body seams to be working better. I now take 45 units of Lantis per day and am down to 1 unit of Humalog per 4 carbs. When I started with Lantis, it took more than 60 units per day to maintain an even blood sugar, without eating of course, for 24 hours. I can now do with 35-40 units on days when I ski, and 45-50 on normal days.

My insulin pump is now set to deliver around 42 units of Humalog in a 24 hour period, so the Lantis is pretty close. I don’t like to use the pump very much though, because I still have to put 300 units of insulin into the same hole over 3 days, and that still gives you really nasty infections.

What types of insulin are the rest of you using?

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Posted in Insulin Information | 2 Comments »

Diabetic Infection Care Secrets

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

This is going to raise some eyebrows in the medical community, but I have a way to get those nasty infection on your feet and legs to go away. Sure, it works best when the Dr. is also pumping you full of antibiotics, and your blood sugars are under control, but this method has worked for me for everything from leg infections to sinus infections.

When I get an open wound, or infection on my body, I take a bandaid and squirt a bunch of humalog, fast acting insulin, on it. This acts like a topical agent to reduce the blood glucose levels at that spot, and the infection goes away in a day instead of a week. I switch the bandaid out 3 times a day, so that it stays moist with the insulin. I’ve gone so far as to buy a mister, like the ones that the health food stores sell so that you can spray caloidal silver up your nose, so that I can mist insulin into my sinuses when I have a sinus infection.

I’ve talked to a lot of Dr’s over the years, and a couple of guys who were going into medical research, but no one has been interested in building me a thick, topical solution, kind of like Bag Balm, with insulin suspended in it, for diabetic wound care. I think it would work awesome and make some company billions of dollars (I want a cut, it’s my idea).

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Posted in Wound Care | 3 Comments »