My endocrinologist got back to me today. I sent her my blood sugar readings for the past two weeks a few days ago. Based on the numbers, she decided to increase my insulin dosage again. The daily shot of Toujeo has gone up from 13 units to 18 units, and she added one unit to the baseline Humalog dosage from 5 units to 6 units. Even though my blood sugar is trending lower, it is still not consistently below the magic 130 number.
If you compare this to the previous post, the data points do appear lower, but not enough. I copied the old chart below for easier comparison:
I was hoping the blood sugar situation would improve over time, but it appears I may need insulin for the rest of my life. It does not look like my anti-rejection medications will be reduced further, so any blood sugar effects will remain. Also, maybe my type II diabetes has gotten worse during the past five years, but it was masked by the effect of dialysis on blood sugar levels. Now that I have a working kidney, old problems are becoming more noticeable again.
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Another frustrating part of diabetes is the number of lancet finger-pricks needed for blood sugar tests. I do three or four tests daily, and since I am right-handed, almost all the blood is coming from my left hard fingers. It is hard to take a photo with the iPhone due to the focusing distance, but you can see a lot of tiny block dots on my ring finger:
The way around this is either not test, or getting a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) solution. Two of my cousins are using the FreeStyle Libre system, and they really like it. It does contain a sensor will a spike that you have to insert in your arm for the duration. When I was taking blood sugar readings once a day, it was not worth it. Now that I need to monitor it up to four times a day, maybe it is time to reconsider.
Nice PR video. It is painfully obvious Abbott wants to avoid showing patients the huge ass needle on the back of the sensor patch. Maybe you will not feel it after getting used to it, but I would think the needle will hurt for some time. Not as big as dialysis needles, but not tiny like glucose meter lancets or insulin needles.
Life with chronic diseases 