Re: Insulin - A Voice for Choice

willbill wrote:
percy wrote:


I fully intend to die either with a working pancreas or with an insulin pump stuck to me somewhere.

Should that option fail me, I have a year's supply of Novolin UL that will give me the time I need. My endo is pretty malleable, but when we discussed beef lente the last time, 5 or more years ago, she flatly refused.


the one thing i've learned about docs, even great ones
(i've had 3 great ones), is that you have to let them
know that you consider yourself to be an equal part
of the team. odds are that if i'd ever expressed that
to my 1st great doc, that he and i would have parted ways

but then again, maybe not... anyhow, i never
challenged him, except once... when i'd
returned from a 7 week adventure in South America
in late '76, jan.'77

it took maybe two months after being back for the
jaundice to show up (yellow eyes!), and i went into
emergency at his hospital in L.A. and was diagnosed
with infectious hepatitis (the kind you get from
eating tainted food)

they (hospital and my doc) put me under quarantine

but i left the hospital after a day without permission

when i returned 6 hours later, i thought he'd tell
me off and walk out coz his long time attitude with
me had always been: "you *will* do what i say, or i'll
no longer be your doc"

but he didn't do that

he glowered but did not disown me

i still remember the performance. :)

anyhow, i no longer have a qualm about
telling even a great doc off, and making
it clear to them that if they won't do
something that i consider important,
like writing a letter that i need for
getting beef insulin, that i'll find
a doc who will

fwiw, i've had two decent (but not great)
docs since becoming hypothyroid in late '01,
early '02. and up front i made it clear
to both of them that i wanted Armour thyroid
in my med routine

only the 1st one asked "why"

but both let me do it (of course, i was already
doing it when i got to my current/2nd doc)


My options end there until I can purchase it through my pharmacy.


are you really so tied to this doc?

i mean, why?

The nature of the public system. There are 2 endos in my town and they're in practice together. My only other option is my GP.





I want the choice. If I have to go back on basal injections, I want to choose the one I feel will be best for me *for the rest of my life*. My reasoning is this: If I want tight control like I have now with my pump, I can't run the risk of hypo unawareness returning. I can't deal with that. I'd gladly trade lipodystrophy and Mad Cow risk for retaining hypo awareness. I don't want to trade bg control.


afaik, all synthetic insulins have beef product
in their production process

meaning that they all have some risk of mad cow

re lipodystrophy, my hunch is that it was more
due to the early huge impurities in insulin
(i.e. prior to 1980)

I agree 100 percent. These are the arguments used by the detractors.


pork is pretty good insulin

the only things it lacks are 1) beef's
longer duration (some consider a 12 hour
action a minus for a meal insulin, whereas
i consider it a plus) and 2) beef's better
hypo awareness

since i still have half decent hypo awareness,
the main attractions with beef are 1) the
outstanding duration of beef-UL (Lente is
70% UL and best thought of as taking two
separate shots of 70% UL and 30% SL),
and 2) the fact that beef-R's 12 hour
duration permits easily shifting to using
it 3x by itself when it is inconvenient
to carry a vial of Lente

I did nothing but Novolog for 27 hours with no catastrophes.
Anything is usable if you know the action.

at this point i've actually done this about
15 days and find it to be a great convenience,
which is one key reason why it is my preferred
shirt pocket insulin

my points were that you have very easy
access to pork insulin, and could use it
in your pump as i outlined to Elizabeth

the main thing i get from both beef
and pork insulin is that i feel better

and that is no small thing for me

the main question is if it will actually
result in you feeling better

in my experience, that is worth trying
for at least 6 months (it took about
10 weeks for it to show up for me)

one key attraction of that approach
is that it forces you to carry syringes
loaded with your fast meal insulin,
which gives you real backup for
any kind of pump failure

The only backup I need is a syringe and a blood test kit.


trust me, i went through one pump failure,
and it was both scary and an eye opening
experience

if i ever pump again, i will *always*
also carry 30u syringes that are preloaded
with a meal insulin

Even if the cartridge is dry, there's still 18 units in the tubing that's easy to suck out. Live dangerously!



bill t1 since '57, ex 8-yr pumper


p.s.

you end messages with "vicki"

yet use a handle of "percy"

why?

are you the Canadian vicki that
once wasn't sure if you are a t2
or a t1?

if yes, why did you think that
you might be a t2?



percy is the name of my Animas IR1200 pump.

Yes, I'm that Canadian. I was diagnosed T2a (thin) but put on insulin from the start. I argued for a couple of years for a c-peptide. After 4 1/2 years on the pin and a failed 7 months on Avandia, I finally got a c-peptide test. Endogenous insulin >0.01 "unmeasurable".

I found out much later that the c-peptide test can only be requested if there is ketones. I never threw a ketone at diagnosis and it never occurred to me to put myself into DKA afterwards. Again, the nature of the public system.
I don't blame my endo at all, she works within the system.

Needless to say, she now now leaves everything pretty much up to me. I have it made now I'm pumping and the hypo unawareness is pretty much gone.

I'm a big fan of rapid insulin. I'm not going to change that.
Now because UL is gone I have NPH, Lantus or Levemir for basal. I was overdosed on human NPH for years, so no to that. Lantus just gives me the creeps and my endo knows it. So, it's pork NPH or Levemir. 2x pork would be more manageable than 2x human NPH for me, IMO. Levemir is 2x as well, according to reports here and by my endo. Beef would be best as it is flatter and is 1x.

I really don't feel any pressure, now that I have a pump, Even if I lose the excellent insurance coverage I have through my husband, I can still get supplies covered under the plan at my work or the provincial plan (but no new pump coverage).

Vicki
.

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    ... My endo is pretty malleable, but when we discussed beef lente the last time, 5 or more years ago, she flatly refused. ... If I want tight control like I have now with my pump, I can't run the risk of hypo unawareness returning. ... I'd gladly trade lipodystrophy and Mad Cow risk for retaining hypo awareness. ... due to the early huge impurities in insulin ...
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  • Pumping with the Deltec CoZmore system
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