There are good ones. They’re just not at the top of the pile.
I was going to say this is like me, but I guess just the second part is. They didn’t like my A1c, but I was not a great follower either. Not for most of it. I didn’t listen, didn’t try, didn’t care.
This HAS been me for the last couple of years though. Right… up…until… LAST FRIDAY. 
In another thread @bkh and @Thomas were helping me figure out my overnight settings, and Thomas said, that my settings looked like something I got from A Doctor. 
Couldn’t have nailed it better. In 5 days I’ve learned more about how all of this works than I did in 15 years. I didn’t know I was ready for this, but I am. So my story is like yours— minus the good listener/good diabetic part. It’s taken meeting people like you all for me to learn.
5 Likes
I think this is what I’d like to do. I said I was going to take a week off from the pump. Now I’m thinking 2. Then I guess I’m going to make myself put it back on… and go into auto.
I am finding myself agreeing with you on a lot of this. 5 days is certainly not enough to make any kind of conclusions, but it hasn’t been a mess. I do have to figure out my evenings. I would like to figure out how to be more aggressive with a high… I know the kinds of things I would do with a pump and don’t really know the equivalent yet with injections, but I don’t get a feeling that this management is more limited. Or more of a hassle.
I thought pumping was the only way to go. As @Eric says, this is an art. I can’t say I like having diabetes, but there has been a lot over these last few months to help me find things in it to enjoy. Assuming I can keep away from getting really sick with a high or low, I think I’m going to enjoy the experimenting.
3 Likes
But that’s the point. I did listen, did what they said, and still had high A1Cs.
They preached a one size fits all solution, mostly NPH+Reg, and my size didn’t fit their mold. So of course I must be doing something wrong.
I also came from the “Father Knows Best” days, and didn’t speak up.
Today, we have “Eric Knows Best … take it or leave it.”
4 Likes
Wait… not you, too… even YOU?
This IS some kind of cult… I knew it.
4 Likes
It’s not unusual to switch back and forth. I’ve been on pumps since 1980, and I’ve switched to MDI for a weekend, for a week, for a summer, for 12 years … Whatever fits with your requirements. There’s no good/bad, better/worse.
4 Likes
Marcus Welby and Ben Casey represented reality. The doctor was a pillar of the community (well, except @Eric’s community), respected and obeyed. But we also didn’t have books and the web to inform us. Diabetics didn’t gather in living rooms and share what techniques and insulins they were trying out for themselves. Unfortunately it can be a hard mindset to break out of. It took me years to get over the “Yes, Doctor” response. Now I challenge. It does not make me popular. I can imagine how many times they’ve written into my chart, “Patient unco-operative.”
4 Likes
I’m still trying to assimilate here. I don’t feel like I’ve reached the proper level of bad-assery in all things Diabetic yet, but I’m getting a lot closer since FUDding.
5 Likes
Nicky,
For me, trying to get decent BG\A1Cs is a bit of a challenge, like trying to master a game, sort of competing against my self. The reward in the short term is satisfaction, the reward in the long term is less complications.
@Scotteric, I have had such good control on MDI, I’ve never considered going on the pump. But, I was blessed to have been given a copy of Bernstein’s book by my father, right after diagnosis (at age 28). Due to this, I went to the meeting with the Endo and CDE already knowing the basics of how insulin and carbs work. However, it was several years before I started using Regular with the humalog, depending on meal composition. A slow learning process. This community would’ve helped a bunch, had it existed back then!
3 Likes
Yes, this is a cult of intelligent people who do not believe in accepting the status quo for their treatment. People who believe a non-diabetic lifestyle is worth working for. People who believe that doing what is best for their health requires them to do research and self-experimentation and testing, instead of blankly just doing what they are told or following what they read somewhere. A cult of people willing to fight for what is best for them, and also willing to fight for their FUD friends and help them in any way - often skirting the bounds of what insurance companies and the FDA and endocrinologists and pharmacies tell them, but never skirting the bounds of doing what is good and just and moral and compassionate for helping one another. A cult of people who do not believe that diabetes will stop them from doing anything they wish, and who believe that the best way to help others in that regard is to demonstrate it with a fervent pursuit of everything they want to do, and never ever letting the disease stop them. A place where, if you wish, you can remain a stranger who just learns, or you can choose to open up your heart and find acceptance and support for whatever struggle you have. A cult of people driven by their desire to do nothing but help a total stranger, knowing that one day it will make them fast friends.
Yes, this cult is called family.
11 Likes
Awesome!! 
1 Like
I earned myself an “uncooperative” (I actually think it was “combative”) because I insisted on doing insulin for my morning coffee. It was the top page of my medical file. Still bitter.
1 Like
I like your positive angle… I just realized it also doesn’t say much about me during those 15 years. 
But no matter how I’ve stumbled in here, I’m here now.
I’m in the same boat: I needed the knowledge and support I find here to find the confidence to get back to living my life. 
2 Likes
So then a cult… 
Eric, I have NEVER talked about a person’s aura, but if positive energy really is a thing, then you exude it. There’s a fire in your words and an integrity in your actions, and I understand why people are listening. I’m listening, too. You’re knowledgeable, patient, and kind of funny. And you appear to just want people to rise above their self-imposed limitations. Like others, I’m sure, I hadn’t realized how many I had. It’s what makes this place addictive, it’s why I choose to pour my heart out rather than to sit in quiet observation, and it’s why I welcome the change that is occurring inside of me.
Just no forest altars… or candles and white cloaks. Unless those things are necessary for diabetes enlightenment. Then, sure,I guess.
8 Likes
Then the exact same boat. 
1 Like
Yes, i injected myself with 12 units of novolog the other day— old Nicky… then didn’t die—new FUD Nicky.
You’re way ahead of me, but I’m at least headed in the right direction now.
1 Like
This is how I see this going. Take little breaks, switch for a couple of years when I hate my pump… I can see the possibilities. 
@mike_g and @Scotteric, I now am a proud owner of a bottle of Novolin R. I’m too sick to be messing with anything now, but I was hoping to try it out tomorrow. I’ll start out small but any thoughts or warnings or anything?
2 Likes
For me, I make a baseline assumption that it has equal power, unit for unit, with humalog.
I use it in two ways, really: 1. For slow digesting meals and 2. For protein component of meals, particularly if greater than normal amount of protein is eaten .
An example of slow digesting meal for me is hearty chili con carne with kidney beans and fatty meat (browned hamburger with fat retained in the sauce). For years, I’d dose humalog based in the carb count, only to be low BG within an hour of meal, and high BG several hours after the meal. For a case like this, I’d use regular as a substitute for all calculated humalog.
An example of the second case:. Everyday my breakfast is about 1000 calories. This usually includes about 65 g fat, 40 g carb, and 60 g protein…6 eggs, maybe a pint of milk, an apple, peanut butter, etc. For this, I usually split up the calculated dose 50/50 or 60/40: humalog to regular. This is due to the relatively high fat and protein, and lower carbs than other meals. If I took all humalog for this meal (and I did this for quite a while), I’d have problems like those I described above.
One drawback to regular is the duration of action might be 4-6 hours or more, depending on dose size, injection location, and other factors. For supper meals, especially late ones, I try to keep fat content of meals lower, and use only humalog due to shorter duration… Don’t like to go to bed with much IOB.
4 Likes