Welcome, introduce yourself here!

Also note, if you know them well enough, the followers can set their own alarms. i.e. at times I only have an urgent low alarm on my son, so I don’t get alarms if he is high or just regular low.

Oh Wow! I remember reading about the Glucowatch and wanting one so badly!! I think I’m glad now that it was out of reach financially.

I don’t know of any Illinois high risk pool but will investigate. High risk pools = high costs. My wife and I tried to get in on a commercial with one of her clients. They offered but the premium was $1900 a month.

“Been here” a while but never introduced myself, so here it is:
I’m 55 years old, diagnosed with “diabetes” in my 50th birthday, after going to the doctor to treat an infection (that turned out likely unrelated to diabetes). I was originally diagnosed as T2, but after my internal insulin production (as measured by multiple c-peptide tests) dropped at a rate more quickly than expected for T2, my endo changed my Dx to Type 1. (I don’t know if he was right, but it certainly helped me with insurance companies!).
In general, my diabetes has been relatively easy to manage by the standards of most. I had no symptoms or complications at diagnosis, and continue as such; however, I tend to be hyper-sensitive to highs: highs over 145 give me headaches, over 180 make me sleepy. I’m partially hypo-unaware - I cannot tell that I’m low if my BG is reasonably stable - only when it’s dropping or rising quickly can I tell that I’m low.
At diagnosis (Dx) I as asymptomatic, at a healthy weight and exercised every day.
My A1c was 11.8. At that start, I tried most of the Type 2 meds. Though they had some effect, I experienced serious side-effects from each of the, forcing me to stop. I am currently on Apidra thru an (Animus) insulin pump, (Dexcom) CGM. I take no other meds. though my endo would like me on an anti-cholestrol med - because “I’m diabetic.”

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Welcome! I have read many of your posts on the other diabetes site I read. Glad you took the time to introduce yourself.

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19 posts were split to a new topic: Statins and blood pressure drugs: yes or no?

Welcome @Thasgolas! Love the new name!

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Sorta new = “Thas” has always actually been a shortened version of this name :smile:

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Those kinds of muscle side effects are why I personally won’t take statins, as someone with chronic myalgia already and cholesterol levels that would never require them if I weren’t diabetic.

I haven’t noticed much of an effect of blood sugar control on LDL or HDL levels, even when I went from an A1c in the 8-9 range to the 6s. What I did see was a dramatic decrease in triglycerides, which was my only value that was significantly elevated before, and is now well in the acceptable range.

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Why is my son on lantus? Because the doctor put him on Lantus. Is there something I should know?

Hi Pates! I don’t think we’ve interacted before. Often doctors will put patients on the medicines with which they’re most familiar.

I can’t say why your son’s doctor chose Lantus. However, I will say that I take Tresiba and see a significant benefit because it lasts longer. Lantus tends to last 18-20 hours for most people. For this reason, many people take it twice per day so that they can offset the 4-6 hours one dose won’t cover.

Tresiba lasts much, much longer and overlaps several days insulin together. Despite this, I find taking it twice daily seems to be best for me (though once daily worked well at first). I think Tresiba is a better insulin because of the overlapping mechanism. If you were to forget a dose, your son wouldn’t go into DKA quickly because he’d still have yesterday’s dose on board. Even if his blood sugar went high, he’d still have SOME insulin. In addition, I think the overlapping mechanism enables a smoother line without the gaps that Lantus can bring.

It’s difficult to say if Tresiba would be better or worse for your son, but it might be worth asking why the doctor chose Lantus over Tresiba. From my perception, Tresiba is a superior insulin.

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For me it’s what’s on the insurance formulary. In May I will ask for tresiba and afrezza (to supplement t humalog for more occasional use) to try… Lantus gets me 20 hours and dinner humalog covers the gap. It does work, but I think I can do better.

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Hi everyone, I am new to this forum.

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Hi Mary welcome aboard

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Hi Mary! Welcome to the forum!

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Welcome! Glad you found our forum. I see that you have a relative with diabetes, type 1 or type 2? A little background and we can direct you to some good stuff.

If you have been reading for a while, what have you found interesting?

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Welcome!

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Hi @marylove, welcome!

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Hello all.

I’m Alex. I live in Chicago (originally from central IL) and have been living with Type 1 since being diagnosed just a few months shy of my 14th birthday in 1994.

Somewhat interestingly, by younger brother (by 3 years) was diagnosed with Type 1 at almost the exact age that I was diagnosed. Our older brother (3 years older than me) dodged the Type 1 bullet.

I’ve been on a pump since 2003 (started with Animas, then moved to Medtronic in 2009) and just recently got a new 670G. Found this site because I was looking for more “user level” knowledge about Auto Mode and how to get the most out of it.

I have taken a renewed interest lately in optimizing my disease management, and last year started wearing my CGM nearly 100% of the time (vs. the every-so-often approach I had previously taken) and also started taking Victoza, which has helped me lose about 40 lbs and reduce my A1c by a full point so far. I’m hoping to see even more improvement with this new pump technology.

I’m a Pharmacist by profession who specializes in Informatics/Information Technology (I currently manage a medical oncology application for a large regional healthcare organization) and am married to an Emergency Medicine/Toxicology Pharmacist.

Looking forward to learning more from you fine folks.

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@ay0hkay, welcome, it is great to see you join us!

My son was diagnosed 2 years ago. We have a lot of long-time T1Ds on the forum. Many of us are scientists, engineers, or in the medical sciences. We are all experimenters and optimizers on the forum! So I think you will find lots of kindred spirits.

Congrats on lowering your A1c a full point, this is outstanding! I look forward to reading your posts!

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