Welcome, introduce yourself here!

welcome @PegE, you have a fascinating story!

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Thanks , Chris. Itā€™s funny, growing up in Alaska, I think get the same spooky feeling when I am flying in the lower 48 and things are all built up for as far as you can see. But being out in isolated places with diabetes issues was no fun. I have a lot more safeguards and back up plans going on these days and not so many adventures.

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Funny.

We live in a forest, around quite a few cornfields. This year, the cornfield at the head of the road got developed. The moment that happened, my wife and I thought it was time to move :slight_smile:

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The antibody is to the insulin molecule, and I am pretty sure (based on CGM traces) that both injectables and Afrezza can be affected by antibodies. However, I find that Afrezza is affected much less frequently, and, when it is affected, it is still reasonably fast acting. I guess the body is more likely to produce a rush of antibodies if there is a physical trauma (needle insertion) which does not occur with Afrezza.

Yes, I actually use a modified version of xDrip+ now to collect readings from my Dexcom G5 and send them to my watch app. And Iā€™m planning to build an OpenAPS soon!

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Hello! I was diagnosed last year in April when some routine antibody testing came back positive for GAD65 antibodies. Having several autoimmune diseases already, it shouldnā€™t have been a surprise, but the only type 1 in my family I know of was my great grandmother, so diabetes wasnā€™t even remotely on my radar. My doc diagnosed me pre-diabetic based on my only borderline high A1c and fasting glucose and told me to stick to a low carb diet. Fast forward a few months and I got pregnant, then started feeling off after eating and started checking my blood sugar. When I relayed my numbers to my doc (fastings in the low 100s and post prandial spikes to 150-180s), she told me there was nothing she could do while I was pregnant. So I found a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who would prescribe insulin and was on Levemir and Novolog for the remainder of the pregnancy. Now 3 weeks postpartum and not taking insulin, though I think I need it for some things; I just donā€™t know how to dose for it with changes after pregnancy. Iā€™ve tried seeing a new endo, but he just said I was pre-diabetic type 2 (despite positive antibodies!) and told me to stick to a lower carb diet. I AM restricting carbs in my diet, and it doesnā€™t always help. So Iā€™m on the hunt for yet another doctor who might actually understand and take me seriously.

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Welcome @PegE! I loved your story as well!

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Wow, welcome, I hope you find a physician that takes you seriously soon. That is really unfortunate.

Glad you joined.

Hi, @PegE! So glad you found this forum! And I was shocked when I started reading your ages at diagnosis. I assumed by your picture that those were your sweet boys. You look so young!

Sounds like you have a beautiful perspective paired with your host of diseases.

So glad to have you aboard!

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So glad to have you on the team! Iā€™m sorry to hear about your diagnosis (and to read that it isnā€™t your only one!)

Hope you can find some help and encouragement here.

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Hi! I have several autoimmune diseases too. I hope you find a helpful MD. When I was on levemir and humalog, I found the RapidCalc insulin calculator app (only works on IOS but initially I just had it on an old iphone someone had given me while I used a different phone for a phone) helpful for tracking what my blood sugars were doing and making little adjustments so the amounts I was taking worked a little better. It has graphs that show whatā€™s going on. Its always a really nice thing to be able to eat food. Let us know how it goes.

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Hi everyone! I finally made my way over here, and it looks great. Cardamom isnā€™t my real name (just a spice I love), but I tend to try to keep things online somewhat anonymous for professional reasons. Iā€™m in my 30s, have had T1 since I was 10, and Iā€™m a clinical psychologist (not specializing in diabetesā€”too close to home, ha) living in the Rhode Island. My diabetes was pretty out of control for a number of years (thanks grad school), but a retinopathy diagnosis got me to get my act together, and thanks to getting a CGM, going lower carb, and adding some metformin to the mix, Iā€™ve gone from A1cs in the 8-9s to 6.5. Advice from TuD was really helpful in all of that, and Iā€™m looking forward to being part of the community here as well.

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@cardamom Welcome! Weā€™re all looking forward to your expertise.

Did you start on metformin because of insulin resistance, i.e. taking increasing amounts of insulin to gain control? As a T1 what did you notice to be the biggest benefit of metformin?

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Glad you found us, @cardamom, and welcome!

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welcome @cardamom, glad to have you over here!

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Welcome, @cardamom ! Glad you made it here!

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My endo (who is awesome) suggested it after noting that my control wasnā€™t great and I had a little extra weight on my stomach, which was new-ish for me (Iā€™m typically more curvy-shaped, somewhere between hourglass and pear). He suggested that was a sign of insulin resistance, even though my TDD wasnā€™t that high. I tried it, and it was greatā€”I was able to lower my insulin needs and for the first time in a long time, I lost weight with reasonable effort (before Iā€™d do all the right things to no avail). I was running about 15 lbs over my typical weight, and I went back there very easily once I was on the metformin. I take the ER (started 500mg, now at 2000mg) and never had any digestive problems. Currently I take 16u of Tresiba and then my I:C ratio is about 1:10 (slightly variable). Before I was on at least 10 more units of basal (Lantus though), and while I was using a 1:10 ratio as well, I wasnā€™t getting very good results.

My best guess is that I donā€™t have much of a genetic underpinning for insulin resistance (see curvy figure and I also have no family history of T2), but that years of subpar control of my diabetes led to it for me.

Overall, Iā€™m really pleased with the metformin, and all the moreso given the plethora of positive findings lately for other effects of metformin. I suspect it will be prescribed more and more to T1s.

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Cardamom, it is SO GREAT to see you here!!!

That is really wonderful!

That is amazing to see the difference!

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@cardamom, Welcome to the best D-community everyone wishes they didnā€™t have to be a member of!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Haha, indeed!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! :smile:

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Sounds like a pretty on the ball doc. Iā€™ve been lucky to have a couple of endos who were not hesitant to have me take metformin, and later an SGLT-2 inhibitor (both off label for T1). Itā€™s always nice to hear about a doc who really understands our disease.

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