kimmyd2007's Journal, 19 November 2011

Don't take the insulin! People will all comment on how great you look at your own funeral. Got your attention? That's the speech my doctor gave me and she got mine. If you don't believe me look at my weight loss chart and you figure out when I was taking insulin and when I wasn't. You can achieve amazing weight loss if you don't take your insulin but your liver is being roasted trying to process sugar meant to be handled by your pancreas or insulin. Cholesterol and triglicerides go through the roof turning your arteries into something resembling stuffed crust pizza. Fine blood vessles in your eyes, kidneys and feet are turned brittle from elevated blood sugar levels. The brittle arteries rupture and can leave you blind, crippled and on dialisis. This is not what I was looking for when I wanted to lose weight. Yes you are losing weight but unfortunately its at the expense of your eyes, heart, feet and kidneys. In these cases damage done is permanent and you'll pay the rest of your life with damage to parts of your body you really need. There's no question losing weight is the single best way to control diabetes. But in this case the goal does not justify the means. I have been instructed to closely monitor sugars and adjust accordingly for increases in excersize, weight loss and reduced carbohydrate loading. It is 100% tougher for insulin diabetics to lose weight than the rest of the population but it is the most vital method for being healthy. Increase the exersize, cut the carbs and weight will come off. Nothing this important is ever easy but you have the will to change so I know you will do fine. P.S. Spent about a year without insulin to lose 30 pounds. In one year I went from better than perfect vision to needing glasses and hemorrages in both eyes. Did enough vascular damage to now require high blood pressure medication for the rest of my life. I'm 42 years old and I can't help but think I took 10 years off my life doing something stupid. Please don't repeat my mistake.  

Great post protractorboy. A busted pancreas is nothing to play with; IT WILL KILL YOU. It's a slow death but I'm sure quite painful in the end. As someone I work with said (while she was in the hospital with Diabetic Ketoacidosis, newly diagnosed T2 Diabetic): "will insulin save me?" Doc: "yes", her: "then insulin is my friend." If you are a T1; you would be committing suicide by not taking insulin. Without reading your profile I assume (forgive me if incorrectly) that you are a T2--that being said, use the insulin the way it was intended, the weight WILL come off as you watch what you put in and you will soon find out that the better food choices you make the less insulin you will have to use. Eventually the weight will be gone and you will be to minimal (if ANY) insulin. No offense, but the whole "insulin stigma" irritates me--I need it to SURVIVE because I'm a T1, with the negative comments about it; it tends to make me thing I'm a "bad" diabetic or something--although I know it's not my fault. If you need it to get healthy, especially if it's temporary, then WHAT are you waiting for? I think that some folks think it causes you to gain weight...that is a myth--some folks use insulin as a pass to eat what they want. You still have to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I've been on insulin shots (4-5 per day) since June 2011 and I've lost almost 25lbs.