Insulin new user any tips welcome

I was discharged from Hope hospital Salford about 3 weeks ago, went in with a kidney stone and came out type 2 diabetic.
Whilst in there the diabetic nurse saw me and I chose to use insulin rather than try tablets because of the control it gives you.
I came home from Hospital with a pen of Levemir and a pen of Novarapid and left to my own devices told to adjust my doses through trial and error and to see my G.P. for more supplies.
However since my discharge from Salford I have had no follow up care as I live in Wigan, received couple of calls from the Salford diabetic nurse to see how I am going on and she thinks I am doing fine. I however think things could be a lot better.
Both myself and the nurse from Salford have rang the Wigan diabetic team phone never been answered and we have both left messages which have not been replied to as yet. If this is the level of care I can expect rom the Wigan team I feel I may as well forget about them and get busy teaching myself. I have managed to get an appointment with the pactice nurse at my G.P. but that's not until 10th November.
I am using Levemir and Novarapid.
Any advice from those of you with more experience and knowledge than me would be appreciated

Considering you have little support I think you are doing very well. I have been diabetic for 32 years since the age of 10 and have just done a DAFNE course. First of all, your results are VERY good, believe me. Stop testing so much,ONLY test before each meal, or, if you feel hypo, or you are going to drive. (you must be 5mmol to drive) STOP testing and having insulin between meals, you will never get a pattern. Yesterday mornings insulin worked beautifully. You must work out how many units of quick acting insulin you need to match 10 carbohydrates or 1CP as Dafne says.
Yesterday morning for breakfast you had 10 units for 2cps/20 carbohydrates, which saw you through to lunch time beautifully, so that ratio is 5:1 or 5 units per 10 carbohydrates/ 1 cp.
I am not sure what ratio you used for lunch, 9 cps and 12 units, however, make it easier try 1.5 units of insulin per 1 cp. In which case yesterday for your 9 cps you could have had 13 units of insulin, which may have given you a slightly lower evening meal result. Last night you used a 2 unit per 1cp ratio, which again gave you a good result at 20.30, but I wonder what you were at bed time?

Dafne says to start on a 1 unit per 1 cp ratio for meals, and increase half a unit at a time, and WAIT for patterns, suffer when you feel high, you must because if you have a shot of insulin to correct a high you will never understand what's going on. If you are unsure about which insulin needs changing, you can have a carbohydrate free luch for example (so have no quick acting insulin) and see if by your evening meal you have remained the same, if you have remained on target, your backgound insulin is fine and start working on fine tuning your quick acting.

I have had huge problems waiting for patterns as I had been in the habit of having 'correctors' between meals to bring my glucose down.

Good luck, you are doing very well and I wish I could get my results as good as yours!

PS I have shared my diary with you if you want to see how I do things and how I work things out....you may be surprised at my results? (top right hand tool box....)

Thank you Christine, what you say makes sense and gives me some things to try. Will let you know how I get on

Leonard, you say you are a type 2? It may well be that you will have to play around slightly more than a type 1 does, as in addition you have to factor in that you will also be insulin resistant whereas type 1s aren't. You might find that be really cutting back on the amount of carbs you eat you will be able to get fantastic control - I have a really good friend who is type 2 and has a HBa!c of 5.1 by using this method. You might find you won't need to use insulin at all....

Being a Type 2 kind of excludes you from using the DAFNE principals, as they just dont work.................however it doesn't mean you cant seek advice from fellow diabetics...........

Also, type 1 diabetics can experience insulin resistance.....................................that is why we have different ratios of insulin throughout the day.....................

novorapidboi26 said:
Being a Type 2 kind of excludes you from using the DAFNE principals, as they just dont work.................however it doesn't mean you cant seek advice from fellow diabetics...........

Also, type 1 diabetics can experience insulin resistance.....................................that is why we have different ratios of insulin throughout the day.....................

I did say play around MORE.... I know type 1s can get insulin resistance, but not on the same scale as a type 2, which is essentially a problem OF insulin resistance.

Sadly Type 1's CAN get insulin resistance if they are on other drugs such as Steriods as I found out. I back up Novarapidboi to a degree, when I had insulin resistance it wasn't
linear and often didn't make sense. Even with DAFNE I struggled big time to keep my levels even vaguely in range. However I also totally agree that just because you are T2 and haven't done DAFNE you are not excluded from asking and getting advice. I'm sure people on here are more than happy to give advice.
I understand your frustrations with the support you are receiving, however you also have to remember a lot of these Diabetic teams are under a LOT of pressure and have very little resources to play with. They are most likely doing the best they can, however that doesn't make it any easier for you when they don't call you back. You ARE doing well and just have to keep plugging away, it does get easier over time and you are more than welcome to ask for advice on this site !

Thanks all for the advice, learning that DAFNE is aimed at type 1 diabetis is just part of the learning experience for me but the information I have learned through this website has been invaluable.