July 27, 2002
Research: Cure
Question from Greenville, South Carolina, USA:
I am 15 years old, have had type 1 diabetes since I was 11, and I’ve been on a pump for a little over two years. Today, I went for a walk, my blood sugar was 183 mg/dl [10.1 mmol/L], and I took my pump off. I ended up not walking, but going to a friend’s house instead, and didn’t have my pump, so I checked my sugar an hour later when I got home, and I was 77 mg/dl [4.3 mmol/L], 15 minutes later I felt low and was 66 mg/dl [3.7 mmol/L]. I have had my pump off for seven hours now, my blood sugar is 88 mg/dl [4.9 mmol/L], and I have had to treat my low blood sugars twice. Is it possible that my diabetes has just gone away and will not come back?
Answer:
Having had type 1 diabetes for several years, it is very unlikely that your body makes any of its own insulin. The answer to your question may depend a bit on the type of insulin use in your pump. If you use Regular insulin in your pump this insulin will have an onset of action approximately 30 minutes after it is infused and may have a duration of effect for four to six hours. Even, however, if you use a short acting insulin analog (Humalog or NovoLog), it is possible that your body developed a small depot of that insulin (in particular if it was infusing into an area of lipohypertrophy). This insulin could then be slowly released over many hours.
LAD
