Hi Amy, I'm Kurt.

I'm T2 and have been diagnosed as such since 2007. I am on oral meds and victoza (injected) right now and prefer this to taking insulin. For me, I'm working towards being off meds and controlling this with diet and exercise as well as losing weight. My endo feels I can do this.

Now, I can pretty much eat what I wish to, but, I'm moving more and more into healthier choices. I used to be a cheese junky but rarely have it now. I miss it but it's fats and calories I can live without.

I kinda see insulin as a last resort for controlling Diabetes. Everyone is different and may feel differently. I myself, want to avoid as many meds as possible, including insulin.

Cheers, Kurt

I've by T2 since Jan of 2011. Started off taking 2 insulins 4 times/day. As of 3 months ago I am just taking only 1000mg of metformin/day. When I was on insulin, I felt like a diabetic, now being off, I feel more of normal person. I think it was just a mind set for me. With insulin, I was able to control my bs better because if I cheated, I just gave myself more insulin. Now I eat around 120 carbs/day and it is doing well for me.

With the insulin I was having a very hard time loosing wt. Was told that insulin acts like insulation to our body and it prevents us from burning the fat. Don't know if it because I am eating better and exercising more, but it seems like I am loosing wt at a quicker pace.

While on insulin I injected into my stomach area. I never had much of a stomach prior but it was growing because I was storing more fat there. Since getting off, I have noticed a change in that area but I also have been working that area more so it's probably the combination of both.

When I was told I could get off of the insulin, I felt a huge weight was taken off my shoulders.

Hi, Amy. I see that we reside in the same fair city.

I am not against taking any medication that is necessary, including insulin, to control my diabetes. However, I am determined to do everything in my power to control it first. If that isn't enough, I will take what is necessary to control it. Fortunately, I was able to make enough changes to be taken off the Metformin I was prescribed at diagnosis, and am now keeping it in check through diet and exercise alone. Not everyone can do it, but I am determined to do it as for as long as I can, even if it means I can't enjoy some of the foods I could if I were taking insulin, or any other diabetes medication, for that matter. It's a personal decision that I have made, but I don't fault others for choosing not to go that route.

I am T2D since 2003, but was not real serious about it other than taking my meds. About a year and a half ago, when my A1C was 7.9 (as well as a bunch of other health issues), my Dr. threatened me with insulin. To me, that was admitting defeat, and that my health issues were winning and I was out of control. So, to try to get healthy, I changed my lifestyle from processed junk food to cooking my own meals with natural local Farmer’s Market fruits and veggies and, when possible, locally grown grass fed meats. No more processed food, grains, sugars or oils.

With my new “lifestyle”, I lowered my A1C from 7.9 to 6.1, triglycerides from 275 to 101, my LDL from 138 to 86, and raised my HDL from 38 to 56.

In August, I was put on Prednisone (a steroid) because of some new health issues. Because of the BG spike with steroids, I was taken off Metformin (1000 mg twice a day) and put on insulin: Novolin (long term, twice a day) and Novolog (depending on my pre-meal BG).

Although I was trying to keep my carbs under 100 mg/day, I started eating 10% carbs (<45g/day) to better control my BG, because I don’t like the inconvenience of shooting insulin. For the first time ever, I regularly have my BG readings between 75 and 110, except for my before lunch BG (130-190) which is after I take my steroids. I am slowly being removed from the Prednisone, and will be off of them on Oct. 15, so I hope things will return to normal.

Because of the inconvenience of using insulin, I hope to return to the Metformin. HOWEVER, if I can’t control my BG with my diet while on Metformin as well as when I am on insulin, I will continue to use insulin. My ultimate goal is to control my BG with diet and exercise to where I get off the meds. I want to be like travessiger.

I think you have to keep in mind too, that there are a lot of differences among T2 diabetics. For a lot of us, our bodies are still producing various levels of insulin, but our cells have become resistant to it. So just adding more insulin to our blood stream will only have a certain degree of success, whereas many of the oral medications work to decrease insulin resistance and/or control glycogen output from our liver. It's a very different issue from T1 diabetics who produce no insulin of their own and are dependent on injections or T2s whose pancreas (Pancreases? wow, what's the plural for that? No idea!) are slowing down or have stopped production of insulin.

For myself, the thought at the forefront of my mind is that Diabetes is both chronic and progressive, so the longer I can avoid needing the "big gun" of insulin injections the better because then I'll still have that as an option in my arsenal as the disease progresses. I will, however, do whatever is necessary when it is necessary since, as Sharonks says on here, the goal is to control our BG and if it requires meds, then TAKE the meds and avoid the rot.

Amy,

For exercise, I was walking 30-45 minutes a day,5 days a week for about a year, then several months ago, joined a gym, got a trainer and was doing cardio 30-45 minutes a day/5 days a week and weight training 2 days a week.

That all came to a screeching halt in August with the prednisone. I had periodic Atrial Fibrillation that usually lasted less than an hour, but the prednisone put me into continuous AFib. My resting heart rate was 45-55 BPM, but the steroids put me up to 85-95 BPM. My cardiologist said to keep my RHR to less than 120 BPM to lessen the chance of stroke or heart attack. When you start at 95 BPM, it doesn’t take much to get over 120, like walking upstairs or even up a slight incline. So, until I’m off the steroids, I can’t do any exercise, which I really miss.

When I get off the ‘roids, I go in to have a Stage 3 melanoma cut out of the bottom of my foot, which will involve almost the entire pad below the toes, almost down to the bone. I will also have the lymph nodes in my groin biopsied to see if it has spread. I will have to stay off my foot for a minimum of eight weeks but I talked to my trainer, and, if my RHR gets back to normal, they have cardio machines where I use my upper body rather than my feet, so I’ll give that a try. That may be a blessing in disguise, since I’ve developed saggy baggy man boobs from all the weight I have lost, and this may help tone them up.

I've only recently been diagnosed as T2 (three months now) so if I can control it through diet and exercise it feels like the best action - I don't like to take any form of drugs and resist taking over the counter painkillers for a headache for example.

So far I got my A1C down from 9.6% to 7.2% with diet and exercise. I have been given a target of 6.5% for my next test in December.

My view on why some people resists taking it, and I am in this group, the perception by others that you must be very ill. Whilst this next statement could perhaps be a thread on its own - Being newly diagnosed, I am still embarrassed about saying I have diabetes and have only told a few close friends.