New to Lantus Insulin

Hi and welcome! And thanks for posting for your mom! First, I suggest clicking on the link in my signature which goes to a site which has everything about blood sugar. Also, there are two stickies at the top of our forum that has some info.

To summarize diet advice: the more carbs we eat, the higher our blood sugar goes. The higher our blood sugar goes and stays over a period of time, the more health complications we might see in our heart, kidneys, eyesight, and nerve endings in our legs and arms.

So, I eat a very low carb diet in which I eat almost any protein (beef, poultry, fish, etc.) and lots of vegetables and leafy greens, nuts, cheese, eggs. I do not eat potatoes (or other root vegetables), rice or bread or anything made with flour and sugar. Sound limited, I know but since diabetes killed my mom and grandma, I have every reason to keep my blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible. I just do it.

Kidney disease has different stages but for all diabetics, it's best not to go overboard on meat. So, no caveman's diet here. Vegetables and leafy greens and of course water are best for the kidneys in general.

Sorry about her doctors. If getting a new doctor is not possible, then the next best advice is for both of you to learn as much as you can about controlling blood sugar and here is where you can start. That website and also this one: forum.lowcarber.org/

I'm glad you posted! Ask any questions!

Type 1 here. I've used Levemir, then I switched to Lantus, and then to my first extra long acting insulin Toujeo that I only need to take in the morning. The dose is smaller and it's also three times more packed than with the other two. My problem with other insulins was that the dose was becoming so big that I would get big bumps on my skin when the insulin reacted with fat tissue from a single injection. Levemir should have been more stable than Lantus, but I was only taking a single dose per day with Levemir, and I learned later that two times per day would have been the norm. But these are so called long-acting insulins. As a type 1 I also have to inject rapid acting insulin just before meals.

Adding more vegetables and fiber into the diet in general would be a good idea. Lowering carb intake and taking note of what kind of carbs you take would be beneficial. For example, instead of white bread, white rice and pasta, you could start with something like whole grain/dark bread, brown rice, oatmeal, instead in moderation. If already there, you could go for even more vegetables in proportion, along with some fruit, beans, lentils and nuts. White processed foods tend to wreck havoc on blood glucose levels.

I'm eating vegetables quite freely without much of an effect on blood glucose alone but they still balance out the swings in BGL from carbs. Fiber makes my stomach work better.