Insulin after surgery

Just wondering if anybody that has/had been on insulin for type 2 before surgery how did you deal with it after? My GP is not sure what should be done and she said to check with doctors office/hospital. (not the best answer but ...) I know I will have to stop my one med to help my insulin because it is a long acting but so is the insulin. This is the only medication I am on except for the cpap machine (which I hate), just wondering what I should be looking for. Thanks for any help. 

Michele   

Hey Michele,

I have type two diabetes as well, and per my surgeon, I was to stop all of my insulin immediately after being released from thre hospital.  While I was there, the nurses kept track of sugar levels and administered insulin as needed, which was pretty rare.  I have to wait until I have blood work done before my next appointment, but as it stands right now I am almost 6 weeks out and I am running normal fasting levels.  It's a lot easier to get your levels down than it is to bring them up after the surgery, because your body may be a little like mine and reject any kind of sugar you try to put into it to get back to a normal level.  Talk to your surgeon, and hopefully if things go well, you'll start seeing normal levels before too long as well, and that medicine will be a thing of the past.  Best of luck!

Christina

Hi Christina 

I am hoping to have my surgery in April (sooner if my doctor heals from his surgery faster keeping fingers crossed) I would love not to have to give myself shots anymore. I will make sure that is one the of the questions I ask him when we go to see him before the surgery.

Michele

I was on an insulin pump pre-op...so the day before my surgery, I dropped my basel to one half of normal...and kept my pump on during surgery. And yes, my surgeon knew it. I stayed at half rate for the next few days...

My surgery was the 24th of Jan 2011 and it was not until the 1st of Feb, after chasing lows (50's) for two nights in a row, that I took my pump off for the last time. I then checked about once an hour and any time mine got over 140, I would give myself a wee bit of insulin. Mine was novolog so it was a short acting insulin. I was NOT using a long acting...you don't use a long acting in an insulin pump. Last insulin AT ALL was the 11th of Feb 2011...but I stayed on metformin until April.

My bariatric surgeon's nurse was a TWIT and told me to leave my insulin pump at home for surgery and that I would not need it again. SHE WAS WRONG...not everyone gets off right as they come out of surgery. But then I had had surgery (not the DS obviously) before and followed my endo's instructions for other surgeries.

My suggestion....get with an endo as soon as you can. And test OFTEN after surgery at least for a week or so. (often means about once an hour).

Liz

Right now I am on an injectable only because my doctors likes them better then pills since you can adjust them easier. She told me the same thing when I am in the hospital there to make sure somebody comes in and we go over what I should be doing. I know when I was in the hospital last year ('11) for an infection I think I only got a shot once the whole week I was there. Keeping fingers crossed when I have my surgery but right now even if I have to keep taking shots I just want the surgery.

Im two weeks post op.  I was taking 70-75 units of lantus, plus the fast acting at every meal.  Now, I'm down to 30 units of Lantus and that's all.  I'm hoping as the weight falls off, the fasting levels will lower as well.  Good luck!!

Right now I am taking 49 unites of Lantus along with 1 Genuvia once a day. I can't take Metformen (sp) to hard on my kidneys I was in the hospital a week because of an infection that caused my kidneys to start to fail and they think the met. was part of the problem. Good luck to you also.