I’m feeling down. It’s been 3 1/2 weeks since my sleeve and I thought my diabetes would be resolved. Instead my Dr wants to start insulin to “shock” my pancreas because my glucose is going up again. On top of that I’ve stalled after losing 13 lbs. Did I make a mistake? I was never on insulin before.

HW 217
SW 207
CW 193

Surgery 4/12/18

((hugs)) Follow your doc. I'd possibly ask for a referral to an endocrinologist to manage you. Ask your bariatric surgeon if he or she works with one for their bariatric patients? I'd also maybe want to know if I was truly a T2 or maybe an adult onset T1 masquerading as a T2. Hang in there. Things might now always be immediate!!

Thanks. I should have mentioned this was my endocrinologist. I’m hoping that as time goes on I will stabilize.

Stalls are so common with sleeve patients that one of them coined the phrase "Embrace the Stall!" So don't drive yourself crazy at this point. You may be in the weight loss phase for a couple years. It will be a slow journey.

As far as the insulin, your question may be answered after you drop another 20 pounds.

A couple of basic points about diabetes and WLS that I have learned over the years.

1 - the VSG and RNY are, on average, about 85% effective in driving T2 diabetes into remission, (some practices will show somewhat better or poorer results with one procedure or the other, but the overall average is in that ballpark) so there will be an unlucky 15% or so that will still struggle with it. The DS does a better job overall, with remission rates in the 98-99% range, but it is not as widely performed.

That is the bad news; the better news is that

2 - the longer one has been diagnosed and under treatment for diabetes, the longer it often takes after WLS for remission to occur. Again, a generalization, as some will leave the hospital free of meds and insulin, but others will lag but catch up. My wife had been diabetic for about 20 years and just short of being on insulin, and it took her the better part of a year to be off all of the meds for it, and that was with the stronger DS on her side.

Patience is a virtue in this case; give it time and work with your docs on it, and it should work out for you - the odds are still on your side.

Thank you so much I have been diabetic for over 15 years just short of using insulin as well I guess I will have to be more patient At least you’ve given me hope!

Thanks!