Originally Posted by MizKitty

Wow, Pamlynn, our situations seem so similar. I also have an adult son with diabetes who is uninsured. I also kept him supplied with metformin for a year, although it wasn't doing enough to help, and then helped him get some Lantus earlier this year.
It was the hardest thing to do to get him to switch to a VLC diet. He knew it was best and needed, but just couldn't stick with it very well.
Finally, he started having serious complications. He went nearly blind from cataracts that he didn't have the money to address, and then developed a serious MRSA infection in a calf muscle and needed surgery to save his leg. He's since gotten lens implants (twice actually, the cataracts grew back in less than 2 years while he wasn't taking care of himself) and his vision fixed, but the seriousness of his health finally caused his "religious" conversion to LC. He's read GCBC, Bernstein, Atkins, and everything else he can get his hands on and; from 400-500 daily BG readings, now has better bloodsugar control than me! He's still on metformin and Lantus, but I think he'll be off the Lantus before the end of the year.

Does your son eat LC? There's just not enough drugs in the world to correct the wrong diet, is there. But whatarewegonnado? After they leave the nest, we can't control what they eat (believe me, I've tried! lol)

Yes, you can adjust the amount of Lantus gradually yourself. That's the nice thing about insulin over pills. I started at 10 units, and stayed there for a couple days to give my body time to react, then would bump it up 1 or 2 units and stay there a few days, testing many times a day to see how my BG was reacting to that dosage.
The most I ever took was 20 units a day, but it didn't seem to do more than 17 units a day had, so I backed back down to 17 units, and stayed there a long time.

When after time and weight loss and metabolic healing, my BG's started to go low (I never hypoed, I just mean I was seeing lots more 80's than 90's), I started weaning myself off the same way... lowering the dose by a unit or 2 every time the BG readings were consistently that low.

Originally Posted by lowcarbUgh

Lantus is one of the more expensive insulins and not OTC in the US. The OTC form of long-acting insulin is called NPH and is about $20 at Walmart sold under the brand Relion. It is the same as Novalin N. It is not as flat as Lantus and has a peak. I take N at night for Dawn Phenomenon. It works better than Lantus in that regard.

If you have high fasting BGs, then Lantus or NPH would be the way to go. NPH has a shorter duration of action. It mostly stops working after 8 hours. Depending on the dosage, Lantus lasts 24 hours in higher doses.