Hi
So I'm currently finger pricking on average 10 times a day, I'm using an app called mySugr and I record as much info as I can each day, weight, carb counts, insulin units, exercise , tablets taken etc etc, this I have found really useful in terms of cross checking previous units v 2 hrs after results, Im a bit OCD and work with data all day so I kind of love this stuff.
So it sounds as if you're testing 1st thing after waking, before each meal and 2 hrs later (3x2=6), before driving out and back and immediately before sleep. Even if that isn't the exact logic, it is very good; well done. The 2 hrs after a meal isn't critical to being 120mins, but is helpful to be the same amount after each meal then you can get a good feel for whether your dosing calcs are sound (but as you are already finding the theory doesn't always match the reality, particularly if your activity levels vary from day to day).
I'm glad you've found MySugar. I used that app before I got my Libre 2 and found it very helpful. I have an Accuchek Mobile which is an integrated finger pricker and test meter, using a cassette allowing 50 tests. I phoned Roche and they provided the wifi attachment which transmits my results to MySugar. I also asked them for a second Accuchek Mobile which they happily provided once I confirmed I was testing 10x daily or more; I suspect their profit is in the test cassettes and the reader is a loss leader. Anyway I now have one upstairs and one in my travel pack; it's also a reserve should I drop it!
Regarding your end question: I'm in a strange position, because I went into the Churchill Hospital in Oxford in Feb 20 for an operation known as Whipple's Procedure to deal with my pancreatic cancer. I'd been told at the end of Nov '19 that I had 3 options: they could do nothing but make me comfortable and I might get 2 more years; I could have chemotherapy which could take 6 months and increase my life expectancy, perhaps up to 5 years, but no guarantee; or I could have the major surgery with no particular defined expectancy (yes, very vague) but (apart from the risks associated with such surgery) I was young enough and fit enough to take this surgery. I opted for surgery, even though I don't really know what my life expectancy is!
I knew there was a chance that my pancreas might be totally removed, but they generally didn't go that far and I let myself believe it couldn't happen to me. Post op the histology confirmed that the cancer was not just in the tumour blocking my bile duct but in 13 out of 32 lymph nodes removed with my pancreas. I then had precautionary "adjuvant" chemo, in case anything had been missed. By now the country was in full lockdown and face to face consults were simply not happening, so I had various phone conversations and never asked what my life expectancy is now.
So I'm not remotely in a position to provide an informed medical answer to your question! However, the stats that one can find are frequently placed into articles out of context, so I would be wary about what you have read. Also, if the stats say another 10 years they represent an average for which there is some much higher upper limit; you are obviously prepared to wrestle actively with your condition so you are doing your very best to be at that upper limit. And medical science is making huge forward leaps in its knowledge and treatment, so if you can get yourself under the right endocrinologist you will have access to the right person to ask about future prognosis, as well as getting the best assistance for managing your diabetes now.
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so I had to see a consultant in October and he told me that they won't operate as I'm systematic but the consultant went on to say that I won't die of Diabetes but will die of Pancreatitis" Really the answer to your question lies in the above sentence - if that Consultant was at the top of his game. I'm not sure that many people actually die from diabetes, rather than from other medical problems exacerbated by diabetes and its one of those other problems that gets written into the death certificate; that certainly was the case for my late brother who was profoundly ill from his T2 DM and had lost both his legs, but his death certificate states heart failure ... So perhaps your Consultant was literally correct, your future cert may well say pancreatitis, hopefully in a lot, lot more than 10 years time.
I do know that my surgery took longer than a heart transplant, was risky and wouldn't have been started if I hadn't been fit enough. So I imagine that they won't offer to remove your pancreas as a routine procedure. A friend who was a Theatre Sister in a Hepto Biliary (HPB) dep't saw many Whipples Procedures, but never a total pancreatectomy, since 10yrs ago she understood one couldn't survive for long without any pancreas. Luckily, for me, things have moved on.
I completely understand that you were mortified and now anxious about all of this. I also know that saying that is still just a platitude - it provides a moment of comfort that all too quickly disappears. I have recently been attending a "HOPE" course, sponsored by Macmillan as a follow-up for people recovering from cancer. I wanted help with "Mindfulness" in the vague aspiration that I could control my own stress levels better, knowing that stress is one of the 42 factors that affect blood glucose; the HOPE course had one mindfulness module within it, so someone thought it appropriate for me. Anyway, rather to my surprise, I've found it surprisingly therapeutic being in a room with other cancer patients, sharing our common bond, but otherwise having relatively little in common: different backgrounds, different cancers, most not cured & just holding their C at arms length week by week.
It has reinforced my view that we can only control so much: I am doing, and will do, my best to manage my DM, even if I am a bit obsessive about it; I will keep myself fit (for my age) and in a good position to take further surgery or future chemo (but I desperately hope not - I really struggled with that); I will continue to manoeuvre to get the best identifiable care for myself. But despite all of that I know that I can't control everything; next Feb I fully expect to celebrate having outlived the first option outlined by the Churchill Hospital! After that ..... week by week, month by month, year by year ? Meanwhile I appreciate what I've got.
Hope this helps, a bit. Feel free to ask other Qs. It seems to me that you are doing all that you can; remember that stress (whether medical or emotional) plays havoc with your BG and prolonged elevated BG is definitely not good for anyone, generating irreversible damage.
