Hello everyone, my name is Roxie and I have been reading the forum for some time with interest and very impressed with the helpful knowledgeable replies given here. I am a senior lady and have been diabetic for fourteen years. I have had questions at times, but luckily someone else seemed to have the same query and I got my answers that way. Hoping to join in sometime soon.
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- Thread starter Roxie
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rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi Roxie and welcome.
I see you are Type 3c diabetic. Is that due to pancreatitis or surgery or perhaps an injury? How are you managing with it? Are you on insulin yet and if so which ones? Do you need to use Creon. Sorry for all the questions.... just useful to know a bit about your situation. If you are on insulin I hope you have managed to secure Freestyle Libre on prescription.
Anyway, I look forward to getting to know you better not you have "delurked" and introduced yourself. I hope you will find the forum as supportive and beneficial as I have over the last few years and perhaps make some friends as well as improve your knowledge and diabetes management. Feel free to ask if you need any particular advice or support and make yourself at home. If you fancy a more social aspect, the "Group 7-day waking average" thread is a bit like a virtual all day coffee morning and drop in centre. Please feel free to log in each day and post your waking BG reading and share a bit of banter or plans for the day etc. The more the merrier....
I see you are Type 3c diabetic. Is that due to pancreatitis or surgery or perhaps an injury? How are you managing with it? Are you on insulin yet and if so which ones? Do you need to use Creon. Sorry for all the questions.... just useful to know a bit about your situation. If you are on insulin I hope you have managed to secure Freestyle Libre on prescription.
Anyway, I look forward to getting to know you better not you have "delurked" and introduced yourself. I hope you will find the forum as supportive and beneficial as I have over the last few years and perhaps make some friends as well as improve your knowledge and diabetes management. Feel free to ask if you need any particular advice or support and make yourself at home. If you fancy a more social aspect, the "Group 7-day waking average" thread is a bit like a virtual all day coffee morning and drop in centre. Please feel free to log in each day and post your waking BG reading and share a bit of banter or plans for the day etc. The more the merrier....
Hi Rebrascora,
Thank you for welcome. Fourteen years ago I was rushed into Hospital because a cyst on my pancreas had burst causing life threatening havoc to my insides. I was in ICU for ten days and kept in Hospital altogether for a total of five months. I had most of my pancreas surgically removed and became diabetic. Put on insulin straight away Novorapid, Creons and treated as a type one. After five years was taken off Insulin and put on Gliclazide and metformin and with diet also, managed fairly ok till two years ago, when the dreaded metformin tummy occurred severely. Was put back on Insulin and told for good. Humulin M3 injecting twice a day - type3c was never mentioned - Type 1, type 1.5, type 2 then finally a couple of months ago - ta-da Type 3c.
I have not been offered libre or even told about it. My Doctors surgery are very good about eye and foot checks and very nice but I don’t always see the same DN each time. Basal Bolus was mentioned a while back, but the DN seemed to think it would be too complicated for me to manage. The waking BG group sounds a good way to keep in line. I have very big sweet tooth and very small resistance! So a bit of a battle i’m afraid.
Thank you for welcome. Fourteen years ago I was rushed into Hospital because a cyst on my pancreas had burst causing life threatening havoc to my insides. I was in ICU for ten days and kept in Hospital altogether for a total of five months. I had most of my pancreas surgically removed and became diabetic. Put on insulin straight away Novorapid, Creons and treated as a type one. After five years was taken off Insulin and put on Gliclazide and metformin and with diet also, managed fairly ok till two years ago, when the dreaded metformin tummy occurred severely. Was put back on Insulin and told for good. Humulin M3 injecting twice a day - type3c was never mentioned - Type 1, type 1.5, type 2 then finally a couple of months ago - ta-da Type 3c.
I have not been offered libre or even told about it. My Doctors surgery are very good about eye and foot checks and very nice but I don’t always see the same DN each time. Basal Bolus was mentioned a while back, but the DN seemed to think it would be too complicated for me to manage. The waking BG group sounds a good way to keep in line. I have very big sweet tooth and very small resistance! So a bit of a battle i’m afraid.
soupdragon
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 3c
Welcome @Roxie
I'm type 3c following pancreatitis and also had a lengthy hospital stay.
Are you under a hospital diabetic clinic or your GP surgery? Basal bolus does give more flexibility with food and you get used to it pretty quickly.
If you were still classified as Type 1 your GP should be able to prescribe Libre, which is really helpful, especially for seeing what is happening to your blood sugar during the day and spotting trends in data. You might need to push for a referral to the hospital (if you're not seeing them already) to get it prescribed as a Type 3c. Good luck with getting it.
I'm type 3c following pancreatitis and also had a lengthy hospital stay.
Are you under a hospital diabetic clinic or your GP surgery? Basal bolus does give more flexibility with food and you get used to it pretty quickly.
If you were still classified as Type 1 your GP should be able to prescribe Libre, which is really helpful, especially for seeing what is happening to your blood sugar during the day and spotting trends in data. You might need to push for a referral to the hospital (if you're not seeing them already) to get it prescribed as a Type 3c. Good luck with getting it.
Thank you Inka for your welcome.
Hi Soupdragon,
I was under the hospital diabetic clinic for the first few years and then my GP Surgery since.
I will try to find out more about the Libre, I have read about it on here, but would like to find out more. I am undecided about it.
Bruce Stephens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I'd urge you to try one. (You can get a free sample, presuming you have a suitable smartphone.)
Not everyone likes a CGM, and not everyone finds the Libre works (maybe the glue doesn't agree with their skin or something, but sometimes it just doesn't read accurately enough to be useful), but for many of us it's made a really big improvement to our lives.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don’t think either is any more complicated than the other to be honest.
Both systems require you to understand the profile and activity of the insulin you are using, and how to measure and balance the carbohydrates your are eating through the day with the activity of the insulin.
The main differences in my experience was that with mixed insulin I had to manage the food to ‘feed’ the insulin to a predefined schedule, while with basal:bolus I can eat (or not eat) more or less however I want, and just use the insulin to balance it out.
Hi Everydayupsanddowns.
that is very interesting what you say about mixed insulin and feeding the insulin. My regime is a very simple one in that I still follow the DN’s instructions and finger prick and then inject half an hour before eating, regardless of read out - Unless I am at hypo level of course!
I find if I am very strict foodwise then levels are reasonable i.e single figures, but if high say 30 injection only brings it down to 20 and I then just don’t eat till down to single figures again. I do know they are high readings and I do struggle to contain it all sometimes, question of willpower. I realise that even after fourteen years I still don‘t understand as much as I should about my diabetes. Thank you for input.
Roxanna.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome from me too.
If you visit the forum regularly and ask questions and read other peoples' questions and replies, you will very soon learn.
Having levels go as high as 30 is very concerning and with a mixed insulin there is not a lot you can do to fix it apart from not eat, whereas with MDI you can do correction doses with the fast acting insulin to bring it down.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
One of the challenges with mixed insulins is that the two different aspects of insulin treatment are bundled together, and you can’t change one without the other.
We need 2 different aspects of insulin management. One is a ‘background trickle’ which processes glucose which is released by the liver 24/7 to keep things ticking over, and the other is bigger splurges of insulin to cover the carbohydrate in meals we eat.
With multiple daily injections the ‘background’ (basal) insulin is taken separately from the mealtime (bolus) insulin. Which means you can alter your meal sizes and timings or skip them entirely simply by not administering mealtime insulin if you aren’t eating.
Of course this short-acting insulin can then also be used to correct high BG by taking extra small doses (or adding extra insulin to a meal dose).
This gives you a system much more like the insulin release of a working body.
With mixed insulin the meal and background doses are all in together, and once the insulin is ‘on board’ it needs to be fed at appropriate times. It’s also impossible to vary the proportions between the meal and background aspects (eg if your background requirement rises or falls, or you would like larger or smaller meals)
As you say, your choices are far more limited with mixed, and you end up adapting your food and behaviours to suit the insulin, rather than the other way around.
Thank you Rebrascora
I will visit the forum regularly. It is very helpful and encouraging
I do go as high as 33 sometimes and realising this is not good, I do become quite anxious and shut down for a while, then become complacent. In March the DN added Canigliflozin to my meds, but I took myself off it after a month as It had bad side effects for me, so now I am using Insulin only and prefer it that way. I realise I need huge doses of willpower and am getting into the right mindset at last.
Roxanna
thank you for explaining about the basal bolus, it makes sense and I am sure I could manage it ok.
I will be having my HBA1c in October and hope to have an informed chat with the DN. My usual style is to not ask questions and get out as quickly as possible. A sea change needed I think because I am finding now as I become older, the routine I have been following definitely needs some tweaking!
Roxanna
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Haha! yes I know that feeling! But a different approach is to see the appointments as your chance to redirect your care and/or ask any questions or make any requests that you have. It can really help to go in with a list! (that way you’ll remember everything after your first 3 questions have gone off on a tangent) 😉
Any change of system can be a bit daunting and scary- so keep us posted if your routine looks like your treatment is going to change, and we’ll be right there to cheer you on 🙂
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
You may well be senior @Roxie but, it doesn't sound to me (on the face of it) like you'd 'be unable to cope' with multiple daily injections. What mental health qualifications enable this nurse to make this assessment of your capabilities?
I'm no kid myself (72) and nowhere near as physically capable as I once. was but assure you that I for one am nowhere near brain dead .... yet, obviously!!
Seriously - I'd personally very much rail against that assessment of my own capabilities. I'm pretty certain some of my - also elderly friends with and without diabetes - would too. One such lady owned and ran a UK diabetes forum which ran happily alongside this one for a good many years, she's now 74 and a couple of years ago, it was mutually agreed that the burning need for that extra forum (cos there weren't originally all that many Type 1 participants) had passed and this one was therefore now quite suitable for most of us.
Anyway - Mike (everydayupsandowns) 's last comment is 100% correct - we will be there to cheer you on and offer any help we can to you - and we certainly don't only operate 5 days a week during office hours!
I'm no kid myself (72) and nowhere near as physically capable as I once. was but assure you that I for one am nowhere near brain dead .... yet, obviously!!
Seriously - I'd personally very much rail against that assessment of my own capabilities. I'm pretty certain some of my - also elderly friends with and without diabetes - would too. One such lady owned and ran a UK diabetes forum which ran happily alongside this one for a good many years, she's now 74 and a couple of years ago, it was mutually agreed that the burning need for that extra forum (cos there weren't originally all that many Type 1 participants) had passed and this one was therefore now quite suitable for most of us.
Anyway - Mike (everydayupsandowns) 's last comment is 100% correct - we will be there to cheer you on and offer any help we can to you - and we certainly don't only operate 5 days a week during office hours!
Thank you very much Trophywench for your encouraging words. In just the short time I have been a member of the forum I feel so much better and will certainly be better informed on my next visit for my HBA1c. I certainly will list any questions I need answers to when at the surgery. Once again Thank you all of you who have been so helpful, cheerful and downright welcoming.
Roxie
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