Newbie

[sais]

Good evening everyone.
Im very new to diabatese insulin.I Have been in hospital fot a month with failed kidney and sepsis.Was controlled diabetes but my body now needs insulin.Im finding things daunting.As its very different.I no when my sugar goes low to have sugar and carbs.Then I redo it and it goes to high.Not talking about a bar of chocolate lol.. I wish...
Im trying to get a nutritionist to help but the hospital is so busy.
Is there a good book anyone can recommend please.Thankyou.
Welcome all other newbies.

 

[Inka]

Welcome @sais 🙂 I hope you’re feeling a little better now. Can I just ask a little about your diabetes type? You said you were controlled but now need insulin. Are you Type 1 (an auto-immune condition) or are you an insulin-treated Type 2?

And what insulin(s) are you taking? That will affect the advice you receive.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome from me too.

So sorry to hear that you have been unwell and in hospital with such serious illness but hope you are now on the road to recovery.
Yes, balancing insulin with carbs with tricky. The general advice is to have 15g fast acting carbs when you are hypo and retest in 15 minutes (this is referred to as the "15 rule") If you have not come up above 4 after 15 mins then you have another 15g of fast acting carbs and wait another 15 mins and repeat as necessary. Once you come up above 4, then it is advised to have 5-10g of slower acting carbs to stabilize but I find that sometimes just 5g of fast acting carbs is all I need to treat a hypo and if I have more I will end up in double figures. So if I am mid 3s I just need 1 jelly baby (JB) and if I am high 2s or low 3s I have 10g (2JBs) and that usually sorts it without any need for longer acting carbs. You have to figure out what works best for your body. I am very sensitive to carbs, so it is very easy to over treat a hypo and I have to be very disciplined.

Which insulins have you been prescribed? Do you have Freestyle Libre or are you finger pricking to get your BG levels. If using Libre, it is important to finger prick when you are treating a hypo as Libre can be slow to register your body responding to treatment and can lead to overtreating a hypo.

It does take quite a bit of time to find the balance with insulin and learn how your body responds so do be patient with yourself and accept that there will be some trial and error before you become more competent. Always err on the side of caution and overtreat rather than undertreat a hypo and do ask your team about putting you forward for a DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) course or whatever your local equivalent is. This is usually an intensive 5 day course which should really help you start to understand how it all works and how to keep yourself safe in a whole variety of everyday situations. You can also do an online version which you can self refer to called BERT1E and will give you a lot of background information. Hopefully someone will be able to post a link to that.

The 2 books most frequently recommended by people on the forum are "Think Like a Pancreas" by Gary Schneider and Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults" by Ragnar Hanas. Don't be put off by the title if you are a more mature adult as it is applicable to everyone.
Ultimately though, we are all different and you have to figure out how your individual body responds, so there is a lot of experimenting on yourself involved in learning what works for you personally. Here on the forum we can suggest things to try that may work for us individually but only you can find out what works for you. My best advice is not to get too worried about making mistakes, as long as you learn from them and always keep one eye on erring on the side of caution with regard to hypos but having realistic expectation is really important too. I naively thought that hypos would be extremely rare and might only happen maybe once or twice a year when in fact I currently have several a week despite my diabetes management being really good. Whilst ideally having less would be the ideal, my insulin needs vary a lot and balancing it is tricky and I have a life to lead so sometimes I take my eye off the ball and get caught out.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @sais

So sorry to hear about your nasty illnesses. Hope you are well on the road to recovery now

It’s a tricky time to get appointments isn’t it - still such a backlog left over from the pandemic.

How long have you been living with diabetes? And how were you treating your diabetes before the kidney troubles and sepsis?

 

[sais]

I thought i was doing good.lost 2 stone.I was going through a divorce.my stress was awful.I was never on the cards to have insulin.frightening my review in june was good.But there was three things which resulted to my failed kidneys.sepsis was a big one.
So now im in recovery.They give insulin for 3 months.But it depends if my body can do without it...

 

[sais]

Welcome @sais 🙂 I hope you’re feeling a little better now. Can I just ask a little about your diabetes type? You said you were controlled but now need insulin. Are you Type 1 (an auto-immune condition) or are you an insulin-treated Type 2?

And what insulin(s) are you taking? That will affect the advice you receive.

Im insulin no 1 for my failed kidneys.We will see they said if kidneys start getting better.x

 

[sais]

Welcome to the forum @sais

So sorry to hear about your nasty illnesses. Hope you are well on the road to recovery now

It’s a tricky time to get appointments isn’t it - still such a backlog left over from the pandemic.

How long have you been living with diabetes? And how were you treating your diabetes before the kidney troubles and sepsis?

Sorry put it straight on forum.Trying to get the hang of this.lol..

 

[Inka]

Im insulin no 1 for my failed kidneys.We will see they said if kidneys start getting better.x

Ok, so that sounds like you’re Type 2? Well done on your 2 stone weight loss - that’s excellent. It must be upsetting and frustrating to have kidney problems and sepsis interfere with your control and your progress. I hope things settle down and you can eventually come off insulin or reduce it.

When you treat a low blood sugar, it’s very easy to overtreat it. I still do it myself and I’ve had Type 1 for decades. I find Dextro glucose tablets good because you can have 2 or 3 and not be tempted to eat more. Then follow it up with something like a digestive biscuit or a slice of bread so that your blood sugar doesn’t drop down again. You’ll gradually learn what amounts work for you.

 

[sais]

Ok, so that sounds like you’re Type 2? Well done on your 2 stone weight loss - that’s excellent. It must be upsetting and frustrating to have kidney problems and sepsis interfere with your control and your progress. I hope things settle down and you can eventually come off insulin or reduce it.

When you treat a low blood sugar, it’s very easy to overtreat it. I still do it myself and I’ve had Type 1 for decades. I find Dextro glucose tablets good because you can have 2 or 3 and not be tempted to eat more. Then follow it up with something like a digestive biscuit or a slice of bread so that your blood sugar doesn’t drop down again. You’ll gradually learn what amounts work for you.

Yes you are right.I have been having two jelly babies.Well from today.no more over eating..im learning slowly.i thought i was no1...interesting im still no 2..wasnt explained to me..Thanks