• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Feel like I'm getting a low

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
M

Matt34

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
is it just me or do others get days when it feels like it's all too much to handle. With testing and carb counting plus the rest that life throws at you.

The other day my area manager was asking about my type 1 saying she didn't realise I had to inject at least 5 times a day. When I said we'll with the finger prick if I do it how I'm supposed to it's more like 15 times I stab myself 10 to test and 5 to inject.

She then asked if it would get any better. All I could say was that nope if anything it will get worse when my pancreas stops producing the little insulin is is doing.

That's when I started thinking about it. I'm sure we all do at times. The thought that if I get my dose wrong it could kill me. And I nearly burst into tears.

I put a brace face on and put up my wall of comedy to protect myself but some days I just get low and fed up with it.
 
Hi Matt, this happens to all of us from time to time, so you're certainly not alone in feeling this way :( Probably, talking to your boss brought it home to you how she doesn't have to do any of this, but you know you have no choice. I try to just get on with it, do the tests and injections then immediately move on - try not to overthink things or worry about what might happen, that takes far more energy than it's worth, take it a day at a time. If you feel that things are really getting on top of you then speak to your DSN or GP, they will be used to hearing about these feelings. It doesn't just apply to diabetes, it's the same whatever chronic condition you have that simply isn't going to go away. You might also like to talk to someone on the Diabetes UK Helpline, they have trained staff that will be able to help:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/helpline

They also have a page about 'Diabetes Burnout', which you may find helpful:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Life-with-diabetes/Diabetes-burnout/

Hope you are feeling brighter soon 🙂
 
Matt34 said:
is it just me or do others get days when it feels like it's all too much to handle. With testing and carb counting plus the rest that life throws at you.

The other day my area manager was asking about my type 1 saying she didn't realise I had to inject at least 5 times a day. When I said we'll with the finger prick if I do it how I'm supposed to it's more like 15 times I stab myself 10 to test and 5 to inject.

She then asked if it would get any better. All I could say was that nope if anything it will get worse when my pancreas stops producing the little insulin is is doing.

That's when I started thinking about it. I'm sure we all do at times. The thought that if I get my dose wrong it could kill me. And I nearly burst into tears.

I put a brace face on and put up my wall of comedy to protect myself but some days I just get low and fed up with it.
Click to expand...
I was in the same position as you just a few weeks ago, felt so very down with everything, and you will still get days like that years down the line, with a lot of help from the guys on here and an extra appointment with the DSN I felt much happier again 🙂 just know your not alone and whenever you need someone that just 'gets it' come straight on here, I hope you start to feel better soon 🙂 x
 
I am type 2, but I still get down days when I wish I could just eat what I want, and not have to keep stabbing myself. So I think it is normal to feel down from time to time and overwhelmed by it. Hope you are in a better place today.
 
I get days like this too, I guess it's the enormity of it all and the fact it is forever hitting home. It doesn't help that some friends and colleagues sometimes say 'I don't know how you do it, I couldn't. Bet you just wish you could have a day off and have a nice bottle of wine and eat a box of chocolates, etc.' The diabetes-burnout is interesting to read.
 
Matt34 said:
That's when I started thinking about it. I'm sure we all do at times. The thought that if I get my dose wrong it could kill me. And I nearly burst into tears.

I put a brace face on and put up my wall of comedy to protect myself but some days I just get low and fed up with it.
Click to expand...

You are certainly not alone in this. I think that a lot of people find it all a bit overwhelming at times. Do talk to someone about it and ask for help if you find it difficult to manage. I also find a good rant on here can help sometimes. People on here will understand.

The info on the DUK about burnout I found very useful.
Be nice to yourself and take things day by day.
.
 
When I was diagnosed you were automatically admitted to hospital till you were a bit sorted out - about 10 days in my case.

Just having my jab one morning about 3 days later when Brenda in the next bed's voice came floating round the curtain between us (we'd taken to each other fairly instantly) 'I'd die if I had to do that!' and I never stopped or even thought when I replied in our usual sarcastic vein, 'Really Bren? - I'd die if I didn't!'

She didn't mean how it sounds - she was always concerned for me, lovely woman - but it just hadn't really 'hit' me before, not smack in the face like that. Realising that hers was a throwaway remark; just another way of saying, 'Fancy having to keep doing that, I hope I never have to' - but though my remark was also a quick throwaway line that I hadn't really put much thought into either, it was blooming well true.

And I just had to cope with it on my own, cos neither my husband nor my mom nor my friend nor my sister were there - or just start wailing - and that wouldn't change anything, and would just give me a headache anyway - so I shrugged my shoulders and got on with the business of the morning , exchanging sarky comments and often very catty remarks about our fellow detainees, the nurses hair or whatever it was, sotto voce with the lady in the next bed!
 
Hi Matt36
I think it's fair to say we've all felt like that at one time or another, so it's fairly normal. Having said that being just 3 years in I know that it will feel nothing like normal to you at this precise moment. I nearly spat at my DSN when she said it's normal to feel like that, because good grief it was anything but normal for me. What I wanted to say was "seriously, how is that useful, none of this is normal, it's crappy and horrible and I just want it to go away". I didn't of course, I smiled and nodded because I was frightened if I opened the flood gates then I wouldn't be able to close them and I'd be in the evening paper headline reading "woman goes postal at diabetes clinic and pelts nurse with jelly babies". There's a lot of talk about doses, and testing and jabbing and cholesterol and blood pressure and all those easy numerical type things, but little about the actual things that change, it's massive and life changing and honestly I found the emotional side far more difficult than the rest. They would be fussing about the Maths as if that was a challenge, very slowly describing how to work out a ratio which I've known how to do since I was 11 whilst I'm thinking, never mind that how the hell do I cope with the rest of this, will I ever get a decent nights sleep again, do I need to ditch the pension payments and have a beano now? What if I can't get this under control? Will I be able to work? Why did I randomly cry on a bus about Christmas lattes in February? I remember coming on here and saying that nobody ever actually asked me how I was coping or feeling, that's because I picked up the jabbing, testing and ratios so easily I think, and that meant I was fine. I wasn't fine at all, I was crumbling. The good news is I came here and then I stopped crumbling. The best advice I ever got from a friend of mine was "don't fight it you won't win". She didn't mean the diabetes she meant the emotion, I was trying to hold it all in, and wasn't winning, I felt like I was on the edge of either a nuclear explosion or becoming a blabbing mess. What I'm trying to say in my usual "too many words" kind of a way is let it out, if you need to cry, cry, I admit doing so in front of your boss is probably not ideal but let it out, you'll feel better, and if you don't feel better do it again. Talk to us, your family, friends, partner or a medical professional if that works better, just don't try and hold it all in. It's massive and life changing and horrible at times and it deserves a good snot filled dribbling cry. After that if you still feel low then it's time to start thinking about more help. Here's the other best piece of advice I was ever given, there is no normal, doesn't exist and it's irrelevant, there's how you feel and that's it, doesn't matter if it's irrational, weird, numb, neutral, it's the way you feel.

The good news, I'm still standing, even after crumbling, several snot dripping cries, and the odd full on toddler like paddy. I made it, and I'm sure you can too, hang in there and don't keep it to yourself 🙂
 
I agree entirely with @KookyCat - I used to burst into tears at almost random moments - and providing I was alone or in the right company (family or really good mates) I just let it happen. Then take some paracetamol (cos it always gave me a headache and hurt my throat with the big rasping sobs) give myself a mental shake and get on with my life again.

One day it happened and a while afterwards I suddenly thought - Whoa! that's was odd - that hasn't happened for ages now! And eventually - it simply stopped completely and that was that.
 
Yes Matt, I think it's safe to say we all have down days like that.
I find it hard to talk about it to anyone (as none of my family or friends have it) so come on here and have a read, sometimes have a giggle at some of the posts and it normally makes me feel, well, a bit less crappy about it all.
But then sometimes the "it's forever" factor hits me. That's one that I do struggle with for some reason. Maybe it's because I've only been diagnosed for a year (ish) and it's all still a bit new, I don't know.
When this happens my coping mechanism is to
a) try and remember that I am quite lucky to actually still be here, I was really quite ill when diagnosed,
b) try and make the most of every day I have, as now each one is a bit special (I know it sounds corny but it seems to work for me),
c) try and make sure I do something today for my kids or mrs zx that will make them smile.
And for me the last one makes the all the measuring and weighing and finger pricking worthwhile 🙂
regards
zx
 
I certainly feel like that, sometimes @Matt34 . I don't think we'd be human if we didn't feel like that some days. I've had one of those weeks, where you think - what's going to get thrown at me next? But, be strong - you can do it.

I had to laugh on Saturday - I organised lunch for a group of beginner needlefelters who kept stabbing themselves. I said, 'Welcome to my world!' When I told them to lick their fingers I got - 'Oooh I don't like the taste of blood.' I was not sympathetic:D
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top