Stubborn

[Emmakeets]

I suppose I'm posting this for some sort of accountability. I have had diabetes now for 6 years and have been very lapse in looking after myself.

Last month I had my sixth operation on an abscess as a result of high blood sugars and whilst in there it was found I had ketones.

At 26 I've now decided that I'm too old to continue to ignore my health and I need to start taking it seriously. From now I'm committing to taking my insulin every day as I should and no longer living in denial.

I struggle a lot with reading the forums as I often see people who control their diabetes so quickly and I feel like a complete failure that 6 years on I'm still nowhere near to gaining control. My partner and I desperately want to try for a baby and again I feel like I let everyone down because I just can't seem to get my head around it.

I have an appointment with the consultant at the end of the month so I'm hoping to be able to give him good news for once and get less lectures.

 

[Donna P]

Don’t beat yourself up it is really difficult to get good control and sometimes near impossible even when you do all the right things! The good news is a good pregnancy is possible though you do have to be very careful in pregnancy. I was terrified but managed to have a healthy baby who is now 16 even though my blood sugars were not text book. Just wanted to give you some hope x

 

[trophywench]

Ring the diabetes clinic where you are seeing the consultant and say you also need to talk to a specialist nurse that day and say upfront that you need pre-conception advice asap please.

They can advise you on diet, drugs, BG testing, you name it help is there for us all. They will help you get your HbA1c to the level it needs to be to have as successful a pregnancy as possible. Unfortunately - very high A1c and uncontrolled diabetes through pregnancy doe not result in a happy ending usually - that's why they are there to help1

 

[Grannylorraine]

Hi Emma for some of us it takes longer to accept the diagnosis and start making changes, the main thing now is that you have decided to start looking after yourself and making changes. I can't comment on diabetes and conception/pregnancy as I was in my 50's before i had my diagnosis.

 

[Martin Canty]

At 26 I've now decided that I'm too old to continue to ignore my health and I need to start taking it seriously

Good for you, Emma..... For me, the realization that I had a chronic illness which had a very real possibility of complications was enough to kick-start me into action (I had ignored my health for years before diagnosis) now I'm in the best shape I have been in in years. TBH I think that being diagnosed T2 has given me more years than having them taken away!!!

 

[Maz2]

Good luck with all this Emma. From your photo you look very young to have to be coping with all this for the last six years. I was pre-diabetic, got out of it, now in it again unfortunately and not sure why.

I don't mind having to restrict myself but I am 64 years old so don't expect my health to "play ball" like it used to but I can fully understand why you would find all this difficult at such a young age.

I questioned my GP as to how Michael Moseley could reverse diabetes and yet I cannot seem to sort mine out on a permanent basis but he said that they don't have all the answers as to why one person can and one person cannot. We are all different. Please don't beat yourself up about it but I do hope you have some luck with sorting out your diabetes and starting a family.

 

[Shiv Gaffney]

Emma, at least you are now starting to take positive action and the outcome can be good. I wasn't exactly your "model" diabetic in my teens and 20s but in my 30s had my daughter who is now a very healthy 15 year old. The sooner you get a handle on this and talk to your team and any as Jenny says a nurse re: preparing for parenthood the better.

Don't dwell on the past. You can't undo what you didn't do but you can take charge now and the future can be positive.🙂 Make that phone call.