Another newbie mum

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Celery

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Hi. I am the mother of a 13 year old who has this weekend been diagnosed with T1 whilst he's 300 miles away visiting his dad. Thankfully he is in very experienced hands because his dad was diagnosed as T1 at a similar age and immediately picked up on the initial symptoms and acted fast.

I have to admit I am a little nervous about him coming home because my only experience of the condition is from my relationship with his dad who was obviously experienced and didn't need any help from me to help him come to terms with having the condition and coping with it. We also have the added complications of transferring information from a Yorkshire NHS trust to a West Wales one.

i am secretly a little bit pleased that he is with his dad for his first week post diagnosis where he will be learning a lot through his dad's experiences and support and he already knows that you can live a normal life with the condition. I may need more support than my son does to be honest!
 
Hi Celery, welcome to the forum 🙂 I'm very sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis, but it is good that his dad is experienced and presumably your son has some experience also from knowing about his dad's condition.

I would highly recommend getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas. It covers just about everything you need to know about Type1 and is written in a very positive, easy to follow style.

Please do ask any questions you may have and we will do our best to help! 🙂
 
Hi Celery. 🙂 Sorry to hear of your boy's diagnosis. Here is the right place for you to find support. Very best wishes.
 
Welcome Celery. Sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. There are plenty of members here who will be able to help with the specifics of being a parent to a teenager diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, being a mainly single parent, specifics of diabetes care in Wales etc. Worth putting Wales as your location, as NHS policies do vary between nations of UK. No doubt someone will say that an insulin pump is the answer, but your son may find he prefers using insulin injections, especially if that's what his Dad uses - I'm guessing there.
 
Welcome to the forum 🙂

The good thing hear is that his dad can also give you good advise as he has t1 himself as and when you need it...so at least you do have someone on your side with lots of good information, and who better than his dad?

Lots of parents on hear so ask away!!

All the best 🙂
 
Hi Celery - pleased you found the forum 🙂

There is a lot of information to take in and lots to organise at first but you will get to grips with it all. Hopefully your son's dad is sharing his experiences and helping to accept this new way of doing things. You will need support yourself at times and you have found a good place to come to 🙂🙂
 
Thanks all for the welcome.

His dad and I split nearly 8 years ago so I am a bit rusty because I've not needed to think about it for a few years. From the info his dad helpfully wrote in an email for me today they seem to be on very similar regimes. The only difference being ex hubby used to have a syringe and vial of long acting insulin for his night time dose and my son has been given a pen for that which will be a lot easier.

Fortunately I know what a hypo is how to recognise it and what to do in that situation, and I totally recognise that ketone breath smell too. I am a bit more nervous about the carb counting because my ex used to do all that in his head and I will obviously have to help my son with that, but what I can gather his accu check aviva expert is way more advanced technology than my ex's testing kit (he has joked with my son that he's going to keep it) and is helping him lots with the maths involved. We will get there, and it will become second nature in time, I just need to tiptoe the line between smothering him and supportively being there for him when he wants the help and assistance
 
Hi, re: carb counting, we use the "Carbs & Cals" book by Diabetes UK, it has a visual and a weighing guide to many food-stuffs, there are apps for this type of thing too for phones and tablets, which are handy when you are out and about. A lot of chain restaurants like MacDonalds and PizzaHut have a list of the carbs in their foods too - always worth a google search. 🙂
 
Hi Celery & welcome. You will learn every day & get better at working it all out. Good luck 🙂
 
Hi Celery

Sorry to hear what has happened to your son, it's a big shock at first. You are lucky that you have some prior experience of the condition, although it is a bit different when you have to look after it yourself!

Hopefully your son will be picking up some excellent starting tips from his dad and then when he comes home you will be able to learn together. Carb counting is not so hard once you've done it a few times, I would also highly recommend Carbs and Cals, the book went everywhere with me for the first few months, I have got the app on my phone now too (Android) so I don't have to carry the book everywhere. I couldn't have done without it at first but now can do a lot of things from memory and am getting better at judging things by eye, so I don't have to weigh absolutely everything any more!! I would also recommend keeping a food diary, you can look back and see what you did last time and whether it was accurate or not.

Good luck, it is tough at first but it sounds like you have a good starting point and it does get easier with time. My daughter is only 7 now so I can't offer any advice on teenagers, but your son will be able to do more for himself than my daughter can which sounds like a good thing, you can learn together and support him but won't have to do everything for him! Glad you found this forum, ask anything and ther is always someone who knows the answer 🙂
 
Hiya Celery. Sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. You sound pretty relaxed and experienced already! Good luck to you both with evthing.🙂 Keep us posted!🙂
 
I forgot to mention also, the Accu Chek Aviva Expert is great, all you have to work out is the total amount of carbs for the meal, put that into the meter after doing the test and it will calculate the exact insulin dose for you. If blood sugar is high it will also add some on to correct it too. So provided the medical team have helped your son to set up all the ratios correctly then it makes life a lot easier! (although there might be a little trial and error involved at first to get it right, and then nothing stays the same for ever!)

Good luck with transferring to the different medical team too, hope it all goes well 🙂
 
Hi there celery nice to meet you, sorry to hear about your son but you seem very much in control, good luck to you and your son 🙂
 
Hi Celery and welcome.

I am sorry to hear about your son but it sounds as if has got a good headstart in getting to grips with it all. Good luck when he gets home.
 
My 13 year old autistic son has been diagnosed with type 1 just under 2 weeks ago I'm really struggling to get my head round everything :(
 
Sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. You don't have to feel alone, Carole. There are lots of people on here to advise and support. It IS scary at first, cos there's so much info to take in, but it does get better. 😱
 
Carole1971 said:
My 13 year old autistic son has been diagnosed with type 1 just under 2 weeks ago I'm really struggling to get my head round everything :(
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Hi Carole and welcome 🙂

It's incredibly overwhelming at first, I think we would all agree on that. There is a lot to learn and adapt to for you and your son, 2 weeks in is very new! Pleased you found this forum - there is a lot of support and understanding here so do ask away as you need 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum Carole1971. Sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis. You might like to start your own thread in Newbies, so that more people will welcome you.
 
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