Diagnosed with type 1 on my 50th birthday......yikes.

[Dom74]

Hi from another newbie - collecting my first glucose monitor today and a bit behind you on the diagnosis

Hi from another newbie - collecting my first glucose monitor today and a bit behind you on the diagnosis front

Welcome to the club no-one ever asked to join!

There are no silly questions on this forum, though sometimes you might get silly answers but we do try to avoid those. I'm still asking questions sometimes, so ask, ask, ASK.

Hi @Dom74 and welcome to the forum - although I didn't end up in hospital (fortunately) my story is very similar and was diagnosed at the ripe old age of 47 - ask any questions you may have - we're all here to help & support each other

Hi and thanks.

Welcome @Dom74 🙂 Whatever you find confusing, just ask. A Type 1 diagnosis is a big shock and there’s an awful lot to take on board.

What insulins are you taking?

Hi there. I'm on novorapid and lantus. They all seem to be going well.

 

[Dom74]

Welcome from me too. Also a late starter with Type 1 and diagnosed the day after my 55th birthday but I had a pretty good idea it was diabetes by then as I had been drinking water and weeing for England for a fortnight before that. Coming up to my 6years Diaversary next week.... as well as my birthday of course. 🙄 It is all just part of my new normal now but those early months particularly were a bit overwhelming. All I can say is that it does get better and for me this forum and it's wonderful members have been a real lifeline in learning how to practically manage it, both physically and emotionally. I hope you come to feel the same way too and look forward to hearing more from you.

I was weeing loads for months but it sort of becomes normal and you forget what it was like before. Diabetes has crossed my mind but I didn't want to confront it I didn't even really know what it was. When the consultant told me it was an autoimmune condition I was shocked.There I was thinking it was type2 and cursing my high carb,high sugar diet. Turns out I couldn't have done anything about it. I feel sorry for the kids who have it. At least I've lived normally till now.

 

[Dom74]

I did that at first too, but long term it can lead to a bit of insulin resistance, so you need to inject more to have the same effect...plus, i totally missed bread.
I soon worked out ho to manage my levels just as well o normal carb
It can be useful whilst you find your feet though

yeah, i think I needed a hard reset while I processed all the info I was taking in. Google is a great resource but also a terrible one at the same time.

 

[Dom74]

Another member @rebrascora followed that path too, and still finds benefit in a low carb approach. But as @Tdm says, you do have to be a little careful with T1 not to go too low on the carbs as there’s a risk that can lead to insulin resistance in some people.

As always Your Diabetes May Vary.

FWIW I’ve been on a moderate-ish carb menu for 30-odd years, roughly 150-180g of carbs a day. That has always suited me well.

I just want chinese food and beer haha.

 

[Dom74]

Another member @rebrascora followed that path too, and still finds benefit in a low carb approach. But as @Tdm says, you do have to be a little careful with T1 not to go too low on the carbs as there’s a risk that can lead to insulin resistance in some people.

As always Your Diabetes May Vary.

FWIW I’ve been on a moderate-ish carb menu for 30-odd years, roughly 150-180g of carbs a day. That has always suited me well.

Yes, I have found lots of health benefits in following a low carb, higher fat way of eating, plus it has stopped the cravings for sweet stuff and therefore greatly helps me control binge/comfort eating. I do have to inject for protein release a lot of the time as, in the absence of enough carbs in a meal, the body breaks down about 40% of protein into glucose, but it only starts to release 2 hours after the meal and continues for several more hours, so I prebolus for whatever few carbs are in the meal and then keep an eye on my Libre and if levels start rising 2 hours later I jab a small correction and if they continue to rise I might need to jab a second correction. This might seem like a bit of a faff, but works really well for me and my high alarm is set at 8.2 and when that goes off I know I need a couple of units because I rarely have enough carbs to take me above 8.
This is of course just what works for me, and in the early days of diagnosis, you are likely still able to produce enough insulin to cover the protein release because it is just a very slow steady rise. Once your own insulin production fully dries up, then you have to start injecting for it, but for me the benefits far outweigh the minor inconvenience of extra jabs and it is just my way of life.

Jeez it all seems so complicated.There was me thinking only carbs made glucose.I suppose you just have to eat things,see how much you spike then add a little more insulin next time. Which is basically what I've been doing up to now.

 

[CliffH]

Hi and thanks.

Hi there. I'm on novorapid and lantus. They all seem to be going well.

I'm also on those

 

[Inka]

I just want chinese food and beer haha.

There’s no reason why you can’t have those. You just have to experiment a little and see what dose and timing works. I eat Chinese, Indian, fish and chips, cake, puddings, etc. It just takes a little more thought (and practice!)

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I just want chinese food and beer haha.

No reason why you can’t still enjoy those! You may just need a bit of experimentation to get a dosing strategy that works for you.

What several of us find is that particularly large meals, and especially ones higher in fat like takeaways, tend to absorb over na much longer timeframe than ‘standard’ meals.

Which can mean that if you dose for the whole lot in one go, the insulin gets ahead of the slowly digesting gutful, and you end up dropping low 1-2 hours after the meal, only to rise very high later on when the rest of the carbs finally arrive.

One option is to split the large bolus, and take some up front, and the rest an hour or two later (precise timings and splits vary person-to-person).

You may also find that larger meals need a slightly stronger ratio (more insulin) than normal meals. One US diabetes educator, John Walsh, suggests this can happen when the carb count of the meal goes over your weight in kilos or thereabouts.

In practical terms what I’ve done is ended up dosing as if I were eating approx 1/3 more carbs than I am expecting/guessestimating to. (I vaguely know how much takeaway I generally eat, and just eat ‘about that much’ without counting it too exactly). Then I tend to split 50:50 or 60:40 with about a 2hr gap. This spreads the insulin action over a longer timeframe. It works more often than it completely fails. 😉

You will have to keep notes and make your own experiments to work out a basic approach that seems to suit your diabetes. But on the plus side that does mean eating those meals while you experiment 😛

 

[SB2015]

In practical terms what I’ve done is ended up dosing as if I were eating approx 1/3 more carbs than I am expecting/guessestimating to. (I vaguely know how much takeaway I generally eat, and just eat ‘about that much’ without counting it too exactly). Then I tend to split 50:50 or 60:40 with about a 2hr gap. This spreads the insulin action over a longer timeframe. It works more often than it completely fails. 😉

Do you still do this in Smartguard Mike?
I have thought about it on the rare occasions that I have a much bigger meal and certainly Smartguard does not always cope as well with those, it then neither did I.

 

[Tdm]

No reason why you can’t still enjoy those! You may just need a bit of experimentation to get a dosing strategy that works for you.

What several of us find is that particularly large meals, and especially ones higher in fat like takeaways, tend to absorb over na much longer timeframe than ‘standard’ meals.

Which can mean that if you dose for the whole lot in one go, the insulin gets ahead of the slowly digesting gutful, and you end up dropping low 1-2 hours after the meal, only to rise very high later on when the rest of the carbs finally arrive.

One option is to split the large bolus, and take some up front, and the rest an hour or two later (precise timings and splits vary person-to-person).

You may also find that larger meals need a slightly stronger ratio (more insulin) than normal meals. One US diabetes educator, John Walsh, suggests this can happen when the carb count of the meal goes over your weight in kilos or thereabouts.

In practical terms what I’ve done is ended up dosing as if I were eating approx 1/3 more carbs than I am expecting/guessestimating to. (I vaguely know how much takeaway I generally eat, and just eat ‘about that much’ without counting it too exactly). Then I tend to split 50:50 or 60:40 with about a 2hr gap. This spreads the insulin action over a longer timeframe. It works more often than it completely fails. 😉

You will have to keep notes and make your own experiments to work out a basic approach that seems to suit your diabetes. But on the plus side that does mean eating those meals while you experiment 😛

What sort of carb count would you say this happens at, as i think i'm getting that late rise at the moment

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

What sort of carb count would you say this happens at, as i think i'm getting that late rise at the moment

It probably depends per person 🙄 (this is diabetes after all!)

For me it’s about 90g CHO.

John Walsh (Pumping Insulin) suggested it might be anything above roughly your weight in kilos* as grams of carbs in a meal.

I wrote about my experiments with big meals here:

New big meal strategy: thirds

Because no two days with type 1 diabetes are the same. Except when they are. The ups and downs of life with T1D.

www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk

* Actually he said ‘half your weight in pounds’, but that’s not far off??

 

[HayleyR]

Yeah I'd been feeling like crap for months maybe even years. Things become normal quickly like the fact that I was urinating loads all the time and had really bad fatigue but you just get on with it don't you. I had noticed my waist was getting thinner even though I was eating loads. I'm on novorapid before meals and lantus at night. I've seen the nurse a couple of times. She thought I must be type 2 because of the small amount of insulin I was on. The next day I saw the consultant who told me it was type 1 due to the massive amount of antibodies in my tests. I'm due to see them both again in March.

Like you, I felt unwell for a long time but didn't really think much about and just got on with life. It was when the symptoms got very severe and I lost so much weigh that I thought OMG what's happening! So yes, a relief to get a diagnosis and at first I thought it would just be a case of cutting out sugar - if only . Honestly there is so much to take on board but it does get easier as you learn how to best manage your own condition, everyone is different and you find what is best for you. Good thing is that technology has moved on so much since I was diagnosed which has helped; I find having a Libre 2 glucose sensor invaluable. Hopefully your consultant and nurse will be very supportive and helpful but please do ask as many questions as you like. I wish I had joined Diabetes UK a lot longer ago - I'm a newbie too......