• 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 so alone

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

karenratcliffe

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi everyone, have had terrible hypos recently, the last few weeks. I had a hypo and bit my boyfriends daughter, i cant remember it. She is fine and she told me she still loves me, bless her. Things have been really bad the last 2 weeks. I have moved in with my boyfriend, i have been living with him for at least 6 months now and still havent been seen by anyone about my diabetes. When i moved in with him i changed my address and my old hospital said that they would transfer all my notes over to the nearest hospital, but no they havent done this. I went to the doctors after my bad hypo and told him what i did, he then said that i urgently need to be seen so they have written to the hospital for me and have said that i need an appointment urgently, but still nothing in the post for me to see anyone.
I am getting really depressed with my diabetes now, its getting me down.
Sorry for ranting everyone just needed to get it off my chest. x
 
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

Sorry to hear you've been having a rough time with your diabetes lately, and how typical that just when you could do with some clinic support, the docs haven't got their act together and registered you! Where is your nearest hospital or do you know which hospital the GP is going to refer you to? Perhaps you could look it up on the NHS website and phone up the consultant's secretary to find out where you stand?

What type of insulin are you using? Lots of us on here are happy to try and help and advise if you need it 🙂
 
Hi Redkite
Thanks for your comment. Yes i know it is typical. Yes they are refering me to Morriston Hospital, which is about 10 mins away from where i live. I have spoken to them but she has said that without the other hospital sending them my notes they are not allowed to give me any advice etc, i phoned the old hospital and they have said that they are dealing with it and my notes will be sent over when they have time to do it. I am so dissapointed.
I am on Lantus Solostar and i take 30 units at 6pm every evening and humalog then when i eat. I have lost my blood machine, the one that you put in how many carbs you eat and it tells me how much of the humalog to take, so i asked my doctors if they had a spare one the other day and she told me no, but gave me a different one, ok so i can test my blood but am unsure of how much insulin i should be taking, its a guessing game for me at the moment. :( x
 
Sorry to hear of the problems you are having Karen :(

I don't know whether you registered your old 'smart' meter with the manufacturer and whether you can remember whether it was the Accu-Chek Expert or the Insulinx (the two meters that offer bolus advice) but even if you didn't it might be worth contacting the manufacturer to see if they will supply a replacement for a lost meter.

In the meantime... did you set up the meter yourself, or did your DSN do it for you? Can you remember many of the settings? You could use what you can remember to try to help work out your doses (especially if you have a calculator on your phone!)

Hope you manage to get registered at the hospital soon.
 
It was the Accu-Chek Expert, no my DSN set it all up for me, she was doing it so fast so have no idea how to do it myself.
I will contact them now and see if they can replacement but no i did not register it with them :( x
 
karenratcliffe said:
It was the Accu-Chek Expert, no my DSN set it all up for me, she was doing it so fast so have no idea how to do it myself.
I will contact them now and see if they can replacement but no i did not register it with them :( x
Click to expand...
It's definitely worth phoning up the manufacturers - usually they will be only too happy to send you a replacement, because they know how much money they will make on the prescribed testing strips! Presumably you're getting all your prescriptions ok through your new GP? It's ridiculous that you are just left hanging because some admin person can't get off their backside and send your notes across! Surely your GP can refer you for an urgent appointment and you can go from there? When we moved hospitals with my son, we gave all his history to the new consultant ourselves face-to-face, no waiting about! Anyway (sorry if I'm ranting!), if you need a bit of general advice from the folks on here, feel free to post a few BG results and where you think you're having problems and we'll try to help 🙂

Also, do you have the book "Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People" by Ragnar Hanas? It's not just for kids, it's practically a bible for finding solutions to your type 1 problems - I would HIGHLY recommend you get a copy. I found it incredibly helpful when my son was under his old (useless) hospital team, and we were getting no support.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Type-1-Diab...8&qid=1381236411&sr=8-1&keywords=ragnar+hanas

Please don't feel alone with this!
 
karenratcliffe said:
i phoned the old hospital and they have said that they are dealing with it and my notes will be sent over when they have time to do it.
Click to expand...

I would be livid with that response, how long do they expect you to wait. I know that we have a couple of members who work or worked in the medical profession and may be able to advise on if there is anyone you could contact.

I thought of the care quality commission but don't know if they would be appropriate though they may be able to give you the information on who to talk to.

http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us
 
Hi Karen

Firstly, if you KEEP going hypo overnight, then you definitely need to reduce your Lantus straight away, always assuming you haven't taken any Humalog within 4-5 hours prior to the hypos. Personally, I'd knock 2 units off for starters, and see if that helps. If not, keep reducing it until the hypos don't happen - you have to stop them FIRST before you can rely on any of the carb counting results.

If it's any help, the rule of thumb for starting to adjust insulin doses for meals is to start at 1unit of Humalog to every 10g of carbohydrate you are about to eat, so for instance if you have a sandwich made with 2 slices of white medium sliced bread (off a large loaf) or two pieces of toast made with that bread, that would be 30g carbohydrate (15g a slice) so you would take your BG before eating, and inject 3 units of Humalog. (I know the bread packets say it's about 17g a slice, but I've found it isn't!)

Test hourly after eating it. After 4-5 hours, your BG should be right back where it started before that meal. (near enough, not exactly) If it's more than the starting point you need more insulin, if it's much less than where you started, then you need less Humalog.

For correcting, the starting point is that 1u of Humalog will wipe off between 2.5 and 3.0 from your meter reading. So eg if your BG was 10, and you wanted it to be 7, take 1 unit.

All this is trial and error though, hence you have to test quite a lot whilst you are trying to get your ratios worked out.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top