• 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

First time on saying hi

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
The dietrician is coming back to see us Monday so we are staying until then. To be honest I want to get home so we can start adjusting ourselves as although we are doing the tests and injections well my son is 🙂, I want to be able to get him especially back to some normality so we can work through any issues, difficulties or adjustments at home. My concern is the wife as she panics more so if we have to stay another day so we are all ok about this then we will.
 
Bloods tonight 7.5 2am and 6.5 4.15am

So better than yesterday.

Hope you all don't mind keep posting but nice to be able to put it somewhere.
 
Post as much as you wish! 🙂

Something you might wish to consider looking into is the Freestyle Libre - this is a device that gives a continuous indication of blood glucose levels and can help to determine how the body is reacting to glucose and insulin. It's not a substitute for fingerprick testing and is not currently licensed for children, but lots of parents use them. They are not cheap, and there is a long waiting list to get them, so might be worth putting your name down for one if you think it is something you can afford and will find useful (most of us would like one, or even better its bigger cousin the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGMS) which gives real time readings and can also alarm when low. CGMS are very expensive though).

Don't worry if this sort of thing is out of your reach, most of us manage without them, but thought I would bring them to your attention 🙂
 
Thanks northerner. Things to look at

I had the glucose monitor on my questions list to ask 🙂
 
Hi Cofito,
the best advice I can give you is discuss everything with your son, involve him in everything, food choices amounts of insulin etc. it's his condition and he will have it with him for the next 80 years unless a cure is found.
Any high numbers do not start an enquiry over them just between you work out how much is needed for a correction dose. If you start criticising (in his eyes) you have lost before you start. Teenagers with or without diabetes have been known to be hell.
Glad to hear your son has his priorities sorted out ( Christmas dinner) :D
 
Pumper_sue thanks

I am talking to him about everything and he's taking control over what he eats. Even snacks / sweets at the moment added to meals. Won't be all the time when we are out of hospital 🙂.

He has packed lunch at school. have said we will go through it all each morning and he can choose what he wants to eat, snacks as well. And then carb count. So all done before he goes to school.

He has been mentioning about blurred vision today so seems not going up hide things. All though the Dr thinks it's a case of having an eye test rather than anything to do with diabetes.

Still early days and loads to learn but all advice is really welcome.
 
I'm not sure about what the doctor says about an eye test. It's very common for newly-diagnosed people to have blurry vision, as the high glucose distorts the lens of the eye, and it can become especially noticeable as you start on insulin and start to recover - I could barely read at all at the end of my 8 days in hospital, and then my sight returned to normal (in fact, better than I had thought 'normal' prior to diagnosis!) over the next couple of weeks. Recently diagnosed people are usually told not to invest in new glasses for a few weeks in case the money is entirely wasted when sight returns to normal 🙂
 
Cofito said:
He has been mentioning about blurred vision today so seems not going up hide things. All though the Dr thinks it's a case of having an eye test rather than anything to do with diabetes.
Click to expand...
If your son had high numbers before diagnoses and has now come down quite quickly then yes it will be to do with diabetes, once he has settled into good numbers his eyes will return to normal. So do not be to hasty in forking out for glasses also tell the optician when son was diagnosed.
 
Cofito said:
Thanks northerner. Things to look at

I had the glucose monitor on my questions list to ask 🙂
Click to expand...

Hi Cofito

Your son will be given a glucose monitor. An essential bit of kit. There are plenty on the market and in theory you should be able to choose which one you want that best suits your needs. In practice some surgeries are now imposing particular brands of meters on patients as a cost saving measure. If you fight your corner you should get the strips for the meter of your choice.

As Northerner mentions, the Freestyle Libre is a great option. Not currently on prescription so at the moment it's through self funding. The waiting list is, I think, about 6 months - link to the site below. There is talk of it being put on prescription maybe even next year so it's wait and see as regards that.

http://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/

The other CGMs are also an expensive option as they too are only available through self funding.

It's an exciting time with diabetes equipment technology with lots of interesting developments. The input site is a good one to look at.

http://www.inputdiabetes.org.uk/
 
Hi Cofito,

I just wanted to say hi, and welcome you to the forum Everyone is fantastic here 🙂
I started insulin a few months ago, but I wanted to tell you the reassuring information that my dad has been T1 for 55 years, and he still has all his limbs, eyesight, etc 🙂

I've found that when I tell people I'm a diabetic, they love to give me a good horror story - and I think it's perfectly acceptable to tell this people to be quiet! 😛

Glad your son is taking everything in his stride - i hope things continue to improve x
 
My eyes were terrible after about 24 hrs on insulin! Too blurred to read, sew, knit, crochet or watch TV. I couldn't drive then anyway and didn't have my own car so that was no hardship although I was totally mega bored out of my brain - being a clerk in an office - I was off for another 6 weeks after I came out of hospital. (Terribly hard to read the (damn) labels on food when you can't see - and in 1972 we didn't even have this 'ere interwebnet thingy!)

But I was fine after that and didn't have my eyes tested until they were due anyway, though thereafter I have gone religiously every 12 months and have only had new glasses either because my sight's a bit worse through age, or I'm now bored with the frames! Certainly not every year and absolutely not anything to do with D.
 
Cofito said:
Thanks Bloden.

No need to be sorry. Life is all about dealing with things. I'm looking forward to spending more time as a family to manage this so as much as it may sound odd there are always positive aspects to everything.

I will keep posting as we progress 🙂
Click to expand...

Ooh, I love your positive attitude, Cofito. :D My eyesight was blurry too after diagnosis. I got an eye test anyway, just in case / out of interest.
 
Thanks for the eye info. We were going to book eye test tomorrow. May still, but yeah seems it could be as you all say. Best not to do anything to quick.
 
Hello, Cofito, and welcome 🙂 - sorry to hear about your son, but glad that you and he both seem to be coping so well. Must admit when I was diagnosed type 1 (aged 44!) it felt like a bit of an adventure - I'd never been rushed to hospital before, and I was just ill enough to be too out of it to be scared, but just well enough to find it all quite interesting!

I agree with what everyone's said about the blurry vision - that was my first symptom, and it was my optician who first thought I might be diabetic: she said it was best not to prescribe new glasses until I'd had my blood sugar tested. A couple of weeks later I was in hospital and once I was put on insulin, and my sugar levels started coming down my eyesight kept changing - when I came out I could see better without my old glasses than I could with them. So I'd definitely wait a couple of months for that eye test.

The other thing is, I wouldn't do too much googling, or if you do, take what you read with a pinch of salt! Diabetes UK is good (diabetes nurse at hospital recommended it to me), but there is a lot of rubbish out there about diabetes, and some of it makes it sound much scarier than it is.
 
Thanks the clockworkdodo

I am googling who wouldn't but I'm using it to ask questions.

I'm looking at things that crop up time after time or more people say about but do realise that there is a lot of opinions as well as like most things how this effects one person is different to the next do what you do to manage it will be different. The basics way be the same.

Anyway bloods over night were good 6.8 and 7.3 should be going home today.
 
Well we are now home.

Have had all our questions answered to date.

Been shopping and it was nice as for the first time for a long time we were looking at the contents together made shopping fun again.

Cooked first meal and carb counted got a few hours to see if we got it right 🙂.

Thanks to everyone for advice and support from here been really helpful.
 
Glad you're home and hopefully everything will be okay.
 
Well first night happening. Currently son is riding at 14.

Either we miscalculated his carbs. Or I'm not sure why.

His BG was 7 at 8pm. It was although only 1.45 hours after his meal. And he asked for a big meal as they were smaller portions in hospital.

Curry and rice. Would it be a slower carb release that would cause a spike later although it would be a miscount as well.

I thought we had over compensated on carbs at dinner but maybe not.

Now we were told not to worry at the moment anything under 17 but going to check again in an hour then get him to check keytones in the morning. (Probably good for him to do that anyway) and then if still high give a corrective measure with breakfast.

Good thing I'm doing night check as wife would of panicked by now. First day home etc.
 
It's all very new still and there may be other complicating factors e.g. perhaps stress hormones have caused a higher glucose release from the liver. A larger meal than usual, and consequent higher insulin injection, can make things more difficult to judge. I think your team are correct, do not be too concerned about the numbers at the moment, just be aware of them and record them so you can start building up a picture of how things are going generally. Better to be cautious and correct highs than to risk too many hypos. By the way, it's not uncommon to be absolutely ravenous when you have first been put on insulin - I was constantly famished 😱 So don't be surprised if his appetite is strong 🙂

Have you been told about 'Sick Day rules'? If not, take a look at this and perhaps print it our for future reference, it's very good:

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/sick-day-rules-multiple-daily-injections.43081/

Also, do you have blood ketone test strips or urine ones? If urine, then ask your GP to prescribe blood ketone strips as they are far more accurate and useful - the urine strips show ketones an hour after their prescence in blood, so can be misleading. You need a particular meter in order to use the blood strips - I have an Optium Xceed, which I keep as my spare meter as it also reads blood glucose strips.

I hope he is OK this morning, and you have a good day 🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top