First timer

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Homer

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi my first time on this forum
Have type 1 and struggling with it
Ive just came out the honeymoon period,my readings are up and down,but the abbots alarm is very helpful.
Im on the nova rapid insulin and tresiba
looking forward to this forum and learning from others, thanks for having me
Homer
 
Welcome @Homer 🙂 Yes, the honeymoon period and shortly afterwards can be a time of erratic sugars. When were you diagnosed? I’m presuming you’re carb counting and adjusting your Novorapid?
 
Hi and welcome from me too.

Looks like you were a late starter with Type 1 like many of us here. It takes a bit of getting your head around and the honeymoon period (and the ending or it) can be a tough time, but hopefully you will be into a bit of smoother sailing soon. Are you getting support from your DSN to increase your doses or have you had a DAFNE course (or whatever your local equivalent is) and assumed to be able to manage it yourself. If you are struggling, do you have a contact number for the clinic to get more support?
What sort of levels are you typically getting at the moment?
 
Inka said:
Welcome @Homer 🙂 Yes, the honeymoon period and shortly afterwards can be a time of erratic sugars. When were you diagnosed? I’m presuming you’re carb counting and adjusting your Novorapid?
Click to expand...
I am adjusting my nova insulin after a conversation with the diabetic team, can call them any mid week morning,not up to carb counting yet but will look into it.
I was diagnosed in October 2021, I was managing my insulin with no problem taking the same quantity every day, It’s since the last week it’s been chaos.
Hopefully in time I will manage it but it’s not that easy,
thanks for responding
 
If it’s all happened in the last week, maybe it’s the heat or an impending illness or something. So much can affect our blood sugars.

Don’t worry about carb counting. It’s not hard 🙂 It used to be taught at diagnosis and still is in a lot of areas. It makes things so much easier, gives flexibility and peace of mind too.
 
Welcome to the forum @Homer
I hope you get your ratios, etc. sorted for now but, sorry to tell you, there are many things that can affect our blood sugars and the honeymoon period can last much longer than two years. I think mine lasted about 8 years.
The important thing is to learn what can affect our BG and have to adjust our dose for it. You mentioned adjusting your NovoRapid but if your insulin needs are higher than before, this includes your Tresiba. The great thing about Tresiba is that it is very long lasting. The annoying this is that this means any changes in dose can take 3 or 4 days to have any affect.

If you have not attended a DAFNE course (or equivalent), I highly recommend pushing for it. This can help you understand the 42 factors that can affect our blood sugars and what to do about it.
Our insulin doses are constantly needing a tweak. Maybe because we are stressed, or exercise more or ill or the weather is hotter or the weather is colder or… maybe the insulin has been left out of the fridge for too long or the insulin pen is damaged or …

What I am saying (in a round about way) is that your honeymoon period is not necessarily over because your blood sugar management has been “chaos” since last week,
 
rebrascora said:
Hi and welcome from me too.

Looks like you were a late starter with Type 1 like many of us here. It takes a bit of getting your head around and the honeymoon period (and the ending or it) can be a tough time, but hopefully you will be into a bit of smoother sailing soon. Are you getting support from your DSN to increase your doses or have you had a DAFNE course (or whatever your local equivalent is) and assumed to be able to manage it yourself. If you are struggling, do you have a contact number for the clinic to get more support?
What sort of levels are you typically getting at the moment?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply
I have contacts with the diabetic team anytime Monday- Friday, very helpful it’s just after the honeymoon period it’s been frantic. I’m glad I have the alarm monitor on my arm, very helpfull
but my levels can change dramatically from 3.5 to 15.8 in half a hour, I think I’m being careful on what I eat but probably will have to find out how much carbs I’m taking in.
The only other problem is my top of legs and stomach are all bruised because of the insulin pens, I’m on a blood thinning tablet and that doesn’t help whatsoever
 
helli said:
Welcome to the forum @Homer
I hope you get your ratios, etc. sorted for now but, sorry to tell you, there are many things that can affect our blood sugars and the honeymoon period can last much longer than two years. I think mine lasted about 8 years.
The important thing is to learn what can affect our BG and have to adjust our dose for it. You mentioned adjusting your NovoRapid but if your insulin needs are higher than before, this includes your Tresiba. The great thing about Tresiba is that it is very long lasting. The annoying this is that this means any changes in dose can take 3 or 4 days to have any affect.

If you have not attended a DAFNE course (or equivalent), I highly recommend pushing for it. This can help you understand the 42 factors that can affect our blood sugars and what to do about it.
Our insulin doses are constantly needing a tweak. Maybe because we are stressed, or exercise more or ill or the weather is hotter or the weather is colder or… maybe the insulin has been left out of the fridge for too long or the insulin pen is damaged or …

What I am saying (in a round about way) is that your honeymoon period is not necessarily over because your blood sugar management has been “chaos” since last week,
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, appreciated
 
If your levels go from 3.5 to 15.8 then it is likely because you over treated a hypo.
What do you use as hypo treatment and how much of it do you have?
Do you check your hypos with a finger prick or just go off Libre? Do you check 15 mins after treatment with a finger prick or just go off Libre again? If the latter then you are likely over treating your hypos when you don't need to. Libre has a delay of about 30 mins when levels are changing direction after a hypo and so you should always finger prick to check that your hypo treatment has worked before taking a second hypo treatment.

How long have you been using Libre and do you know about it's other limitations like compression lows if you lie on the sensor in your sleep?

Sorry to hear that you are bruising so much but I guess if you are on blood thinners there is more of a likelihood of that.
 
Welcome to the forum @Homer

Glad you have found us!

Sorry you’ve been having some difficulties with your diabetes of late :(

Mine did the same in the first few years after diagnosis. It would potter along happily, then things would go completely bonkers.

It has settled down since, and my doses just ebb and flow a little through the year.

Hope you can find the right tweaks to make to your doses to get things back on track.
 
rebrascora said:
If your levels go from 3.5 to 15.8 then it is likely because you over treated a hypo.
What do you use as hypo treatment and how much of it do you have?
Do you check your hypos with a finger prick or just go off Libre? Do you check 15 mins after treatment with a finger prick or just go off Libre again? If the latter then you are likely over treating your hypos when you don't need to. Libre has a delay of about 30 mins when levels are changing direction after a hypo and so you should always finger prick to check that your hypo treatment has worked before taking a second hypo treatment.

How long have you been using Libre and do you know about it's other limitations like compression lows if you lie on the sensor in your sleep?

Sorry to hear that you are bruising so much but I guess if you are on blood thinners there is more of a likelihood of that.
Click to expand...
Hi
I used two units only, had my usual meal two hours ago, I was surprised it went up that quickly, not happen before and I do the finger prickling and it was only .5 out. I did check it about a hour later, it wasn’t much difference so I used 4 units of nova rapid and that did bring it down gradually, I did contact the nurse and she told me that it was probably me coming out the honeymoon period. I’ve used libre for the time I was diagnosed, coming up for two years. It’s just worrying how it changes that quickly and was told to check the levels frequently when I’m like that.
Thanks for your response, it does help
 
So are you saying that when you were at 3.5 you didn't take any hypo treatment, just injected 2 units of insulin for your meal and then ate it? If so, I am wondering if your liver released some glucose because you were hypo and didn't treat it immediately. Did you feel OK at 3.5 or did you feel hypo and was that 3.5 on the Libre or 3.5 finger prick? Libre and a finger prick can often give similar readings when your levels are in range but above and below range it can be further out and you should double check any high or low readings with a finger prick before taking action.

I would be wary of calculating a correction dose for a high reading of 15.8 on Libre because it might only be 12 in reality.

Hopefully you have been told to treat hypos (any reading under 4) with 15g of fast acting carbs and then retest with a finger prick 15 mins later and if you haven't come back up, to eat another 15g fast acting carbs.

It is odd that you have not been introduced to carb counting and dose adjusting yet. Have you been offered a course?
What was your meal? 2 units seems like a very small dose.

Has the nurse given you some advice about adjusting your basal insulin dose or increasing your meal time doses if they believe your honeymoon period is ending?
 
Homer said:
Hi
I used two units only, had my usual meal two hours ago, I was surprised it went up that quickly, not happen before and I do the finger prickling and it was only .5 out. I did check it about a hour later, it wasn’t much difference so I used 4 units of nova rapid and that did bring it down gradually, I did contact the nurse and she told me that it was probably me coming out the honeymoon period. I’ve used libre for the time I was diagnosed, coming up for two years. It’s just worrying how it changes that quickly and was told to check the levels frequently when I’m like that.
Thanks for your response, it does help
Click to expand...
If you are not carb counting, I assume you do not have a correction ratio. So, how did you know to take 4 units when you were high? Did you take into consideration the active NovoRapid in your body (NovoRapid remains active for about 4 hours after injecting)?
It is usually not recommended to correct so close after your last dose of fast acting insulin.

As @rebrascora mentioned, Libre has some limitations. It is a great piece of kit but if you are not aware of these limitations, it can cause a lot of frustration. The main thing is that it is recommended to always check highs and lows before making any corrections (extra insulin when Libre reports a high or hypo treatment when it reports a low).
 
Thanks for all the replies, I am new to this situation since for the last two years my insulin ratio hasn’t change much and have been getting advice when asked
I was told the monitor works well and if I feel it’s wrong especially it been very low I should take the finger prick. I’m going for a appointment with them next week and will ask the questions you have come up with. It’s late but it’s the only time I can relax, my wife has a disability, I’m her main carer, so don’t have much time to myself. A big thanks again and will take everything on board
 
Homer said:
It’s late but it’s the only time I can relax, my wife has a disability, I’m her main carer, so don’t have much time to myself. A big thanks again and will take everything on board
Click to expand...

@Docb has some handy tips about accessing carer support which may be available where you live.

Hope the appointment this week is helpful.

If you’d like a general overview of carb counting to begin to get your head around the idea this page has an introduction without it being too heavy

The nuts and bolts of carb counting

When you live with type 1 diabetes, carb counting is a great way of managing your blood sugar or glucose levels. It can give you more freedom and flexibility in what you eat when you're preparing meals at home, grabbing food on the go or eating out. Carb counting does take some time and effort...
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk

When I was on fixed doses, I was given guideline amounts of carbohydrate to have at each mealtime to balance with the doses I was taking. I think that’s a pretty important part of the picture even if the doses are remaining the same every day?
 
Hi @Homer from another carer with diabetes although I'm a T2 and do not have the added complication of sorting out insulin dosing.

I can appreciate the trials of coping with your diabetes whilst being a carer. Its a bit like diabetes, everybody has an opinion, but it is only when you are a carer do you begin to understand what it is all about. My suggestion to anybody in this position is to contact carer services at your local county council (a bit of googling usually turns up a contact number) and take it from there. Carer services vary a lot around the country but as a minimum you should get a carers assessment so you can talk through things with a professional. At best they take caring seriously and will have contacts and organise events to help carers. All you can do is make the contact and take it from there.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top