Welcome @Hbrit 🙂 Yes, the first few months of Type 1 are quite overwhelming and stressful as you have to do a lot of learning very quickly. It does gradually get easier though.
Which insulins are you using? Are you carb counting and adjusting your own mealtime insulin?
Look forward to more discussions with forum members , good to know others have been in the same position,Thanks
Welcome to the forum @Hbrit Glad that you have found us.
There is a lot to get your head round at the start. But it definitely gets easier, and there is plenty of support and experience to tap into on here. Any questions that come to mind. Just ask.
Hi @Hbrit welcome.
Similar to you, diagnosed fairly recently as T1D (initially type2) confirmed last Sept.
It can be a challenge but it slowly gets easier as others have said.
Prime example yesterday visiting friends and they decide to get a take away for dinner. Like where the heck do you begin with that?!
This forum is a great place to visit. You read lots of comments that you think - what does that mean and other comments where you are like…ah I get it!!!
Like you ,visited family today , then they decided to have bbq , (butcher packs , flavoured chicken etc) , they couldn't understand why I ate so little ?Hi @Hbrit welcome.
Similar to you, diagnosed fairly recently as T1D (initially type2) confirmed last Sept.
It can be a challenge but it slowly gets easier as others have said.
Prime example yesterday visiting friends and they decide to get a take away for dinner. Like where the heck do you begin with that?!
This forum is a great place to visit. You read lots of comments that you think - what does that mean and other comments where you are like…ah I get it!!!
The small amount of coating on BBQ meat isn't going to contain any significant amount of carbs and it will still be mostly protein and fat so not worth worrying about for a one off occasion. You have to learn to be a bit flexible with your diabetes management and go with the flow a bit more when eating out.
I follow a low carb way of eating so I might not buy those sort of coated meats for home but for the sake of probably less than 5g carbs on each piece of meat for stuff like chicken thighs or pork chops in a Chinese or barbeque rub, it isn't really much different to eating salad with a few cherry tomatoes in it. You just allow an extra bit of insulin for those things... or at least I would. Type 1 is about learning to use your insulin not restricting your diet and the only way you learn is to try things and see how your first guess works out and then adjust it slightly the next time if you got it wrong the first..... or give yourself a big pat on the back if you get it right first time. Getting it wrong just means you need to eat it more often so that you can experiment a bit more and figure out what the right dosing is for that food.
Thanks , that's reassuring,I chose not to follow a low carb diet because that feels like diabetes is winning and I have no other reason to change my diet (I am not overweight or have any other medical conditions).
But that choice does mean I have to accept I will make mistakes. I am comfortable with this and happy to correct a high or treat a "soon to be" low when I guestimate carbs in a meal. Over time these guestimates become easier but I still make mistakes.
Remember, there is a lot of estimating going on with diabetes - even if the carb content is on the packaging, it is an estimate; your meter is only accurate to within 15%; your insulin to carb ratio is an approximation and you have to round up or down. And then there are so many other things that affect our BG in addition to what we put in our mouths.
So, a conservative guess on top of all of this inaccuracy is unlikely to make much of a difference.
It is important for your overall health not to be afraid to eat. Please do not spend too much time worrying about diabetes at the detriment of your mental health or something as basic as needing to eat to survive.