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Hello, I’m glad I have found this place

E

Elliott

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hello

44 year old male here. Last Thursday I went to get my bloods taken at the doctors due to foot pain, suspected neuropathy, which is driving me mad at night.

I was phoned later that afternoon to say my blood sugars were at 20 mmol and that I needed to go to hospital the following day to talk to the diabetes team.

I went to the hospital and was told I likely have a type 1 diabetes. It was a long appointment, explaining everything, how to inject insulin etc

Back at the hospital yesterday to see a dietician and back next week. So grateful for the support as it’s came as a shock.

About 2 months ago I developed an abscess which needed surgery. They have now advised that this was likely caused by my diabetes.

Anyway, I have been reading through this forum and suspect I will keep coming back to it so I just wanted to say hi
 
Hi Elliott and welcome.

Sorry to hear about your very recent diagnosis but so pleased that you have found the forum as it is a goldmine of knowledge, support and most importantly lived, practical experience.

There are quite a few of us late developers of Type 1 here, so we can relate to your situation.
Which insulins have they started you on and how are you managing with them?
Have they given you a Constant Glucose Monitor (CGM) or are you just finger pricking at the moment to get your levels.
There is a huge amount to learn but diabetes is reasonably forgiving, so you can get away with just doing the basics for a while until you gain more experience and knowledge and take it at your own pace.

If you have any questions or concerns just ask and don't worry if/when you make a mistake or two.... or more. We all do from time to time and sometimes those are the occasions when you learn most. It can be pretty overwhelming at first and I can remember that those first few appointments I struggled to take in half of what I was told, but being able to come here to the forum and ask people who were living with it themselves, enabled me to fill in the gaps and make sense of it. Take it at your own pace and we are here as and when you need us.
 
Morning

I do have a CGM which I am pleased about, didn’t fancy pricking my finger every time I needed to check my levels.

I have been given Abasaglar to take at night and Trurapi to take before meals. Just upped my Trurapi in the morning as I am spiking quite a lot after breakfast.

Thank you for the kind welcome
 
Spiking high after breakfast is a common problem because we are usually more insulin resistant in the morning, plus our liver is pumping out extra glucose (Dawn Phenomenon or Foot on the Floor Syndrome) to give us energy for the day ahead.
A high spike doesn't always mean you need more insulin. It depends if levels come back down into range by lunchtime or not. If they don't, you need more insulin. If they do come back down into range by lunchtime, then you don't normally need more insulin and increasing it can risk a hypo, it is more to do with the timing.
I have to inject my breakfast insulin much further in advance of eating ie a much longer prebolus time to give the insulin more of a head start so that it's peak of activity is happening when the carbs from breakfast are being released. For me this was a gradual process of increasing it by a few mins each day until the spike came down to an acceptable level but not too long that the insulin causes a hypo before the breakfast carbs release.
For me with NovoRapid which is similar to Trurapi, I needed to wait over an hour between injecting and eating breakfast, but only 20-30 mis at other times of the day ie lunch and evening meal. I now have a faster acting insulin but still often need 45 mins at breakfast and anywhere from 0 to about 20 mins for the rest of the day. Some people would hypo if they waited this long so it is quite individual which is why you start with the timing you currently use and increase it by a few mins each day until you find the sweet spot timing for your body with your insulin and breakfast choice.

Anyway, let us know how your change in insulin dose goes. Good to hear you have a CGM. I am going to link the thread we have about the "quirks" and limitations of CGMs because some of it is not clearly declared by the manufacturers but was discovered through forum members discussing their individual experiences. Hope you find it helpful.
H

Thread 'CGM limitations and precautions'

Moderator Note: This helpful reply was copied from another thread as it details some of the commonly experienced limitations of continuous glucose sensors.

MarinaDE said:
My blood sugar has been in perfect range for days now, but although I haven't changed anything, I'm starting to get very short periods of hypos while I sleep and this morning I had a hypo alarm.
Click to expand...
If these are very short periods of lows and occur overnight, they are more likely to be compression lows - when pressure is applied to a sensor, it will report a false low. The reason I say this is more likely to happen at...
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Something that @rebrascora didn't cover above - was the importance of making sure your basal insulin (Abasaglar) dose is optimally adjusted but, frankly, it's far too early days for you to concern yourself about that detail, yet. You're still in what is traditionally called 'the honeymoon period'. I've always had problems with that adjective, having got married twice (subsequentially, I stress :rofl: ) and had two real honeymoons, both of which I actually enjoyed!!

Somehow, I still don't seem to be able to correlate 'enjoyable' with 'being diagnosed with a chronic medical condition' - although feeling like death warmed up and then the literally instant relief (in my case) of the first insulin jab starting to work, certainly was enjoyable, once I'd realised this very strange feeling wasn't the onset of something else horrible happening!
 
Welcome @Elliott 🙂 It’s good you seem to be getting a lot of input after your diagnosis. Don’t worry about fingerpricking. With the right equipment, it’s fine. CGMs have their limitations. If you haven’t already told the DVLA, you need to do that - if you drive, obviously!

When you’re ready to read up on things, these are the books often recommended for Type 1s on this forum:

Think Like a Pancreas’ by Gary Scheiner.

And Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas (ignore the title - great for adults too)

Think Like A Pancreas is American but I liked the chatty style and it contains some great information, as does the Ragnar Hanas book. They’re books to read over time and to refer to. Type 1 is a huge learning experience. Take things slowly.
 
Hi @Elliott and welcome to the forum - great that you are getting good support from your healthcare team - please ask any questions you may have as I know from recent (ish) experience how daunting it all is and how much there is to learn but we're all here to help each other and no question is considered "silly" here - glad you have found us
 
Elliott said:
I do have a CGM which I am pleased about, didn’t fancy pricking my finger every time I needed to check my levels.
Click to expand...
If you haven't already, it's worth checking your BG with test strips a few times. That confirms that the CGM is reflecting BG appropriately (they don't always) and should mean you aren't panicking too much if and when you have to use test strips for a while.
 
Elliott said:
Just reading over the forum has made me feel better about the whole thing, it’s good to have access to it and know there are people in my position that can help
Click to expand...

Great to hear @Elliott

I think there’s something incredibly powerful about shared experiences and peer support. Diabetes can be a fairly isolating condition, and you may be the only person in your family and social group with T1.

Being able to share the successes, occasional disasters, worries, and frustrations among people who instinctively ‘get it’ can be a huge help.

Plus with the hive-mind of the forum you can have tips, information, and suggestions passed on from dozens of diabetes clinics across the country, and literally centuries of lived diabetes experience 🙂
 
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