Hello

[DianeD]

Newly diagnosed T1, +5 days, shocked, confused and scared. I also have no thyroid function and may have addisons (diagnosis pending).
Sugar levels all over the place and absolutely no idea what to eat as everything seems to send me hyper, even porridge and eggs (not together ).
Hoping this forum can help as I live alone.

 

[Inka]

Welcome @DianeD A Type 1 diagnosis is a massive shock and can be overwhelming - not to mention your other conditions too. The Diabetes bit will gradually get easier.

Firstly, don’t worry too much about the highs unless you’re very high. You’ll have been started on less insulin than you need and this will gradually be adjusted as required. This is for safety reasons. So, it’s not what you’re eating, it’s just you don’t have your insulin quite right yet - and purposely so. Once everything is closer to what you need, you’ll be able to eat a pretty normal diet. The highs of Type 1 are almost always related to inappropriate insulin (too little, wrong timing, etc). Type 1s can eat a normal healthy diet.

There are a couple of books often recommended for Type 1s here:

Think Like a Pancreas’ by Gary Scheiner.

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

Ask anything you want here too. Nothing is ‘silly’ or too trivial. You’re among people who understand.

 

[DianeD]

Thank you
What is classed as 'very high'? Today it was over 16 for over 4 hours After breakfast of porridge.

 

[Inka]

High teens and above I’d say @DianeD Did you test for ketones? What insulins are you taking?

 

[DianeD]

Yes I tested ketone they were below the limit to measure. On abasaglar (22 in the morning) and Trurapi (4 before meals)

 

[Inka]

It’s good your ketones were ok. As you get settled, you’ll be given a meal ratio to use with your Trurapi. This will be something like 1:20g or 1:16g or 1:8g or whatever. This represents how many carbs one unit of insulin will ‘cover’ for you. Say a hypothetical person had a ratio of 1:15g. They’d add up the carbs in their porridge and the milk if used, and let’s say the carbs totalled 45g. They’d then divide that 45g by 15 which equals 3, so they’d know they needed to take 3 units of insulin for that meal. That’s commonly referred to as carb-counting and it’s crucial for good control. Push to be shown it asap after you’ve got used to things.

 

[DianeD]

Thank you so much

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @DianeD

It can be such a whirlwind at the beginning. Everything feels unfamiliar (and scary) and there’s a natural urge to want to get things fixed and sorted straight away.

The chances are your levels had been running high for a while before you had any symptoms that sent you to the Drs, and your body will have adjusted to them and worked around them to an extent. One of the reasons for starting those newly diagnosed on lowish doses is to allow their glucose levels to coast back down fairly gently, rather than lurching from running high straight back to the normal range. A rapid change like that can put stress on the fine blood vessels in the eyes and supplying nerve endings, and can even cause temporary damage and nerve pain. So a more gentle slope is a wise precaution.

But as @Inka says, you don’t really want to stay in the high teens either. So while your doses are being adjusted, you might want to make a start calculating, adding up, and estimating the carbohydrate content of your meals. It’s good practice, and will soon be something you’ll be able to do by eye.

If you notice that one meal choice frequently results in high levels that don’t come back down, while your doses are fixed you can try a slightly smaller portion (say, knock off 5-10g of carbs) just to take the edge off the post-meal level?

Keep going, and hang in there. We are rooting for you, and we know how overwhelming this part of your diabetes ‘career‘ can feel.