Help please! New Type 1 but vomiting...

[Elsapelle]

Hi all
My hubby (36 yrs) was diagnosed type 1 last week and spent a few days in hospital to get ketones/glucose levels down (were mid twenties) and started on insulin regime.

After initially having levels in the teens when he first came home on Thursday/friday his nurse advised him to up his nighttime insulin over the weekend which he did. Glucose Levels were lower yesterday (between 8-10) so we were encouraged! Last night he had a gripey tummy and indigestion then ended up being very sick at 3am and bringing up what looked like all he ate that day .
We checked his ketones which are fine, and his glucose levels are 7 this morning. We've left a message on the answerphone for his diabetes nurse for advice, but I was wondering if it's common for sickness/upset tummy when first starting out? So hard to know what might be his body reacting to everything, or what might be just a bug.

Have just given him water to drink and a banana to try to eat but don't know what do do about insulin dose!!
Any advice greatly appreciated!!

 

[SB2015]

Welcome to the forum Elsapelle,

The early days after diagnosis are difficult and it will take time for your husband and the nurses to work out the appropriate doses of insulin. You need to keep I touch with the Diabetes Specialist Nurses who will be able to gradually help you both to adapt and to understand what you need to do and when.

With Type 1 Diabetes the pancreas has stopped making insulin so the only way that your husband will get any is by injecting it. However ill you feel you need that insulin as well as keeping up the fluids, so it sounds as if you did exactly the right things.

You will both have a lot to learn over the next few weeks, but it really does get easier. Someone described it to me as being like learning to drive a car. Initially you have to work out how to to steer, change gear, look in the mirror, .... Then you get to do these things automatically. So it is with dealing with the Diabetes.

Keep in touch on the forum as there are a lot of people here who are very happy to help.

 

[Robin]

Hello, Elsapelle, and welcome to the forum. Hopefully your husbands diabetes nurse will respond quickly. In the meantime, I suspect it may be a coincidental bug, rather than a reaction, but you never know. The problem with eating, is not knowing whether it's going to stay down, so I would proceed cautiously with insulin doses, and only give them after his levels have begun to rise, so if the food comes up again, you won't have insulin on board with nothing to work on. If he does go low, little sips of lucozade are a good idea to try and keep levels up, the glucose is absorbed so quickly from it that it should get into the system.

Keep an eye on his glucose levels, if it is a bug, or the body is just under stress, the liver may dump glucose into the system, so he could end up going high without having eaten anything.

 

[Northerner]

Hi all
My hubby (36 yrs) was diagnosed type 1 last week and spent a few days in hospital to get ketones/glucose levels down (were mid twenties) and started on insulin regime.

After initially having levels in the teens when he first came home on Thursday/friday his nurse advised him to up his nighttime insulin over the weekend which he did. Glucose Levels were lower yesterday (between 8-10) so we were encouraged! Last night he had a gripey tummy and indigestion then ended up being very sick at 3am and bringing up what looked like all he ate that day .
We checked his ketones which are fine, and his glucose levels are 7 this morning. We've left a message on the answerphone for his diabetes nurse for advice, but I was wondering if it's common for sickness/upset tummy when first starting out? So hard to know what might be his body reacting to everything, or what might be just a bug.

Have just given him water to drink and a banana to try to eat but don't know what do do about insulin dose!!
Any advice greatly appreciated!!

Hi Elsapelle, welcome to the forum 🙂 Very sorry to hear about your hubby's diagnosis and consequent illness I didn't experience any sickness problems after leaving hospital, so it may be as Robin suggests, just a coincidence. It sounds like you have both handled things very well, I hope the DSN is able to give you some good advice and responds quickly 🙂

A couple of things you might find helpful - 'Sick Day Rules' and also the excellent Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents by Ragnar Hanas, probably the best book available for Type 1, covering all aspects of the condition, what to expect, and how to handle it 🙂

Please let us know if you have any questions! I hope hubby is feeling better very soon, I know this can be a very scary time at the beginning, but things do get easier 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Welcome & good look learning how to cope with all the things you will have to learn 🙂. Take a note book with you to consultations

 

[trophywench]

Hi - it is important to note that his basal insulin (should be Levemir, possibly Lantus) will be required whether he is throwing up or not - the background insulin is what your body needs for your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, your brain to function etc - so of course you always need it.

It's only the bolus insulin (the faster acting one - Novorapid, Humalog or Apidra) that you miss, when you aren't eating!