Hi all

[Attila]

Hi,

I'm new here on the forums, and still fairly new to diabetes as well.
I'm in my forties and I was diagnosed with diabetes around the end of March 2020. At first they thought it was Type 2 but when the test results came back, it turned out to be Type 1. My condition got so bad so quickly that I ended up in a hospital for 5 horrible days. Somehow they managed to put me back on foot and luckily I haven't got nowhere near that bad since then.
It's a strange, new life now.

 

[ColinUK]

Hi Attila,
Welcome to the forum.
How are you coping with your diabetes now? Do you have any particular problems or questions you would like other forum members to advise or comment on?

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome from me too.

I was diagnosed 2.5 years ago and I can tell you that it does get easier and if you read around the forum you will learn lots, but diabetes can be very individual, so what works for one person may not work for another. You have to be prepared to experiment in order to find what works for you and become the resident expert in your particular diabetes.

Which insulin (20 have they put you o and how are you managing with them?

Are you finger pricking to get your levels or do you have Freestyle Libre sensors?

Are you carb counting?

Is there anything particular you are having difficulty with?

Feel free to ask anything or just have a good rant at the unfairness and frustration of it all. If you fancy getting to know some of us a bit better, the Group 7-day waking average thread is a bit like a virtual coffee morning, where we post our waking reading for the day and have a bit chat or banter or support each other or discuss our plans for the day etc. Please come and join us there if you feel you would like to be part of that....

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/group-7-day-waking-average.20148/page-3951#post-1110198

It is a massively long post so don't try to read it right from the start, just post tomorrow (or whenever) with your waking reading for that day and you will soon get the hang of it. Maybe see you there tomorrow?

 

[Attila]

Hi Attila,
Welcome to the forum.
How are you coping with your diabetes now? Do you have any particular problems or questions you would like other forum members to advise or comment on?

Thanks Colin. I do indeed have questions, and already posted one on the General Messageboard. Hopefully I'll get some answers there.

 

[Attila]

Hi and welcome from me too.

I was diagnosed 2.5 years ago and I can tell you that it does get easier and if you read around the forum you will learn lots, but diabetes can be very individual, so what works for one person may not work for another. You have to be prepared to experiment in order to find what works for you and become the resident expert in your particular diabetes.

Which insulin (20 have they put you o and how are you managing with them?

Are you finger pricking to get your levels or do you have Freestyle Libre sensors?

Are you carb counting?

Is there anything particular you are having difficulty with?

Feel free to ask anything or just have a good rant at the unfairness and frustration of it all. If you fancy getting to know some of us a bit better, the Group 7-day waking average thread is a bit like a virtual coffee morning, where we post our waking reading for the day and have a bit chat or banter or support each other or discuss our plans for the day etc. Please come and join us there if you feel you would like to be part of that....

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/group-7-day-waking-average.20148/page-3951#post-1110198

It is a massively long post so don't try to read it right from the start, just post tomorrow (or whenever) with your waking reading for that day and you will soon get the hang of it. Maybe see you there tomorrow?

Thanks rebrascora,

I'm finger pricking and using Humalog (before meals) and Lantus (before bed).
I'm really bad at socializing, so pelase exuce me if I don't jump on to many threads immediately. It took me forever just to register here and ask a question 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Thanks rebrascora,

I'm finger pricking and using Humalog (before meals) and Lantus (before bed).
I'm really bad at socializing, so pelase exuce me if I don't jump on to many threads immediately. It took me forever just to register here and ask a question 🙂

No problem at all. Just do whatever you are happy with or need from the forum. If/when you fancy joining us, you are very welcome but appreciate it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I hope you are feeling a bit more confident now that you are using the forum and getting replies. We might bicker with each other very occasionally over contentious issues but we are mostly very friendly, particularly towards newbies. I am sure you will find it very beneficial being able to post questions and learn from others experiences or even just shout up for support if you are having a bad day.

Good to see that you are on a basal/bolus insulin system. We have had a few new members who have been started on the old fashioned mixed insulins during the pandemic restrictions. I think this may have been partly a stop gap approach due to lack of appointments at clinics and education courses for carb counting etc.
How are you managing with those insulins? Have you had good access to support with adjusting doses? Are you carb counting and adjusting your Humalog or just using fixed doses as instructed by your nurse?

 

[PattiEvans]

Just Hi from me. I was also a late starter and put onto horrid mixed insulins, but I read around a lot and realised I'd find it easier and less restrictive on a basal/bolus regime. Believe me when I say hand on heart it does get easier as time goes along.

A very good book which you might find extremely helpful is "Think Like a Pancreas" by Gary Scheiner. I know other members here recommend a book by Ragnar Hanas also.

 

[ColinUK]

No problem at all. Just do whatever you are happy with or need from the forum. If/when you fancy joining us, you are very welcome but appreciate it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I hope you are feeling a bit more confident now that you are using the forum and getting replies. We might bicker with each other very occasionally over contentious issues but we are mostly very friendly, particularly towards newbies. I am sure you will find it very beneficial being able to post questions and learn from others experiences or even just shout up for support if you are having a bad day.

Good to see that you are on a basal/bolus insulin system. We have had a few new members who have been started on the old fashioned mixed insulins during the pandemic restrictions. I think this may have been partly a stop gap approach due to lack of appointments at clinics and education courses for carb counting etc.
How are you managing with those insulins? Have you had good access to support with adjusting doses? Are you carb counting and adjusting your Humalog or just using fixed doses as instructed by your nurse?

As if we ever bicker!

Love ya! Cxx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm really bad at socializing, so pelase exuce me if I don't jump on to many threads immediately. It took me forever just to register here and ask a question 🙂

Glad you have ’de-lurked’ 🙂

Not that there is any problem with simply browsing the forum and searching back through existing discussions on any number of topics. But part of the power of the forum is allowing you to connect with others facing the same daily struggles and frustrations, to share your experiences and to help your to feel less alone and isolated.

Join in as much or as little as you’d like. We hope to give a warm welcome, and bickering is entirely optional 😉

Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a runaround with your diabetes so far, but hopefully now you have a definitive diagnosis things will start to fall into place, and an appropriate collection of treatment strategies can be put in place. 🙂

 

[Attila]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and the supportive messages 🙂

 

[Attila]

How are you managing with those insulins? Have you had good access to support with adjusting doses? Are you carb counting and adjusting your Humalog or just using fixed doses as instructed by your nurse?

I'm using fixed does as instructed. But it's been all very chaotic recently.

Last year we slowly reduced the insulin amounts, and there were around 4 months at the end of the year and the beginning of this one when I was only using the Lantus. I was told that this can happen when someone starts their insulin therapy as the body might still be able to produce some too. I was also told that it's just a temporary period but it was not possible to tell wether it would last for a few weeks or a few months.

In February we put back a minimal amount of Humalog before breakfast, and that was good for another few months. But from around July the glucose levels slowly started to go up and then in September they suddenly went totally crazy. I had a few consultations since then and now I'm using Humalog before the 3 main meals and the Lantus at the end of the day. But it all feels very experimental and my body often reacts totally differently to the same meal and insulin dose. So some days are all above the target range and others are better.

I think it will need a few more consultations before this reaches some stable point as there are probably changes happening inside me. Assuming there is a stable point 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Hi, yes the early weeks and months can all be a bit hit and miss with your own pancreas producing insulin sporadically. It is also important to understand that there are something like 42 factors which influence Blood Glucose levels, some of which you have control over but many you don't. Obviously the major players are food and exercise and the insulin you inject but stress and hormones and illness/injury and alcohol and even the temperature and length of day have an impact. Balancing your insulin to these factors as best you can is a very imprecise science and there is an element of intuition and experience which will only develop with time and experimentation.
Getting your basal insulin right is key to everything because if that is not holding you steady in the absence of food, then nothing makes sense once you start adding in carbs and bolus insulin. And it is not just the dose of basal insulin but the time of day you take it and the brand can also make a huge difference. Basal insulin's have different time scales and profiles and finding one which provides the best balance for your body can take time. Even once you find a basal insulin which works reasonably well for you, the dose still needs tweaking at regular intervals for a variety of reasons, so it is very much an ongoing process but gradually you will learn what works for you and have the confidence to make those adjustments yourself. Education courses like DAFNE or BERTIE online are really helpful for understanding how it all works, but I had learned a lot of it from the kind members of this forum who generously share their experiences, before I started my course.

Having Freestyle Libre also makes assessing and adjusting your basal dose so much easier.

If you haven't been offered an education course, do ask your nurse. It will take time after you get put on a list so the sooner you ask and get your name on a list, the better. Once you learn to carb count and adjust your Humalog doses for what you want to eat, mealtimes should become easier and especially eating out which you asked about in your other post.
Are you weighing your carb rich foods now so that you have an idea of how many grams of carbs you are eating? That would be a good place to start if you don't, as you will gradually learn to eyeball a plate of food and assess the carb content from initially weighing those foods and calculating the carbs and looking at labels for the total carb content.

Anyway, hope that is of some help. My honeymoon period was a progression of increased insulin which happened in 2 or 3 clear steps about 6 months apart when I suddenly needed more insulin but others find that they start on insulin and then need less or even none for a while and then suddenly need a lot more. It can last weeks, months or years and I think there was one study in America which showed that some very longstanding diabetics with 40-50 years of the condition were still producing some insulin of their own, so it doesn't necessarily stop altogether, but it does settle down and with knowledge and experience you get better at balancing it.

 

[Attila]

Thanks again 🙂
Plenty of useful information in that one and I'll ask the nurse about a course next time we speak.
I'm already weighting many of my foods and also checking the nutrition labels, so I have some rough ideas about how much carb I eat in a meal and over a day.

 

[trophywench]

If no success getting onto a 'physical' course, there is an equally useful online course - however I have to say I learned nearly as much from the different approaches and needs of the participants as I did from the actual 'teaching' - eg hypo treatments; snacking whilst during a run/jog to prevent ups/downs - and meeting another lady who like me had been told in no uncertain terms by a DSN at the hospital D Clinic when we changed from animal insulin onto MDI we must NEVER EVER count carbs again else we'd have her to answer to. (Hope she's spinning in her grave. Nasty woman.)