Hi

[Moss87]

Hi everyone, I am a newly diagnosed Type 1. At the moment I am feeling swamped with all the information and trying to get through my job. Would be great to chat to others.

 

[Alan.tnh]

Your very welcome here, I'm a T2 but theres loads of T1's here, tell us more of how you were diagnosed etc. Do you know your HbA1c. (long term BG result) and how are your levels through the day? Ask away yourself plenty of folk will help. Al

 

[Moss87]

Hello, my HbA1c is 11.1 at my last check and they want it at 7.
I had all the symptoms going before I was diagnosed. Told by my gp it was type 2 and to take gliclizide. A week later got a call from hospital saying come and see us ASAP as its type 1 and I need insulin.
Currently on a mixed insulin so only injecting morning and night. Sugars tend to be around 9 before brekkie, around 5 at lunch, 8ish before dinner and then the same before bed.
I have put on weight sadly and finding my job (teacher) a struggle at the mo.

 

[Annette]

ooh, I'm surprised they've put you on a mixed insulin - its very rare to start T1s on that nowadays. How soon before you see your Dr again? Are you seeing your GP or the specialist team at the hospital? Whichever, I would suggest you ask them if you can be changed onto a more flexible system (MDI or basal-Bolus). This will mean more injections, but will make it alot easier to cope with a not-fixed routine (whcih I'm fairly sure you'll have, as a teacher!)

 

[grovesy]

Welcome, another Type 2 here but there are plenty of Type 1 around.

 

[Alan.tnh]

Sounds like your taking control, which is good those are good numbers and will certainly bring the HbA1c down. If I were you I would just let things settle a bit, keep monitoring your weight, and when your ready and understand how you react to certain foods then consider loosing a bit. So hard to do it all at once. Good Luck

 

[Stitch147]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Im not type 1, but just wanted to say Hi.

 

[Northerner]

Hello, my HbA1c is 11.1 at my last check and they want it at 7.
I had all the symptoms going before I was diagnosed. Told by my gp it was type 2 and to take gliclizide. A week later got a call from hospital saying come and see us ASAP as its type 1 and I need insulin.
Currently on a mixed insulin so only injecting morning and night. Sugars tend to be around 9 before brekkie, around 5 at lunch, 8ish before dinner and then the same before bed.
I have put on weight sadly and finding my job (teacher) a struggle at the mo.

Hi Moss87, welcome to the forum 🙂 It's good that they quickly recognised that you weren't Type 2, some people struggle for many months on inappropriate treatment before their GP realises that perhaps they need to think again. Not so good that you are on mixed insulin - the only 'advantage' to that is that it means fewer injections, but in terms of flexibility over when and what you eat, and how you can 'correct' high levels, it scores extremely low As has been said, it's unusual these days not to be put on separate slow and fast acting insulins, known as 'MDI (Multiple Daily Injections) also known as 'basal/bolus (basal = slow acting insulin, usually one or two injections a day, bolus = fast-acting insulin, taken with each meal and sometimes snacks or in small amounts to bring down a high blood sugar level).

I would highly recommend asking to be moved onto MDI, as you will have much more flexibility over things like when and what you eat (you adjust the fast acting insulin doses to 'match' the amount of carbohydrate in your meal/snack). You can skip meals if you want, you can't on mixed.You will also be able to adjust to take account of illness, exercise etc. much more accurately and easily. 🙂 With mixed you have to 'eat to the insulin' - eating at the times when it peaks and not eating when it 'troughs'. Having more control over your food and insulin doses may help with the weight gain problem 🙂

Also, do get yourself a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas - the best book available for all people with Type 1, whatever your age, so don't be put off by the title 🙂

Please let us know if you have any questions - there are loads of friendly, experienced people here, as well as lots of people wh have recently found themselves in the same position as you, so any question you ask may very well be useful to others 🙂 Good luck, let us know how you get on!

 

[Lynn Davies]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm t2 so very little help on this front - but I do give great hugs xx

 

[SB2015]

Hi Moss87

Welcome to the forum, and sorry to hear of your dignosis. You are in the right place to get loads of help from others with diabetes.

Like you I was diagnosed with T1 when I was teaching. It took a while to get sorted out and was made a lot easier when on Multiple Daily Injections. More jabs but a lot more flexible. Definitely asking for and in the nICE guidelines for treating adults. (Mixed insulin jabs is a very unusual start nowadays)

Things are always a bit wobbly at the start with T1. The hospital may have mentioned the 'honeymoon period', during which your final Beta cells in your pancreas do a last ditched attempt at making some insulin, sometimes, when they feel like it. This leads to unexpected lows. So do not panic if things are proving difficult at present.

It would be useful to talk to your line manager as well as the SLT to explain that this is likely at the start. Some possible ways to support you could be,
- removal from the cover list (assuming that cover is now back in),
- have a hypo stash everywhere you teach as well as in your bag.
- explain to your classes about hypos (mine were good at spotting when I was going low and were great at getting me to stop and treat it (not because they got out of work. They just carried on while I sorted myself out)
- temporary reduction of timetable (I dropped one class at first)

For my own management of the condition I allowed an extra 45 min for getting to work so that if I had a hypo before leaving I could wait the statutory 45 min before driving. The SLT were aware and on a rare occasion I had a repeated hypos am (beta cells woke up!!) and accepted that I would be late through no fault of my own. Having explained things to them they helped my return to work.

It is a manageable condition and your place of work should make necessary adjustments.

 

[Moss87]

Thank you for all the replies, having a better weekend with things 🙂
Work is still my battle at the moment. I am a primary school teacher and of year 2 so my class are not aware of what my diagnosis is, at the moment we are also doing our SATS so I am very stressed out. I have gone with the attitude of I will not let this beat me and have taken no time off.
I have had a further meeting with DN who was happy with my blood readings. Got a consultant meeting in July so may end up asking them about moving from a mixed insulin.

 

[Matt Cycle]

Welcome to the forum. 🙂 Good for you in not taking any time off and staying strong. It's a while ago now but when I was diagnosed I was in DKA on the Wednesday in the Easter holidays, out of hospital on the Saturday afternoon and back at school (I was a sixth former) on the Monday morning. Some of us are made of stronger stuff.

You'll almost certainly find things easier to manage on basal/bolus. It's a bit of a cliche but very true in that if you give it time as well it'll all become easier.

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome from a T2 who's 17 months in. Chat away.

 

[trophywench]

Hiya - I am entirely baffled about the mixed insulin too - NICE Guidelines say all newly diagnosed T1s should be immediately started on MDI - Levemir 2 x daily and a fast acting one with food - so your hospital clearly don't read NICE Guidelines !

Look it up, print it out and take it with you!