Hi :)

[Kim heald]

Hello I'm new to this my husband has just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.....bit of a shock for us both and now we are just getting to grips with everything. He has been put on 14 units of lantus at night time and has to take novorapid before meals...we re sort of guessing at this at the minute as do not want to give him too much I hope this is the right thing to do? His blood sugar level started at the beginning of the week at 30.1 and now it's down to between 17 and 19 so hopefully we can keep goin down to get it below 10. Just wondered is it always such a guessing game at the beginning? Many thanks kim x

 

[Ralph-YK]

Medicas should have given the amount to use. I believe on the conservative side. Then adjust it to suit the patient.

 

[Kim heald]

Hi Ralph they just told us between 4 and 8 so I'm not sure on how much to gove him at all I dont want to give him too much as this may cause a detrimental effect.x

 

[Ralph-YK]

I'm not the most knowledge about insulin. My best advice is keep keep a food diary, along with a record of his BG level and units take, and times. That way you can see the affect of both insulin & the food. And hopefully start to see a pattern. Don't worry about changing the diet too much yet.
Low levels to particularly watch for is 4 and under. (Hypo)
Having just been diagnosed, and just started on insulin, shouldn't be going that low much yet. Have some hypo treatment handy anyway. I've often heard Lucozade (though there's less sugar in that now) and jelly babies. Have something you can make a sandwich with too. (Bread is slower acting than the first two I think).

 

[trophywench]

Well very soon your husband will be offered a carbohydrate counting and dose adjustment course so he can calculate the amount of carbs he is going to eat and properly calculate how much insulin to jab for it - however it's not much good doing all that, until he has his basal insulin (the longer acting insulin) dose properly sorted.

To begin with it is most important not to try to reduce his current 'too high' levels too quickly since sudden fast dips in the blood glucose can cause as many problems (ie diabetic complications) as having 'too high' levels for very long. Hence you need to take things at a measured pace - diabetes is a marathon not a sprint!

Hence, though yeah it's great that you're asking relevant questions (I genuinely mean that) please don't try and run before you've learned properly how to walk since you could so easily come unstuck.

What might really help is reading a book - 'Type 1 diabetes in babies children and young adults' by Ragnar Hanas. OK you and hubby obviously aren't any of those, BUT it's very very helpful to any newly diagnosed Type 1. It's a medical textbook written in plain English originally intended for 'parents of' to understand properly so explains things properly in a way most people can grasp instead of using 'medicalese' and having to look half the words up in the dictionary.

You'll get there! Good luck. 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Kim heald

Glad you have found us. There are lots of experienced folks here who can offer their experiences to support you inthe weeks and months (and years!) ahead.

If you are hungry for some early pointers you could take a look at the links in the Useful Links thread:

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/board...for-people-new-to-diabetes.10406/#post-938456

And fire away with any questions or confusions you have as the crop up. Nothing will be considered too obvious or silly 🙂