• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

I am new to the Diabetes UK forum

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Kathleen Merry-Reynolds

Kathleen Merry-Reynolds

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi my name is Kathleen I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001 at the age of 13. I am new to the forum I have no idea what I am doing.

I was recently taken in to hospital with DKA which to be honest really scared me as I nearly died luckily my husband was home to take care of me and I had family close by to look after my daughter. I have been struggling with my diabetes for years and it has been really getting me down. I want to change all that so I decided to join the forum to seek help from other diabetics and support x x x x
 
Hi Kathleen, welcome to the forum 🙂 Very sorry to hear about the DKA, that is really horrible - I'm glad you were able to get help quickly.

What insulin regime are you on? What sort of problems have you been having - unexpected hypos, too many highs? Have you ever been on a diabetes course, such as DAFNE?

Hopefully we will be able to help you solve some of the problems you are having - there's lots of knowledge and experience here, so whatever your question of concern, I'm sure we can help 🙂
 
I am on Novo-Rapid 3x times a day and Lantus Solo star before bed I am also on metformin 2 tablets twice a day. My problem is I am having too many highs. I have not been on a course as I don't feel comfortable going to the them. I have an appointment with a dietician on 22nd November. My other issues is I am always feeling depressed I don't want to get out of bed or do housework I am currently on medication for my depression but I think its mainly linked to all the high blood sugars. I am worried about my general health I have cataracts in both eyes and a little bleed in one eye also all these problems are stressing me out x x x
 
Hi Kathleen
So glad you've found this forum. I hope it provides the support and encouragement you need. Do you have any goals/aims that we might be able to help you with?
 
Hi Kathleen, welcome to the group

I'm sure there will be some T1's along to help you out... But in the meantime what is your diet like? how many carbs (and what) are you typically consuming?
 
i struggling at eating my meals I snack a lot which I know does not help with my blood sugars I mainly eat soup with 2 slices of 400g white bread and sometimes for breakfast I have porridge x x
 
Ah, white bread can spike BG, in fact any kind of refined carbs will..... Is your porridge instant or quick cooking? Steel Cut Oatmeal might be an alternative; takes longer to cook but less refined.
 
Hi Kath ...welcome along to this place. Ask all the questions you want, you're bound to get good answers and, if you want to have a bit of a laugh, you can do that here too. You can always rant about your Diabetes here as well as bitch about rubbish care or praise them to the hilt if you're getting good care.
 
Welcome from a T2
 
Hi Kathleen, I second what Jonsi said just now 🙂. This is a great place for support and advice. Welcome from another T2!
 
Kathleen Merry-Reynolds said:
I am on Novo-Rapid 3x times a day and Lantus Solo star before bed I am also on metformin 2 tablets twice a day. My problem is I am having too many highs. I have not been on a course as I don't feel comfortable going to the them. I have an appointment with a dietician on 22nd November. My other issues is I am always feeling depressed I don't want to get out of bed or do housework I am currently on medication for my depression but I think its mainly linked to all the high blood sugars. I am worried about my general health I have cataracts in both eyes and a little bleed in one eye also all these problems are stressing me out x x x
Click to expand...
Hi Kathleen, try and look at your diabetes as an opportunity to focus. When I am in the deep dark realms of the black dog, then the need to do the right thing is what gives me a routine, almost a hobby (the irony). To get DKA as a type 1 after diagnosis and therapy does take hard work in a negative way. Turn that energy against this cruel condition and get your life back. Don't go radical and stop eating carbohydrate, but look at two things, 1 are you using the insulin correctly (it may be that you don't fully understand this, or you feel guilty); 2 once you have started covering your carbohydrate decide what your personal goals are (be it weight loss or control, or just better eating). The mind diet is not that dissimilar to the GL method, both of these will help your mood.
 
Kathleen Merry-Reynolds said:
Hi my name is Kathleen I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001 at the age of 13. I am new to the forum I have no idea what I am doing.

I was recently taken in to hospital with DKA which to be honest really scared me as I nearly died luckily my husband was home to take care of me and I had family close by to look after my daughter. I have been struggling with my diabetes for years and it has been really getting me down. I want to change all that so I decided to join the forum to seek help from other diabetics and support x x x x
Click to expand...
HI Kathleen , warm welcome to group ,
 
Hi Kathleen

Sorry to hear about your DKA but glad that you have made your way to the forum, a place where I have learnt so much that has helped me to really improve my control. I know that I feel very groggy when my levels go high, so it may be that you start to feel better overall once you start to improve your blood glucose levels. Good to hear that you are seeing a dietician soon.

Here are two ideas that come to mind for me.

Carb Counting
Are you counting the Grams of carbohydrate that you eat (at meals or in snacks)?
You mention that you are levels tang to go on a DAFNE course, where I learnt the importance of counting carbs, and I gained the freedom to eat when I wanted to. Once you have got the hang of this you can start to match your insulin to what you eat. You would need to find out how much carbohydrate you can eat which would be covered by 1 unit of insulin. This is different for each person so I cannot advise you about the figures, I just know how important this idea is to help get control of those pesky BGs. You could ask the dietician to help you with this.

Gaps between meals
The Novorapid takes about 4 hours to deal with the food completely so it is good to keep a gap of four hours between eating any carbs . That really helped me to limit my snacking, as I realised that every time I ate again I was lifting my BG up again and it had not had time to get back down into the range I wanted. At the start it might help to set an alarm knowing that you cannot eat again until the alarm goes off.

With both of these it would be good to have the help of a specialist nurse. Mid you are not already seeing a DSN or Consultant could you ask for referral to your local hospital diabetes team. I would be surprised if they would not help as you have already shown, by joining here, that you are wanting to start sorting out your levels.

I hope that this is of some help
 
Absolutely what everyone else has said - these carb-counting courses are not, as you may be imagining - places where everyone will be up for criticism - FAR from that! They are structured so as to HELP the people there and that's why they aren't delivered to huge audiences all at once - they want to give each person there as much attention as they need in order to go forth into the real world, able to cope with it themselves in their own homes and in their own lives. People on my course ranged from an overweight University student recently embarked on the physical fitness trail, so dedicated to structured exercise sessions, via middle aged peeps like me in various scenarios to a retiree - and there were I think 8 of us. By the finish, we all had seven new friends and knew what our music choices were and our family's preferences and dislikes for certain foods. We had a good laugh too as well as the serious bits - it's all really interesting!
 
SB2015 said:
Hi Kathleen

Sorry to hear about your DKA but glad that you have made your way to the forum, a place where I have learnt so much that has helped me to really improve my control. I know that I feel very groggy when my levels go high, so it may be that you start to feel better overall once you start to improve your blood glucose levels. Good to hear that you are seeing a dietician soon.

Here are two ideas that come to mind for me.

Carb Counting
Are you counting the Grams of carbohydrate that you eat (at meals or in snacks)?
You mention that you are levels tang to go on a DAFNE course, where I learnt the importance of counting carbs, and I gained the freedom to eat when I wanted to. Once you have got the hang of this you can start to match your insulin to what you eat. You would need to find out how much carbohydrate you can eat which would be covered by 1 unit of insulin. This is different for each person so I cannot advise you about the figures, I just know how important this idea is to help get control of those pesky BGs. You could ask the dietician to help you with this.

Gaps between meals
The Novorapid takes about 4 hours to deal with the food completely so it is good to keep a gap of four hours between eating any carbs . That really helped me to limit my snacking, as I realised that every time I ate again I was lifting my BG up again and it had not had time to get back down into the range I wanted. At the start it might help to set an alarm knowing that you cannot eat again until the alarm goes off.

With both of these it would be good to have the help of a specialist nurse. Mid you are not already seeing a DSN or Consultant could you ask for referral to your local hospital diabetes team. I would be surprised if they would not help as you have already shown, by joining here, that you are wanting to start sorting out your levels.

I hope that this is of some help
Click to expand...
Before I left the hospital they had referred me to the hospital specialist for my diabetes I see my diabetic nurse every 4 weeks now. x x
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top