Ilness

[Evergreen]

Sorry to hear how poorly you have been @Evergreen

So stresful when you can‘t really be sure what food will or won’t stay down, and your BGs are simultaneously rampaging

And then to be left with a whole new system of food and insulin absorption to get used to is a real faff

For future periods of illness you might find this ‘sick day’ rules flowchart from Leicester Diabetes Centre helpful?

Sickday rules pdf

Sick day rules flowchart from Leicester diabetes centre. Particularly useful for people with Type 1 Diabetes during the Coronavirus outbreak.

www.t1resources.uk

Thank you, that’s a lot more helpful than the leaflet I’ve received from my team!

It’s been so scary and frustrating and I’m sad to say I didn’t feel completely comfortable in the care of the hospital and the diabetes team. My confidence had had a real knock and I can’t seem to speak with a specialist at all (have actually not seen one specialist throughout my whole diabetes journey, which surely isn’t normal)

 

[Evergreen]

I can remember when I was really resistant to changing my insulin doses (particularly basal) and it was an incredibly frustrating time. I think acceptance that things don't stay the same is an important part of the process and was a turning point in my diabetes management.

For me getting Libre really helped with that, because it became more of a game of keeping levels in range and less of a health management issue. I am now happy that I need whatever insulin I need to keep in range most of the time. Sometimes it might be that I don't eat until levels come down or I just eat something low carb so it involves quite a bit of discipline and other times it will mean me being quite Gung Ho with the insulin and just keep jabbing a bit more as and when I need it, in the knowledge that I can have a JB or 2 if it turns out I have over egged it. Then other times I might find that I need to ease right back on the basal and bolus as a result of exercise/activity.

I have only ever needed more insulin when ill, so your current situation would be strange for me, but I love the idea of reducing my insulin doses, so I would take it as a temporary bonus.

Haha thank you, I will try and see it as a temporary bonus! I’m calling the diabetes team tomorrow again and might ask to explore some different basal options. I’m currently on Abasaglar and it takes days to see a change. Usually I’m ok with that, but this is the 3rd time I suddenly need to lower my basal quite a bit and waiting several days just isn’t that comfortable.

 

[Inka]

That makes a lot of sense. And food for thought.

I’m struggling to manage my levels quite a bit and it seems so incredibly unpredictable. I have weeks where I feel in control but it never last long. It’s giving me a huge amount of anxiety and im realising whatever is happening now is unsustainable. However I think I’ve had a secret hope that a pump would be a miracle cure, which it obviously won’t be.

Welcome to the utter annoyance of Type 1 🙄 Just when you think you’ve got things sorted, off it goes again on some random madness that messes up your levels and messes with your head. In fact, I find a run of great results almost guarantees things will go wrong! Diabetes likes to keep us on our toes!

This is the nature of the beast @Evergreen Try not to let it frustrate you too much. I try to mentally move on from any ‘bad’ result. You’ll never get perfect control - because it’s not possible. We’re trying to do a very difficult job and as long as we do ok and stay safe we’re doing well.

 

[trophywench]

Like a good many things concurrently happening in my life at the first time this started to happen it made me very VERY cross. However - life really IS too short to spend it permanently cross - though it took me a good while to accept that fact of my life. BUT eventually - we all have to learn to shrug our shoulders, say Hey ho! to ourselves and simply deal with it without the angst.

Because tomorrow really always truly is, a different day!

Oh and PS - a different subject entirely, but, being born a female I've known all my life since reaching puberty what period pain and heavy periods were like - never tried having a baby but aged over 40 eureka, because I had fibroids and also had private medical insurance I decided enough was enough so I'd have it all whipped out and finish with it. Afterwards the surgeon told me my op instead of taking however long had taken ages longer because whilst in there she'd discovered I'd got shedloads of endometriosis as well as massive fibroids - and the chances were that both had started when I was very young. Thanks said I - who has only ever had a long succession of GPs telling me 'Oh some ladies do have heavier periods and more pain Mrs S'. Whereas she said she'd certainly be having 'words' with my current one! So I'd no longer have to get out of bed and positively sprint to the bathroom and not have to clean the carpets between my side of our bed and the loo yet again - ANY more! Despite having to do that practically once a month for years - just had to shrug and get on with my life for that, an all, hence why I'd was fuming when my D did it too.

Prior to having a pump, I'd swapped to 2 jabs of Levemir every day as my basal insulin and positively loved it because it was so biddable, and any changes I made to the doses I could see if they'd worked within 12 hours usually.

 

[SB2015]

I’m noticing my digestion is completely messed up. Food doesn’t seem to make my blood sugar go up as much (which is good I suppose), but insulin doesn’t make it come down in the same way either. It’s just so strange.

Sorry that you are feeling so poorly.
As already advised it is fine to miss bolus if you are not eating, so long as you keep your basal insulin going. I find that if I am ill I need to increase both my basal and bolus insulin, which I did on pens and on a pump by a percentage depending on how ill I feel. This is because my sensitivity to insulin goes down when I have higher levels. Frustrating as I don’t feel like working these things out when I’ll.

The advice to inject after your meal when uncertain about keeping things down is a good one. I find that when I am ill flat tonic water or coke (neither of these the light ones) works well. As I recover crackers with a tiny bit of marmite is my starting point to eating again, and then down the road a while, a fish pie is a go to once I feel better.

I hope that you feel a lot better soon.