I'm a newbie

[Nicky doda]

Hello everyone I would like to introduce myself my name is Nicky I am 45 rs old have type 1 diabetes on insulin four times daily ,BM four times or more,as I'm uncontrolled I have had my condition for 33 yrs now believe me when I say alot has changed over the yrs & not for the better,well I thank you all for taking the time to read my post Nicky

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Nicky and welcome.

It sounds like you are not doing too well with your diabetes management if I understand your post correctly. I wonder if the experienced members of the forum might be able to give you a few pointers to help improve things. I think there are very few long term diabetics here on the forum who would agree with your comment that not everything has changed for the better. The things they describe about reusable needles and boiling urine in test tubes to find out what your BG level was 2-3 hours earlier seems like pretty desperate and very limiting options for trying to manage diabetes. What amazes me is that people survived and many without any complications despite the very limited resources.

It sounds like you don't have Freestyle Libre sensors to track your BG levels? If not that might be something to ask about. Being able to see what your BG is doing throughout the day and night rather than just 4 tiny pin prick moments in time each day, should revolutionize your understanding of how your body responds to food and insulin and exercise and give you more chance of balancing things better.
Which insulins are you using? Perhaps a change of insulin might also improve your control. There are lots of options these days, but then maybe you know all this.
Are you under the care of a diabetic clinic with a consultant or just your practice nurse or GP at the surgery?

Anyway, I hope you will make yourself at home here and feel free to ask any questions you have or ask for advice/support with any particular problems you are experiencing. You can learn a huge amount just by reading other peoples' posts too but do be aware there there is a mix of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics (and also Type 3c and LADA and MODY) on the forum and the approaches and treatments for each can vary.

If you fancy getting to know some of us a bit better, there is a thread called the "Group 7-day waking average" thread where we have mostly dispensed with the 7day average bit and just post our waking reading each morning and exchange a bit of info about our plans for the day or our frustrations with our BG levels or any other snippets of info we want to share. It is a bit like a virtual coffee morning. I'll post a link below. Feel free to join in whenever you feel like it. You will soon get the hang of it I'm sure.....
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/group-7-day-waking-average.20148/page-4182

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I think there are very few long term diabetics here on the forum who would agree with your comment that not everything has changed for the better.

One thing that can happen if you've been diabetic for a long time is that things pass you by because the healthcare system (and you) thinks you're doing OK. One (relatively) new thing is structured education (the best known being DAFNE, but there are others).

You might try https://www.bertieonline.org.uk and/or https://mytype1diabetes.nhs.uk

As @rebrascora suggests, many (though not all) people find Libre really valuable so it's worth at least trying to get that. (There's a free trial still, I think, presuming you have a suitable smartphone.)