Just diagnosed

[DANNYSHELDON]

Evening everyone ,

I'm newly diagnosed type 1 and was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for a blood glucose tester? I was given the Contour XT when I left hospital but have seen various others on websites, some say they can recommend insulin doses ???
I'm currently on Novarapid and Lantus 9ml four times a day and havnt had my dietician appointment sent through?

Also any tips to alleviate sore fingertips

Many thanks in advance and sorry in advance for all the questions I no doubt will be posting 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Hi Danny, welcome to the forum 🙂 Very sorry t hear about your diagnosis, but glad you found us so quickly. I wouldn't worry about the meter and recommended doses at the moment, you will need to build up experience of how diabetes affects you before you can use a tool to tell you how to adjust things.

I would highly recommend getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas - it's knowqn as the Type 1 bible (whatever your age!). How did you come to be diagnosed? I'm guessing it was fairly dramatic?

 

[DANNYSHELDON]

Hi Northerner

It was a bit of a whirlwind to be honest
I went on a health kick around April time, I'm 37 and a sales rep I was about 14 1/2 stone so decided to go on a health kick ready for my holiday and thought if I don't do it now I would just get bigger, anyway I lost weight but couldn't stop, gf and boss at work eventually got me me to go get a check up, I was at 27 on sugar levels but felt fine weirdly but had to go to hospital straight away

 

[DANNYSHELDON]

I'm coping ok I think but it's the drops that do my head in, I was 8.1 before my tea but just had a 2.3 2hours later ?????

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Danny

Welcome to the forum 🙂

As Northie says, you may need to wait a short while to find your feet before looking to a meter that allows bolus advice, at least in part because your pancreas may still be providing some insulin, but possibly not very consistently... Which can make fine-tuning quite tricky. Another good book recommendation is 'Think Like A Pancreas' by Gary Scheiner - a very useful guidebook to insulin therapy that will help you enormously over the coming years.

To avoid painful BG tests, make sure your finger prick device is set at a shallow depth and use the sides of your fingers as these are less sensitive to touch and pain than the 'pads' where your fingerprints are. Little fingers seem to have fewer nerve endings than the others.

Make sure your hands are warm, and hang your hands by your sides for a moment to encourage blood flow.

Good luck 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Hi Northerner

It was a bit of a whirlwind to be honest
I went on a health kick around April time, I'm 37 and a sales rep I was about 14 1/2 stone so decided to go on a health kick ready for my holiday and thought if I don't do it now I would just get bigger, anyway I lost weight but couldn't stop, gf and boss at work eventually got me me to go get a check up, I was at 27 on sugar levels but felt fine weirdly but had to go to hospital straight away

Don't stop with the health kick, it will do you a lot of good 🙂 Have you been offered any diabetes education course? This will take a few months to get your head around, but you will get there - keep asking questions and you will learn something new every day 🙂 What have your levels been like so far? Are you on fixed insulin doses currently?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm coping ok I think but it's the drops that do my head in, I was 8.1 before my tea but just had a 2.3 2hours later ?????

Has your DSN/clinic introduced the idea of 'carb counting' to you yet?

In simple terms, if you are taking the same doses for different meals throughout the day then you will need to 'match' those doses with a certain amount of carbohydrate. Frustratingly you will need to work out the exact ratio yourself as everyone is slightly different, but your post suggests that you might have needed to take slightly less insulin, or eat slightly more carbs for that meal.

To begin with I found it easier to keep doses the same and work out the amount of carbs that worked for me. Once I knew the grams of carbs to work towards I could make up that total from different things, but needed to watch what things have more 'gentle' BG levels after eating.

 

[Redkite]

Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

It sounds as though you could do with some advice on carb counting, matching your insulin doses to the amount and type of carbs eaten. Hypos happen when there is too much insulin circulating at that moment in time, so a hypo after eating tea could be due to any of:

- too much insulin for the quantity of carbs eaten
- too much insulin if you exercised before tea (you often need to reduce insulin after sports for example)
- a timing issue due to the type of carbs, e.g. Pasta takes longer to digest, and therefore the insulin taken with a pasta meal is often better split into two parts, one before eating, one an hour or so later.

It's really early days for you, so don't worry, it will get easier! 🙂.

 

[DANNYSHELDON]

Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

It sounds as though you could do with some advice on carb counting, matching your insulin doses to the amount and type of carbs eaten. Hypos happen when there is too much insulin circulating at that moment in time, so a hypo after eating tea could be due to any of:

- too much insulin for the quantity of carbs eaten
- too much insulin if you exercised before tea (you often need to reduce insulin after sports for example)
- a timing issue due to the type of carbs, e.g. Pasta takes longer to digest, and therefore the insulin taken with a pasta meal is often better split into two parts, one before eating, one an hour or so later.

It's really early days for you, so don't worry, it will get easier! 🙂.

Hi

Thanks everyone, I have had my first appointment with diabetes doctor and just waiting for my dietician appointment to come through where carb counting will be discussed, but I'm a bit cautious to lower my dosage until I'm told to, but do feel that the 9ml is probably too much, I did have it lowered to 1 week at 7 then a week at 8 then back to 9 as I had a few days where I was feeling jittery, panicking and generally on the edge, doctor said it was my body getting used to being on normal sugar levels from being high.

 

[trophywench]

Well whenever you feel jittery and as if your teeth are one edge, or any feeling that 'I'm not quite right but I don't know why' - always test your BG.

I think I felt like that most of the time, for about the first month!

It does honestly wear off though.

If you are seriously taking 9u of fast-acting insulin with every meal I'm just a bit gobsmacked. For me to need to take 9u, I would need to eat 90g of carbohydrate to use that up. That's 6 slices of large medium sliced bread, or 9 'egg sized' potatoes or the equivalent.

I'd explode. Or possibly throw up before I exploded. I don't believe I have personally ever eaten a meal that contains that much!

How much carb do you actually eat at mealtimes though? - there's a scientific way of adjusting doses, it ain't based on guesswork and it isn't rocket science.

 

[Nic:)]

I am also newly diagnosed type one and have had to steadily reduce my baseline insulin to very small amounts as like you I was dropping my blood sugar ALL the time I see now to have got it right and am told by my DN that this is due to the honeymoon period (my pancreas still producing some insulin) and this won't last forever so just stick with it and keep altering it until you find the right dosage!

 

[Bloden]

Don't be hard on yourself

Sorry to hear bout your diagnosis. Just take each day as it comes. Things get easier the more experience you have of the disease. And remember you're not alone - there's loads of people on this forum ready to help. It's great!!