MY FIRST DKA & HOW I DISCOVERED I HAVE TYPE ONE DIABETES.

[trophywench]

Exercise can affect BG for up to 48 hours thereafter. I spot that both sorts of exercise you have mentioned - or rather neither - involves being out in the fresh air like eg cycling, walking, jogging, running or playing a 'team' game would. Things that us old uns used to call aerobic exercise. Why would that be?

Secondly diabetes doesn't give a fig about calories, it is purely only interested in converting anything you stick into your gob into glucose to fuel your body. If it isn't getting enough food or insulin (either exogenous or endogenous) to convert into sufficient glucose to sufficiently fuel your body, then you will be fatigued.

Hence I feel (and I'm no expert!!) it will be much more than likely that you're going to have to re-think that diet, because your body is absolutely NOT the one you have been used to having now. You can go TOO low carb.

 

[Bec2015]

Hi @NealSawyer, I'm new to the forums - sorry I'm replying long after everyone else.

There are no silly questions with this condition, and you'll find that you're always learning! I'm 5 years in and still learning 🙂

I just wanted to add that usually you would get a lot of outpatient support being newly diagnosed (or at least that was my experience). I think you've just had it that bit worse because of Covid-19. Once outpatient appts are happening again, you should get an appt with a dietitian. They will be able to talk you through which foods have the highest impact on your blood sugars, but also advise you on maintaining a balanced diet and hopefully avoiding that fatigue. Your consultant will help teach you how to calculate insulin for the food you want to eat, and of course there are many helpful courses you can go on to help assist your knowledge (i.e DAFNE) once they're up and running again.

This lockdown has been a test on all of us, I just keep reminding myself that this is temporary and better days are coming.

 

[Amity Island]

Howdy

I am Neal Sawyer. I am a newly diagnosed Type One Diabetic. It is in the gene pool but at the age of 35, I thought I'd dodged the bullet. Unfortunately, it caught me and got me in the end and it did so with an act of great vengeance in the form of a DKA.

I'm still in the first few weeks of mist. While it is all very overwhelming, I am attempting to maintain a positive outlook. The temptation was to bury my head in the sand. The thought of announcing my disease made me feel vulnerable and insecure. Anyway, I put that to one side and have yesterday published a blog about my experience and diagnosis. Writing about this was a huge step in accepting what has happened. Not only that, if someone out there might gain a drop of comfort from realising they are not alone it has been worthwhile.

If you fancy, you can read the full story below:
https://nealsawyer.wixsite.com/nealsawyer/post/the-sawyer-post-issue-4-my-first-dka

I work as a freelance writer and musician. I'm hoping to be vocal about this as much as I can. I want to face it head-on While I haven't got a massive audience, I hope that every little helps.

It is lovely to meet you all anyway my new friends.
I wish you health in body and mind.
Stay safe.
Neal

Howdy to you too Neal!

This forum has been an amazing experience for me, there's a whole wealth of help from many people. I've learnt so much about many things, including diabetes. When I first started on the forum, like you (and probably many), I was having difficulties and needed some extra help from those up on deck (diabetics) apart from those steering the ship (Doctors and Nurses) I did more reading and less posting, now I tend to do more posting and less reading, mainly because of the exponential learning curve.

I was diagnosed at 23 years of age, in my last week at Uni and since then, diabetes has never stopped me from doing anything.

Regarding your diagnosis, keep in mind that most people with type 1 diabetes (like me) don’t have relatives who do, so it often seems to come out of nowhere. There’s no diabetes gene that gets turned on or off to give you type 1. It's a combination of genes and triggers.

Neal, here's a few stats pulled from the web.

If you’re a father who has type 1, your child has about a 1 in 17 chance of getting it.
For mothers with type 1 diabetes who give birth:
Before age 25, the child has a 1 in 25 chance.
At 25 or older, the child has 1 in 100 chance, which is about the same as anyone else.
If the parent had diabetes before age 11, the child’s chances double.
If both parents have it, the odds could be as high as 1 in 4.
If the parent also has a condition called type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome, their child’s chance of having type 1 diabetes would be 1 in 2.
If your parents don’t have it but a brother or sister does, you have about 5% chance of getting type 1. That’s about the same as if your father had it. If your identical twin has it, though, your odds may be as high as 50%.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

and of course there are many helpful courses you can go on to help assist your knowledge (i.e DAFNE) once they're up and running again.

A number of regions are piloting remote DAFNE courses, I think, so potentially those can happen before next summer. (I'm guessing next summer is the earliest in person groups might be safe.)

(As a side question. People on the forum have complained that they've found it hard to get a place on a course like DAFNE suggesting that there's a shortage, and yet I've also read that take up of referrals to such courses is low (suggesting that there aren't enough people for the available courses). Is it that the two things are really different: are these referrals just some consultant saying "I think this patient ought to go on a course" rather than an actual offer of a place? Maybe it's also the case that many patients can't take up an offer for practical reasons, of course.)

 

[trophywench]

Well I've certainly recently had good news with regard to Outpatient clinics, firstly going back to April Pete had a telephone appointment with his oncologist (Prostate Cancer a few years back, had it removed, must have missed a bit so 3 weeks of daily Radiology thereafter, so has to have 6 monthly blood tests for his PSA level so Dr K's secretary told him names and phone no's of 'home visiting phlebotomists' which OK he had to pay for - all of £11, but that result was excellent so Dr K said as far as he was concerned he was happy to sign him off.) Meanwhile my diabetes clinic and a psychology one both in April were cancelled but about a fortnight ago the Psych lot wrote and asked if they could ring me, Yep and they did, she doesn't thing there's anything likely to be partic untoward but she'd arrange 'a head scan' anyway to make certain. Thursday I received a letter to say my CT head scan had been arranged for Saturday 1st August - then at lunchtime today another letter to say my MRI head scan had been arranged for Thursday 20th August.

Soooo - now I'll have to ring em on Monday to discover if I need both, or what !

Meanwhile my diabetes one has been confirmed re arranged on 12th August so I have booked my blood taking for 10th Aug for that.

 

[Bec2015]

@Bruce Stephens I'm not sure how it works nowadays, I went on my DAFNE course back in 2017 and I had been told that you needed to have had a diagnosis for at least 12 months before attending DAFNE. However, there was someone else on my course who had only been diagnosed for 3 months - so I guess it depends on your consultant and what they feel is best?

After I'd told my consultant that I wanted to attend a DAFNE course, he put my name down and I was contacted by the local team who run the courses. They gave me a choice of 3 dates and 2 locations (if I remember correctly). I think the problem for a lot of people is that it's a week long course (Mon-Fri) and they can't necessarily get that time off work authorised, or they don't want to use a week's holiday. I just used a week's holiday because I felt that it was worth it.