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New to all this

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D

DavidSmedley

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
Hi everyone,
Just joined, to see if there's any advice you can give - my wife has just been diagnosed. Really wanted to chat with another couple, where one is diabetic, to see how to overcome problems.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

What Type of diabetes has your wife been diagnosed with?

I'm not sure if there are any "couples" that a re both members but us diabetics and other partners aren't useless ourselves lol

What problems are you looking to overcome exactly?
xx
 
Hi David and welcome

It is great that you are being so proactively supportive of your wife. She is a lucky woman!

As @Kaylz says we don't seem to have many couples who are both members, but we do have partners and carers who can perhaps give you their take on it. Knowing her Type of Diabetes and the medication she is on may help us to give you appropriate advice and support. It can be quite daunting for partners, especially if they have to deal with the mood swings associated with extreme high and low BG levels and perhaps deal with hypos which can sometimes be more scary for the loved ones than the person experiencing them.
 
I'm still finding out. She's insulin dependent but we're still learning about it all.
 
Can you tell us a bit more about how she came to be diagnosed? Did she lose weight and start weeing a lot or take seriously ill and need hospital treatment?
 
Also, so you know which insulins she is on.... I am guessing she has a slow acting basal insulin that she takes once or twice a day and a "fast" acting bolus insulin to inject before meals?
 
She didn't lose weight but was constantly having to see but still felt thirsty. Became very tired and lethargic, even became too tired for massage and sex, so we saw her doctor.
 
Prescribed a very, very low carbohydrate diet and injects before meals - I do the injections.
 
What's the name of the insulin?

maybe it wasn't that she was too tired to have sex, I know I certainly lost my drive and in the 3 years I've been diagnosed I've only slept with my partner once due to being anxious of lows, not feeling as confident as I used to etc
xx
 
DavidSmedley said:
Prescribed a very, very low carbohydrate diet and injects before meals - I do the injections.
Click to expand...
Wow! That is interesting that the doc has prescribed a very low carb diet. Most GPs and practice nurses and NHS dieticians advocate the healthy eating plate, even for diabetics. Good that you have a more progressive doctor. Has your wife been referred to a consultant or more tests done to establish her type of diabetes? I too lost my interest in sex. That is getting a bit better especially with the help of HRT which I started about 10 weeks ago.
 
Thanks Barbara, Louise was on HRT anyway and had been very interested in that respect until this all started.
 
Yes the fear of blindness and foot amputation is pretty sobering isn't it, although those are usually as a result of long term poorly managed BG levels over many years.
Eating low carb is actually quite enjoyable once you get your head around it and increase your fat intake. Cauliflower is a really versatile veg... cauliflower cheese made with cream cheese and grated mature cheese is even tastier than the conventional cheese sauce make with flour and milk (both carby ingredients). It can be cooked and mashed with butter or cream cheese or mustard to replace potato mash and eaten with high meat content sausages or burgers or used to top a cottage pie and finely chopped it can be used in place of rice or cous cous. Mediterranean veg cooked in lots of lovely olive oil to make a ratatouille is good and green leafy veg like cabbage spinach and kale all benefit from a good knob of butter or dollop of cream cheese. Filling your plate up with these things instead of potatoes or pasta or rice and reducing bread intake (look out for low carb bread in your local supermarket if you can't live without bread) as well as cutting out the cakes and biscuits and sweets will go a long way to bringing her BG down into the normal range but you will need to be very careful with the insulin if you are reducing her carb intake. Has she been told to carry glucose tablets/orange juice/lucozade with her at all times to treat a hypo and the symptoms and consequences of that explained? Hypos can be scary, especially the first few times. Insulin is a very powerful hormone and a little too much can cause your BG to drop too low and your body to shut down as a result. Not sure I would trust my partner to inject me with it!!
 
Yes David, ask away - we're all human beings and have similar bodies and bodily functions - what's up?
 
I thought the discussion so far had all been pretty frank, but yes, ask away....
The great thing about the internet is the anonymity of it which makes it easier to discuss things which might be awkward or embarrassing to ask or discuss with someone you know.
 
DavidSmedley said:
It's just that I thought the lack of libido was supposed to happen to blokes, not to ladies.
Click to expand...
what made you think that loss of libido was exclusive to men exactly? diabetes affects people physically and mentally and can do anything to a person
 
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