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New to this, hi!

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Billberry40

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Type 2
Hi all, today I have joined the Diabetes UK forums to get some help and advice.

I have been diagnosed with Type 2 for 8 years now but over the last few weeks it has gone down hill and resulted in myself being started on insulin of two types on Monday of this week. Struggling big time to get my head around it all especially the food side and knowing what to eat and how much to eat.

However what I wasn't expecting was the emotional side of what has happened to me this week. From going to my GP on Monday morning and from there being sent straight to my local hospital and spending the day getting looked at and seeing what was going on, it's really messed up my head, I'm angry at myself for letting this happen but at the same time feeling quite sad for myself which I know is just silly and embarrassing.

Any advice or tips to get out of this low point would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
If you had to go to hospital because you'd got drunk, fallen over and broken your arm - for instance, (and there's a lot gone out and done that recently) then I could understand blaming yourself - but being diabetic? There is not one thing I can suggest that you could have done which would have resulted in anything different happening - so why are you blaming yourself for it?
I suspect that you might have been misdiagnosed as being type two and are actually one of the more complicated types, but so many people seem to get poor advice, poor follow up, no tests done etc. so again it is hardly your fault.
I can only suggest that you put your mind to looking at what you eat and finding out the percentage carb for the various foods, so you'll be in a better way of understanding your insulin needs.
The two types of insulin will be - presumably one for long term, the background or basal and the other to deal with meals, the bolus type.
 
You actually are perfectly normal! Being diagnosed with something which is now - OMG! - really serious! (like eg Type 1 diabetes) - is emotionally devastating and has a similar effect to a bereavement - hence we each have to work through our own personal grieving process. Google 'The 5 stages of grief' if you haven't already.

It's a shock and there is absolutely nob all we could do about it to change things, we're stuck with it. So unfortunately whilst yes we NEED to grieve, at the same time we have to get stuck in to learning A Lot, much more quickly than anything in our lives previously. But we know we have to do it - for the reason because our lives depend on it, we simply have to.

So {{{Hugs}}} from me - we're all with you and will offer our help - never think any question you have will be considered 'silly' on here, either! because we won't.

Now then, which brands of insulin have you been given, what doses, when have you been told to jab them, and what advice have the hospital given you about food and/or exercise?
 
Thank-you both for your messages. I don'y know why I feel so down, I'm hoping that in a few days it might just lift and get better in terms of feeling more positive.

Getting my head around the food choices will be difficult for me, making sure they are all correct in size portion and that i don't go over my daily amount of carbohydrates which I'm currently aiming at around 150g a day.

From the hospital I have been given Aspart at 6 unit per shot and Deglude at 10 units per shot. At the moment they don't look to be working, one of my current issues is having to make lots of trips to the toilet, I thought it might calm down a bit with the insulin but it hasn't.

I was told to use them on either by belly or thigh. I've not been given any food advice as yet as my appointment with the dietician is not still September but i'll be looking online for some food ideas. As for exercise, I definitely need to do more.
 
Welcome to the forum @Billberry40

Sorry to hear that you are feeling down about the changes to your diaberes management. A diagnosis with diabetes can feel overwhelming and can take some getting used to, and if you haven’t felt a but shaken up earlier on in your diabetes experience, then diabetes has no qualms about messing with your head years later!

It’s likely that your clinic have been fairly cautious with your insulin doses to begin with, but do keep a good record of your carb counts and BG levels, as these will help your Dr or DSN make suggestions.

Hopefully it won’t be long before you begin to feel more positive, and begin to see some positive effects of your insulin therapy. In some ways I think us T1s have it lucky in that respect - we have to crack on with the insulin from the off, and no HCP ever suggests it represents any kind of failure, or threatens us with it - not that they should do either of these things to T2s either... but regrettably it happens.

Needing insulin is an individual thing, and depends entirely on how a person’s diabetes behaves, and in the case of T2, either progresses (or doesnt)! You shouldnt accept any feelings of blame or stigma about your needing insulin. Your efforts will be far better spent on adjusting to your new regimen, and making it work for you.

We have a number of T2s on the forum like @Ljc who have very successfully adjusted to basal:bolus insulin use.
 
Billberry40 said:
Getting my head around the food choices will be difficult for me, making sure they are all correct in size portion and that i don't go over my daily amount of carbohydrates which I'm currently aiming at around 150g a day.
Click to expand...

I’m no expert, and new to all this, but 150g a day sounds quite high to me. It may be worth reducing this. On my part, with frequent testing, food diary etc (lots of advice available in this forum) I’ve established that I can have one slice of toast at breakfast, 60g of either rice or pasta two or three times a week, two tablespoons of mashed potato occasionally etc. Logical approach, time and effort have made a massive difference to me.
 
BTW, ask away!
 
So are the insulin brands Tresiba and Novorapid?

T is a long acting insulin and N is a fast acting one- so a 'basal/bolus' insulin regime.

I've used Novorapid for ages - 20-ish years - and I'm a bog standard Type 1 so none of the attendant things that frequently affect Type 2s - like eg insulin resistance.

Have a read of this - and then ask yourself the question 'Is my basal insulin actually really keeping MY body ticking over nicely at a sensible say approx 6.0 on my meter, for the full 24 hours?' - the point being unless it is, you are really on a hiding to nothing trying to adjust your premeal jabs of Novorapid to make up for the gaps in the Tresiba coverage AND also take care of the carbs you eat for those meals.

Basal insulins « Diabetes Support Information Exchange

www.diabetes-support.org.uk www.diabetes-support.org.uk

What blood tests were done (other than with your meter) to decide to start you on insulin and I ask because 10u of Tresiba is the recommended starting dose of it for newly diagnosed T1 patients which you aren't, and I should think from what you've told us so far that you're more likely to actually be LADA. LADA presents like T2 and can also respond to normal T2 drugs for a while, but then won't respond to them and after that point will ONLY respond to insulin, just as if the past however many years hadn't happened and you'd been T1 all along. However further blood tests in the form of C-peptide and GAD antibodies usually need to be done to establish this and you haven't mentioned if those have been or are being, done.
 
The 150g of carbs was what I thought I would start with after speaking to the person who runs my local group. I've not been told a specific number by anybody yet and don't have an appointment with the dietician till September. Should I go lower do you think?

Today I have spoken to the Diabetic nurse but it was only a very quick telephone call, she has said she will call me again on Monday so hopefully I'll be able to ask more questions then.

Yes the above named brands of insulin are the ones I have been started on, I really hope that they start to have an effect soon on me.

When I was at hospital I was never told I was T1, I am summing I am still T2, the doctor did say that T2 was something that people with weight issues might get which I have. They did take blood from me but nobody actually came back and told me any full results.

To be honest though the issues I have at the moment which originally promoted me to call my GP on Monday is that I having to make lots of extra trips to the toilet. I've been told that the insulin should help stop this but its not having much effect at the moment so when they were doing the test on Monday I was really hanging around afterwards so I might have missed something when they told me some results.
 
Hope things start to fall into place for you soon @Billberry40
 
The Diabetes Weight Loss Cookbook by Katie & Giancarlo Caldesi has an extremely good and useful introduction.

Three or four days only I have one slice of toast made using a multi seed wholemeal loaf. This has 17g of carbs, which is why a target of 150g seems quite a lot to me.
 
Hi @Billberry40 , A rather late welcome from me.
I hope that things are improving for you, and that the books you have been recommended prove useful. Keep the questions coming on here. Nobody minds.
 
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