Newbie needing support

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

M3lsAlice

Member
:confused:Hi everyone,

My boyfriend has diabetes and I found Diabetes Support this morning after a frantic Google following a 5am hypo resulting in an ambulance.

Any advice for me as a partner would be greatly appreciated. I'm worried sick about what I can do to help.

Thanks in advance,

Alice
 
Hi Alice, welcome to the forum 🙂 Very sorry to hear about your partner's hypo :( Has he been diagnosed long, and do you know what insulin he is on? The more we know about his situation, the better we will be able to help.

I do hope that he recovers well, it must have been very frightening for you both. Have you known each other long?
 
Thanks so much for the quick reply 🙂

He's 30 and has been diabetic since his was 13. We've been together for a year and a half and living together for about 3 months. We were friends for a while before so I suppose we've known each other about five years.

He's on Novomix insulin which he takes twice a day.

This isn't the first time he's had a bad hypo and he's not always the best at managing his sugars. He's very stubborn and insecure so he finds it hard to discuss the diabetes without thinking I'm criticising him.

I've managed to get him to agree to go to the GP this week and I'll be able to go in with him to make sure we both get the info we need.

Do you know if he/we would be able to have regular appointments with a nurse to help manage things?

Thank you so much
 
Hi Alice, we often get people joining here who are now adults but were diagnosed as children and what seems to happen quite frequently is that they have been somewhat overlooked by the healthcare system. By that I mean that maybe it is assumed by the doctors and nurses that they must know everything so they are just left to muddle along as best they can.

The good news though is that treatments and knowledge are improving all the time, so much better control is possible and it doesn't have to be that hard to achieve. The fact that your partner is on a mixed insulin suggests that he has not been told of the benefits of using two separate insulins - one for his 'background' needs, and one to take with his meals and snacks. This regime is called 'MDI', or Multiple Daily Injections - it gives much more control and flexibility with eating and can reduce the likelihood of hypos once you get it right.

I would suggest that he asks to be referred to a consultant-led clinic for a reassessment of his needs. This will also give him access to a fully-qualified Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) - most of them really know their stuff and will be able to talk through the problems he is having, and should also be able to talk to as and when required.

A lot of people find it difficult to discuss their diabetes, especially if they are having problems - they may feel they are being judged or feel embarrassed by needing help. Perhaps he might like to join here himself - it can help to talk to people who know just how things are living with diabetes, which can be so difficult at times to explain to someone who doesn't have it.

I would suggest getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas, which is packed full of information about all aspects of living with Type 1. Understanding what the options and reasons behind things are will really improve his chances of getting better control.

Please ask any questions you may have, and I hope the GP appointment goes well 🙂
 
Hi Alice. Welcome. 🙂

I was also diagnosed at 13 and was a bit stuck in the past until I joined the forum a couple of years ago. Everything Northerner has said is spot on and hopefully, after seeing the GP or nurse, your BF will find there's plenty of support to bring him up to date.

That book is brilliant. You can reassure him that the most seasoned of us can still learn new stuff every day and none of us do it perfectly, so there's no shame in trying different ways of doing what we do. There members with 40 or 50 years under their belts who still drop by to pick up tips.🙂

Good luck and look forward to finding out how you get on.

Rob
 
Thanks so much for your message Rob, I really appreciate the welcome and the support 🙂

We had a big fight last night about the hypo because I was extremely worried and he can't see why it's such a big deal. I have explained to him that I'll never get used to seeing someone I love in that state but he just plays it down. He thinks I shouldn't have called the ambulance because its not good for him when they raise his sugars so high (11) Is he right? He said I should have just given him some orange juice and waited for him to recover more slowly.

Anyway, I didn't go to the doctor with him but I've told him I've joined this forum and that I've received some excellent advice. I told him to ask the doctor for a referral as you suggested, Northerner, so he did that. He said he he doesn't hear within 3 weeks, he needs to chase the doc.

I will definitely get a copy of that book!
 
Trouble is a lot of D's will fight you off violently if you try to ply them with a hypo remedy. Even if it tastes nice.

And another trouble is if I'm too far gone I can't chew so no good having glucose tablets or jelly babies, couldn't deal with em. This is why I choose orange Lucozade. Much quicker than even orange juice, cos it's all Glucose, not fructose, can keep it out of the fridge for long periods and far far too sweet to drink any other time, but when hypo, yes. Cos you start absorbing it through the inside of your cheeks even before you go gulp.

60 ml is 10g of carb, 115ml orange juice is 10g, 150ml Coke is 10g. So you need far less of it to work.

Why does he think it's the ambulance men making his BG go up to 11? IMHO - it's most likely his LIVER doing this! OK the guys will err on the side of caution it's true, and so they should. And yes, it does take about 24 hrs to sort it out again after - but that's your own body being nasty to you - simply cos you had the ruddy hypo in the first place.

When you've had a hypo, esp a really low one, your liver responds to that by shovelling it's stores of glucose into your blood. You cannot stop it (and neither can anyone else) unless your hypo was very minor - say 3.5 and you got to it pdq. If it was worse than that, then the chances are Mr Liver will respond even if you've already drunk enough Lucozade to refloat a battleship. But the second problem there is, no-one knows how much glucose it will shovel in, or when it will do it. Could be minutes later, could be hours. (It's not called Glucose when it's in the Liver, it's Glycogen, but same difference for this explanation)

And look - I was diagnosed in 1972 so in 2007-ish when I actually found this out - I'd already been T1 for 35 years. Marvellous, explained A Lot.

And I still learn something new nearly every day.
 
Hi Alice and welcome

I thoroughly recommend the Lucozade pouches for night time hypos.
I used to get those a lot and my husband always had to sort me out - I was usually barely conscious. I had to be persuaded to drink. If I wouldn't (quite often), just pouring it into my mouth seemed to just make that difference so I recovered enough to accept his further instructions

My husband found it all extremely frightening, especially the time I woke up convinced he was trying to murder me and raced into the bathroom and locked the door on him. He spend minutes trying to talk me down, but gradually the lucozade he'd poured into my mouth took effect so I let him in(I did feel a right fool afterwards)

So I know how difficult these night time hypos can be for you, and I hope you manage to get his control improved.
 
Hi Alice, sorry to hear about recent episode. Please dont blame him for being "stubbon" or "Akward". Its not him, his head is in a diffrent place. As others have said a sugar drink is the quickest to bring him back to norm. 🙂
 
When you are at Gps get a tube of Glucostop on perscription. Its comes in a tooth paste like tube & is easy for you to apply. I know cos i am reasnobly strong & cant avoid having it. 😉 Where all behind you good luck 🙂
 
Are night-time hypos quite common? And are they down to bad management or can they happen out of the blue? I'm worried that he's not taking care of himself well enough and he won't let me in enough to help unless its an emergency. He's got a very sweet tooth and eats a lot of things that perhaps he shouldn't.

It's almost like he's in denial about his illness. He wants to ignore it as much as possible. I can understand why because it must be awful but I can't help thinking that with a few routines in place, it would be harder at first but easier in the long run.
 
M3lsAlice said:
Are night-time hypos quite common? And are they down to bad management or can they happen out of the blue? I'm worried that he's not taking care of himself well enough and he won't let me in enough to help unless its an emergency. He's got a very sweet tooth and eats a lot of things that perhaps he shouldn't.

It's almost like he's in denial about his illness. He wants to ignore it as much as possible. I can understand why because it must be awful but I can't help thinking that with a few routines in place, it would be harder at first but easier in the long run.
Click to expand...

On mixed insulin which your parner is using they are a bit more common,So he needs to take the precutions to make sure he doesn't go hypo which needs help.
The simplist thing to do is have a snack before bed. Oh and test blood sugars.

Does he realise that one more hypo like that within 12 months is an automatic loss of his driving licence? (That's if he drives)
 
He doesn't drive but that's really interesting. I had no idea.

He's started having a snack before bed now which seems to be helping.

I have another question but I'm going to start a new feed to see if anyone else has the same problem/concern.

Thank you all so much for your advice so far
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top