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Newbie Probable T1

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TomI

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Type 1
Hello! Diagnosed this week with probable T1, glucose levels at 23 and spent an afternoon in diabetes centre being run through monitors and insulin pens at what felt like 100mph!

Getting to grips with it all but still finding blood sugar levels like a rollercoaster, and don’t feel like they’re going low enough? 8.8 this morning and back up to 15 2h after breakfast even with bolus and basal insulin! Is this normal at this stage?!

Have read through some other intros and the support here sounds great - just hope it all begins to make sense and gets easier!
 
Hi and welcome.

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis but you have come to the right place for support, advice, centuries of lived experience and a great place to fill in the blacks left by all the info that went in one ear and out the other during that brief spell at the clinic.

Firstly it is better to bring your levels down slowly and steadily as this is kinder to your body which has likely been running with elevated BG levels for a while and adjusted to that. The eyes are particularly vulnerable to dramatic changes in overall daily BG levels because they have some very fragile blood vessels. I think it would be best to aim for low to mid teens in your first couple of weeks if you started off in the 20s and then bring it down slowly into single figures after that. I think I was about 3-4 weeks in before I got single figures and that was following a progressively low carb diet..... which of course is not necessary if you are Type 1 but I prefer to stick with it now as it suits my body and diabetes management. Anyway, thinking back I was lowering levels by diet alone in the first 6 weeks before I was started on insulin. It is still important to reduce levels gradually though.

I remember being 2-3 months in and still getting spikes from 5 up to 15 on a morning after breakfast until I found out that I need to prebolus much earlier at breakfast time in order to prevent it. The rise up to 15 didn't feel too bad then, but the sudden drop back down to 5 later was pretty awful! 3 years down the line I can keep it below 10 but it takes time to learn how your body works and it can be very different to other diabetics.

Anyway, just wanted to say "make yourself at home" and ask whatever you need to, have a rant if you like at the unfairness of it all and how frustrating it can be and/or just read and learn from other threads.
We are here to help you in any way we can.
 
Welcome to the forum @TomI

And welcome to the club no one wants to join! Glad you have found us and joined the forum - it can be so helpful to have a sounding board, and source of support and encouragement from others treading the same path, but at different stages along the journey.

It can certainly feel like a bit of information overload to begin with. And it’s so easy for those appointments to pass in a bit of a hazy blur. There are great sources of information on the DUK website, including the Learning Zone, and of course you can ask any questions you have on the forum too.

If you’d like a reference you can flick through and refer back to at your leisure, two books that are often recommended for new T1s are:

Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas - Don't be put off by the title - this book is relevant to people of all ages!

Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner - A practical guide to managing diabetes with insulin

Keep plugging away at it - slow and steady wins the race 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum @TomI

There is a lot to learn very quickly at diagnosis, with the testing and injecting. As @rebrascora says they will want to bring your levels down slowly at first to protect your smaller blood vessels so don’t worry at the start if things look a bit higher than you would like them. I was told to try to stay in single figures if I could for the first two weeks.

You will still have some Beta cells helping you out at the start so it may be that you are in small doses of insulin. Your team will work with you to teach you how to adjust these over time and how to match your insulin to what you choose to eat, by counting the carbohydrates in your meals.

Take things step by step. Ask whatever questions arise, and know that nothing is considered silly on here.
Just ask.
 
Hi @TomI, it's great to see you've joined the forum and finding the information helpful! Please free to contact our helpline team they are great trained advisers and can talk through anything you feel unsure about 🙂
 
Hi @TomI. I was diagnosed 3 weeks ago. Probable LADA/late onset T1 but still awaiting my antibody results to come back. Also on basal bolus insulin. It took a week or so to uptitrate my insulin to start getting my sugars in range (5-10). Realising for me, that I need to take my bolus at least 20 minutes before food seems to stop my post meal highs. Don't worry too much about your sugars still being high. It's probable been high for ages, but now you know about it. Dropping over the next 2 weeks to range is definitely better for multiple reasons. I found the first time I dropped to below 9 I had hypo symptoms! Your body needs time to adjust as your levels drop.

I've already learnt loads since diagnosis and things are starting to get easier for me. Have they given you a libre2 sensor yet?
 
Thanks for all the replies 🙂 been a busy few weeks getting my head around everything… including antibodies results coming back negative, suggesting T2 rather than T1!

Have started low dose of Metformin today and reducing insulin to see whether it has an impact, but have to say no one I’ve spoken to seems convinced it’s Type 2… waiting a consultant referral as well.

Anyone else had the same experience?
 
Ditto!
 
Hi @TomI, how are you doing? After coming to terms with the fact I'm most likely type 2, my C peptide results came back today confirming that I am in fact type 1! Absolutely madness! I'm still on metformin 2g a day and my insulin requirements have gone right down: 6 units basal and 1-2 units bolus.
 
Wow that is madness, especially with the effect the metformin has had as well, I guess you must have had some insulin resistance as well?! Still not sure what constitutes “good news” as far as T1 / T2 but glad you’ve got an answer!

I’m on 500mg metformin twice a day at the moment, and it is bringing down my glucose levels slightly more than with just the insulin. Increasing to 1g at evening meal from tonight and reducing basal and bolus insulin to see if it continues to be as effective…still waiting on the referral appointment!
 
My consultant says it's becoming more widely accepted that both type 1 and 2 can have insulin resistance, but it has taken almost 3 months for insulin requirements to dropped.
 
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