Newbie

[Meme35]

Hi just joined today. I was diagnosed with type 2 back in 2020. Was on metformin. January 2023 was extremely ill and rushed to hospital were I was told I had severe dka spent a week in hospital. Maybe 2 weeks after leaving had a phone call from hospital to inform me my antibody test had come back and I was told I was type 1. My bg is all over the place I feel lost hopeless scared. Thank you for reading stay happy and healthy

 

[Dave_Z1a]

Sorry to hear that, grit your teeth and be strong, on the positive side you have a proper diagnosis now, make sure you get the care and support your entitled to get and hopefully from this point forward you will feel better from getting the proper treatment, advice and care you need. Lots of info here and some very knowledgable posters.

 

[Meme35]

Sorry to hear that, grit your teeth and be strong, on the positive side you have a proper diagnosis now, make sure you get the care and support your entitled to get and hopefully from this point forward you will feel better from getting the proper treatment, advice and care you need. Lots of info here and some very knowledgable posters.

Thank you for your response. I’m trying just finding it really hard and overwhelming right now. Il get there eventually.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you for your response. I’m trying just finding it really hard and overwhelming right now. Il get there eventually.

Welcome to the forum, there are lots of very knowledgeable people who will no doubt have experienced the uncertainty and feeling you have right now. They will be better able to help with your questions if you give a bit of information about your insulins and your dosing regime and also if you have a Libre for monitoring your glucose levels.
Are you under the care of a specialist diabetic hospital clinic or under your GP.
Do ask any questions you have, nothing is considered stupid.

 

[Meme35]

Welcome to the forum, there are lots of very knowledgeable people who will no doubt have experienced the uncertainty and feeling you have right now. They will be better able to help with your questions if you give a bit of information about your insulins and your dosing regime and also if you have a Libre for monitoring your glucose levels.
Are you under the care of a specialist diabetic hospital clinic or under your GP.
Do ask any questions you have, nothing is considered stupid.

Welcome to the forum, there are lots of very knowledgeable people who will no doubt have experienced the uncertainty and feeling you have right now. They will be better able to help with your questions if you give a bit of information about your insulins and your dosing regime and also if you have a Libre for monitoring your glucose levels.
Are you under the care of a specialist diabetic hospital clinic or under your GP.
Do ask any questions you have, nothing is considered stupid.

I’m currently taking novorapid at meal times and tresiba bed time. Yes I have the libre which is forever sending alarms. I prefer having the libre but it’s set me on edge where I’m constantly checking levels. Im currently dealing with diabetic doctor from the hospital.

 

[soupdragon]

Hi @Meme35

The DKA must have been a big shock but it's good that you've finally got the right diagnosis and that you're being looked after by the hospital.

There's such a lot to deal with at the start and it takes some time to get the doses as good as possible but it does get easier.

I know what you mean about Libre - great but makes it easy to get a bit obsessive about numbers. At this stage you should probably be concentrating on doing your best to avoid hypos as your diabetes team suggest changes to your insulin doses to gradually bring your levels down.
I know it was a shock for me when I first saw the rises and falls of my glucose levels on Libre and it took me quite some time to realise that it's just not possible to avoid all of them.

Welcome to the form and do let us know if you have any questions.

 

[Meme35]

Hi @Meme35

The DKA must have been a big shock but it's good that you've finally got the right diagnosis and that you're being looked after by the hospital.

There's such a lot to deal with at the start and it takes some time to get the doses as good as possible but it does get easier.

I know what you mean about Libre - great but makes it easy to get a bit obsessive about numbers. At this stage you should probably be concentrating on doing your best to avoid hypos as your diabetes team suggest changes to your insulin doses to gradually bring your levels down.
I know it was a shock for me when I first saw the rises and falls of my glucose levels on Libre and it took me quite some time to realise that it's just not possible to avoid all of them.

Welcome to the form and do let us know if you have any questions.

Hi @soupdragon there definitely is a lot to deal with. DKA was the most scariest thing I’ve gone through in my life. But it’s made me look at my life a whole lot different. I am most definitely obsessive about numbers and I’m only a week into having the libre.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

Really sorry to hear that you had such a nasty episode of DKA but at least you now have the correct diagnosis, appropriate treatment and support.

It is really overwhelming at first so how you are feeling is normal in lots of respects and it will get better with time and experience. Yes Libre is an amazing bit of kit, but it has limitations and understanding them is really important. Knowing when to double check the readings it gives you with a finger prick. For instance, if you lie on the sensor during your sleep, it compresses the tissue underneath it and that leads to changes in the interstitial fluid which is what the Libre sensor reads. This will cause your levels to drop usually quite sharply, when in fact your BG levels in the rest of your body will remain steady. This is called a compression low. If your Libre wakes you up during the night with a low alarm and you don't feel hypo, consider if this might be the cause particularly if you wake up lying on that side and double check with a finger prick before you eat a hypo treatment. Usually, if it is a compression low, the graph will show a sharp dip and then rebound back up again when the pressure is removed from it.

What are your Libre alarm levels set at?
I would be inclined to turn off the high level alarm at this stage as you have probably not been instructed how to do corrections, so there is little you can do about your levels being high unless they go massively high mid 20s or above and don't come down and then you probably need to seek advice. Personally I have also turned off the "out of range" alarm, because I can't see much if any benefit in it. So maybe just have the low alarm on for now and hopefully that will give you a bit more peace, otherwise it can drive you scatty!

Talking of hypos, I hope that you have been given advice about how to treat them and in particular the "Rule of 15" ie. when your levels drop below 4, you eat 15g of fast acting carbs like 3 jelly Babies or 4-5 Glucose/Dextrose tablets, wait 15 mins and check your levels with a finger prick. Libre has a delay and will not usually show that your levels have come back up after 15 mins but the finger prick should. If you are not back up above 4, eat another 15g fast acting carbs and wait another 15 mins and finger prick again, until you are above 4. Then you might consider having a digestive biscuit or half a slice of bread/toast with peanut butter to provide slower release carbs to prevent you dropping again.

It is always important to have hypo treatments with you at all times, particularly when you leave the house but also by the bed, because you don't want to be wandering around the house half asleep and confused and wobbly with a hypo, looking for them. I have everything I need in my bag and it goes everywhere with me, including to the bathroom because a hot bath or shower, particularly after exercise can drop your levels fast.

Anyway, those are just a few top tips that came to mind. Please feel free to ask any questions you have here. The forum is a goldmine of practical experience and knowledge and has taught me most of what I know and more importantly it has given me confidence to manage my diabetes well, during the 4 years I have been diagnosed. I hope you will find a similar benefit. There will always be a range of views and opinions because diabetes is very individual, so other people may disagree with some of what I suggest and vice versa, but take it all in, learn to listen to your body and you will find what works for you. Most of all, keep yourself safe by making sure you always have hypo treatments (and testing gear) with you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Meme35

Sorry to hear what a rough ride you’ve had so far with your diagnosis. I think it has been a particularly difficult time to get diagnosed with diabetes, as the healthcare system has been under so much pressure, and backlogs of appointments have built up so much that routine care has had to be delayed - which is fine if you’ve been pottering along with your diagnosis for decades, but is much trickier if you are still on that steep learning curve at the start.

Have you been offered a structured education course in diabetes management? DAFNE is a respected and very effective one, and there are also local equivalents eg BERTIE (which is also available as a free online course).

It might really help you understand some of the chaos diabetes can throw yohr way, and give you some strategies to begin to reduce glucose variability and instabiliy?

 

[Meme35]

Welcome to the forum @Meme35

Sorry to hear what a rough ride you’ve had so far with your diagnosis. I think it has been a particularly difficult time to get diagnosed with diabetes, as the healthcare system has been under so much pressure, and backlogs of appointments have built up so much that routine care has had to be delayed - which is fine if you’ve been pottering along with your diagnosis for decades, but is much trickier if you are still on that steep learning curve at the start.

Have you been offered a structured education course in diabetes management? DAFNE is a respected and very effective one, and there are also local equivalents eg BERTIE (which is also available as a free online course).

It might really help you understand some of the chaos diabetes can throw yohr way, and give you some strategies to begin to reduce glucose variability and instabiliy?

Hi most definitely trying to learn how to care for my diabetes. It’s a struggle at the moment trying to work out carb ratio and bg levels. No I haven’t been offered any learning courses will defo talk to my diabetic doc on Tuesday about it.