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Newly Diabetic on Insulin

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
louloulou

louloulou

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello Ive been Diabetic Since October when I was rushed into intensive care with readings at 30 blood glucose and keytones I was told very lucky to be here. They have done tests to see what type I am and have come back inconclusive. I am injecting insulin 5 times a day which been really hard with a real fear of needles but i have done it and now its my daily routine. Looking for help and support from someone who is on insulin, as I feel so alone and unsupported.

Lou
 
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

You aren't alone, all us Type 1's are on insulin and there are some of the Type 2's on insulin too

Have you been given any support from your team? Mine were great when I was first diagnosed but I know not everyone is as lucky

We're all here for you! So feel free to post any questions you may have, you can come here even just for a rant, I think at some point we've all done it
xx
 
Hi, I'm not on insulin but wanted to say hello. This forum is a great place for help, support and friendship.
 
louloulou said:
Hello Ive been Diabetic Since October when I was rushed into intensive care with readings at 30 blood glucose and keytones I was told very lucky to be here. They have done tests to see what type I am and have come back inconclusive. I am injecting insulin 5 times a day which been really hard with a real fear of needles but i have done it and now its my daily routine. Looking for help and support from someone who is on insulin, as I feel so alone and unsupported.

Lou
Click to expand...
Kaylz said:
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

You aren't alone, all us Type 1's are on insulin and there are some of the Type 2's on insulin too

Have you been given any support from your team? Mine were great when I was first diagnosed but I know not everyone is as lucky

We're all here for you! So feel free to post any questions you may have, you can come here even just for a rant, I think at some point we've all done it
xx
Click to expand...
Stitch147 said:
Hi, I'm not on insulin but wanted to say hello. This forum is a great place for help, support and friendship.
Click to expand...
Kaylz said:
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂

You aren't alone, all us Type 1's are on insulin and there are some of the Type 2's on insulin too

Have you been given any support from your team? Mine were great when I was first diagnosed but I know not everyone is as lucky

We're all here for you! So feel free to post any questions you may have, you can come here even just for a rant, I think at some point we've all done it
xx
Click to expand...
Hello thank you for your reply not sure yet what im doing on here all new to me. No my support has been very poor and feel so alone with all this
 
Hello Lou welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear your support has been poor, it shouldn’t be like that. The majority of us joined this site for info, help, support and to be able to talk to others who *got it* .

What do you need help with ? their are many knowledgeable people on here who will gladly try to help or point you in the right direction.
 
Hi @louloulou sorry I had to pop out for a while

Sorry you haven't had the greatest support, do you have contact details for your team? Maybe get in touch and tell them how your feeling and your not happy with the lack of care and support you are getting? I know my team are always an email or a phone call away

BUT we are all here to support each other so if you'd rather just talk to us at the moment then please feel free to do so, as Ljc has said if there's anything we can help with just let us know 🙂
xx
 
Hello louloulou! Welcome to the Forum, and to the Club that no-one wants to join. Various comments and points for you -

Yes, being diagnosed with diabetes (often just abbreviated to D on this forum, since we all know what we're talking about) is worrying and confusing at first, but take some comfort from the fact that you are not alone

I suspect that as your D gets treated the docs will have a better idea of what exactly you have, and also you might be able to reduce the number of injections
No-one likes injecting, but modern insulin pens & very fine needles make it as bearable as possible
I've been injecting 3 or 4 times a day for the past 20 years, and when people ask how I can do it, I say that the answer is simple - given the alternative of going blind I tend to inject

I too was in a bad way before I was diagnosed and treated, and spent 5 weeks in hospital, but now it's settled down and only last week I had a review - long term Blood Glucose ( or BS = blood sugar) was good; foot sensitivity good, kidney function good
I have a diabetic eye test next month but I'm not expecting any problems
So don't worry or get upset if you hear any horror stories about complications. The good news is that if you look after yourself and manage things you'll be OK; the bad news is that you have to do that all the time for the rest of your life; but you get used to it, and it becomes normal

The current trend or attitude is for people with D to look after and manage their own condition. which means doing some homework and understanding what's going on
In particular, you will need to change your diet, which can be confusing, but you soon get the hang of it. Don't get hung up (as we used to say when I was a young man) on what you can't have, concentrate on what you CAN eat

Join Diabetes UK. They have a good introductory information pack; a useful and interesting magazine; and a good careline.
You can phone the careline without being a member. Number is 0345 123 2399
This forum is helpful & friendly, but it's also nice to talk to someone, especially if as you say, you haven't had much support locally

Go to your library and get books on D. Some of them might be a bit dated, and may have different approaches, but they will all help you to understand, and get used to the jargon
There is a list of suggested books & websites at the start of the Newbies section
If you want to buy a book, Amazon used are usually in good condition, and good value

Read previous Threads on this forum, you may well find that a lot of your questions have been asked before. There are sections on Food & Diet, and so on
There is also the Diabetes UK website

But don't be shy or embarrassed - if you want to know something, just ask
 
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Hello Lou welcome to the forum.🙂 Hope you feel better after reading the members post`s? we are all here for you so you are not alone. Keep in touch and tell us how you are coping.
 
Hi Lou and welcome from me too.

I am relatively new to Diabetes myself and just started injecting insulin in April. What type of insulin have you been given? We all understand how scary it is particularly at first and those first few hypos when you get them make you feel pretty vulnerable. I find it quite difficult to match my insulin to my food a lot of the time because my body doesn't seem to respond in a predictable way so I prefer to eat a mostly very low carb diet which reduces the amount and number of times I need to inject insulin and as a result the risk of having a hypo. Once you get the hang of eating very low carb it can be quite enjoyable especially if you increase your fat intake to make up for the calories you are not getting from sugar and starch. You do have to be a bit organised though, which is what I struggle most with.
I used to be a really heavy sugar addict, so this diet change has been a huge thing for me but I am developing new tastes for other things which I can safely eat instead..... I feel quite proud of the fact that I eat (and enjoy) olives and Gorgonzola cheese and antipasti as snacks.... makes me feel very grown up and sophisticated!! I very much agree with @zuludog that it is important to focus on and enjoy what you can eat and find new things to add to them and put out of mind all the things that are no longer good for you. Being diagnosed just before Easter my first thought was that a lifetime is a long time when you are never going to eat another Cadbury's Cream Egg!! How frivolous is that!! It was not helpful at all but I made it through Easter without any chocolate (except maybe the odd square of 70% when I was really desperate although thankfully that doesn't lend itself to guzzling like milk choc does) and I just don't crave it anymore. Now my snacks are a pot of olives and feta or a chunk of cheese or a handful of brazil nuts and very occasionally a bag of pork scratchings 😳 and I actually really savour all of those treats and don't feel deprived that I can't have the other stuff. The silver lining to a hypo though is that I get to have a tiny ration of something sweet, usually a couple of prunes these days rather than sweets as I do love dried fruit, but having kicked my sugar habit I now have control and one or two is enough rather than eating the whole bag which I would have done in the past, be it sweets or fruit. I can't begin to imagine how many calories in sugar I was consuming prior to diagnosis, but I am eating a good 95% less now and those are almost all natural sugars in dairy and fruit.

We are all here to support and learn from each other. We have all felt like you at some stage with this and will occasionally struggle again at times in the future, so feel free to ask for help and/or support on any aspect or as others have said, just have a good rant if it will help.... we all understand the need to let off steam sometimes.
Stay safe and keep us posted with your progress.
 
Yes, you find your taste changing with D, and as you cut out sugar you get used to it.
In fact various books & studies about modern processed food have mentioned that the food industry has created artificially changed tastes for higher levels of salt and sugar

For example; for years I took sugar in my tea & coffee, and couldn't stand them without. After I was diagnosed I made the effort and they tasted OK
Then, after a few years I visited someone and they made me a cup of coffee with sugar in it
Oh well, I thought, one spoonful isn't going to kill me, I'll just drink it and say nothing
It was incredibly sweet! And so sickly that I only managed about half of it

For a long time I ate ordinary fruit yogurt, reasoning that the small amount of sugar in it wouldn't matter too much
Then about 3 or 4 weeks ago I decided to tighten up on my carbohydrate & sugar consumption, so I made up natural yogurt & sliced fruit. It was fine, and I didn't need any added sugar at all

You can still have sweet things now & again as long as you know how to deal with them
Obviously you couldn't pig yourself on 17 Mars Bars in one go, but I have discovered MEDJOUL DATES. They're more expensive than ordinary ones, but softer, sweeter, and with more taste. I just have one in an evening every 2 or 3 days. At least they're not manufactured & processed
 
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LOU - I've just had a thought (I do that now & again)
Have you got your own BS meter?
With the sort of sugar levels you've mentioned it is more or less essential to monitor your own BS
Ask at your clinic, and be quite insistent if necessary. If they won't give you one then buy your own
I've never had to as I've always had them for free, but if you do need to buy one ask on this forum and someone will advise you
 
Yes, dates are not something I would go out of my way to recommend to a diabetic unless they were a hypo remedy.
 
zuludog said:
Ask at your clinic, and be quite insistent if necessary. If they won't give you one then buy your own
Click to expand...

I presume home glucose testing is automatically offered for people with T2 taking insulin? (I'm less sure that you'd get the actual meter, but it seems normal for DSNs to have manufacturer-provided meters so likely that's normal nowadays too.)
 
I think it may also depend upon your HbA1c at diagnosis if you are Type 2. If you have a very high reading then significantly reducing it is more important because you azre at such high risk and giving people the tools to do so is therefore more cost effective.

I would be very surprised/shocked even, if the OP has not been supplied with a meter and test strips when she has been prescribed insulin, as you need to be able to check if you are hypo and correct accordingly when on insulin or other insulin promoting drugs like gliclazide, and test before driving of course, if you use a car.
 
rebrascora said:
Hi Lou and welcome from me too.

I am relatively new to Diabetes myself and just started injecting insulin in April. What type of insulin have you been given? We all understand how scary it is particularly at first and those first few hypos when you get them make you feel pretty vulnerable. I find it quite difficult to match my insulin to my food a lot of the time because my body doesn't seem to respond in a predictable way so I prefer to eat a mostly very low carb diet which reduces the amount and number of times I need to inject insulin and as a result the risk of having a hypo. Once you get the hang of eating very low carb it can be quite enjoyable especially if you increase your fat intake to make up for the calories you are not getting from sugar and starch. You do have to be a bit organised though, which is what I struggle most with.
I used to be a really heavy sugar addict, so this diet change has been a huge thing for me but I am developing new tastes for other things which I can safely eat instead..... I feel quite proud of the fact that I eat (and enjoy) olives and Gorgonzola cheese and antipasti as snacks.... makes me feel very grown up and sophisticated!! I very much agree with @zuludog that it is important to focus on and enjoy what you can eat and find new things to add to them and put out of mind all the things that are no longer good for you. Being diagnosed just before Easter my first thought was that a lifetime is a long time when you are never going to eat another Cadbury's Cream Egg!! How frivolous is that!! It was not helpful at all but I made it through Easter without any chocolate (except maybe the odd square of 70% when I was really desperate although thankfully that doesn't lend itself to guzzling like milk choc does) and I just don't crave it anymore. Now my snacks are a pot of olives and feta or a chunk of cheese or a handful of brazil nuts and very occasionally a bag of pork scratchings 😳 and I actually really savour all of those treats and don't feel deprived that I can't have the other stuff. The silver lining to a hypo though is that I get to have a tiny ration of something sweet, usually a couple of prunes these days rather than sweets as I do love dried fruit, but having kicked my sugar habit I now have control and one or two is enough rather than eating the whole bag which I would have done in the past, be it sweets or fruit. I can't begin to imagine how many calories in sugar I was consuming prior to diagnosis, but I am eating a good 95% less now and those are almost all natural sugars in dairy and fruit.

We are all here to support and learn from each other. We have all felt like you at some stage with this and will occasionally struggle again at times in the future, so feel free to ask for help and/or support on any aspect or as others have said, just have a good rant if it will help.... we all understand the need to let off steam sometimes.
Stay safe and keep us posted with your progress.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply have i reply to you in correct place sorry new to this and not sure what i am doing . I am on levemir injecion and novorapid in total 5 injections daily Lou
 
zuludog said:
LOU - I've just had a thought (I do that now & again)
Have you got your own BS meter?
With the sort of sugar levels you've mentioned it is more or less essential to monitor your own BS
Ask at your clinic, and be quite insistent if necessary. If they won't give you one then buy your own
I've never had to as I've always had them for free, but if you do need to buy one ask on this forum and someone will advise you
Click to expand...
Hello ive got a machine which i have to test 4 times a day Lou
 
My practice nurse who oversees the diabetics at the surgery started me off on Metformin and then went on to Gliclazide as well before there was a case conference with the consultant 5 weeks later and my HbA1c had gone up to 114 instead of down, despite very restricted diet and medication. Insulin was then prescribed, but they were talking about possible type 1 diagnosis from the start due to my very high reading, sudden onset symptoms and a previous HbA1c the year before being normal, all indicating that something had broken down quite suddenly in my body. It sounds like the OP may be in a similar situation to me.

"Lucky boy...??"

Yes Martin, certainly a bit of luck but also an awful lot of self control and focus on your part to get it down to normal levels so quickly.
 
I was also very focussed on pushing my diabetes into remission via diet which made it all the more disappointing to hear that my HbA1c had gone up even higher after 5 weeks of what felt like eating cardboard. Totally gutted you might say! It was only then that they decided that insulin was the way forward and I decided that I needed to add fats to my low carb diet to make it more sustainable.
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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