Newly diagnosed type 1

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Adam_29

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Hello People i have just been told that i have type 1 diabetes yesterday and i have been started off on insulin straight away i have to go and see the diabetic team at my local hospital next week in the mean time can anyone tell me what is the best things to eat at meal times and what is the main things to stay away from :confused:
 
Welcome to the forums Adam 🙂

We are a very friendly group! There are lots of useful links in the newbies links thread. What insulin regime have they put you on, as I believe that can impact on what you might want to eat.
 
hi and welcome.... loads of info on here.... stick to a generally healthy hopefully you will get to see a dietician soon and also DSN who will explain things to you best....
 
Adam_29 said:
Hello People i have just been told that i have type 1 diabetes yesterday and i have been started off on insulin straight away i have to go and see the diabetic team at my local hospital next week in the mean time can anyone tell me what is the best things to eat at meal times and what is the main things to stay away from :confused:
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Adam_29 said:
its called humulin m3 12 units twice a day
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Hi Adam, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, however it doesn't have to stop you doing anything and can be managed well with the right knowledge and application.

The first thing I would suggest when you see your diabetes team is to ask them about going onto an insulin regime called basal/bolus or MDI (Multiple Daily Injections). This is much more flexible that the regime you are currently on and involves injecting a slow-acting insulin once or twice a day, and a fast-acting insulin with your meals or if you fancy a snack. The regime you are currently on means that you have to 'eat to the insulin' i.e. you have to eat a fairly fixed amount of carbohydrate at fairly fixed times through the day to match the action of the insulin.

Diabetes is all about carbohydrates - potatoes, bread, pasta, rice etc. - and some carbohydrates will impact your blood sugar levels more quickly than others. The trick is to eat food that releases its glucose slowly and steadily so it has a gentler effect on your levels. One method of doing this is to follow a low GI/GL diet (Glycaemic Index/Glycaemic Load) - The GL Diet for Dummies is a good introduction. I would also urge you to get a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas, a very comprehensive guide to everything to do with Type 1.

Please ask any questions you may have and we will do our best to help out! 🙂
 
Hi Adam and a warm welcome to the forum, pleased you found us so quickly
 
Adam_29 said:
Hello People i have just been told that i have type 1 diabetes yesterday and i have been started off on insulin straight away i have to go and see the diabetic team at my local hospital next week in the mean time can anyone tell me what is the best things to eat at meal times and what is the main things to stay away from :confused:
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Hi Adam and welcome!

Diagnosis is a tough old boot to swallow but at least you are on a regime with the plan to see the specialists very soon where hopefully they will get you on a more flexible regime of injecting when eating and marrying it up to what your eating. This truly is the best way to go, that way you are not restricted...even to candy floss!(My fave!)
But the one pearl of advice is that diabetes isn't easy, you only get back what you put into it. If you don't care about the foods you eat or take the correct insulin then be prepared for either a life of hypos or a life of high blood sugars...neither options are much fun...

Anyway, pop on here if you have any questions, there is always someone on here who can help or give their experiences. I have found this forum invaluable and they are here all hours of the day!!
 
Welcome to the forum Adam 🙂
 
Hi Adam

Another welcome, and sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

Just to add +1 to everything Northerner said - MDI is a far better tool for managing your levels, and will offer you much more flexibility. I think some hospitals feel 2 injections a day is a gentler start, but this can backfire if the patient is then forced to *have* to eat certain things at certain times whether the want/need to or not.

M
 
Hi Again I went back to the hospital yesterday and they have moved me on to 4 injections a day now so i just have to have a one everytime before i eat and one before bed i have to go back on friday to see a dietician so can go over whats best to eat still don't know the full ins and out of it but i have got a couple of books what explain things a bit better so i am learning day by day
 
Adam_29 said:
Hi Again I went back to the hospital yesterday and they have moved me on to 4 injections a day now so i just have to have a one everytime before i eat and one before bed i have to go back on friday to see a dietician so can go over whats best to eat still don't know the full ins and out of it but i have got a couple of books what explain things a bit better so i am learning day by day
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Ah, that's good news that you are on 4 injections a day now Adam, it will give you much more flexibility over when and what you eat. It's quite a learning process working out what's best for you, as an individual, to eat, as people can vary a great deal. You need to use your meter to test your reactions to different meals, testing before, at one hour after eating, and two hours after so you can build up a picture of how things work for you. It does sound like a lot of testing - and it is to begin with - but before too long you will know how familiar food affects you and won't need to test as frequently.

One thing you'll need to learn now is how to 'carb count' so that you can learn how to match your insulin doses to the amount of carbs in your food. Hopefully, you will be put on a course to learn this, it's not as difficult as it might sound. If you want a head start there is an online carb-counting course here:

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

plus, Diabetes UK have a free download about carb counting here:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk//upload/How we help/catalogue/Carbs-Count-2012.pdf

Good luck, and let us know if we can help in any way! 🙂
 
Hi Adam

Welcome to the club nobody asked to join! LOL

It's a lot to take in all at once, so please - don't try! Like the tortoise and the hare - you will get there one heck of a lot quicker by going slowly and giving it all a chance to sink in. The 4 jabs a day sounds awful to start off with, but honest, you do get used to it pretty soon. Also testing.

And please - do get the Ragnar Hanas book which Northerner mentioned - it's excellent and it doesn't read like a science textbook from school - written in language that we can all understand.

Good luck and remember - there are never, ever any silly questions about diabetes! So keep on asking whenever you want or need to ask, and ask whoever is available at the time. That's the beauty of forums like this one, we don't work office hours and you don't need to make an appointment .....
 
I take my hat of to you all....my pet hate is needles....the thought of having to jab my self makes shudder!!!! been reading a lot of forums on this and once again i take my hat of to you all. 😉
 
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