Recently diagnosed with type 1

[jennifer_cave1990]

Hi I recently had a dka and then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes due to my cancer treatment I am receiving. If anyone could advise where to get some nice snacks please, just I am very picky at eating and dislike cheese, crackers, nuts, eggs etc. I’d be very grateful as at the moment I am eating and snacking on the same foods, I do eat very good but wouldn’t mind a little treat in some way. Currently my sugars are starting to reduce from 27 to around 18 but recently I experienced 2 hypos luckily my libre told me as I did not know what was going on
Thankyou very much for reading and even more grateful for any responses
Jen 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi I recently had a dka and then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes due to my cancer treatment I am receiving. If anyone could advise where to get some nice snacks please, just I am very picky at eating and dislike cheese, crackers, nuts, eggs etc. I’d be very grateful as at the moment I am eating and snacking on the same foods, I do eat very good but wouldn’t mind a little treat in some way. Currently my sugars are starting to reduce from 27 to around 18 but recently I experienced 2 hypos luckily my libre told me as I did not know what was going on
Thankyou very much for reading and even more grateful for any responses
Jen 🙂

Welcome to the forum, you have a lot to deal with at the moment but it would help people make suggestions if you give a bit more information about your diagnosis and what insulin regime you are on as that will make a difference to what may be suitable foods for you.

 

[jennifer_cave1990]

I am currently on novorapid and lantus
Novorapid- 8,12,12 (breakfast dinner tea)
Lantus 26 units
I also have stage 4 kidney cancer which has spread to other areas, I’m not to sure what else you would like to know about my diagnosis, I am only 33 I got diagnosed on the 7th April. I do take my insulin after foods due to me not knowing how much food I will be eating as I don’t have the greatest appetite no more. Lantus I give on an evening, novorapid after each meal.
I hope this helps 🙂 Thankyou

 

[Leadinglights]

It sounds as if you are on fixed doses of bolus insulin so have you been advised how much carbohydrate you are supposed to have for that dose of insulin. If you are not eating enough because of your poor appetite you may risk having hypos so I hope you do keep hypo treatment to hand.
Do you have a Libre or similar or are you fingerprick testing.
I will tag a couple of people @rebrascora and @helli who are Type 1 as they will be better placed to advise

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I also have stage 4 kidney cancer which has spread to other areas, I’m not to sure what else you would like to know about my diagnosis, I am only 33 I got diagnosed on the 7th April. I do take my insulin after foods due to me not knowing how much food I will be eating as I don’t have the greatest appetite no more. Lantus I give on an evening, novorapid after each meal.

Welcome to the forum @jennifer_cave1990

Sorry to hear about your diabetes, and about your cancer. That must be such a lot to deal with

From what you’ve said it sounds like taking your dose after your meal might be a sensible precaution.

Alternatively you could take a part of your dose up front to get some insulin working, then ‘top up’ with the remainder of the dose if you are able to finish the meal?

Have you been given carb counts for meals to match your doses? Or a suggestion of a carbohydrate ratio? Sounds like those would be very useful to you right now?

There’s a basic overview of carb counting (matching doses of insulin to amounts of carbohydrate) here:

The nuts and bolts of carb counting

When you live with type 1 diabetes, carb counting is a great way of managing your blood sugar or glucose levels. It can give you more freedom and flexibility in what you eat when you're preparing meals at home, grabbing food on the go or eating out. Carb counting does take some time and effort...

www.diabetes.org.uk

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

Really sorry to hear that you are struggling with your diabetes diagnosis as well as doing battle with C. As Mike has said, learning to carb count will help to prevent some of those nasty hypos and splitting your dose if you can manage than so that you have some before your meal and some after if you manage to eat it all. That will also help to reduce the nasty spike and then fall that you are likely getting which can make you feel rubbish. If you can keep your BG levels a bit more stable it makes a big difference to how you feel physically and mentally.

Do you have Freestyle Libre sensors or other Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) to track your BG levels? If not, then apply to Abbott for their free 14 day trial and chase up your nurse or doctor to prescribe it. Being able to see what your levels are doing all the time will help you to manage them better and that is not just good for your diabetes but for your cancer too I believe.
Hopefully this link will work...

Sampling | FreeStyle Libre | Abbott

Try the FreeStyle Libre 2 system for free today

www.freestyle.abbott

Good luck and let us know how you get on and if we can help you with anything just ask.

 

[helli]

Sorry to read about your medical woes, @jennifer_cave1990 . The most important advice I would give is to be nice to yourself. There is never a suitable time to beat yourself up about high or low blood sugars and, when you are going through so much, it is definitely not a good time.
There is some great advice above about carb count. It takes a bit to get your head around it but does make life much more flexible.

If you are looking for interesting snacks, the advice I was given was that I could eat up to 15g carbs between meals. Nuts and cheese satisfy this but doesn’t sound as if they satisfy your needs.
How do you feel about olives? Or a small orange/mandarin/clementine? How about crisps? Skips and Wotsits are lighter so on the lower carb per bag front. I know a common low carb snack which sounds as if it should be evil but isn’t it a chocolate eclair. If you don want to go that far, a full fat greek yoghurt with a few berries. Some people seem to adore pork scratchpings but, even before I became veggies, they would turn my stomach. Each to their own. But if you want something meaty, you could try one of those Pepperamis. Or even cold sausages. Hey, some people carry hard boiled eggs around for a low carb snack.
Sorry, my suggestions are in a random order as they came to me but I hope they include something that tempts you and doesn’t spike your blood sugars too high.

 

[DaveB]

Hi. Where possible take your Bolus insulin before a meal perhaps 15 minutes or so before to allow time for the insulin to act. Do ask your Nurse to give you guidance on Carb-counting your Bolus insulin i.e. adjusting it to suit the amount of carbs in the meal rather than having fixed doses. Ref snacks unfortunately the popular ones such as cheese, berries etc you say you don't like so it may need to be a protein snack.

 

[Inka]

Hi I recently had a dka and then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes due to my cancer treatment I am receiving. If anyone could advise where to get some nice snacks please, just I am very picky at eating and dislike cheese, crackers, nuts, eggs etc. I’d be very grateful as at the moment I am eating and snacking on the same foods, I do eat very good but wouldn’t mind a little treat in some way. Currently my sugars are starting to reduce from 27 to around 18 but recently I experienced 2 hypos luckily my libre told me as I did not know what was going on
Thankyou very much for reading and even more grateful for any responses
Jen 🙂

Welcome @jennifer_cave1990 I’m very sorry to hear about your health problems.

What kind of snacks do you enjoy? When you say “treat”, I automatically think of sweeter treats - is that what you mean? You can still have those once you get your insulin regime sorted (you’d take extra Novorapid for a carb-counted snack) but in the meantime there are lower carb sweet treats that you could have. @Martin62 has some great recipes, eg:

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/chocolate-orange-muffins.105287/#post-1250353

.
For savoury snacks, you might like smoked salmon and cream cheese on cucumber or with crudités or hummus with celery sticks, or even cold chicken or similar.