The most annoying thing about your diabetes (at the moment)

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everydayupsanddowns

everydayupsanddowns

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Was just reading a lovely thread by @rachelshane celebrating some particularly good BG juggling with a spectacular ‘time in range’. It’s really good to recognise our successes when they happen.

But I was also thinking yesterday on the way back from my booster jabs, that I’ve seen a few people posting about particular struggles or difficulties they are currently facing. Perhaps things they have always found difficult about their diabetes, or perhaps something new and unexpected where a system, strategy or approach that has previously worked well has suddenly stopped giving the expected results.

In these circumstances it can be so helpful to know that you are not alone. And that others are struggling too.

So here's a thread giving you an opportunity for a good old moan. Rant, grumble, get it off your chest... What’s the most annoying thing about your diabetes for you at the moment? Sometimes just putting it out there, and knowing that others are listening is a real help. 🙂
 
I’ll start…

I am getting quite grumpy about needing to ‘kick start’ corrections.

If my levels are rising rapidly and I sense that I’ve made some error of judgement/guesswork/timing with my doses I have the option of adding a correction dose. This is very helpful.

However, these can take a frustratingly long time to get going. And it can be tempting to add extra insulin ofer the topmof what I can se I need to help speed things up.

To avoid spending hours at high levels waiting for the extra insulin to finally show up for work I used to go for a walk around the block a few times. This would somehow kick-start the insulin and the correction would start working in 15-30 mins rather than 2-3 hours.

More recently I’ve found that I just need to run up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. 5 minutes. That’s all. It’s not even long enough for my Dex to register any change!

And even though I know it’s a short, and very effective strategy, every time I need to do it I feel hugely grumpy that it’s necessary. I wish the insulin would just work without the boring stair-stomping.

Bah! :rofl:
 
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Hi , As a new member what I find particular frustrating is how many methods of measurement are used in finding levels.

Know doubt a reason but I have no idea !
 
offspin said:
Hi , As a new member what I find particular frustrating is how many methods of measurement are used in finding levels.

Know doubt a reason but I have no idea !
Click to expand...

Ah yes! All those expressions for essentially the same things, but in different ways. mmol/mol, %, mmol/L, mg/dl…

Some of which are the same… and others which are related-but-different.

Almost as if they are out to confuse us deliberately!
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I’ll start…

I am getting quite grumpy about needing to ‘kick start’ corrections.

If my levels are rising rapidly and I sense that I’ve made some error of judgement/guesswork/timing with my doses I have the option of adding a correction dose. This is very helpful.

However, these can take a frustratingly long time to get going. And it can be tempting to add extra insulin ofer the topmof what I can se I need to help speed things up.

To avoid spending hours at high levels waiting for the extra insulin to finally show up for work I used to go for a walk around the block a few times. This would somehow kick-start the insulin and the correction would start working in 15-30 mins rather than 2-3 hours.

More recently I’ve found that I just need to run up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. 5 minutes. That’s all. It’s not even long enough for my Dex to register any change!

And even though I know it’s a short, and very effective strategy, every time I need to do it I feel hugely grumpy that it’s necessary. I wish the insulin would just work without the boring stair-stomping.

Bah! :rofl:
Click to expand...
I am going through the exactly the same as you especially in the evenings when you want to relax ,i end up taking more and insulin to bring it down and end up very low hypo 2.4 in the night and have to take a load of glucose to bring it up and then again rising to another high as i did last night Grrrrrrrr ,it was partly my fault to get so low before i woke as i had switched of warnings on xdrip when i was high ,the colder months of the year i always dread as your body slows down and corrections take for ever to respond allso its the time to start adjusting basal settings for the change of activity and tempreture so thats my Grump for today.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I’ll start…

I am getting quite grumpy about needing to ‘kick start’ corrections.

If my levels are rising rapidly and I sense that I’ve made some error of judgement/guesswork/timing with my doses I have the option of adding a correction dose. This is very helpful.

However, these can take a frustratingly long time to get going. And it can be tempting to add extra insulin ofer the topmof what I can se I need to help speed things up.

To avoid spending hours at high levels waiting for the extra insulin to finally show up for work I used to go for a walk around the block a few times. This would somehow kick-start the insulin and the correction would start working in 15-30 mins rather than 2-3 hours.

More recently I’ve found that I just need to run up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. 5 minutes. That’s all. It’s not even long enough for my Dex to register any change!

And even though I know it’s a short, and very effective strategy, every time I need to do it I feel hugely grumpy that it’s necessary. I wish the insulin would just work without the boring stair-stomping.

Bah! :rofl:
Click to expand...

I used to find that.
I could lower my BG by running up and downstairs, and it would kickstart my own insulin to make a noticeable difference.
I wondered if the change in heart rate and blood pressure some how "flushed out" all the high BG capillary blood with lower BG core blood?
 
I know it's not me with the diabetes but I had to do everything for my daughter for quite a long time and am still helping her a bit so I do get what you are all on about!
Mine are : how often everything changes, we go through periods of almost constant pump-tweaking and it can take many days to get things right, then it doesn’t last for long before it changes again! We are having some highs at night right now that I’m just waiting to see whether we need a basal adjustment. Although that brings me onto my second one:
Cannulas! Definitely the weak spot of the whole pump system. The only reason I’ve got Dexcom Follow on my phone now is to keep an eye on her at night, because she has a tendency to sleep through pump and Dexcom alarms. A couple of nights ago got beeps not long after she'd gone to bed showing 15 and double up arrows, oh dear not great but I guessed she'd still be awake and would have dealt with it. A couple of hours later got more alarms and it hadn’t gone down at all but had drifted up to 20. Oh dear, better do something about that, so went to wake her up. She had tried to correct after the first alarm but it had clearly done nothing, then just as I woke her up her pump started alarming to say it had an occlusion. Emergency cannula changes in the small hours are not fun! When she took the old one out the next morning it had bent so far round that the tip was actually sticking back out of her skin o_O
We don't get these sorts of problems as often as we used to, but they still happen more often then they should. Not always at night, but I hate wasting stuff and it's irritating when you’ve had one in for less than a day and have to change it again. I’ll ask my daughter later if she's got anything to add to this thread herself🙂
 
My frustration is having to get up every couple of hours at night due to the Canagliflozin, and then having the weirdest dreams in between. My best sleep is from 4pm onwards, or my occasional afternoon nap.
 
My frustration is needing to change basal amounts and/or ratios for school holidays. As the level of activity changes so does the insulin needs. It takes me a while to get it right, then just as i've sorted it, its back to work and changes again.
 
1. As previous poster said, the measurement units, different standards and systems used across the world.
2. Not being able to grab fish and chips or a pasty for lunch when out.
3. Not being able to have my fav puddings, esp apple crumble and custard.
4. Because I have lost weight, cross I have waisted money on a parcle of my favourite jeans I bulk bought a few years ago as the manufacturer was discontinuing that particular style, now feel I am walking round in a potato sack.
5. Not being able to have more than a pint of lager at once!
6. The NHS healthy meal plate suggestion and its dogma of sticking to outdated advice for type 2's, lack of diabetic knowledge at grass roots levels, inertia in taking on board new ideas and interesting proven research from across the world.
All minor really compared to what some people have to endure, so not moaning, just taking advantage of the free opportunity to have a rant!
 
Not being able to be more spontaneous. Having to plan everything, well..as much as i can.
 
freesia said:
Not being able to be more spontaneous. Having to plan everything, well..as much as i can.
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Yes I’ve definitely had that too. And the not being able to just ‘eat something’ without all the faffing around with dose calculation double-guessing!
 
Sally71 said:
Mine are : how often everything changes, we go through periods of almost constant pump-tweaking and it can take many days to get things right, then it doesn’t last for long before it changes again!
Click to expand...

This x100! Most of the time the dosing carb counting and adjusting are fine and need little thought.

It’s chasing the moving goalposts and having to re-tweak everything knowing all the while that things will change again almost immediately.
 
I would echo many of the sentiments already expressed. I find myself taking pointless walks around the neighbourhood to bring blood sugar down as correction doses sometimes take ages to work. Or, this time a year, it’s more a question of a 10-15 stint on my stationary exercise bike.

Due to a very ill early childhood, winters are a seemingly endless stream of back-to-back chest colds, with the odd serious chest infection thrown in every third year or so for good measure. Never bothered me too much, but now I have the extra headache of trying to rebalance my blood sugar while I’m feeling crappy from the most recent chest problem. Needless to say, the arrival of COVID-19 was very much NOT welcome.

Lately, I’ve become annoyed that all of my ( 10 ) siblings and my friends seem very cavalier about my condition. I worry sometimes that if things take a nasty turn for the worse all of a sudden my usual coping ability might be stretched to breaking point. If that makes any sense?

Anyway, rant over…
 
littlevoice359 said:
I would echo many of the sentiments already expressed. I find myself taking pointless walks around the neighbourhood to bring blood sugar down as correction doses sometimes take ages to work. Or, this time a year, it’s more a question of a 10-15 stint on my stationary exercise bike.

Due to a very ill early childhood, winters are a seemingly endless stream of back-to-back chest colds, with the odd serious chest infection thrown in every third year or so for good measure. Never bothered me too much, but now I have the extra headache of trying to rebalance my blood sugar while I’m feeling crappy from the most recent chest problem. Needless to say, the arrival of COVID-19 was very much NOT welcome.

Lately, I’ve become annoyed that all of my ( 10 ) siblings and my friends seem very cavalier about my condition. I worry sometimes that if things take a nasty turn for the worse all of a sudden my usual coping ability might be stretched to breaking point. If that makes any sense?

Anyway, rant over…
Click to expand...
Well I will join your rant, at a family event I was told to just eat what I wanted as high blood sugar was no different to being drunk and I should just deal with it and another comment was oh your not still worrying about your blood sugar are you … well yes I’m still diabetic and it’s not a funny phase I’m going through !
 
The most annoying thing at the moment is way my M.E symptoms feel the same as dodgy blood sugars, and the expense of diabetrs. I’m taking a break from sensors starting this weekend, as I really need to sort out a new phone before spending more on sensors, this phone is dying. The amount of times I’ve opened the dexcom app to see my bg as I felt odd, before remembering I can’t see bgs there any more.
 
I discovered a new unwelcome thing today.
It is a result of 1. being diabetic and 2. having funny hormones which mean I am still not through the menopause even though I will be 61 at the end of this week and 3. being autistic which means I have problems remembering to eat and drink regularly.
Because of the funny hormones I use natural progesterone cream as advised by a consultant endocrinologist. Progesterone has a marked diuretic effect.
Yesterday I forgot to drink during the day and just had some coffee at breakfast (high fibre melba toast from my own recipe keto yeast bread) and then got engrossed in 'stuff' and didn't sort my next meal out until six in the evening.

I made myself a quick meal with konjac rice (zero carbs) and prawns and garlic butter and green pepper and cream cheese and it was yum.

I remembered to drink plenty of water with the meal because you have to drink lots with konjac because it absorbs water from the digestive tract.
But - I hadn't been drinking through the day so instead of drinking lots of water to help the konjac on its journey I was just catching up on rehydration to nearish normal levels.

Then I applied my progesterone cream which had its diuretic effect and went to bed.
This morning I had the most awful constipation type experience ever.
Suffice it to say I thought I would end up like Elvis Presley with a brain haemmorhage and be found dead on the loo.
It was worse than the first poo I had to do after having a caesarian section.

So I will be being much more careful about staying hydrated and some when I am eating high fibre meals and using my progesterone cream.

If I wasn't diabetic I would be eating low fibre pasta and bread and hydration would not be so impactful - see what I did there? 😉
 
This thing annoys me a lot and I always seem to fall for it and make the same mistake.

It's when my blood sugar is elevated, I've corrected and the graph line is starting to head downwards but then changes direction and heads higher in an 'M' shape. The second rise is usually just a small blip and no higher than the original high but it's enough to put me in rage bolus 'right I need more insulin to stop this' mode and I end up hypo. Why can't my blood sugar drop after correction without that annoying falling then rising just a little bit then dropping off a cliff thing. I really should know by now not to react but ...
 
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