Type 3c diabetics

[cherryvalley]

Hi there everyone..I haven't posted online for a while but just wanted to know if any type 3c diabetics find life as challenging as I do on a daily basis

 

[Docb]

I am not a 3c but I have read with interest contribution from members who are. As far as I can see all of them find it challenging in one way or another and I have nothing but complete respect for that group, who seem to take the challenges thrown at them and find ways to deal with things.

Are there any things that you have particular problems with? I am sure our 3c regulars will have some ideas.

 

[Chris88]

as

It is a complete pain in the arxx, particularly if you get your Creon wrong
No two days are alike and you just have to do your best .
Chin up, just keep plodding on

 

[martindt1606]

Just had 10 days I could have done without,

Apple even advised that my 5 day Blood Glucose average had increased by 1.25mmols, i had 3 successive days out of range (i think that's a first), oh and Sunday morning (i'm sure it wasn't creon related) but that was 30 - 45 minutes from hell (and we had visitors as well......).

Possibly many reasons - new painkillers, increased creon back to 23 having experimented at 14 per meal (to keep dietitian happy), caught a bug that was going round the area which knocked me out for days, experimented using alternative pump infusion options to Tru Steel and both options had a 50% fail rate (wifes nose)

Was going to up my basal today having had 10 days running higher than normal which seemed to be approaching a new reality.....but then breakfast and lunch bolus's today gave the results i expected. At the moment the dinner bolus isn't playing ball, but based on 2 out of 3 ain't bad I'll hold off making any lasting changes for a couple of days.

I'm sure once the body settles back into some kind of normality the Time in Range will be back in the 80's.

we live to fight another day

 

[cherryvalley]

Thk you for ur replies...I agree Creon is very important to get right and remember to take! As u say it's a daily challenge that seems to have taken over my life.

 

[Wendal]

Hi there everyone..I haven't posted online for a while but just wanted to know if any type 3c diabetics find life as challenging as I do on a daily basis

Morning sorry CherryValley am sorry that you and some of the other 3cs are having such daily struggle’s.
It may be that it varies a lot depending on whether you have some pancreatic function left and I do have a little but generally I manage fine with my diabetes.
Of course there are challenges and I am lucky in that I use Creon but can manage some meals without it which does not cause me undue discomfort and I manage my BG reasonably well.Generally when it is volatile it is due my lack of discipline which I just accept as part of the journey in balancing my diabetes with trying to live as normal a life as possible.
Take care and best wishes for future all

 

[Wendal]

Hi there everyone..I haven't posted online for a while but just wanted to know if any type 3c diabetics find life as challenging as I do on a daily basis

Just read your your original post and you had your whole pancreas removed so please take my comments in the light of not knowing that when I posted.
Having no pancreatic function at all will make replacing for what your exocrine and endocrine cells would normally do is much more challenging for yourself and others than what I face so you have my full,sympathy and sincerely wish you well in your endeavours to live as normal a life as possible.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Good morning, @cherryvalley.

I owe you an apology: when you last posted in March I replied by welcoming you to the forum - having forgotten that I also welcomed you in Dec '24! Like @ Wendal I have also now read back to get a fuller picture of your circumstances. Also, as @Wendal says being panc'yless does make things a fair bit more challenging - at first!

My experience has been that managing my D has taken time - more than I ever realised it could or would. BUT the reassuring thing is that gradually time has allowed me to find a varied and enjoyable diet, learning how different food types and meals affect ME. Not only affecting my blood glucose (BG), but my digestive system as a whole, reducing the frequency of embarrassing and messy mishaps. For my 1st 12 months my world was becoming pretty miserable, reluctant to leave home until I'd got some certainty that my bowels had finished misbehaving - never mind richocheting from hypo to hyper as I seemed to be permanently on the diabetes roller coaster.

Time has allowed me to learn how to carb count, leaving me confident today that I not only am happy about the carbs within any meal at home, but how to manage bolus dosing for any meal I wanted to choose from an unfamiliar restaurant or café menu. That modest task alone seemed a pretty steep montain to climb, but its turned out to be doable. And not just counting the carbs for a sensible bolus dose, but I now feel pretty confident in the essential, necessary, business of adjusting (reducing or increasing) that "assessed" bolus dose, according to how busy or active I've been "yesterday, today and might be tomorrow". Without sometimes needing bolus adjustments on a meal by meal basis each bolus doesn't necessarily provide the expected outcome.

Time has allowed me to find a balance between frequent glances at my CGM readings and recognising when to trust those CGM readings or recognising when they were suspect; CGM has some limitations, which the manufacturers don't bother to emphasise sufficiently and only my personal trial and learning has brought me to the point that I can see my CGM is possibly wrong and misleading me. Yesterday my CGM was misbehaving all day and I changed it at midnight, after a day of 10+ finger pricks confirming my CGM was consistently wrong. But this was not a problem for me - time has allowed me to be confident in managing my D, despite CGM being blatantly wrong. I stayed more or less in range all day, from finger prick results.

Time has also allowed me to improve my inner recognition of how I'm feeling: when I wake; as I encounter ailments not caused by my D - but those ailments affecting my BG; my recognition of stress and emotions (sadness or delight) which triggers hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol - with major hidden consequences for my BG from the unseen, hidden, glucose releases by my liver .

The good news is that time does allow us to learn our own "tricks and tips" for easier and better D management. You had major surgery with massive trauma for your body in 2024. Outwardly your body may have healed, the scar fading and the memory of the run up to that surgery also fading. But dealing with the inner medical and psychological trauma of everything, including your new status as an insulin dependent T3c, needs more than months - in my experience. I'm alive, 5 yrs on from my Whipples and doing OK. I'm aging (and these days the little aging niggles are noticeably more frequent and take longer to resolve); the aging is not specifically caused by my D, but can amplify wobbly BG behaviour.

So, how to help YOU. My first (non-medical) bit of advice is cut yourself some slack: be kind to yourself and accept things have changed. YOU can get past today for a better tomorrow, next month, next year.

How are you doing with your carb counting today?​

Are you still very tethered to your DSN, or feeling more independent and free to adjust both your insulins?​

Can you explain to yourself (and us if you want to) exactly which daily challenges are bothering you?​

Can you make a list, in order of importance or relevance, of those challenges? From that list isolate the No 1 challenge and perhaps we can help you find solutions to that first thing; then the 2nd, and so on.​

​

Let time help heal the trauma and give you the benefit of trial and learning.

Most of all: manage your expectations. Diabetes is Complicated, Confusing and Contradictory. Each of us is different and we have to find different solutions. None of us who are insulin dependent have perfect days, every single day. Our D throws curved balls at us, all too frequently; it doesn't know any rules; its Contradictory. Steadily we get to recognise when all is not right and steadily we learn how to manage those days when we are wearing the wrong colour socks for our D. We learn how to deal with the Complicated nature of D. We learn how to spot when our D is simply trying to Confuse us and when to calmly let those Confusing signals pass quietly by. It is not easy. Nevertheless it is possible to get most things about right (note: not perfect) and then our D drifts rather more into the background (thanks to time and learning).

Do keep asking questions. Members are amazingly willing to share their experiences and gently help, but we can't do that if you don't ask. No question is stupid; we've all been through this process of adjusting to change.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time of things @cherryvalley

Hang in there!

 

[cherryvalley]

Good morning, @cherryvalley.

I owe you an apology: when you last posted in March I replied by welcoming you to the forum - having forgotten that I also welcomed you in Dec '24! Like @ Wendal I have also now read back to get a fuller picture of your circumstances. Also, as @Wendal says being panc'yless does make things a fair bit more challenging - at first!

My experience has been that managing my D has taken time - more than I ever realised it could or would. BUT the reassuring thing is that gradually time has allowed me to find a varied and enjoyable diet, learning how different food types and meals affect ME. Not only affecting my blood glucose (BG), but my digestive system as a whole, reducing the frequency of embarrassing and messy mishaps. For my 1st 12 months my world was becoming pretty miserable, reluctant to leave home until I'd got some certainty that my bowels had finished misbehaving - never mind richocheting from hypo to hyper as I seemed to be permanently on the diabetes roller coaster.

Time has allowed me to learn how to carb count, leaving me confident today that I not only am happy about the carbs within any meal at home, but how to manage bolus dosing for any meal I wanted to choose from an unfamiliar restaurant or café menu. That modest task alone seemed a pretty steep montain to climb, but its turned out to be doable. And not just counting the carbs for a sensible bolus dose, but I now feel pretty confident in the essential, necessary, business of adjusting (reducing or increasing) that "assessed" bolus dose, according to how busy or active I've been "yesterday, today and might be tomorrow". Without sometimes needing bolus adjustments on a meal by meal basis each bolus doesn't necessarily provide the expected outcome.

Time has allowed me to find a balance between frequent glances at my CGM readings and recognising when to trust those CGM readings or recognising when they were suspect; CGM has some limitations, which the manufacturers don't bother to emphasise sufficiently and only my personal trial and learning has brought me to the point that I can see my CGM is possibly wrong and misleading me. Yesterday my CGM was misbehaving all day and I changed it at midnight, after a day of 10+ finger pricks confirming my CGM was consistently wrong. But this was not a problem for me - time has allowed me to be confident in managing my D, despite CGM being blatantly wrong. I stayed more or less in range all day, from finger prick results.

Time has also allowed me to improve my inner recognition of how I'm feeling: when I wake; as I encounter ailments not caused by my D - but those ailments affecting my BG; my recognition of stress and emotions (sadness or delight) which triggers hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol - with major hidden consequences for my BG from the unseen, hidden, glucose releases by my liver .

The good news is that time does allow us to learn our own "tricks and tips" for easier and better D management. You had major surgery with massive trauma for your body in 2024. Outwardly your body may have healed, the scar fading and the memory of the run up to that surgery also fading. But dealing with the inner medical and psychological trauma of everything, including your new status as an insulin dependent T3c, needs more than months - in my experience. I'm alive, 5 yrs on from my Whipples and doing OK. I'm aging (and these days the little aging niggles are noticeably more frequent and take longer to resolve); the aging is not specifically caused by my D, but can amplify wobbly BG behaviour.

So, how to help YOU. My first (non-medical) bit of advice is cut yourself some slack: be kind to yourself and accept things have changed. YOU can get past today for a better tomorrow, next month, next year.

How are you doing with your carb counting today?​

Are you still very tethered to your DSN, or feeling more independent and free to adjust both your insulins?​

Can you explain to yourself (and us if you want to) exactly which daily challenges are bothering you?​

Can you make a list, in order of importance or relevance, of those challenges? From that list isolate the No 1 challenge and perhaps we can help you find solutions to that first thing; then the 2nd, and so on.​

​

Let time help heal the trauma and give you the benefit of trial and learning.

Most of all: manage your expectations. Diabetes is Complicated, Confusing and Contradictory. Each of us is different and we have to find different solutions. None of us who are insulin dependent have perfect days, every single day. Our D throws curved balls at us, all too frequently; it doesn't know any rules; its Contradictory. Steadily we get to recognise when all is not right and steadily we learn how to manage those days when we are wearing the wrong colour socks for our D. We learn how to deal with the Complicated nature of D. We learn how to spot when our D is simply trying to Confuse us and when to calmly let those Confusing signals pass quietly by. It is not easy. Nevertheless it is possible to get most things about right (note: not perfect) and then our D drifts rather more into the background (thanks to time and learning).

Do keep asking questions. Members are amazingly willing to share their experiences and gently help, but we can't do that if you don't ask. No question is stupid; we've all been through this process of adjusting to change.

Thk u so much for your very detailed reply and apologies for taking a week to reply as I have not been at all well with a frequent infection which needs treated with antibiotics and of course messes my blood sugars and my whole eating process very challenging . I am tied by my Diabetic team to set doses of insulin with correction does of Nova Rapid is needed and occasionally same for my Lantus. I carb count all my meals snacks etc and do my best but it's getting easier. I find it all a challenge as I am in my 70s and obviously not just as sharp as I was..maybe sharp isn't the right word. I would like to stay in touch with you if you would be happy with that.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Firstly, as far as I'm concerned, absolutely no apology is needed for taking a few days to reply. I'm busy enough with my own "stuff" to not sit waiting or fretting because someone hasn't yet replied. I'm sorry to read that you've had an infection and certainly hope the abx have worked or perhaps still working.

I was initially tied by my DSN to fixed doses. If I'm truthful that was certainly part of my roller coaster problem. I had no CGM, she had only a very limited visibility of what my BG was doing from seeing fortnightly photos of my manually compiled logbook - net out come her distance adjusting was just not keeping me steady. Covid was in full swing; we met just once, the day after I left Hospital and thereafter everything was done by email and phone. The best move I made was to break clean and take my responsibility for my BG management. I used Gary Scheiner's book "Think Like a Pancreas" to understand the basics of carb counting, bolus dosing and adjusting bolus doses because of exercise and activity. That last bit (adjusting for activity) was not so easy and took me a while to be braver about applying adjustments of 50% or more for exercise. E.g. sometimes halving my calculated food bolus requirement to compensate for when I'd been particularly vigorous in the garden.

Yes, it was challenging for me and I had my share of mishaps with my dosing. Usually I could work out what I'd done wrong and learn from that.

I'm perfectly happy for you to stay in touch. The easiest way is to post within rhe forum, rather than send me a private message. I'll see the post, usually within 24 hours and offer a reply when I can. By staying within the public forum you'll get responses from others, many of whom have much more experience and knowledge than I might have. Also, an important also, if I have offered an answer that is incorrect members will invariably politely correct me and consequently yourself.

I look forward to hearing from you whenever you wish. It does all get a bit easier with time. Don't hesitate to ask if something is bugging you.