[Diabetes] General Chat and Support Thread

Xofpod

keano_afc wrote: »

Hi. I was diagnosed with Type 1 on Thursday. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind, there's been tears, denial, pity and confusion. I guess the hardest part was how quickly it happened, I started feeling weak and really thirsty on Tuesday and 2 days later I was told I am type 1. I guess I'm just wondering how long you guys took to get over the realisation. My wife is a nurse which helps but I have such low moments. I'm I my 36 with 2 young kids and this is the last thing I expected to get. Sorry if I seem all over the place, everything is taking time to process.

Went through a similar diagnosis myself back in 2009. Like the cliché about the different stages of grief, you do go through a lot of different feelings in the first few weeks and months but I think it's what you have to do to get to where you just accept it as another part of your life and routine.

Don't feel you have to put a brave face on it immediately, It is a ****ty thing to find out, you would be better off without it but it is something you adjust to and it doesn't have to derail your normal life. It just means you have to be aware of your overall health on a daily basis rather than as a distant, fuzzy concept.

Preset No.3

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Hydration.

Nice Spanish Mandarins. Ya can get big box of them in lidl at the min.

Tuc Crackers.

Just say no....(Grr, f*&k you cravings I ain't giving in:o)

Two and a half/3 weeks and then cravings are mostly gone and you'll be able to say Na, I don't need to eat that.



There's no miracle/secret here, Willpower. I went cold Turkey off everything Sep 1...if you give in, Don't Pig out/Binge.

Sorry its been a while since I have been to this neck of the woods.

Cravings have been ok for the most part. Mostly because I don't want to give it. I can be a stubborn c**t when I want to be! Not that I have the best diet in the world but I changed a few things around and I have lost weight. Out walking a lot more. So now I have combatted the cravings, the next battle is the depression. Nothing major just little things.

_Tombstone_

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Out walking a lot more.

OK, this is dependent on your fitness. Walking ain't great/boring/weather is sh1te, look up something like the Insanity workout. Much better and after the pain and soreness goes from the first few workouts you'll actually be raging if you miss a day.

gctest50

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

OK, this is dependent on your fitness. Walking ain't great/boring/weather is sh1te, look up something like the Insanity workout. Much better and after the pain and soreness goes from the first few workouts you'll actually be raging if you miss a day.

nope - walking after a meal reduces the rise of bm

even a bit of effort will do for that to happen - get up, do the washing-up, tidy the place sorta thing

Henry Ford III

Had an annual checkup a couple of weeks ago.

Results last week. I've worked hard at confronting my type 2 diagnosis (exercise, diet and lifestyle) and my hba1c was 32!

I'm now off all medication. I'm really happy about it.

hadepsx

Looking for advice. I'm type 1 for past 20 years.33 now. I've came back yesterday from diabetic retinopathy appointment, they said there is some damage at back of eye, no leakage yet thank god. I didn't look after my diabetes when I was younger. Working construction I found I had to keep levels higher than recommended to get through the day, otherwise bloods would drop. Paying for it now with diabetes related eye disease.
they said to tighten up alot on blood levels and exercise more as good circulation is good.
My question is how do you guys go for long walk/jog/gym or laborious work without having bloods elevated to stop a hypo. Especially when you dont have the chance to stop and elevate bloods.I want to keep bloods down but I don't want to keep eating/drinking glucose products. Any advice on ways of keeping a realistic balance.

C-Shore

hadepsx wrote: »

Looking for advice. I'm type 1 for past 20 years.33 now. I've came back yesterday from diabetic retinopathy appointment, they said there is some damage at back of eye, no leakage yet thank god. I didn't look after my diabetes when I was younger. Working construction I found I had to keep levels higher than recommended to get through the day, otherwise bloods would drop. Paying for it now with diabetes related eye disease.
they said to tighten up alot on blood levels and exercise more as good circulation is good.

Is it in the periphery or in the macula?

If it's just small aneurysms in the periphery, then it's not too much to worry about. People without diabetes can get these all the time.

In my example, I had an aneurysm showing in the periphery, but it has since gone.
So it's not something huge to worry about unless it is in the macula.

hadepsx wrote: »

My question is how do you guys go for long walk/jog/gym or laborious work without having bloods elevated to stop a hypo. Especially when you dont have the chance to stop and elevate bloods.I want to keep bloods down but I don't want to keep eating/drinking glucose products. Any advice on ways of keeping a realistic balance.

So to answer this, exercise is a little complex.

My exercise is 1 hour gym in the morning. Then 1 hour cycling/2 hours gymnastics in the evening, depending on the day.
After exercise, what I find is that I actually get a spike in my blood glucose levels, but it does return to normal level and then in the long run the exercise helps to keep levels under 7. So the short term spike is worth the long term control.

The reason I give you that information, is so that you understand what I do and what works.

So I find that limiting your exercise to an hour limits the need to be eating/drinking glucose while training. You can store enough glycogen to last for an hour of exercise.

After you finish your 1 hour of exercise, you may see a spike in blood glucose, but best to ignore this. Try to eat normally after this, and take your insulin as normal. You may want to decrease your ratio. So if you're taking 1 unit of bolus insulin for 10g of carbohydrate — after exercise you might want to move it out to 1:12g.
I know that if your readings are high, this doesn't make sense — but my experience is that they do get back to normal.
If you take extra insulin because your BG is high with a post-exercise spike, you'll end up crashing later on. Which is the worst thing ever if you're exercising in the evening, because the crash always comes in the middle of the night and you spend the following day tired!

So in it's simplest form, my recommendation is up to 1 hour exercise should be fine. Push your insulin:carb ratio out by a few grams, and do everything else as normal.

In terms of pre-exercise fuel, as long as you've eaten complex carbohydrates within 2 hours of exercising, you should be fine.

If you haven't taken insulin in over 6 hours before you exercise, it can be good to take 1 unit of insulin. It's important to have insulin on board so that you can take on the carbohydrates from your liver into your muscles.

As long as your bloods are above 5, then you should be fine for exercising. No need to push them higher, especially if you've eaten within the 2 hours before exercising.

Xofpod

Consultant advised me to start a gym session with weights. The hormones released raise blood sugar level which should counteract the main effect of the exercise

_Tombstone_

Xofpod wrote: »

Consultant advised me to start a gym session with weights. The hormones released raise blood sugar level which should counteract the main effect of the exercise

With weights.....Try Rushfit
Without weights.....Try Insanity (no equipment needed, VERY Tough)

CramCycle

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Without weights.....Try Insanity (no equipment needed, VERY Tough)

Even the first one where they use that test to guage your fitness is a killer. Never had a hypo from that but had to remember not to correct the highs as it would come down.

_Tombstone_

CramCycle wrote: »

Even the first one where they use that test to guage your fitness is a killer.

hehe, have you done it or just tried it out since I mentioned it a few days back?

God it's torture at times if you push it, I put on the heartrate monitor sometimes when I'm at it and it's nearly hitting 200bpm at times.:D

Dig Deeper!

CramCycle

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

hehe, have you done it or just tried it out since I mentioned it a few days back?

God it's torture at times if you push it, I put on the heartrate monitor sometimes when I'm at it and it's nearly hitting 200bpm at times.:D

Dig Deeper!

I done it a few years ago, a short time later a baby made its way into the house so I could not find time to do it anymore. I lost more weight through sweat, and for a long time my whole body would cry with pain just walking around. It was addictive and my insulin requirement plummeted.

_Tombstone_

CramCycle wrote: »

I done it a few years ago, a short time later a baby made its way into the house so I could not find time to do it anymore. I lost more weight through sweat, and for a long time my whole body would cry with pain just walking around. It was addictive and my insulin requirement plummeted.

Ah, good time to do it before the new arrival!

I, oddly, wasn't loosing weight (though admittedly didn't have a lot to loose), I was being very careful with diet, was using MyFitnessPal to try hit the 40, 40, 20 - Carbs, Protein, Fat the plan recommended.

Threw in a week of the Fat Burning Soup Diet and that fairly shifted the few pounds - it's bloody rotten after a few days on it but it works.

CramCycle

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Ah, good time to do it before the new arrival!

I, oddly, wasn't loosing weight (though admittedly didn't have a lot to loose),

Wasn't doing it too loose weight either but I shed a few pounds through dehydration, had a tiny bit of weight but nothing I cared about, wanted to get in shape and that was it, pity I didn't keep it up but thinking I might start back over the summer.

I didn't have time or money for anything else and it ticked all the boxes, got the DVDs from a friend.

UnyBoo

Hi does anyone else find it difficult dealing with work and diabetes? I've been type 1 for two years, along with Graves' disease - a hyperthyroid condition - and bar a few days off when I was first diagnosed I've never missed time off work for appointments or anything. However my boss is under the impression that it isn't that serious a disease. I keep a glucagon kit at work and I've given her instructions on how to use it but she isn't that interested. She always says things that "Oh god I hope you don't pass out, I don't want to have to use that needle." As if it's something I'd choose to do! We travel quite a bit and last week I had a hypo just before getting off the plane which I told her about but she still hightailed it out of the airport so that she could get to the car and get home as soon as possible. I was struggling big time behind her to keep up as stopping to sit down was out of the question and she was so far ahead of me that I couldn't even ask her to slow down. It wasn't until we got to the car that she said "Are you alright? Are your sugars very low?" I'd taken glucose sweets at that stage so my sugars were going back to normal. But I'd told her on the plane that I was having a hypo so regardless of if they were "very low" or not it still needed to be treated. I've explained it to her several times how diabetes works and hypos in particular but it's fallen on deaf ears - she's one of these people who think that I caused my diabetes by eating sweets, and that if I go low etc that's my own fault for not looking after myself or because I've eaten more sugar or something. I just find it really frustrating because if she's so worried about using the glucagon kit she shouldn't have been racing out of the airport ahead of me. And it completely undermines the seriousness of it, and if I had continued to go low and collapsed in the airport she would have been in the car park before noticing. She's not the brightest person and likes to believe what she believes so repeatedly telling her isn't having much effect. I had a hypo in a meeting once but the supplier had brought in sweets so I ate a few of them. Later on she told people in the office how I had scoffed loads of sweets, like I being greedy or something. And I said my blood sugars were low so I had to have sweets. She just laughed as if I was making up an excuse and I said well it was either eat the sweets or pass out, and she said "Oh come on". It's like she thinks I'm being dramatic if I talk about diabetes - she sees it as a sugar allergy rather than a serious condition. She can also be quite selfish. If someone is sick they need to toughen up, but if something is wrong with her it's the end of the world. I have background retinopathy which is fine now but I was a bit alarmed when I first heard and when I told her she said "Don't go blind whatever you do, I need you at work." And that was it! No "how do you feel about that? Is it serious? Can it be treated?" However she broke her wrist three months ago and to hear her talk it's the worst thing that could ever have happened to anyone in the history of the world! The pain is unbearable and she's depressed over it and she needs to see a specialist now and get physio done and her wrist is so stiff and I have just no idea how truly awful this is for her. Anyway sorry for the really long post, just needed to rant because it's been bothering me!!!

Buford T. Justice XIX

Scientists have developed a painless skin patch that can control Diabetes.

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-created-a-painless-patch-that-can-automatically-control-diabetes

Only in animal trials atm but an interesting variation on transplanting Beta cells.

Xofpod

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Scientists have developed a painless skin patch that can control Diabetes.

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-created-a-painless-patch-that-can-automatically-control-diabetes

Only in animal trials atm but an interesting variation on transplanting Beta cells.

Incredible stuff, even if it's very early in the development cycle

joeprivate

These 3 videos below just were posted today on the RCSI youtube channel

If you did not get a chance to attend the live lecture and want to look at the lectures they are divided up into 3 separate topics.

The rise and rise of diabetes in Ireland will be the focus of a free RCSI MyHealth public health lecture in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, on Thursday, 3rd March 2016. Medical and research experts will discuss the rapid growth of diabetes to help people make informed health decisions about living with the condition. The lecture will be held from 18.30 - 20.30 at RCSI, 123 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin.
Full details at this https://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?p=100&n=110&a=6684


RCSI MyHealth Lecture - March 2016 - The Rise and Rise of Diabetes in Ireland (part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p3hL3BAwVU

RCSI MyHealth Lecture - March 2016 - The Rise and Rise of Diabetes in Ireland (part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuuKksBmzT4

RCSI MyHealth Lecture - March 2016 - The Rise and Rise of Diabetes in Ireland (part 3))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3zLBhzCegA

Harry Palmr

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35894740

Immuno-therapy trials

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2016/WTP060265.htm

CathyMoran

Alanstrainor I was at St Vincent's yesterday - the Free Style Libre should be available in June.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Artificial pancreas could be ready in 2017 for type 1 diabetics

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/30/artifical-pancreas-could-be-ready-in-2017-for-type-1-diabetics.html

Interestingly, Dublin company Medtronic is involved in the research.

kilns

Has anybody used diet alone to get their numbers down to normal levels

I was diagnosed in July with type 2, my daily figures were around 10/11. I changed my eating to a paleo way and within 3 weeks I was down to normal levels and consistently between 5-5.5

The medical advice given was still telling me to eat carbs and couldnt understand my way of eating. From doing lots of research, type 2 is diet related illness and can be reversed only by diet and low carb high fat is the only way to go. If every type 2 person ate paleo i am sure they would see massive improvements and not rely on medication (which seems to be pushed by the medical profession ahead of diet) but people still have this fear of high fat, which is so wrong

my 2 cents

CathyMoran

Free Style Libre Irish web site. I just hope that this makes a difference to me when it comes out - I do have frequent hypo's and while a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) with a hypo monitor would be my dream this will at least help when I do get it.

graflynn

CathyMoran wrote: »

Free Style Libre Irish web site. I just hope that this makes a difference to me when it comes out - I do have frequent hypo's and while a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) with a hypo monitor would be my dream this will at least help when I do get it.

Thanks for that info Cathy. I know A LOT of people interested in this.

Did you know that if you have hypo unawareness that qualifies you for a CGM? You've probably explored that option already - so I'm sorry if I'm saying it again!

CathyMoran

graflynn wrote: »

Thanks for that info Cathy. I know A LOT of people interested in this.

Did you know that if you have hypo unawareness that qualifies you for a CGM? You've probably explored that option already - so I'm sorry if I'm saying it again!

Hi, yes I know that, thanks - the hypo unawareness is not helped by another medical condition that I had 9.5 years ago which has messed up my digestion (esophageal cancer), I am very lucky to be still here though! This would help my fingers, make it easier to get a bus etc, thanks!

Preset No.3

Tonight I'm feeling really bad. I've been really good the last few months. Watching what I eat, regular exercise etc.

But the last week or so I've been feeling really low and fell off the wagon tonight. That bag of giant buttons had me convinced that it would cheer me up. Well I was wrong there. Apart from driving sugars up, I feel worse! I let myself down.

So back on the wagon tomorrow!

CramCycle

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Tonight I'm feeling really bad. I've been really good the last few months. Watching what I eat, regular exercise etc.

But the last week or so I've been feeling really low and fell off the wagon tonight. That bag of giant buttons had me convinced that it would cheer me up. Well I was wrong there. Apart from driving sugars up, I feel worse! I let myself down.

So back on the wagon tomorrow!

I have been there, but so long as you get back on the wagon, you will be fine. Although I will admit, as I get older, the wagon is harder to climb back onto anytime I fall off.

Preset No.3

Girlfriend issues, work issues, the hill seems to get steeper all the time and I fell back.

I will say this much, Cadbury chocolate is nothing what it used to be like!

BlackEdelweiss

Hi,
I have not been on here in a while for whatever reason. I am a type 1 diagnosed about 6 years ago in my late 30's. After the initial grief cycle had passed I embraced my diabetes for all the good changes it brought about in my life. Looking at photos of before and after I look 10 years younger now and feel much better about myself now. I was very happy with the level of care I received in Ireland, my diabetes nurse was only a phone call away with some helpful advice and would make subtle changes to my dosage if things were not going right. I was in with a consultant every 2 months,, sometimes less if he felt I needed more analysis. Every 4 - 6 months if everything was looking ok. I had no problems getting my insulin or needles, just popped into the local chemist and picked the stuff up.
We moved to New Zealand in 2013 and I think I have seen a consultant 3 times since arriving. I did miss 2 appointments due to work so not all their fault but my next appointment was made over 6 months later. Shortly after we arrived my then 12 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 and this threw everything up in the air. It has been a constant battle with him trying to get him to accept it and deal with it. This is not an easy thing with a teenager although he is eventually coming round now, a bit! He has since been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum so that has shed some light on some of the difficulties we had trying to get him to take it seriously. He is not very bad on this spectrum compared to some people, it is more a social issue with some strong mindedness thrown in.
It is a constant issue in New Zealand to get needles and insulin. It is provided free which is good but we are only entitled to 1 box of 100 needles for each 3 months, I calculated we both inject about 550 times in that period. They will only give 1 months insulin at a time which is more annoying than anything as when two of us are using the same insulin it can disaeper pretty quickly.
My main issue with his treatment is that his blood is still totally uncontrolled, his latest HBA1c was 92 and we were sent away from the clinic with no advice or changes to make. It has been a constant struggle with his diabetes team since his diagnoses. Their approach was more based on telling my wife and I how bad parents we were and basically it is our fault that his blood was no so high and uncontrolled. I snapped one day in the office and told them what I thought and he was subsequently changed to the adult clinic where I am occassionally seen. We pushed to get some kind of diagnoses for his autism through the psychologist at this clinic which eventually happened. This knowledge changed everything in our lives and we were very hopeful and optomistic at this point that we would get help with the autism and the diabetes would improve with it. Not the case unfortunately. He was diagnosed with autism over a year ago and we have heard nothing since despite our repeated approaches to various people. We attended some social classes at our own expense which also included a large bribe for him to actually go.
With regard to his diabetes management it has been tough, we have 4 kids all younger than him who require a lot of work on their own. We have got better though but it is not easy to get an autistic teenager to take his blood and take insulin. It may not sound difficult but it is! The clinic gave out to me for his lack of readings so I stepped it up and got him doing 3 to 4 a day most days. This then was not good enough, they said they needed more info on his diet which I had explained many times consisted of toast, pasta rice and chicken nuggets. We got him connected to a CGM for a week and kept food records but heard nothing back since. I bought a diary and recorded Time:, Blood:, Food: & Insulin: every day for 2 months over the summer holidays. When I sent it in the nurse just said there was no carb figure so it was no good to them. I got another diary and added a carb line and also filled out the front with everything he normally eats and the corresponding carb weight and insulin dose. The consultant flicked through it last week while talking to us and handed it back to me without a word even though he had just told us his HBA1c was 92. They have never calculated his carb:insulin ratio, we use mine which is 1:13. Nobody has told me to change it or has done anything to see if it is ok for him, which it obviously is not with his latest readings but he has a lot of hypos as well so I dont want to increase it too much. Probably should not be my call though.
My own diabetes care has taken a nosedive because of all this as well due to stress and almost constant fighting between myself and my son.

We just dont know what to do any more, can we stay in this country for our sons health. Would we get better treatment in Ireland for both the diabetes and autism. It has come to the point now that we are considering leaving but I dont know what we could expect at home either. My experience was good but I am not sure if that is the common feeling among diabetics. If we returned we would probably not move home but somewhere like Galway instead. My sister in the UK has told us about the great level of care she gets for her kids there, not diabetes but other conditions. We are tempted to go there as well.
Sorry about the long post, it has been building up for a while now. Any advice on any aspect of this would be greatly appreciated.

Preset No.3

What is the conversion from old money to new money on sugar levels?