Snapsy
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 2,552
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
Hi I love your post, T1 40 years and counting, two adult kids, a hubby, still going though the change its hell and every time I tell the nurse, all she ever says is I know, how you feel me too, but you need to have better control, you need to loose weight as well, ps my hba1c were 52 and my weight was 61kg she is saying I need to be 55kg or less now I just say ok and walk out, the change is hell, and no one has anything to say so really what I am saying is that I am done what will be will be X X XI was diagnosed when I was 32 and pregnant, and for ten years it made no difference to me at all. Just like it doesn't for all the smug, unhelpful people who show up on boards like this telling other diabetics how easy the condition is, and how they must be doing something wrong. Then I hit my early 40s, and my glucose went insane.
For those of you not walking around in and managing a female body, you have not even an inkling of an idea of the chaos that hormone changes wreak on insulin sensitivity and requirements. For two weeks of every month I may as well be injecting water; for the other two weeks I crash constantly. Try looking up glycaemic control and perimenopause/menopause and you'll find a host of medical research papers that begin with lines like, "It is not yet understood..." and "The relationship of progesterone and insulin sensitivity has not been studied..." It's hard not to come to the conclusion that if menopause happened to men, someone would have bothered to investigate.
Oh @Snapsy, I hope you don't mind but I mentioned you on my blog linking to this thread, and to your post (#10). It's bloody brilliantYup!
Could be like the Terminator.
Loads of people say they feel sorry for me having to do all these injections - if I know them well enough I say that injecting is the easy bit it's the relentless worry of if you're too high or low remembering to put your bg machine in your pocket along with various glucose products stuffed In your pockets. ...All to just get some milk from the shop. Diabetes can be so inconvenient!All I can explain it like is having to test my bg and thinking multiple times a day 'Why the hell can't I bleed like normal people?!?' then Injecting myself 4 times a day with insulin and people cringing because it's a needle and I'm sat there thinking 'This is nothing.. wait until you're in hospital having your bg taken every hour and a blood gas every 2 hours. Then you'll become immune to the stings of needles'
Sometimes I think I'm crazy that I find it actually fascinating that I am able to do this myself whereas before diagnosis I would try everything in the book to get away from the next jab I had to have.
I'm newly diagnosed type 1 and all anyone asks me these days is 'how are the injections going'. They are the easy bit! The blurry eyesight causing me headaches and stopping me driving is a nightmare. Trying to work out how much insulin to have is stressful. Working out which sore finger to prick is tiresome. Oh - and I'll never be able to go out with a small handbag ever again!!Loads of people say they feel sorry for me having to do all these injections - if I know them well enough I say that injecting is the easy bit it's the relentless worry of if you're too high or low remembering to put your bg machine in your pocket along with various glucose products stuffed In your pockets. ...All to just get some milk from the shop. Diabetes can be so inconvenient!
Loss of small handbags caused me great distress as well.I'm newly diagnosed type 1 and all anyone asks me these days is 'how are the injections going'. They are the easy bit! The blurry eyesight causing me headaches and stopping me driving is a nightmare. Trying to work out how much insulin to have is stressful. Working out which sore finger to prick is tiresome. Oh - and I'll never be able to go out with a small handbag ever again!!
Currently, life as a type 1 for me is scanning my arm with my Libre every half hour or so and taking a series of small injections (typically around 10 a day at present) through the day.
Injections and Libre scanning is the relatively easy part.
Needing to sometimes wait to eat until your sugar comes down so that you don't spike your sugar levels super-high from an already high level is one of the annoyances.
Having to make dozens of not easy decisions about how much to inject and when, what to eat, how and when. Taking into account a range of different factors every single can be mentally tiring some days.
Never being able to go much more than 500-yards without taking kit and glucose with you just in case your levels start dropping (or sometimes rising -depending how far you're going).
Having your emotions and ability to cope (physically and mentally) tied to your sugar levels. Low sugar levels making you slow and unable to cope with usual tasks that would be a doddle. High sugar levels making you irritable and/or lethargic plus can also initiate short term depressive symptoms. Both low and high sugar levels amplify emotions making it that bit harder to keep one's head together under some situations.
Having to delay or interrupt sex because of low blood sugar.
Urinary tract infections being more likely if sugar levels have been high for several hours or over a number of days -particularly if stressed at the same time.
Occasionally having to battle off feeling depressed about the risk of developing long-term complications if sugar levels having been high for longer than I'd like.
Mostly for me, type 1 diabetes is fine to deal with when control is good. But, when control goes a bit skewiff, the little persistent things can add up to the short term difficulties and that's when things get tough and you want to scream a bit inside or out.
Type 1 can amplify things. When life is tough, the type 1 makes everything that bit harder. However, perhaps the dealing with the tough stuff makes us a bit sunnier and brighter when the good times do happen?
Ed
Hi thereCurrently, life as a type 1 for me is scanning my arm with my Libre every half hour or so and taking a series of small injections (typically around 10 a day at present) through the day.
Injections and Libre scanning is the relatively easy part.
Needing to sometimes wait to eat until your sugar comes down so that you don't spike your sugar levels super-high from an already high level is one of the annoyances.
Having to make dozens of not easy decisions about how much to inject and when, what to eat, how and when. Taking into account a range of different factors every single can be mentally tiring some days.
Never being able to go much more than 500-yards without taking kit and glucose with you just in case your levels start dropping (or sometimes rising -depending how far you're going).
Having your emotions and ability to cope (physically and mentally) tied to your sugar levels. Low sugar levels making you slow and unable to cope with usual tasks that would be a doddle. High sugar levels making you irritable and/or lethargic plus can also initiate short term depressive symptoms. Both low and high sugar levels amplify emotions making it that bit harder to keep one's head together under some situations.
Having to delay or interrupt sex because of low blood sugar.
Urinary tract infections being more likely if sugar levels have been high for several hours or over a number of days -particularly if stressed at the same time.
Occasionally having to battle off feeling depressed about the risk of developing long-term complications if sugar levels having been high for longer than I'd like.
Mostly for me, type 1 diabetes is fine to deal with when control is good. But, when control goes a bit skewiff, the little persistent things can add up to the short term difficulties and that's when things get tough and you want to scream a bit inside or out.
Type 1 can amplify things. When life is tough, the type 1 makes everything that bit harder. However, perhaps the dealing with the tough stuff makes us a bit sunnier and brighter when the good times do happen?
Ed
Currently, life as a type 1 for me is scanning my arm with my Libre every half hour or so and taking a series of small injections (typically around 10 a day at present) through the day.
Injections and Libre scanning is the relatively easy part.
Needing to sometimes wait to eat until your sugar comes down so that you don't spike your sugar levels super-high from an already high level is one of the annoyances.
Having to make dozens of not easy decisions about how much to inject and when, what to eat, how and when. Taking into account a range of different factors every single can be mentally tiring some days.
Never being able to go much more than 500-yards without taking kit and glucose with you just in case your levels start dropping (or sometimes rising -depending how far you're going).
Having your emotions and ability to cope (physically and mentally) tied to your sugar levels. Low sugar levels making you slow and unable to cope with usual tasks that would be a doddle. High sugar levels making you irritable and/or lethargic plus can also initiate short term depressive symptoms. Both low and high sugar levels amplify emotions making it that bit harder to keep one's head together under some situations.
Having to delay or interrupt sex because of low blood sugar.
Urinary tract infections being more likely if sugar levels have been high for several hours or over a number of days -particularly if stressed at the same time.
Occasionally having to battle off feeling depressed about the risk of developing long-term complications if sugar levels having been high for longer than I'd like.
Mostly for me, type 1 diabetes is fine to deal with when control is good. But, when control goes a bit skewiff, the little persistent things can add up to the short term difficulties and that's when things get tough and you want to scream a bit inside or out.
Type 1 can amplify things. When life is tough, the type 1 makes everything that bit harder. However, perhaps the dealing with the tough stuff makes us a bit sunnier and brighter when the good times do happen?
Ed
Course you can! Glad it's helpful!Brilliant piece Snapsy!!! You say you were reluctant to share it but I'm so glad you did! I wish everyone could read it. May I show friends and family and anyone who just happens to assume that it's easy? That we can always be rational? That we can always be even-tempered? That we're not naturally self-absorbed?
Thank you so much for posting.