Depression! Argh!

[SamH]

Well, let me set the scene....

I'm 15 and was diagnosed 3 years ago. Since then I have changed my insulin around a bit and am now taking a mix of Novorapid, Novomix 30 and Lantus.

I row for around 2 hours 5 times a week (everyday apart from wednesday and thursday) and have always found this to be a huge help in controlling blood sugars.... until recently.

I could always rely on excercise to bring down my blood sugars but for a highly annoying reason of which I am not sure it has not been so helpful recently. For instance, today I came home from school and had a slight low of 3.8 no problem, i had a few biscuits and 4 glucose tablets, as i knew i would be rowing later. So i do about 2 hours of reasonably iintense excercise and return home to find my reading 18 before dinner!!!!!! :cry:

This is not the first time this has happened and I am getting quite upset witht these high readings that occur throughout my days (my average of 35 tests was 8.5.) Every time I have a high reading I am convince myself that I will die at 50, lose both feet, have a diabetic child, fail my exams because the highs fry my brain and never succeed at anything ever!

Any chance of some reassurance eg. your stories of bad patches/how long your high readings have to be for them to have any serious damage etc? :cry:

 

[Elc1112]

Hi sam,

Firstly, an average of 8.5 is not that awful. Ok, it could be better but it is still far from terrible, so don't beat yourself up too much.

I sometimes find that exercise can increase my sugar levels, particularly if they are running a little higher than normal in the first place. I used to row at uni so I know it's not exaclt easy to stop and test your sugars half way through a race, but it's definitely something you should bear in mind.

I also found that when I was a teenager my control was less than perfect. Granted some of that was my fault as I struggled to accept my diabetes, but I also found that hormones etc had a HUGE effect. I went through phases where my sugars would bounce all over the place and would be quite unpredictable. My diabetes team said it's not all that uncommon in teenage diabetics ad your body is going through a lot of changes. You sound like you're keeping a really close eye on things, which is great. I know how frustrating it is when your control lapses, but things will settle down soon. Juggling three different insulins must be a bit of a challenge. Could your diabetes team offer any advice on how best to mix them?

As for long term damage, you're at greater risk if you have poor control over a long period. A one off high reading here or there isn't great but I very much doubt that it is significantly raising your risk of complications. On the topic of complications, they have such good checks in place these days for diabetics. It means that things are, in most cases, caught early and dealt with before they become too serious. You sound like you have great control most of the time. The fact that you are so active will also help keep you healthy which is key for fending off long term complications.

I've been diabetic for over 20 years now and I've definitely had my share if bad patches! I rebelled against my diabetes between the ages of 14 and 16 and my control was awful. Ended up in hospital with DKA which is something that I NEVER want to repeat! It was a huge wake up call for me and I worked really hard to improve things after that. I've also had other smaller bad phases but I'm sure that most people on this forum can relate. My last few HBA1Cs have been between 5 and 6.

Most diabetics will go through tough patches every now again. You sound determined to get things back on track and definitely have the right attitude - I wish I was that disciplined at your age!

I hope you get things sorted soon, sam.

Take care, Emma