Hello, I’m going to be living on my own soon without my daughter, after being diagnosed in 2001 So I’m here to ask for feedback of how other type 1’s manage life and living on their own. The thought of it is scary me so much! I don’t know life living on my own in every shape or form, but the thought being alone of having a serious hypo/hyper(Illness) is terrifying me the most.
For those of you who live alone and type 1.
- Thread starter EJTC
- Start Date
Do you have a libre? (looks like you do from your profile)
I now live alone for half of the week, the other half my children are with me, though it's questionable whether that is useful from a diabetes point of view.
My main concern has always been overnight lows, I'm quite happy dealing with daytime lows (having been diabetic throughout school and university) and in many ways being on my own means I can deal with things as I want, rather than holding off because something/someone else might be affected (e.g. if you're out doing something). With that said, having someone else around (pre-CGM) did mean they would often notice you're going low before you do, however, how they convey this to you is a tricky matter (there was a thread about thiis), and thankfully with libre this issue is completely sidestepped as delta-BG and low BG alarms can be set.
To put it bluntly, when living alone in my twenties, in the days before libres, I was much more relaxed when sharing a bed with a gf. When my then gf, now ex-wife moved in with me, I remember that it did reduce stress quite considerably around night time blood glucose levels (though perhaps she wasn't overly pleased about it, hard to know, people say things during divorces that are not necessarily based on the reality at the time). This was in the days before I was on basal-bolus, so overnight blood glucose was often a guess, especially as I was younger and out eating and drinking (alcohol) more often.
When I got divorced (relatively recently), I wasn't using a libre (I had tried one, but it was in the very early days and it was all manual scanning and I didn't see that much value in it with the faff, issues around accuracy, etc), and I recall that stress about overnight blood glucose was quite a big thing (even alongside all the other divorce-induced stress!) By this point I was on basal+bolus, which did make matters somewhat more predictable, though I wasn't using an electronic logbook (which I really would recommend as it gave me a much better view as to how much carbohydrate I still have to process and how much insulin I have onboard).
Randomly one of my daughters' friends' mothers, who was diabetic (I didn't know), told me about her use of the libre and miaomiao (alongwith a pump fwiw), and I bought the miaomiao (2) immediately and asked the GP to prescribe me the libre (I had been offered it, post-trial, but didn't see much appeal until that point).
This was a Godsend and meant I was no longer worried about overnight lows. The fact I had to pair the sensor with XDrip+ in order to get the continuous nature and low (and high) alarms meant I also accidentally realised that having a graphical display of IoB and CoB is amazingly useful to understand where BG is going and how/when to correct (and stack corrections.)
Long waffly post, sorry, but to summarise, it really causes no problems because of the CGM low-glucose alarms.
So my recommendation is that if you've not got one already, do get a libre (or other CGM), make sure it has alarms (and is a true CGM, i.e. no scanning needed) and good luck and let us know how you get on
I now live alone for half of the week, the other half my children are with me, though it's questionable whether that is useful from a diabetes point of view.
My main concern has always been overnight lows, I'm quite happy dealing with daytime lows (having been diabetic throughout school and university) and in many ways being on my own means I can deal with things as I want, rather than holding off because something/someone else might be affected (e.g. if you're out doing something). With that said, having someone else around (pre-CGM) did mean they would often notice you're going low before you do, however, how they convey this to you is a tricky matter (there was a thread about thiis), and thankfully with libre this issue is completely sidestepped as delta-BG and low BG alarms can be set.
To put it bluntly, when living alone in my twenties, in the days before libres, I was much more relaxed when sharing a bed with a gf. When my then gf, now ex-wife moved in with me, I remember that it did reduce stress quite considerably around night time blood glucose levels (though perhaps she wasn't overly pleased about it, hard to know, people say things during divorces that are not necessarily based on the reality at the time). This was in the days before I was on basal-bolus, so overnight blood glucose was often a guess, especially as I was younger and out eating and drinking (alcohol) more often.
When I got divorced (relatively recently), I wasn't using a libre (I had tried one, but it was in the very early days and it was all manual scanning and I didn't see that much value in it with the faff, issues around accuracy, etc), and I recall that stress about overnight blood glucose was quite a big thing (even alongside all the other divorce-induced stress!) By this point I was on basal+bolus, which did make matters somewhat more predictable, though I wasn't using an electronic logbook (which I really would recommend as it gave me a much better view as to how much carbohydrate I still have to process and how much insulin I have onboard).
Randomly one of my daughters' friends' mothers, who was diabetic (I didn't know), told me about her use of the libre and miaomiao (alongwith a pump fwiw), and I bought the miaomiao (2) immediately and asked the GP to prescribe me the libre (I had been offered it, post-trial, but didn't see much appeal until that point).
This was a Godsend and meant I was no longer worried about overnight lows. The fact I had to pair the sensor with XDrip+ in order to get the continuous nature and low (and high) alarms meant I also accidentally realised that having a graphical display of IoB and CoB is amazingly useful to understand where BG is going and how/when to correct (and stack corrections.)
Long waffly post, sorry, but to summarise, it really causes no problems because of the CGM low-glucose alarms.
So my recommendation is that if you've not got one already, do get a libre (or other CGM), make sure it has alarms (and is a true CGM, i.e. no scanning needed) and good luck and let us know how you get on
I started by hooking up my Libre to an app that sends high low warnings to my watch (and wear the watch all the time).
That saved me many times - if it warns me of a low at 4.5 (or whatever) I take notice and eat (I found I could sleep through my phone going off, but my watch annoys the heck out of me)
That saved me many times - if it warns me of a low at 4.5 (or whatever) I take notice and eat (I found I could sleep through my phone going off, but my watch annoys the heck out of me)
Zhnyaka
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What scares you? Do you lose consciousness often? I have been living alone since I earn my own living and for a long time I could not financially afford libre at all. There were no problems. The only thing I have is a box of caramel and sugar sticks by the bed.
Ushthetaff
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My partner has dementia so I’ve been basically living on my own for the past 3 years , im not worried about it but I do have things in place just in case , I use the libre alarm which greatly reduce the risk of actually going hypo , in fact I’ve not had a full blown eat the contents of the fridge hypo for quite a while , I also have the MECS system installed , it wa installed originally for my partner but it’s more for me now cos if I was to fall etc my partner wouldn’t know what to do or who to phone, I think if you live on your own it’s about trying to minimise risk especially as you get older , there are enough systems available these days with mobile phones and the like , to be honest it’s not something I worry about , especially as far as my diabetes is concerned ,
Living alone with type 1 can be safe, as long as you plan well, so have your mobile and dextrose tablets (or sweet drink) next to your bed. I live on my own and rely on low-glucose alarms on my mobile. For extra safety, I pay for a care alarm (about £30 a month). We originally had the alarm when my (disabled) husband was alive, so that I could call paramedics whenever he fell. However, I have used the alarm for myself a couple of times, for instance when I've had a bad infection or when I needed help during an episode of irregular heart beats.
In Response
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I was living alone for the first 6 years of my diagnosis.
Being stubbornly independent, diabetes was not going to change that.
My partner now lives with me but I still love the peace of nights alone with no one to judge my tv choice or question what I am eating or ask why I need another Lift tablet.
As I was diagnosed before the days of CGMs, hypo awareness has always been important to me and, although I have one now, maintaining that natural awareness continues to be improved as I know tech can fail.
I keep tubs of Lift tabs in every room of the house (and bags when I go out) so I can access them easily and don’t allow diabetes to dictate my life.
Being stubbornly independent, diabetes was not going to change that.
My partner now lives with me but I still love the peace of nights alone with no one to judge my tv choice or question what I am eating or ask why I need another Lift tablet.
As I was diagnosed before the days of CGMs, hypo awareness has always been important to me and, although I have one now, maintaining that natural awareness continues to be improved as I know tech can fail.
I keep tubs of Lift tabs in every room of the house (and bags when I go out) so I can access them easily and don’t allow diabetes to dictate my life.
Another safety thing that I have is a Key Safe on the wall by my front door. The paramedics call centre have a note of the four-digit code to open the Key Safe, and so do the fire brigade.
The key safe suggestion above is a great one, would save so much time and effort in gaining entry to one’s flat if needed!
I’m not sure if this is useful but I live alone with type 1 and had a major issue the other day where my sugar went very very low and I couldn’t keep any sugar down- was even throwing up the glucose gel and fruit juice. Was very scary indeed as it was the middle of the night.
The one thing that saved me was Fruit Pastille ice lollies- the cold numbs your stomach and it’s basically sugar and water so gets absorbed really quickly. Literally saved my life. Putting this on here Incase this helps anyone else as it was a nightmare not being able to keep any fruit juice or glucose tablets down!
I’m not sure if this is useful but I live alone with type 1 and had a major issue the other day where my sugar went very very low and I couldn’t keep any sugar down- was even throwing up the glucose gel and fruit juice. Was very scary indeed as it was the middle of the night.
The one thing that saved me was Fruit Pastille ice lollies- the cold numbs your stomach and it’s basically sugar and water so gets absorbed really quickly. Literally saved my life. Putting this on here Incase this helps anyone else as it was a nightmare not being able to keep any fruit juice or glucose tablets down!
