Newly diagnosed very early on 14 yo

jonnylr

Newbie
Messages
1
Shortly after christmas my son found some test strips in the bathroom left over from a while ago when we were told to check my daughter (who was overweight). Anyway he randomly did a test which gave a positive result. We bought a blood test and again a positive result with high reading. Started to panic and went to the GP and to A & E (who turned us away the first time!). Eventually the GP sent us to A & E again and my son was admitted and spent eight days in hospital. Other than the BG levels themselves none of the characteristic symptoms have been present however the results of the relevant test (and forgive me, but I've lost track of what's what) came back yesterday and confirmed a diagnosis of type 1. Attempts to control his levels have been a bit hit and miss and he's bouncing around all over the place. On admission to hospital he had a BG of, I think, close to 20, was given 4 units of novarapid and experienced a hypo. The next day a dose of lantus was tried and again sent him too low. It was decided to try nothing and for the next few days his levels floated around all over the place, up to 16, 17, 18 and down to 6. Eventually it was decided to settle on a 0.5 shot of novarapid before breakfast only. Two days ago his levels fluctuated hitting, at one stage 19 before coming back down again without intervention. The newest plan (not yet needed) is to take the 0.5 unit before breaksfast and if prior to any other meal his BG is above 10, to take another 0.5. He's now been back home for three days and yesterday had what felt like really good results going as low as 4.7 before an evening meal at about 8pm. However two hours later he was up at 19 and really upset. We tested for ketones which showed 0.1 which we were told is OK. Before bed he was down to 15 odd (with no intervention) and by a very late wakeup this morning was 7 odd.

Clearly, given the exceedingly low levels of insulin he's currently taking, he's producing some insulin himself. Having spent the last ten days or so in various states of shock, distress, fear and desperation we've been trying to bring ourselves up to date on what diabetes is. Currently a bit overwhelmed but given what seems to be the very early stage at which we've detected this we're terrified of losing any window of opportunity we may have to try to slow or prevent the total loss of his natural insulin production.

If anyone can give me a really simple rundown of what we can or might do I would be most grateful. I just feel totally overwhelmed having read about the benefits of pretty much every vitamin and supplement to Faustman's BCG vaccine and diapep277 trials. He's had a bit of accupuncture and at my wife's request is trying some chinese herbs. He also has a cup or two of green tea a day but other than that I could really do with some pointers because I feel I should be doing something, now, and can't sit back and wait for him to become completely insulin dependant.

Sorry for the lengthy rant.
 

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. If your son had a sugar level of 20 on admission I think he caught himself, almost by accident, very early on which is great news. A level of 20 indicates diabetes but I sometimes go above 20 currently and it's not until the 30s or whatever that for most people hyper symptoms would appear which is why diabetes is so insidious because it creeps up on you. Sadly if you are diagnosed with T1 I'm not aware of anything that is known to slowdown the disappearance of insulin from the pancreas and you could spend a long time with a fruitless task currently to find that solution. All you can do is arrange for the best diet for your son, for him to have the level of insulin that works for him (even just tablets for a while might be OK for someone in his current position) and continue to monitor his blood sugar as needed. Sorry to be negative but you could spend a lot of time and money on snake-oil treatments. If anyone on the forum knows of evidence-based solutions to delay pancreatic deterioration once diagnosed I'd like to hear more about them as I could use them as well!
 

LaughingHyena

Well-Known Member
Messages
233
I think it can take some time for BS levels to settle down and many people (myself included) have a honeymoon period after diagnosis where the pancreas kicks in and is able to produce some insulin. Unfortuanly, for me at least it wasn't that realiable and did lead to some unpredictable sugar levels.

For a while I found it easiest to stick to a few meals which were easy to work out the carbohydrate content of. The carbs and cals book (http://www.carbsandcals.com/en-us) is a handy tool for that, plus of course reading packets carefully. Most people adjust their rapid acting (novorapid) insulin based on the carbs in a given meal. Less carbs = less insulin.

Now things are generally a bit more even I am able to experiment with food a bit more and work out which foods suit me best.
 

Wberdeenwa

Newbie
Messages
1
If anyone on the forum knows of evidence-based solutions to delay pancreatic deterioration once diagnosed I'd like to hear more about them as I could use them as well!