Yet another newbie...

[MarchHare]

Hello everyone!

Another new person here for you all to contend with... sorry about that!

T1 with lots of complications - retinopathy, beginnings of neuropathy, and kidneys are giving up on me. And I'm only 31...
Still, we can't change the past so the only thing I can do now is prevent things from getting worse too quickly. And it is hard!

Looking for lots of help and support in keeping on the right track - I get very despondant & down at times.
Also looking for weight-loss help too. Want to lose 1.5-2st, and really struggling.

Hopefully I'll be able to offer some support to you all in return, and plenty of advice on what *not* to do!!

Here's to new friends

 

[Robinredbreast]

Hello and welcome to the forum MarchHare. I'm sorry to hear of your diabetes problems. Many members have diabetes problems as well, so we know what you going through and how you must be feeling.
About the weight loss, are you able to do exercise or increase it? also many are low carbing or reducing their carb intake, which should reduce the amount of Insulin you take. It's trying to find something that works for you, to try and achieve better control. Have you had Type 1 long, maybe as a child ? as the teenage years can be extremely difficult and sometimes diabetes management tends to go out the window.

Can I leave you with this little quote:-
'No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending'
Take care, with best wishes and good luck

 

[novorapidboi26]

A warm welcome from me.........

so whats your story? what actions led to your current level of complications?

I have retinopathy and my left eye has referable maculopathy, although so far there has been no action taken.......

 

[MarchHare]

Thanks both for the welcome
Sorry to hear about your maculopathy novorapidboi. They can treat that with lasers I believe? Hopefully it doesn't get too bad for you.

My story...
I've beenT1 for over 20 years. Unfortunately my parents never took it very seriously & control was very lax. This transfered to me throughout my teens & at university, I pretty much just pretended it wasn't there as much as I could. Even a week in ICU with DKA didn't give me the wake up I needed.

It wasn't until I got the retinopathy diagnosis about 6 years ago that I really started to sit up & take notice. I began getting stabbing pains in my eye, GP referred me to eye hospital, laser treatment quickly ensued. It scared me, and was the kick up the backside I needed to take notice.

I had a coupe of reasonably good years, but things began to slip a little - not as bad as before, I was at least still injecting this time! - until about 18 months ago when I started to get very bad migraines folowing night hypos. Cue blood tests, a trip to A&E when my OH thought I'd had a stroke, systolic BP around 250, and a diagnosis of kidney failure. And I thought retinopathy was scary....!!

Since then I've been battling very hard to get things properly under control. And it has been really, really hard. Lots of tears & some not-too-happy thoughts. Not my usual style so I'm also finding that hard to deal with as well!

They changed my long-acting to Levemir last week, and initial response to that seems to be good. So, I feel like I'm slowly getting there. But one teen-result in amongst a sea of nice single-digits really knocks my confidence. Silly, I know.

With regards weight-loss - I tried low carb way back after the retinopathy diagnosis. I won't lie, it did do good things for my bloods. I didn't lose any weight though (secondary aim at the time) and to be frank, I was a bit miserable on it! I also found it very hard to sustain.
While I'm willing to try again, I'd rather find a diet that works for me that is also more of a long-term solution. I currently try & stick to under 150 carbs a day.
I'm on around 1200 calories a day, for a relatively sedentary lifestyle. I do have a gym/swim membership & I *try* and go 3 times a week. Usually it ends up being once or twice though. I know this needs to improve!

So... I've probably rambled enough. Well done if you got to the end of that, I do feel better for telling though!

 

[Daibell]

HI and welcome. I'm afraid you will find that lowering your carbs is the long-term approach to helping with your blood sugar and weight. I wish you luck trying to find any other diet approach that works as well. Set yourself a limit a bit lower than 150gm/day and stick with it. My wife who was 2 stone overweight for years and is not diabetic followed my low-carb approach very seriously and has lost that 2 stone and now finds it fairly easy to hold that weight but by keeping the carbs down below 100gm/day. She eats fats quite freely proving the point that carbs are the problem for both weight and blood sugar. Yes, exercise does help as well and we both do the gym 3 times a week. Look thru the forum and you will find food suggestions that are healthy and not too boring!

 

[Andy12345]

Hi, Welcome

Sorry to hear your struggling and your problems are way beyond my area of expertease, ok to be honest i dont have an area of expertease

but i believe in my heart that where theres a will theres a way and your being here demonstrates a will, so i know in my heart you can fix you, and i believe that when we are in our darkest place, we can shine our brightest, best wishes and ill get my sun glasses ready for your amazing successes

 

[MarchHare]

Thank you both for your kind responses.

I'm going to pop over to the low-carb board and have a nose about I think.

 

[gfmoore]

Welcome aboard. Make room there at the back

Now you will start to control this thing, but it is a monster, it will bite back and yet you will deal with it each and every time. All the best.

 

[Adelle0607]

Hope you hang in there marchhare hope you find plenty of support here in the forum...


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[MarchHare]

Thanks all

(I don't get a lot of time to come on here sometimes, so please know that I'm not being rude if I don't reply for a while!)