- Messages
- 16
- Type of diabetes
- Friend
- Treatment type
- Insulin
In the 3 months I've been dating a type one diabetic he's been admitted to hospital twice, first time was due to low sugars and the second was due to high ketones. I think my main concern is that there's going to be a point, yet again, where I'm responsible for his life? Since his last hospital admission I carry around glucogel, I've dedicated a draw for storing his test strips/needles/etc, and have spare insulin in my fridge but I'm not sure what else I can do? When his ketones were high he didnt have any ketone testing strips but his sugars were only 8.5 which i didnt see as a cause for concern, he was unconcious on my lap for a solid 20 minutes before I decided to call the non emergency medical helpline who instructed me to take him to hospital immediately, I feel a large amount of guilt for how slowly I acted, I initially thought he was taking a nap because we'd been up late the night before, until i noticed his temperature. He got in trouble at work because they kept him over night in the hospital, which i feel wouldnt have been necessary if i'd acted sooner.
As a scientist I'm quite interested in 't1 diabetic intuition'. The next time he went to inject after the hospital admission I was like "how do you know you need 18 units if you haven't even tested your sugars, there's definitely a formula for how many units you need in one of my second year text books." We tested his sugars, I did the math, and surely enough he needed exactly 18 units. How is this possible? Does it get to a point where you've been self managing for so long that you can guess how many units you need that accurately?
As a mental health professional I'm also interested in the correlation between t1 diabetes and mental health problems and would like to hear stories about how your condition has effected your mental health or if you don't think your mental health problems, if any, are related to your diabetes. I.e there's another causal factor. I'm also interested in the stigma that comes with diabettes being represented in the media as something that happens to people who eat too much junk food. Also how under educated teachers are about diabetes, i heard one example of a newly diagnosed child being pelted with sugar cubes at school because, when asked by another child what was wrong with him, the teacher declared to the entire class that he was basically allergic to sugar? I understand it can be difficult explaining something so complicated to 5 year olds but the teacher could have come up with something better than that surely?
I live in the UK and am currently in the process of planning a presentation for my local MP to introduce a 'diabetes card.' whereby any owner of this card can walk into any pharmacy and get free insulin, insulin's already free in England but you need a prescription, so this literally wouldn't cost the tax payer anything. How do you feel about the introduction of this card?
I'm asking for advice on how to help him manage his condition in a caring, loving way, without being arrogant/patronising/controlling. A couple of days ago his sugars were low and he started suffering blurred vision and I immediately got in contact with my younger sister, who's an optometrist, for advice and even secured him an emergency appointment at the opticians. He was angry with me for interfering and accused me of being too dramatic.
Also "glucose guardian" is apparently the politically correct term for "Sugar mummy" which we both found hilarious, so yeah that's my nickname on here.
As a scientist I'm quite interested in 't1 diabetic intuition'. The next time he went to inject after the hospital admission I was like "how do you know you need 18 units if you haven't even tested your sugars, there's definitely a formula for how many units you need in one of my second year text books." We tested his sugars, I did the math, and surely enough he needed exactly 18 units. How is this possible? Does it get to a point where you've been self managing for so long that you can guess how many units you need that accurately?
As a mental health professional I'm also interested in the correlation between t1 diabetes and mental health problems and would like to hear stories about how your condition has effected your mental health or if you don't think your mental health problems, if any, are related to your diabetes. I.e there's another causal factor. I'm also interested in the stigma that comes with diabettes being represented in the media as something that happens to people who eat too much junk food. Also how under educated teachers are about diabetes, i heard one example of a newly diagnosed child being pelted with sugar cubes at school because, when asked by another child what was wrong with him, the teacher declared to the entire class that he was basically allergic to sugar? I understand it can be difficult explaining something so complicated to 5 year olds but the teacher could have come up with something better than that surely?
I live in the UK and am currently in the process of planning a presentation for my local MP to introduce a 'diabetes card.' whereby any owner of this card can walk into any pharmacy and get free insulin, insulin's already free in England but you need a prescription, so this literally wouldn't cost the tax payer anything. How do you feel about the introduction of this card?
I'm asking for advice on how to help him manage his condition in a caring, loving way, without being arrogant/patronising/controlling. A couple of days ago his sugars were low and he started suffering blurred vision and I immediately got in contact with my younger sister, who's an optometrist, for advice and even secured him an emergency appointment at the opticians. He was angry with me for interfering and accused me of being too dramatic.
Also "glucose guardian" is apparently the politically correct term for "Sugar mummy" which we both found hilarious, so yeah that's my nickname on here.