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T1 Diagnosis & Treatment Experience (New & Old)

A month after my diagnosis I was expecting my second child. I remember going in to hospital on several day visits, over the next 8 months, for diabetes check-ups. These were cool: very relaxing because all I did all day was lie on a bed reading, and had my blood glucose checked at regular intervals (!). My daughter had her third birthday on 18th December and my son decided to be born on that day - I was at diabetes/pregnancy clinic, being checked out, when labour started. I asked nicely if I could go home to attend my daughter's birthday party, but my request was turned down! My son was a feisty 10lbs: I think women with diabetes tend to have sizeable babies. We were in hospital over Christmas, though I, but not my son, was allowed home for 2 hours on Christmas Day afternoon. We both received a Christmas prezzie on Christmas morning from staff on the ward.
 
This topic got me thinking - does anyone else remember their first insulin shot? I'll never forget that feeling as the insulin kicked in and feeling it's effect flow through my body as my muscles relaxed for the first time in ages. Swiftly followed by being kicked out of the hospital to catch a bus home and my first hypo within 100m of the front door...

Diagnosis, first dose of insulin and first hypo within 3 hours!

SP.
 
Shiba Park said:
This topic got me thinking - does anyone else remember their first insulin shot?
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I do!

I'd woken up from full on dka, and then after some careful doctoring/nursing, did the orange thing, then my first ever dsn, Sister Carmichael, talked me carefully through the process, did my first shot, with my dad sitting there beside me doing the parental support bit, only for him to give me a hearty slap on the back, saying, "well done, son", while the needle was still in me!

Could have done without that bit - parental encouragement, good, when there's some sharp metal still in me, not so good!
 
kev-w said:
:) I'm up north so it was RL for me :p, centre 3/4 or second row from school till I was 32, I started playing union a couple of years into my 20s, a workmate played for one of the local chocolate factory works teams and I had a go at full back as they were short, the only advice given was don't hold the ball in the tackle :) but enjoyed it so played for around 7 years.

Blood tests were BM sticks back then, diagnosed in the October my boxing club banned me until my Dr would sign a form that he never signed, and the rugby club said I should come back for training after the summer once stable, as an apprentice fitter/machinist(making sewerage plant & machinery which isn't a sh*t job) I was banned from using high speed machinery for 12 months, 6 months on a push bike for 07.30 starts till I got my licence back, diabetes clinic with the majority of the queue in wheelchairs having had amputations (probably not that bad but it's how I remember it, or remembered it reading a Nokindofsuzie post the other month cringing)
I know my first insulins were pork, one to mix and one clear but don't remember their names...
The BDA were the 'go to' for wrong diabetes advice.
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Well done for getting here LB or not.
 
January 2014 aged 54. Had a bad virus, weight loss, thirst and deteriorating eyesight.

The first part of diagnosis didn’t go well. The GP made the assumption I was type 2 and put me on Metformin (even though I have a brother who got it in teens) 4 days later I was in A and E on an insulin drip..

The second part went well. I had incredibly good luck. When I made it to a ward, the on call consultant was my now diabetes consultant. He said, “I don’t have my patients in hospital they’ll catch something else.” He sent me home to return to clinic the following morning.

At the clinic I was taught how to inject, how to count carbs, and given numerous booklets and leaflets. I was put on 10 units of Lantus and 1 unit of Humalog to 10 carbs as a starting point. The DN gave me her phone no and email address for any later questions. She then rang me on and off for 2 weeks and made some adjustments to dosage, based on my daily blood glucose results. Both insulin’s were halved initially.

I have regular very supportive hospital appointments and access to a DN should I have any interim questions. I don’t see my GP for my diabetes.

2 years in I did the DAFNE course. Which I found brilliant.

I now self fund the Libre which has totally changed my attitude to how I deal with this condition. It enables me to manage eating foods I may have avoided in the past. It shows things that with the best will in the world neither I nor the medical profession can see just from a blood glucose monitor. Hopefully it will eventually become mainstream. Like all things do eventually. IT IS A GAME CHANGER!

Oh and by the way I live in Leeds. And feel lucky to do so, when I read of some people’s care. The postcode lottery is a huge issue.
 
becca59 said:
January 2014 aged 54. Had a bad virus, weight loss, thirst and deteriorating eyesight.

The first part of diagnosis didn’t go well. The GP made the assumption I was type 2 and put me on Metformin (even though I have a brother who got it in teens) 4 days later I was in A and E on an insulin drip..

The second part went well. I had incredibly good luck. When I made it to a ward, the on call consultant was my now diabetes consultant. He said, “I don’t have my patients in hospital they’ll catch something else.” He sent me home to return to clinic the following morning.

At the clinic I was taught how to inject, how to count carbs, and given numerous booklets and leaflets. I was put on 10 units of Lantus and 1 unit of Humalog to 10 carbs as a starting point. The DN gave me her phone no and email address for any later questions. She then rang me on and off for 2 weeks and made some adjustments to dosage, based on my daily blood glucose results. Both insulin’s were halved initially.

I have regular very supportive hospital appointments and access to a DN should I have any interim questions. I don’t see my GP for my diabetes.

2 years in I did the DAFNE course. Which I found brilliant.

I now self fund the Libre which has totally changed my attitude to how I deal with this condition. It enables me to manage eating foods I may have avoided in the past. It shows things that with the best will in the world neither I nor the medical profession can see just from a blood glucose monitor. Hopefully it will eventually become mainstream. Like all things do eventually. IT IS A GAME CHANGER!
Bad start but good finish @becca59. Why do you have to self fund the Libre, isn't it available on the NHS?
Oh and by the way I live in Leeds. And feel lucky to do so, when I read of some people’s care. The postcode lottery is a huge issue.
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These posts make me smile with some memories, my first diabetic clinics matron Muriel, old school NHS nurse, forearms like my old math teacher who'd served in the merchant navy, Muriels would have suited an anchor tattoo... I used to annoy her by not taking a pee sample to clinic (I'd be up at 05.30 for work and couldn't be p**sing around with that at that time :p) she'd give me a tin foil pot and point down the corridor to a toilet with an access hatch and bellow "go do one NOW" with the arm still pointing as I wandered off down the corridor of organised chaos :)

becca59 said:
I now self fund the Libre which has totally changed my attitude to how I deal with this condition. It enables me to manage eating foods I may have avoided in the past. It shows things that with the best will in the world neither I nor the medical profession can see just from a blood glucose monitor. Hopefully it will eventually become mainstream. Like all things do eventually. IT IS A GAME CHANGER!

Oh and by the way I live in Leeds. And feel lucky to do so, when I read of some people’s care. The postcode lottery is a huge issue.
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This makes me feel guilty as I've got one for 6 months on prescription 20 or so miles to the east of you in York, can I say the post code lottery was the angle that inspired our MP to write to the CCG on a good few occasions and the angle Radio York used when they did their story for the radio article a couple of weeks before the commissioning documents were released.
 
@SueJB I self fund because although I have praised my care in Leeds, the local CCG have decided that you have to fit a certain criteria to get the Libre. Obviously there are some diabetics, through no fault of there own who are struggling and need all support they can get.
Those of us who do not have extra complications and work very hard to maintain control haven’t got a cat in ..... chance!
 
becca59 said:
@SueJB I self fund because although I have praised my care in Leeds, the local CCG have decided that you have to fit a certain criteria to get the Libre. Obviously there are some diabetics, through no fault of there own who are struggling and need all support they can get.
Those of us who do not have extra complications and work very hard to maintain control haven’t got a cat in ..... chance!
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Thanks for the update, I haven't got a cat either so I might do the same as you. Can I ask how it stays on your arm? Silly question but I would like to know.
 
https://brightspotsandlandmines.org/start-here/
This is a useful e-book for the proposed pack and its free unless people want to donate. What else wold you guys put in a pack like this other than a link to this forum?

My diagnosis was easy as a 10 yr old. Lost weight and was wetting the bed. Took a 'Nescafe jar' wee sample (for some bizarre reason I thought that taking a wee sample indicated a pregnancy test but doctor sent me out then broke the news to parents. Had 2 weeks of school being 'stabilised' and trained to count 'lines' of carbohydrates which were to be taken at 2 hourly intervals. So it was a rigid regime but I think that is better than the more liberal stuff that followed along with better insulins (human ones courtesy of genetic engineering) and the myth that you can eat what you like as long as you bolus for it. I had been doing this for years but frequently got it wrong!
So the tech is a lot better now (pump and cgm) but no accessible to all but without the closed loop that joins the 2 systems we continue to guestimate our doses and consequently spend too much time 'out of range' in hypo or hyper land. In the meantime I have gone low carb so that there is less margin for error but this has never been suggested to me by the endocrinologist and isn't an approved approach.
 
SueJB said:
Thanks for the update, I haven't got a cat either so I might do the same as you. Can I ask how it stays on your arm? Silly question but I would like to know.
Click to expand...

It just does, I cannot actually get them off. Took one off this morning and it has brought off some of the skin. Even after dousing in the shower. I had one fall off a week in and Abbot just replaced it. There was obviously something wrong with it. When swimming I cover with Opsite Flexifix, swim for an hour at a time.
It is amazing how the brain adjusts to ensuring you don’t bang it on doors etc.
Get one you’ll be amazed. Don’t expect blood glucose accuracy but it is the trends and reactions to foods that are key to its success.
 
becca59 said:
just does, I cannot actually get them off. Took one off this morning and it has brought off some of the skin.
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What works for me is to tease the sensor off the sticky bit first, then roll the sticky bit off the skin.
 
NicoleC1971 said:
https://brightspotsandlandmines.org/start-here/
This is a useful e-book for the proposed pack and its free unless people want to donate. What else wold you guys put in a pack like this other than a link to this forum?

My diagnosis was easy as a 10 yr old. Lost weight and was wetting the bed. Took a 'Nescafe jar' wee sample (for some bizarre reason I thought that taking a wee sample indicated a pregnancy test but doctor sent me out then broke the news to parents. Had 2 weeks of school being 'stabilised' and trained to count 'lines' of carbohydrates which were to be taken at 2 hourly intervals. So it was a rigid regime but I think that is better than the more liberal stuff that followed along with better insulins (human ones courtesy of genetic engineering) and the myth that you can eat what you like as long as you bolus for it. I had been doing this for years but frequently got it wrong!
So the tech is a lot better now (pump and cgm) but no accessible to all but without the closed loop that joins the 2 systems we continue to guestimate our doses and consequently spend too much time 'out of range' in hypo or hyper land. In the meantime I have gone low carb so that there is less margin for error but this has never been suggested to me by the endocrinologist and isn't an approved approach.
Click to expand...

I attended a dafne course and learned a lot, I think the most useful thing for me was learning not to be obsessive, because prior to the course, I was testing too frequently. At dafne I was told not to test so often, especially if I did not intend to take some immediate action, such as correcting. The danger of my zapping approach was that I was doubling up on insulin injection effects and not giving it time to work. Well. So far so good. I also felt though that there was the approach of 'Eat what you like and dose for it'. Kind of like it is a right to be able to do so. I low carb because of lower margin of error, the rule of small numbers, and, although dafne is really helpful on everything else, I don't understand why low-carb is not approved by them, and endocrinologists generally?
 
becca59 said:
It just does, I cannot actually get them off. Took one off this morning and it has brought off some of the skin. Even after dousing in the shower. I had one fall off a week in and Abbot just replaced it. There was obviously something wrong with it. When swimming I cover with Opsite Flexifix, swim for an hour at a time.
It is amazing how the brain adjusts to ensuring you don’t bang it on doors etc.
Get one you’ll be amazed. Don’t expect blood glucose accuracy but it is the trends and reactions to foods that are key to its success.
Click to expand...
sorry @becca59 but does it have some sticky stuff on it? You don't have to pierce your skin do you?
 
SueJB said:
sorry @becca59 but does it have some sticky stuff on it? You don't have to pierce your skin do you?
Click to expand...

It sticks to your skin. But there is a probe that is injected into the skin when you apply it. It is like a bristle from a toothbrush, and that is the sensor that reads the levels.
 
SueJB said:
Thanks for the update, I haven't got a cat either so I might do the same as you. Can I ask how it stays on your arm? Silly question but I would like to know.
Click to expand...
There's another thread with a lot of info about Libre. The sensor has an adhesive backing which sticks to your skin; some people (like me) find we need extra help to keep the thing stuck on (I think it's more of a problem if you have dry skin) so I and others cover the sensor with a clear plaster called Tegaderm, and various other things!
 
hh1 said:
There's another thread with a lot of info about Libre. The sensor has an adhesive backing which sticks to your skin; some people (like me) find we need extra help to keep the thing stuck on (I think it's more of a problem if you have dry skin) so I and others cover the sensor with a clear plaster called Tegaderm, and various other things!
Click to expand...
Thanks, which thread?
 
becca59 said:
It sticks to your skin. But there is a probe that is injected into the skin when you apply it. It is like a bristle from a toothbrush, and that is the sensor that reads the levels.
Click to expand...
Thanks @becca59 I'm going to do some more reading and look at the cost a bit more.
 
Diagnosed in 1989, hundred's of miles from home in North Tee General hospital. Stayed there a week and was told I would have to inject myself in the leg in front of dr and nurse. I was very, very nervous, very sweaty hands ( family was full of nurses, but stopped at me !) so just gone on with it and did it, but blood trickled out of my leg ! I was given syringes and pork insulin, no carb counting, a fixed dose, which I had to draw up into the syringe to the number/line I needed and later the night time insulin had to be gently shaken to mix it ( it was cloudy) . I had to wee on a glucose stick and compare the result with a colour chart, wiped injection area with sterile wipe. Also no sharps bins to put syringes in. Very basic info, no internet or support groups, but like many other's, we all got by and are here to tell the tale :)
 
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