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Type 1 and living alone, is it safe?

I live alone, and to be brutally honest, I would say my diabetes is far better controlled than when I lived with other people, just because I have more time to think about what I'm doing.

I understand that it could be worrying, but it also makes me more careful. I probably do far more tests than I used to, and I do always make sure I have enough glucose available.

But even if you do live with someone else, you can never absolutely guarantee they will always be around when you have a hypo, so it's always best to manage these things yourself.
 
Antje77 said:
It was a bit worse, I actually had two different great neighbours that night. The first sat with me for three hours until I felt I was safe. The second I woke up at four in the morning because my sugars kept dropping after I went home from the first neighbour and I was advised to pop into A+E to be safe. First neighbour had been drinking, hence the waking up of second neighbour. He sat with me in A+E, where they checked my sugars twice in three hours (don't worry, I checked more often and instructed my patient neighbour in what to do should I become unconscious, seemed much more reliable than the people who worked there) and then sent us home.
The moral of this story: I'm fine living alone as long as I don't mix up my insulins, and should I do so again I'll just pop over to one of my neighbours, armed with a glucagon set and play board games or so until I'm safe. And bring them a bottle of whatever they fancy next day.
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As a student in London I was terrified of possibly having to live alone - not even a minnow in Sea World. I posted somewhere else an incident where I was left unconscious for 7 hours in a flat in Haringey, North London, and my liver eventually woke me up. I had a total memory loss. Ever since I have not, until 2013, felt comfortable with just me. It's good to hear of those who do!
 
Mel dCP said:
Packs of dextrose everywhere. Even under my pillow. In the bathroom, in case I’m in the bath. In my shed. Every single coat, jacket, handbag and even my dressing gown pocket. Basically, I’m never more than ten feet from a pack!
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Awful when they become sticky!
 
Grant_Vicat said:
As a student in London I was terrified of possibly having to live alone - not even a minnow in Sea World. I posted somewhere else an incident where I was left unconscious for 7 hours in a flat in Haringey, North London, and my liver eventually woke me up. I had a total memory loss. Ever since I have not, until 2013, felt comfortable with just me. It's good to hear of those who do!
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I had a similar experience, just after I'd university, in London, though it was Clapham, not Haringey.

On that, though, I think that back then I only had urine testing available to me. I pretty much take the view, now, though, that if I could survive that, then with far better testing equipment, I can live alone easily.
 
I used to travel loads for work - new city every two weeks so didn't have a chance to cultivate good relationships with neighbours! I wasn't too worried about hypos as I always had hypo treatment nearby and all over the flat/hotel room wherever I was living. I've always been really open about my diabetes so once work panicked because they hadn't seen me for our usual 4pm meeting and my phone was off.. Turns out they'd forgotten I was starting laster that day and the chill of Glasgow had killed my phone battery! Last week I had quite a bad hypo, I remember sitting at my kitchen table being worried about something, but once I figured out that my thoughts weren't making sense I went straight to the fridge to chug a litre of juice. Thankfully I have good hypo and hyper awareness so living alone has never been too much of a concern for me, it's just making sure you've planned for when things might not go according to plan, and not being afraid to ask for help if there is a problem! Have just moved into a new block of flats, we have a house whatsapp and everyone who lives there has been told I am diabetic on the off chance that something strange does happen, but thankfully have never had to ask them.
 
Hi. Yes, packets of Dextrose everywhere. Be very careful about alcohol as your liver can't come to the rescue if it's busy clearing it out. Most people will awake if having very low blood sugar in time to take some glucose but sadly not everyone. I went down to 2.6 the other night and awoke when my dreams became striking flashes of light. I was able to test and take Dextrose.
 
ellendoher@gmail_ said:
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your very prompt replies.
I think the final answer is, it is important to cultivate good friendships with reliable neighbours! I guess staying organised is very important too.
Ellen
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For me the staying organised is the important thing.
I have always been very independent and lived alone for a lot of my life including living in Germany for 18 months when I barely spoke German.
When I was diagnosed, I lived alone and it never occurred to me that I would need to give up my independence.
My partner now lives with me but that has nothing to do with diabetes - I work from home so often spend the majority of my waking day without anyone around: just me, my laptop, my pump and my GlucoTabs.

It is just another part of not letting diabetes control you or your life.
 
helensaramay said:
For me the staying organised is the important thing.
I have always been very independent and lived alone for a lot of my life including living in Germany for 18 months when I barely spoke German.
When I was diagnosed, I lived alone and it never occurred to me that I would need to give up my independence.
My partner now lives with me but that has nothing to do with diabetes - I work from home so often spend the majority of my waking day without anyone around: just me, my laptop, my pump and my GlucoTabs.

It is just another part of not letting diabetes control you or your life.
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I’m alone most of the day too, as I run my business from my garden shed. With power tools and blowtorches ;)
 
Mel dCP said:
I’m alone most of the day too, as I run my business from my garden shed. With power tools and blowtorches ;)
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There are days when I would love to have power tools and blow torches but, for the sake of my career and laptop, it is probably good that I don't ... and that's on days when I am at home; don't get me started on days when I visit customers!
But that has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes.
 
helensaramay said:
There are days when I would love to have power tools and blow torches but, for the sake of my career and laptop, it is probably good that I don't ... and that's on days when I am at home; don't get me started on days when I visit customers!
But that has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes.
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Go on, get some power tools, there are loads of things you can break with them, other than your lap top.
 
You could always justify them as a necessity for destroying hard drives. ;)
 
I freaked out a bit when I knew I'd have to live alone after going through a divorce, especially since I'd just gone through a period where my ex husband had to bring me round a couple of times from some bad hypos during the night. However, I've now gained confidence and have found what works for me (although this is just for me!) is I now follow a very low carb (keto) way of eating which has greatly reduced the amount and severity of hypos I was having, and I also wear a Libre with a recently purchased MiaoMiao device which in effect turns the Libre into a CGM, and I've already had 2 instances where the alarm has woken me up during the night when I've gone hypo. I know not everyone can afford the Libre or the new MiaoMiao (which is a one-off cost and sets you back about £150) but if you can afford it I would highly recommend giving it a try.
 
I live with someone but I don't rely on them. I keep my sugar pills beside me on the nightstand with my scanner and take some if I'm low; I always wake up if I have a low blood sugar, is it the same for you?
 
I hadn't really considered telling my neighbours about my diabetes. I'm quite a private person, so other than close family and friends, it's just the colleagues who sit next to me in the office who know (I don't hide testing/injecting from them).
That said, I seem not to get hypos (thank goodness), so I can't imagine having to call on them anyway.
 
Grant_Vicat said:
As a student in London I was terrified of possibly having to live alone - not even a minnow in Sea World. I posted somewhere else an incident where I was left unconscious for 7 hours in a flat in Haringey, North London, and my liver eventually woke me up. I had a total memory loss. Ever since I have not, until 2013, felt comfortable with just me. It's good to hear of those who do!
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This is absolutely horrifying! Lucky for you that your liver helped out but I cannot imagine how awful this situation must be.

Antje77 said:
I live alone and have no motivation problems. My support when feeling discouraged is right here on this forum, and sometimes with close friends. I'm lucky in that I've never had a hypo that I couldn't handle myself. The one time I accidently took quick-acting instead of long-acting I've woken one of my neighbours and told them I was very sorry but could they spend the next hours watching me eat. They did.
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Good neighbours! One of our neighbours is a doctor, but I'm hardly ever home alone so I doubt I'd need help from them. Once I had an absorption issue and so my blood sugar was stuck in the 5's for a few hours despite loads of juice, my mum sat with me to supervise (and rescue if needed) and we played boardgames too. We played "Animal Upon Animal", a children's stacking game which is surprisingly fun for adults too. Rather amusing trying to build huge piles of wooden animals with shaky almost hypo hands :p (though my mum has a bit of arthritis so I'd say it was a fair match!)
 
I've been living alone with T1 since 2003. TBH, it's pretty easy. Good routines, predictable diet, frequent testing and keep lots of hypo medication (kit-kats are very effective) to hand.

More of a challenge is solo business travel. Between now and September I have trips to France, South Korea, France again, Germany, Turkey and USA!!! Try guessing the carbs and sugar in Korean food...
 
I live alone. At the moment in another city on a temporary work assignment. I'm lucky as I have excellent hypo awareness and I frequently wake up dazed and confused and when I manage to check I'm about 1.5mmol/L. With some of the new CGM's coming out they will call mobile phones, so find an excellent neighbour.
 
ellendoher@gmail_ said:
Hello Everyone,

I would like to know if anyone has opinions and advice about the safety and possible challenges of someone with Type 1 Diabetes living alone. I am thinking of the issue of hypos in the middle of the night or early mornings, also the difficulty of staying motivated to manage the condition as successfully as possible, perhaps feeling discouraged and needing support, the worry and stress about going into a coma and having no-one there to phone for an ambulance.

Please let me know what you think or have you yourself had experience of living alone and managing Type 1?

Thanks,
Ellen
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Hi ellen
I live alone and have done for 15 years now I am 69 years young and 48 yrs.type 1!
Last year I had hypos falling out of bed crashing down in the high street on several occasions it was horrendous.
I came.on a dafne.course and life has changed completely for me.
I am gaining confidence also and now I have the freestyle libre which.helps to see so much better when and if a hypo occurs.
As long as u eat before.bedtime and take tests gain confidence you can do it!
Good luck and don't let.it beat you.
 
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