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First time drinking since diagnosis - what to do?

M

MattJ508

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all
I was diagnosed as Type 1 around 5 weeks ago and need a little advice! I have had good control since then (honeymooning for sure!) but I am heading to watch the Cricket at Edgbaston tomorrow which will be the first time I’ve properly drunk alcohol since diagnosis.

It’s one of those ‘meet at Wetherspoons at 8am’ type of days and typically will involve drinking pretty much all day (which I’d have had no problem with a month or two ago!). I won’t drink anywhere near as much as I would have done previously but still want to enjoy the day as it’s been a pretty rubbish 5 weeks and feel like I need a day to enjoy myself.

My question is how do I approach this? I’ve seen/read things that say inject for every drink I have but then others that say alcohol lowers blood sugar so watch for hypos…just wondered if anyone had any advice?

Thanks
 
It has been sometime since my binge drinking days :D, but as I was diabetic across my teenage years and university, I do have quite a lot of experience. The answer is (as usual) it depends - on what you drink, an on how much activity the day entails (even needing to wander around to get to places would make me run low cf a normal day and it's not like I was inactive on a normal day rushing around uni between lectures, etc.)

For cider, I would need to inject across the day, though I'd not bother until I see which way things are going after the first pint or two (unless there's a massive rise) - the activity required to get to the ground, etc., would certainly give me low blood sugar getting there so I'd be drinking to correct that and then looking at corrections thereafter - play these by ear rather than working from exact carb content (which are annoyingly not on the cans either), might be worth having something to eat to hand if you get this initial bit wrong. Even if you start trending low it will almost certainly come back up in the initial stages of a day out as the carbs are going to give you a rise whatever happens.

For lager/ale, it might need an initial correction (similar to the cider above) but thereafter I'd probably not need/bother to correct much/at all as the day goes on. I would typically find I'd run low and would need to be eating through the day to avoid this (which is probably a good thing for the subsequent hangover too.)

Something like Guinness would probably not require any corrections at all, same for wine (unless sweet/white/fizzy, in which case look at cider).

Aside from the case of cider (etc), which makes me go high no matter how long I drink it for (and it produces awful hangovers too), I would be careful about IoB and not over-correct, as you may then need to leave the ground and need to walk some decent distance to find a curry or similar, pretty much as soon as I get up to go I'd start dropping so wouldn't want vast amounts of IoB (to need to deal with).

Overnight I'd almost certainly end up running low, so basal reduction perhaps (depending on when you do this) and definitely an uncovered bedtime snack (bowl of cereal, etc., 30-40g COH I'd guess, though perhaps a little less if currently high - certainly enough to push me up into slightly high territory, which will then drop during the night.)

Tell your friends what to look out for and tell them to force you to stop/eat/etc. (if this approach works for you, sometimes we don't want to be told what to do when hypo, you and indeed they will probably know what works best)

To sum up, take some emergency hypo treatments (and indeed look out for stuff to eat during the day too), don't be too worried about close control, don't over-correct, beware of going low overnight post-all-day drinking (I'd have an uncovered pre-bed snack and if I run high, it's only one night, better than going hypo away from home, or indeed at all)

Have fun, let us know how you get on.

P.S. When I was out drinking I had been diabetic for ~10y+ so I wasn't in the honeymoon, I don't know how this will affect things - probably by your needing less insulin, though I don't know, it was a very long time ago and I don't know if it was even "a thing" back then.
 
I’ve been diagnosed since I was 1, I’m 28 now so have about 10 years worth of drinking under my belt and honestly even with those 10 years of ‘experience’ I still don’t get it right all of the time.

Personally I never inject for any alcoholic drinks, whilst I initially do have a rise in blood sugar I tend to drop some hours later, whether that’s because I’m more active or that’s just how my body handles things I’m not really sure. Simon has given some very good advice and I would always make sure you have a meter with you, hypo treatments, a fully charged phone and someone who is aware of your diabetes and can look out for you (preferably not someone who is also going to be getting drunk).

I would say though since you’re only 5 weeks into diagnosis I would be very careful with drinking as you’re so new to it all and you won’t fully know how your body is going to react to any drinks and drinking all day this soon is probably not the best idea, I’d be more inclined to maybe have a couple but then stick to soft drinks for the rest of the time.
 
It's been a while since my binge drinking years, and I suspect I got through the worst of them by running very high (pre glucometer days).

Just bear in mind that alcohol affects your liver so that it doesn't help you out with glycogen when you start to go low, so it can generate some scary hypos. So I'd definitely second the idea of making sure your friends know about hypos. (You don't want to be in the situation where a hypo makes you act irrationally and the police take you in as drunk and disorderly rather than hypo).

Interesting article about the science here https://breakthrought1d.org.au/resources/t1d-alcohol-hypoglycaemia/

I personally don't carb count at all for dry white or red wine, and please watch out for night time hypos if you go to bed still under the influence. I'm afraid I agree with @Nicola M that it's best to drink in moderation while your diabetes is still so new. (Don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities to overdo it later on in your diabetes journey, if you so wish.)

Good luck, and enjoy your day.
 
Thank you both. Yeah I will definitely be sensible about it and I think my days of drinking all day are now well and truly over! I’ve just found out one of the guys I’m going with is an endocrinologist so I’ll be in good hands!
 
Been a long time since my drinking years but after a few **** ups I came to he conclusion. That it was better for me to only take insulin for any food I ate , as my sugars initially went up the after booze dropped like a stone so I decided I would let my sugars rise for a relatively short period and deal with them once my “ bender” had finished
 
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