Thanks Smidge, v helpful advice.
I was quite shocked when the consultant first said it might be Type 1 or LADA (never even crossed my mind). When they diagnosed LADA, I was fairly upbeat and then about a week later felt quite low. The actual injecting insulin I can handle - I had to do it when pregnant and although I found it traumatic at the time, i got used to it v quickly and it helps that the needles are v small.
I think it's the constant checking and thinking before I eat anything. I feel guilty if my sugars are too high or too low and I get really tired. I particularly feel it in the mornings and this week my sugars have been 8 before breakfast (not on overnight insulin yet).
Anyway, I am rambling but it's great to hear from others who also have LADA. Like you say it's unpredictable as with some insulin still being produced it can be tricky to get the balance right.
Cobrakatie,
On feeling guilty when BGs are high - DON'T ! Its a diabetes trap. I wrote about this recently. Try to train yourself not to.
I wrote:
"From September to New Year, I ploughed grimly on with the Bernsteinian 30g carbs a day, trying to cope on basal alone. But though my spikes from eating were almost always under 2mmol, I couldn’t get rid of them. All I could do was bump up the basal overnight and in the morning. But there are limits to what basal can do. My baseline rates and averages were too high because of the post-meal levels. Then my baseline rate started to rise, and I felt it was my fault, and all I could do was just eat less. That I did. It was miserable. I was completely caught up in the You-can-do-it-by-diet-alone narrative. I started thinking I was insulin-resistant, worrying about every eyestrain and every complication symptom (because I have quite a few of those. I suspect I started having really high blood sugars about five years ago – I’ll never know, of course). I worried extra much because it seems some people glycosylate at a lower threshold than others (their HbA1c is higher than their mean BG rate would predict), and I’m one of them. Over Christmas, it was whack up the basal even more (I was now on 7u/day) and just eat less and less. Horrid.
Finally just before NY I called the hospital and was given some NovoRapid, just one unit at a time to start with, carb ratios to be worked out later. And life has been so, so much better. No more spikes. Mean BG rate 5.4 rather than 6.7 plus, fasting 5.0 and 5.2 rather than 8.0. I’ve stopped worrying about my eyes, and the brain fog is going (it was high BG). So I’m exercising better again too. I’m looking, and feeling, and sleeping, better. Everything is better now.
It's obvious now that I should have asked for quick-acting ages ago. But I just didn't get it. I’m thankful that for now I’m on a low TDD: 5u basal and 2 or 3u bolus. It’ll probably go up, but hopefully low-carb will stop it going up to stellar levels. But when I need more insulin, I’ll take it ...
But I draw a big lesson from this (here comes the rant): that the redemption stories we tell ourselves when we are first diagnosed and are still really in denial that we are sick can be quite harmful. It’s not true that low-carbing alone can save LADAs. It may be sufficient for some, but for others it isn’t, and each single person is different and has to have confidence in what they work out suits them.
I think these are stages in the grief process - the psychology of getting used to the idea that we have diabetes. At first, after the shock, we deny that we’re sick, and then we make bargains with diabetes – if I only do this, then it will only go that far, if I’m good it won’t develop.
But that’s what children do. We can’t make bargains. We just have to adapt to what is happening. But our self-esteem and our confidence get caught up in this need to be on top of diabetes, to be stronger than diabetes.
Well, I think new diabetics should be on the lookout for thinking like this, that when you do well you are a Good Diabetic, and when you don’t it is because you are being a Bad Diabetic. It is false and it doesn’t help.
And isolation makes things worse. I don’t know any actual physical people with either type one or type two, except a friend with iatrogenic T1 who has cancer to worry about. So it’s hard to get a sense of perspective."
