Targets

[mountaintom]

Newly diagnosed T1, been told to expect low teen BG’s for the first week or so after close call with nr DKA and hospitalisation earlier this month.
Just wondering if some of you ‘seasoned pros’ could give me an idea of what progress to make with this. I see some astonishing numbers on here when I’m browsing and feel I’m way off it.
I’ve had some good days and then some not so good days. However I’m feeling bloody awful if I’m closing in on 5 so tend to panic and eat something to raise BG’s. Dr said that’s because I’ve probably been so high for so long. Anyone else had similar experiences at the start of their diagnosis? When will 5 feel ok? I feel ok at 7 but below that I get dizzy, sweaty, slurry.
Thanks
T

 

[Antje77]

No worries, give your body time to get used to lower numbers, it shouldn't take very long. Eat just a very little bit when you feel hypo but are not under 4. You want to feel alright but not end up high from treating a false hypo. I would try for stable-ish blood sugars for now, not very low sugars, as you run more risk of a nasty hypo when overcorrecting (both ways). Good luck and take your time!

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @mountaintom It will come right but as is said here very often ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’, I can’t give you a timescale but have some faith that your numbers will improve in time as you are really new to all this. Just be careful of eating too many carbs and panicking at 5, 4 is the number you need to watch out for, it’s easy to consume too many carbs and start a yo-yo effect which won’t help you manage and stabilise your bg levels, so take it easy.

 

[Scott-C]

Think about a deep sea diver coming up from depth. It gets done in stages to avoid the bends. Same with you. If you bring high levels down too quick, rapid changes can be a bit messy. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey. Just be patient.

 

[mountaintom]

Thanks guys. I’m a way off correcting yet but I’ll try and hold out at 6’s and 5’s and see how I go. Appreciate the advice - feel much safer after reading your replies.

 

[JoeT1]

Hi mountaintom,

Like others have said, don't panic too much at the moment. I was diagnosed back in October and went through 3-5 weeks of numbers rarely getting down to 5's etc. I would wake up high due to Basal problems, rise in the evening due to ratios needing tweaking and so on.

It's gotten better since then, i'm learning more and more as time goes on. Now adding back in some gym work without feeling like ****. I'm not perfect all the time, but i'm handling it better than I thought I would. Each person will get it in time, there's no specific timeframe. I too felt sweaty and dizzy when in the 6's and 5's for a little bit, but that will go.

 

[karen8967]

hi mountaintom ive been diagnosed 8 months now and consultant said to keep my levels between 5.5-10 and i feel great at them numbers any lower and i feel like ****

 

[charleym]

I found my diary the other week from when I was first diagnosed and it was 2 weeks before I was in single digits, I got false hypo symptoms at around 12 and I was scared of something happening when I was driving. Once i did get it lower i was having 3 or 4 hypos a day for a long time. Just take it gradually, remember you've got the rest of your life to improve and it never just gets easy

 

[TheBigNewt]

If you feel OK at 7 I think you're doing pretty good. Just don't be in a hurry I bet you'll do great pretty quickly.

 

[NoKindOfSusie]

Exactly this happened to me back in September. I hate to be the one to tell you but I still don't feel right now. It isn't really clear why that is. I am starting to think that some degree of feeling cold and shivery is just "what having diabetes feels like" and a lot of people who have had it a long time just think it is normal. I don't know. It could be anything. It took about two months to feel like I do now, that's when the gradual improvement stopped.

 

[Antje77]

I am starting to think that some degree of feeling cold and shivery is just "what having diabetes feels like" and a lot of people who have had it a long time just think it is normal.

Feeling 'cold and shivery' is definitely not what most people with diabetes feel most of the time. Could it be you have something else going on?

 

[donnellysdogs]

Your eyes could be damaged from getting levels lower too quickly... better to gradually adjust downward than rushing it.. give body and you time to adjust....