Diagnosed in hospital two days ago and now free to roam. (TYPE 1)
I was taken into hospital on Thursday night with blood glucose readings in the 30+ range and Ketones of 4.1
After a crash course in testing and injections I am now at home and feeling slightly overwhelmed. I still have high blood glucose levels.
I have been told to stick with 18 units of Lantus at night and use 12 units of Novorapid at meals. Think that this dosage is too low as blood glucose is double figures in the morning and climbing to high 20s at night.
Want to try carb counting, but will not have an appointment with nurse till mid week at earliest!
Just seems to me that I am still at levels that are too high.
Hi there, I was in your position two years ago, let out of hospital on 3 x fixed doses of insulin on the basis that my 'normal' food amounted to 3 meals a day of around 30 carbs each. The Hospital diabetes team have to start somewhere and given how unique everybody is they are virtually having to guess how much insulin you will need per amount of carbs. My Nurse said they also based it on your weight. Please don't rush into altering things yourself or based on what long standing diabetics find works, you will probably have NO idea of how insulin actually works never mind what split dosing and insulin stacking is.
Everyone on this site is extremely helpful but I would say take your time (probably over the next 3 months at least) and you will then get to know what works for you and how different food affects you and how to adjust insulin doses, etc. In the meantime you (should) have instant access to a Diabetes Nurse that you can call whenever you want, I called mine daily for the first month or more! If my glucose levels were high over a day or 2 she would tell me how many units of insulin to increase, if they were low (which they were mostly) she would tell me to decrease it by a unit or two. Once I was confident I was able to do those adjustments myself but only AFTER a few months following my diagnosis.
As others say, it is a marathon, not a sprint and this is oh so true. Your diabetes Nurse is there to explain things to you and to contact you regularly in the first few weeks but I am conscious this is not true for everyone.
After leaving hospital I am ashamed to say I was a bit pathetic and barely left the house, I kept thinking I was going to have a hypo in public. Now, I laugh at how I was back then. Once the first couple of months was over, I had a better idea of how certain foods affected my glucose levels. I pared everything back to very low carb (taking account of insulin dosage) and made notes of everything. Then I gradually increased the carbs until I got to the point where I (mostly) know what insulin I need for what meals. I won't mention how exercise, stress & work factored into this because you must be overwhelmed already. It does feel like an abandonment when you get thrown out of hospital with life saving medicine and no real idea of how to use it but remember, do not rush, experiment with plenty of tests and RING your diabetes Nurse whenever you need to to discuss your readings and get their advice. x