What would you do ? I can't cope anymore.

[Fetchmeacoffee]

Hi guys and girls.

Me again , with what seems another rant - I really have had enough now , what do I do?! I have a meeting with my DSN on Monday , and since Dafne everything is everywhere. I'm currently on anti depressents and out of work , my bloods are everywhere , even with what I consider tight control following the path of DAFNE - I'm either in my teens , or I'm down to 1/2's.

The last week alone I've had 6 serious hypos - all below 2 , I feel like poop 24/7 and I'm really to stick the lot of it in the bloody bin.
I've asked , I've begged for a pump , but I don't seem to get anywhere , nobody at the hospital will see me without a poxy referal , I just don't want to be waiting months until I get somewhere , what can I do? I really need help , but feel nobody is giving me the time of day that I need!

 

[hanadr]

You really need to settle down and find what works for you. DAFNE may not.
Hana

 

[ivinghoe]

You sound like me!

There are somethings that may help...

You must prove you have tried your best to the NHS before they'll issue a pump. That means lots of meter data... diaries etc. Email your dsn the data regularly show that you're having hypos and let them know you`re fed up with it. You may not get a prompt reply at first but theyre busy and you must get their attention. Ask if they can loan you a CGM.. my DSN eventually did and it finally made sense of all those random readings on my meter.

Contact INPUT they will ask you the right questions and help you ask your Clinic the right questions.

There are some basic things you can try to get back into reasonable control.

Hypos are obviously caused by too much insulin so try taking a good look at your meter downloads and look for when the lows occur most... sounds simple (I know it isnt) Keep a written diary noting everything that may affect your BG's
Read your diary once a week... apps are great but I still prefer my own shorthand!

Getting hypos under reasonable control should be your first goal.
For me a lot of wild highs and lows are caused by too much basal insulin.
No.1 priority was to do a lot of tests overnight and make sure I wasnt going low in my sleep.
It takes a lot of effort and will power to do overnight tests properly but once you are sure your basal is reasonable you can look at the bolus ratios. I still hypo occaisionally during the night but its the best I can do and I am confident my basal is as close as I can get it on MDI to being right.

If you are going still going low during the day after checking overnight take a look at when they're occuring... pre lunch... pre dinner. etc
I need a lot less insulin in the afternoons to control my sugars I am prone to hypos late afternoons early dinner. So I have changed my lunchtime ratio to combat this and by getting control of the pre dinner hypos and I have got control of my bedtime\ night time highs as I was not having a rebound high. If you have a good pre meal BG and you end up reasonable after 4 hours your ratio for that meal is probably good
Finally take a look at your correction doses.
If when you have a high pre meal and do a correction and end up going low 4 to 5 hours later then you need to increase your correction ratio so from say 1u : 1mmol to something like 1u : 2mmol. If you end up staying high then tweak it down to 1u : 1.5 mmol... and so on.

All this testing and tweaking is incredibly hard to maintain day in day out but this part wont change even with a pump. This isnt easy but I fInd when I get a good days results I loose a lot of my depression and just by examining my diaries I feel almost in control.

Hope there's something of use in this for you

Alan

 

[Fetchmeacoffee]

I've been following all of that. My hypos seem to be so unexpected though , but scary.

I'm at wits end now