ABOUT TYPE 1 DIABETES

Travis,

Poor blood sugar control can lead to blindness and other complications. Good control significantly reduces the risk. I have never heard of insulin causing blindness. Your uncle is probably poorly informed rather than wishing you any harm. I was diagnosed type 1 quite late on (nearly 42) and have found that doing my own research and learning about the condition has really helped. When you are confident you understand the condition well, by all means visit your uncle - you may be able to teach him about diabetes!!

You should be on multiple doses per day for the best control and you should ask about going on a course - the is a thing called DAFNE (Dose adjustment for Normal Eating) - which should really help you with getting things under control.

Let us know what treament you are on - I could suggest some books if you want. I am an engineer, so have read some of the more detailed books on the subject.

Best wishes and good luck,

Nigel

Travis,

You don't necessarily needto be on a diet. You need to be aware how much carbohydrate here is in each meal you eat. All carbohydrate converts to BG in the blood - some quickly, like refined sugar, and some more slowly like wholemeal bread.

Regimes that work are either, eat the same amount of carbohydrate at each meal, or adjust the fast acting insulin to match what you are eating. The second takes some time to get right but is the better way to go for a decent lifestyle.

I gave up sugar in tea/coffe and on cereals etc. I try not to eat cakes and very sugary puddings. In terms of fruit, you just need to be aware of the impact on yourblood sugars. I eat a banana every morning and it releases its sugar into the blood quite slowly - however, a very ripe banana has a very rapid impact as the fructose starts to break down into sucrose as part of the ripening process.

The best book I have on the subject is in the flat where I work - I'll give you the name of it when I go back next week. A good overall book is the British Medical Association book called Understanding Diabetes - it's fairly simple but talks about all aspects of the condition. You may want to join Diabetes UK - they send out a pretty good magazine called Balance. Their website is http://www.diabetes.org.uk and you can join for life, which is what I did almost as soon as I got diagnosed. They give free pamflets on travelling to different countries.

Do you know the result of your HbA1C test. This gives an average blood sugar measure and tells you how well you are doing overall. If your doctor has not done this test (and it should be every 3 months - 6 months at the very least) then you should ask him to do it. If you end up getting regular appointments at a hospital diabetes clinic, they should do this for you.

Finally, how often are you measuring your blood sugar?

Nigel

Are you in the UK or elsewhere?
Your BG readings look as if they are in mg/dl not mmol which is the more usual in the UK. (the meters give different readings in the different countries)

I'm hoping that you live in the US or another part of the world, your mention of a Baptist hospital suggests that too.


As I read it, the first number is the number of days, the second(NUM) the number of tests, the third the average.

the first average was for 7 days, the number of tests in the week was 24, the average was 167
The second was 14 days, the number of tests 48, the average 197
The third was 30 days, the number of tests 121, the average 181

Your BS readings for the most recent week are a little lower than previously but they do seem a bit high. You are actually testing between 3 and 4 times a day and it rather depends upon whether these tests are before of after meals as to what they mean.



You really should discuss these readings very soon with a doctor, a nurse or perhaps with what I understand they have in the US a CDE (certified diabetes educator) . I think that you need some help in understanding about diabetes from a professional.

Travis,

The book I mentioned is "Using Insulin" by John Walsh and Ruth Roberts and others. Published by Torres Pines Press at $23.95.

It's a little heavy and more of a text book than a bedtime read, but it does contain real info which is very helpful.

Nigel

Another book that you might like to read is Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. Richard Bernstein is a Type-1 diabetic himself who has developed a highly effective strategy for the management of diabetes. This book is the bible of many on here, and well worth a look.

There is some evidence that Cinnamon has a fairly marginal benefit for Type-2 diabetics, but I don't think that it will do anything at all for Type-1. Personally, I often put it in my coffee - but I like the taste, and I'm not expecting it to work miracles!

I am afraid that no food supplements are going to help Type-1 diabetes much (if at all). The problem is that your pancreas no longer makes enough insulin, because the cells that make it are dead or dying, and no pills or potions that you can take will change this. Therefore the treatment for Type-1 diabetes is replacing your insulin with insulin that you inject, and balancing this with your diet so that you can keep your blood sugar as close as possible to that of a non-diabetic. There are various supplements (including cinnamon) that might have a small benefit for Type-2 diabetics, but this is a very different condition (in many ways it is confusing that they are both called diabetes).

TWGOODNESS said:

sorry i have bad questions!!

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Those of us involved in education have a saying - "the only bad question is the one that isn't asked"! Keep asking questions on here, and you will learn quite quickly.

TWGOODNESS said:

i just don't know what to think anymore!

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Of all the major diseases, diabetes is probably the most manageable. The trick to managing it, though, is in learning as much as you possibly can about it. This is quite a tall order (you will probably need to learn far more biomedical science than you ever wanted to) but the benefits of doing so are huge - in that you can lead a largely normal and healthy life. There are major new advances in medical technology happening right now, that mean new treatments and maybe even a genuine cure is quite likely to happen over the next few years and decades. At the age of 17, the important thing is that you do everything you possibly can to keep yourself healthy enough to be able to benefit from these new treatments when they arrive. So, to do this you need to learn. Ask your "bad questions" on this board, and read the other threads - and don't be shy about chipping in when you have anything to say. Also, read some of the books out there (especially Bernstein). I know that it is really confusing at the moment (diabetes is a complicated disease), but if you persevere with the learning then pretty soon, you will become your own diabetes specialist - and that is what you need to aim for.