Any Advice.... =]

[DiabetiesChild]

hey ,

i am 14 and i have been diabetic for 2 years now and i am still struggling with it. i had a very long honeymoon period, and now im in the world and my readings wont settle. if anyone has and good advice please let me no !

thanks

zoee

 

[Geoff]

Hello Zoee, welcome to the forum, can you tell us a bit about your diabetes? What your daily av glucose reading are, your last Hba1c reading, the insulin you take, how many units each day etc. without some background info it,s hard to help.

 

[DiabetiesChild]

Okay. Erm…… my BS levels are usually between 15 and 7. My last Hba1c was 11.4!! I’m on novo rapid and levemir. I’m on a total of 57 units a day [morning = 10, lunch = 8, dinner = 11-12, bed = 28]. I also get really lumpy injection sites even if I move around.

Zoee

 

[timo2]

Hello Zoee,

A Hba1c of 11.4% puts your average blood sugar at around 16mmol.
So the good news is, there's plenty of room for improvement.
:arrow: Hba1c INFO

One area for improvement may be your basal insulin(levemir).
This tends to work better in two daily doses, rather than a single
nightime dose. Getting an even 24 hour basal dose will be a big
help toward more stable control.
Remember to talk it through with your diabetes specialist before
you make any changes.

Also, remember to use a fresh needle each time you inject. This will
help to minimize any Subcutaneous fat scarring, which is often the
cause of lumpy injection sites.

All the best,
timo.

 

[Katharine]

Hi Zoee,

There are a lot of things you could be doing. A good place to start is looking at the course at http://www.dsolve.com it will give you a lot of information.

I agree that splitting your levemir into a shot morning and night will help. To start with you simply split the dose 50% each way and then test at 3am to see you are on track.

Are you having any hypos? Stopping them helps your sugar control because you don't end up eating as much to deal with the hypo.

Learning to match your insulin to your meals helps too. A first step is learning how to carb count. There is an online course called BERTIE which you can get by googling it which is very helpful.

Limiting the dose of insulin to 7 units or less with each separate insulin injection will greatly help the injection sites and improve the predictability of the insulin you use (especially so for meal insulins). This can mean several jags to cover a meal however. You will find this easier if you slowly reduce the carb in your diet. If you are not ready to do this perhaps you could limit your injection sizes to some extent say to 15 units a shot and work your way down gradually.

It is well worth getting to grips with your blood sugar control.

My son has type one too. Like you he was diagnosed age 12 and had a long honeymoon. We use every trick we can think of to get mastery of his blood sugars and his hbaic usually run from low fives to low sixes with an average in the medium /high fives. His latest was 5.7% and before that was 6.0% and before that was 5.3% with only mild hypos a few times a week. You can do it too. I should say it is definitely harder for girls because their hormone changes (and chocolate cravings) at their periods are pretty hard to deal with.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[TROUBR]

Jumping in here - SarahQ - How do you do a Basal Test? I would love to know?

Many Thanks
Louise

 

[lionrampant]

[disclaimer] This post is for informational purposes only. I'm not a doctor, he's not a doctor, she's not a doctor, and by god I don't get paid their wages. If you adjust your insulin you do it yourself, and without basing it on any direct advice in this post? Capisci? Good, legal silliness over-with.[/disclaimer]

Bump the Levemir dose up. Four units at a time, maybe two if you're not too confident about changes doses. Gradually raise your bed time injection and (if you're confident enough) lower (slowly) your daytime ones. I wouldn't say those meal time injections were very high - in fact they sound ideal, but everyone's different.

And keep a close eye on your BG levels.

 

[DiabetiesChild]

Thanks everyone for the great advice