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Bad day

iwilltouchyourcat

Well-Known Member
Messages
160
Location
Liverpool
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello all,
So I spoke with my dsn on Tuesday and she suggested I try ‘eating normally’ (her words)- she means compared to the low carb low cal I’m currently doing. This would be to see what my blood sugar does so they have a better idea of how my pancreas is functioning (in addition to the repeat c pep test). My blood sugar has been awful since- I’m still not overdoing it in carbs and staying under 80g a day, but taking more cals - 1500-2000- and I just feel like c***! My blood sugar being high is also making me feel irritable and tearful as well as physically rubbish. I get why she is suggesting doing this- because I can’t stick to a 1000 cal diet forever, it isn’t sustainable, and I’ll run out of weight to lose (I’ve already lost a lot but I was obese so I needed to) and I will be starting insulin at some point soon….

but it just got to me this evening and I started crying about it all- just feeling very overwhelmed about having type 1- it’s starting to hit me that my life will be hugely impacted. my partner just wants to ‘fix things’ and feels helpless when he knows there is nothing he can do to ‘make it better’ and that leaves me feeling guilty that I’m worrying him and he gets frustrated because he just doesn’t understand.

I’ll probably call the dsn on Monday and tell her about running so high since I’ve upped my food and carb intake. Tomorrow I’m giving my pancreas a break and going back to what was working for me. Just wanted to vent to people who get it and won’t think I’m being a big cry baby.
 
Hi, please forgive my silly questions, if you have had a DX for T1 why didn’t they give you insulin? If your numbers go high when eating “normally”, why didn’t they give you insulin?

Low carb low cal is a good idea why? Low carb should help you lose weight, why would you make yourself hungry?

“see what my blood sugar does” It will go up! You need insulin! I can tell them what they need to know without putting you through this, I wouldn’t play their game without being armed with insulin, at least on standby.

I am not sure about there being nothing your partner can do, my wife helps me out loads, he can research, he can learn to cook nice “diabetic friendly” meals, he can’t help you learn what your “diabetic friendly” means, he can listen to your worries, he can understand… my wife does none of this but puts clean pants and socks on radiator so I figure at least I have clean underwear lol

Sorry your team isn’t singing from your hymn sheet, sometimes we have to play their game, sometimes we have to put our foot down, the trick is finding a compromise (before they get you killed lol) I hope you find a path that makes everyone happy, especially you! Soon.
 
You're certainly not a big cry baby. Your dn is just plain wrong.
And why they haven't given you insulin already, I just don't know!
 

The plus side of having T1 rather than T2 is that once you are on insulin you will have a little more freedom both to inject for carbs and to correct your bg if it's too high. So there is a silver lining.

Lots of virtual hugs, though. Hopefully your team sort you out soon. Do you have a means to test for ketones?
 
If you definitely have Type 1, I do not understand why you are not taking insulin.
Avoiding insulin by eating low carb is not giving your pancreas a break. Research has shown that taking insulin when in the early stages of LADA prolongs the life of your beta cells. Eating without taking insulin is adding extra stress to them and killing them quicker.

I have, however, read that eating low carb can lead to misleading c peptide test result and make diagnosis of Type 1 harder. Maybe this is what your DSN is referring to.
 
Thank you for the replies. They wanted to re test my c peptide before starting me on insulin as first c pep showed I was making a good amount of insulin still- they thought it may have not been reflective of how my pancreas was working ie it’s more erratic than test suggests,I was fasting during the test and might have caught it on a good day? The consultant also said she thought I could be in the honeymoon period prior to needing insulin. There was no urgency on their part it felt re: starting insulin because my numbers have been a lot better because of how I’ve been eating. I haven’t even had the blood forms since my last appt. My next face to face appt with the nurse is in a week or two.

I’m just tired of it all.
 
If you have type 1 your c-peptide will drop off exponentially, and you will require insulin. Antibodies exist in the general population of people without diabetes, so your diagnosis needs to be tied to your c-peptide levels which is why they want to test you. Diabetes, no matter the type can feel overwhelming especially in the beginning. Keep having routine tests if they are offering them to you and keep ask for support from your diabetes team.

A fasting c-peptide can be inconclusive in so much if you are not eating then your body is not likely to be producing much insulin. I had a stimulated c-peptide test where I had to drink a sugary drink and my result was a trace level insulin response and my c-peptide measured below 0.2 nmol/l which was how I was diagnosed as type 1.
 
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Oh @iwilltouchyourcat I can totally sympathise/empathise/realise what you are going through.

I am not yet on insulin at 6 months in - I was on Humulin M3 for 3 weeks at first, ending up on only 3 units at dinnertime (from 8) and was going hypo, so that was stopped as I was obviously still producing ample of my own insulin, and I wasn't really eating low-carb at that point, (it was Christmas and I didn't have a clue what I was doing!), so insulin too early may not help at all.

The Endo I saw privately, (or I'd still be waiting until 2023 for someone to look at my c-peptide and GAD results!), said insulin would be best re-started once I am regularly waking on 6+ and 8+ 2hrs after my main meal, (knowing I was restricting carbs to c.25g max per meal); I don't know if these levels are universally used for LADA, but to me they seems a good place to start.

Sometimes (for about 5 seconds) I wish I could just eat whatever I fancied and inject to cover it, but then I think of all the practicalities like not being able to just jump in the car to collect the kids or going hypo and I am happy to drag out the diet, exercise and Metformin for as long as I can.

We are all different in how our bodies and brains work and I hope you find your balance and get where you want to be soon x
 
I'm sorry for you! It's okay if you want to cry, don't keep your emotions to yourself. Repeat after me "diabetes is not my fault!" Because it's really not your fault. If it's T1, then it's an autoimmune disease and it's great that your pancreas still worked for so long, but the death of betta cells was inevitable
You know, insulin isn't so bad as you think and it's a lot easier than your diet. It seems that a lot will change in life, but in fact it is not. Insulin is such a wonderful thing that will allow you to eat everything you want, especially since you already know how to count carbs, so it will be easier for you to learn how to calculate the dose of insulin. I understand both you and your partner, but unfortunately, diabetes is not something that can be "fixed", but it is something with which you can fully live
 
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