• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

bonjour

S

sssjay

Newbie
Messages
1
Location
Northampton
Dislikes
Stepping on the cracks
hullo, i'm sj (sarah jayne). i'm 20 years old and have had type 1 diabetes since i was 11 years old.
i'm one of those 'bad' diabetics and have been since hit my teens and associated my diabetes with ruining my life. i did a lot of silly things, mainly skipping my insulin to lose weight. nearly died 3 times within the space of a year, it seems like i never learnt...even though my 'learning process' usually involved something bad happening for me to change my ways. i'm paying the price now and have been diagnosed with macular odema...they say they are not optomistic that treatment will work. i am 20 years old and am facing possible blindness. i need to change my ways and that is the reason why i am on here; maybe someone will understand exactly what i am going through and can help, as good as my boyfriend and best friend are, i don't know if they understand 100%. i've been on DAFNE and that did help me get to grips with my control again, yet have now lost the motivation to test regularly/eat at the right times/eat the right things/not have wild gusses at my dosages. i feel like a lost cause because it seems like i am beyond help. i feel like this disease is going to end up killing me, sooner than i care to think about....(p.s last hba1c was 12.9)


sorry for the mammoth morbid and depresso intro, probably not the best impression ha. i hope i'm not as awful as i seem...! any words of wisdom appreciated.
 
Hi sj. Welcome to the forum.
Sending you big hugs. I was like you with regards to treating my diabetes. Although I am Type 2 I am on insulin. I have now completely changed my diet and better insulin control. Am already seeing the benefits.
Im sure there will others along soon to advise you. This forum has a wealth of information. Happy reading :)
Love Paula
 
Bonjour Sarah Jayne - welcome to the forum :) I'm sure belonging to this forum and the friends that you make here will help you feel a bit more cheerful. There is help available - you just have to ask questions and you will get an answer and this will help you to get your diabetes under control when you get your morale back. Meanwhile try to get back to following what you learnt at DAFNE so you can start coping with your problems :)
 
hya sj,
welcome to the forum,
i have never been in your predicament, but as a type 1 i can totally understand how you feel, it is really hard to stay on the straight and narrow and im sure most of us have felt like saying sod it at some time,i hope we can be of some help to you :D
 
Hi SJ and welcome to the forum! :)

There won't be many type 1's when they were younger that haven't thought ''sod-it'' at some point and let their control slip despite being warned of the severe consequences, the wake-up call comes later in life when faced with the situation you have today.

As you have already completed the DAFNE course,try reading through the course material again and get your control back on track, if necessary speak with your DSN should you have any issues and feel free to post any questions or concerns you may have in the type 1 section of the forum. Good luck!

Nigel
 
Hi sssjay.
Welcome to the Forum. Have a good look around. I am sure you will get plenty of support and advice here especially in the Type 1 area. I am sure there are others who have had the same experience and thought......'What's the point !' :(

Don't give in to it, keep fighting and with the help of the good people on here I hope you get back to more positive thinking and good results. I wish you well on the journey. :D
 
hey
i'm sure you will manage it soon, it may just take take time. just get the basics right first. eat regular meals, a good breakfast, lunch and dinner, i'm sure you would want to eat that anyway. then you may need a small mid morning and mid afternoon snack to keep your levels from dropping too low. not much though, probably just a plane biscuit or small piece or fruit.you may need a snack before bed to prevent going low at night. remember there are no right and wrong foods, just eat healthy! eat brown foods rather than white eg brown bread, pasta ect i am currently eating, a good amount of carbs so i can take a fair amount of units with meals to maintain/gain a bit more weight, plenty of veggies and fruit-at least 5 a day, my portions of calcuim with low fat cheese and semi skimmed milk, fair amount of protein and enough fat-not too much.

once you got the basics its time to carb count. this is very important to get good levels, you wont get good levels without it. all you need to do it work out how many carbs you can eat with one unit. its a lot about trial and error, you must be patient. it can vary between different times of the day too. i have a different ratio for breakfast, lunch and dinner. i dont have massive snacks in between so i dont unit in between.

maybe you could ask your nurse for a starting ratio, try it out- it it works keep it, if it goes low lower the ratio a little, if its high reduce the ratio a little, if it still doesnt work tweak it again. tweak one meal at a time. pick a ratio that roughly works, first tweak breakfast till you get it in your target range, then do lunch and then dinner. you can get plenty of carb counting books too. soon you will get it down to a fine art and then can even bolus for an extra treat without feeling guilty about your levels.

once you have done that if you can start 2 hour after checks to make sure your ratios are spot on, you may be supriced at first because they may not be as good as you think they are. this is because food peaks roughly 2 houes after and that is when you will get your biggest rise. on the other hand they could be fine. now, dont change the ratio strraight away, because it may be the GI of the food that is making you high. GI is the next worry, if you eat refined sugar eg sugar sweets, that will enter you blood quicker than things like porride because porridge has oats. porride should keep your levels stable whereas sweets will make then spike up and down. there are plenty of books on GI values and you will soon get the hang of it, be warned though, GI is only a rough guide and everyone is different. remember cheese and nuts are high fat so can slow your food down, meals high in these can actually cause you to go low and then rise later. nuts are healthy though, they have lots of the 'good' fat and are benefitial. dont think 'oh no my favourite meal is high Gi so i can never eat it again' because that is wrong, if you mix a high GI food with a low GI food it will make your high GI food lower. eg potato is high but if you eat them with baked beans it is a lot lower!

sorry, i know this looks a lot but if you take it step by step you will grasp it in no time! i have only had diabetes for almost 9 months and am now getting really good levels and then got offered the pump. i am now on the pump and am liking it. now you know what you have to do just try it out and you will get really good at it all really soon im sure. i know at the start you feel like you wont ever be able to, but you will! start now, and make it your new years resolution to keep trying, no matter how bad the levels are to start with. i was diagnosed at 13 and am now 14.
good luck
you will be fine :wink:
cr741
 
Back
Top