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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grant_Vicat" data-source="post: 1716424" data-attributes="member: 388932">Hi [USER=404060]@Gaz77[/USER] I utterly sympathise with the rant and admire you for helping yourself in this way. As the forum shows there are several kinds of diabetes and even within each type, no two people will fare identically. I personally never had any treatment for Type 1 (1959 - 2013) other than a fast acting insulin mixed with a slow and a fixed carbohydrate diet (at least from 1966) of 245 grams a day. However, many treatments are now suggested. What I will say is that the key aim is balanced control. After blood glucose meters were brought in in the late 1970s, it was possible to monitor how the body reacted to illness, stress or any other adrenalised situation, but particularly to carbohydrates and insulin doses. If my blood sugar ran too high for long, I would suffer from a runny nose, diarrhoea, vomiting, dry skin, irritability, lethargy, blurred vision, ketosis, nausea, excessive urination and of course thirst. Many of these symptoms, if left unchecked, can cause complications. I started passing proteins in urine in 1973, had retinopathy which was operated on from 1979 -1983 and Charcot foot from 2013. In theory, according to a Staff Nurse, who looked after me from 1978-1983 in King's College Hospital, I was not expected to survive much longer. She told me this at a wedding at which I was singing in 2005! The reason I survived against expectations was because of tight control from 1983 onwards. On many occasions my 3 month average blood sugar reading (HbA1C) was 6.4 which is not far of a non-diabetic's. There is a tendency to panic when readings of above 7.0 occur, since that is what most diabetologists tell patients to aim for, but in any person, after eating carbohydrates, their blood sugar will go up to about 10.0 and then come down once their own insulin has been involved. I presume you are under professional care and that the diabetic clinic have put you on at least one type of insulin. What diet have they suggested? DAFNE (Dose Adjusted For Normal Eating), or what? They should be able to help you get somewhere approaching balanced, since this is crucial. Once that is in place, many diabetics fend off serious complications for years. I certainly slowed down kidney disease, only requiring a transplant (pancreas at the same time) in 2013. I felt so much better most of the time from 1983 onwards, but would only feel really unwell if my BS readings were affected by illness or shock (Bank letter, car accident, public speech etc.) or I had gout and cellulitis due to very poor kidney function in the final 3 years. If you don't get satisfactory support from your team, this forum is outstanding, although like most, I am not medically qualified and can only tell it as I knew it. Some things remain constant, regardless of fashion in treatments. I hope you succeed and begin to enjoy life.</blockquote>

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