Diabetes. It never stops.

Meghalton said:

I just want perfect results and cant achieve them!!

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Don't beat yourself up, very very few T1's will get perfect graphs, I've long since given up on that idea, I just have to do as well as I can, and accept that I will never get that perfect line

Hi @Meghalton ,

Don't condemn yerself yet.. Sometimes it can get like nailing jelly to a wall.

I'll tag in @Diakat , who is vegitarian. She may have some ideas to soften the BG spike impact diet wise.

Hi @Meghalton

Are you sure your not putting yourself under a bit too much pressure here ? Obviously NICE has guidelines for women wishing to concieve however they are just guidelines, it's best to speak to your DSN to discuss your plans with them as they will help you if required. Also curious to ask what's your HbA1c like ?

Does your diabetes clinic have a clinic for women wanting to get pregnant? I have just moved hospitals but my old one had a 'pre-conception clinic' and my new one has a 'well women's clinic', it says on the website
Pre-conception advice from Consultant Diabetologist, Obstetrician, dietician and diabetes nurse specialist.
I'm sure most hospitals have something similar, it might be worth asking about.

Hi @Meghalton I'm a vegan and type 1 and have very good control. But with each device I got, I got better control.

Before any devices I still had decent control, but I was a lot more haphazard about dosing. Not being that accurate always about what I was doing? But I hovered around 50. With the Libre and the ability to see my numbers I dropped. And then when I added a pump I dropped a little more. And then with a Dexcom I dropped a lot more because of the alerts.

So first I would say try to get a Libre so you can tell what is actually going on more. If you can't qualify, you might consider self funding like people do and adding a Miao Miao to it to change it to a complete CGM with alerts. People have described a meter to a snapshot and a CGM to a movie and I think that is a really good description.

But my control seems to be a matter of timing. I take half my dose a half hour before I eat for most things and the rest when I eat. But because I have a CGM I can also tell how I am responding. I have really tight controls on myself right now, so if I go outside my ranges I can respond before I am actually out of my range. I am retired now though so that helps a lot too. But what's beneficial is to see what I am going up to and easily because of a pump make any adjustments that are needed.

For me I eat what I want, although I'm not usually a huge eater. But if I want 75 carbs at a meal, I eat 75 carbs. I just had dumplings (veg/tofu pockets), green beans, fruit and a piece of chocolate for lunch. I started at a nice 4.8 level. 30 minutes before I ate I dosed for 50 carbs, 25 to be given now and 25 when I ate. Then I dosed for the chocolate (12 carbs) when I ate the chocolate because that in experience has always worked for my chocolate.

There are some quicker carbs I will dose for in a shorter period of time and some foods if high carbs I might spread out over 30 minute increments. Same with higher fat items.

But a Libre would be the best thing I could recommend and then starting to keep track of the time it takes for your common foods to hit so you can fine tune your dosing times. I do set a timer so I don't forget to eat if I am going to be busy with something else.

Meghalton said:

I'm vegan. I mainly eat carbs, veg, soya etc. I count carbs to work out my insulin. It's so hard working out carbs in a meal though. I just want perfect results and cant achieve them!!

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You have to know that when your emotions swing over something that’s not going right, that your blood sugar will swing too. Keep it calm, and just do your best. Understand that’s the best we can do, and that we aren’t perfect.

One of the best things that we can do is learn from our mistakes. If we make enough of them, hopefully we can gain experience that we might get closer to perfect (I’m serious with this idea- I’ve been pretty good at making mistakes just so I can learn from them...)

Hi @Meghalton
Let’s think about this. Is your basal right? Because that’ll be the foundation for all the rest.
You say carb counting a meal is hard. I’m guessing you’ve done carb counting courses to have had pumps, so know about how to approach it?
You probably also know that Lentils and pulses can have odd effects on sugars so for me I only need half the insulin for lentils, or I crash later.
What was your last a1c? It may not be as bad as you think. Medics like a perfect number, no one is perfect.

I agree with Diakat, do some basal testing first to make sure your foundations are solid then reevaluate your bolus ratios. You don't specifically mention using a CGM type device so if you're not using one I urge you to do so. I'd also suggest you 'scientifically' (IE weigh all ingredients) work out the actually carbs in some of your most popular meals.

Also do you have any hypos at all?