Diagnosed on the 8th October with type 3c Diabetes.

[conanthewarrior]

Hello everyone, I went to a detox unit to detox from alcohol and during the initial health check they did a finger prick test for blood sugar and ketones, and my blood sugar was 26 and my ketones 4.1.

I only spent one night at the detox clinic before being taken to a nearby hospital as they suspected DKA. Luckily it wasn't DKA but I still spent a week on an IV insulin pump/sliding scale until my blood sugar was in a normal range and my ketones were under 0.6.

My diabetes was caused by my alcoholism, I have had pancreatitis 7 times and unfortunately this has damaged my pancreas so much it can no longer produce insulin. I am only 34 years of age.

Luckily the hospital kept me on the chlordiazepoxide so I could detox safely whilst in there.

I am now alcohol free and the diabetes has shocked me enough that I no longer even think about alcohol.

I am on novorapid 3 times a day before meals (4 units before breakfast, 6 at lunch times and 4 with my evening meal) and Lantus before bed (14 units) and have been prescribed the freestyle libre 2 plus sensors to monitor my blood glucose. I always have a spike from around 7 MMOL to 20 after breakfast and around 15 after lunch.

The diabetes nurses have been in contact with me and I have linked the Libre sensor so they can see my glucose levels on their end remotely.

I was quite shocked I had diabetes- I may have had it for nearly a year as my last bout of pancreatitis in January the ambulance crew checked my blood sugar and it was 18, they asked if I was diabetic so I said no, they said it may be due to the alcohol then and it wasn't followed up whilst I was in hospital.
On the 8th October they did a specific blood test that could check back up to 3 months if my blood sugar had been high and it was, so I was diagnosed as type 3C diabetic. I didn't even know that a type 3 diabetes existed until my diagnosis.

I just want to speak to fellow people who have diabetes, and try to learn as much as I can to keep myself healthy as around 2 weeks before my diagnosis I attended a friends funeral and a diabetic schoolfriend I hadn't seen for a while was wearing a medical boot and I asked him why, he had to have his toes amputated due to his diabetes and this is something I am very frightened of.

I hope to make some friends here and get used to living with diabetes, also doing my insulin injections so it becomes second nature.

 

[Honeyblossom]

Hi there, welcome to the forum. I take my hat off to you for all the hard work you are putting into learning about your diabetes and other health issues. It was a shock to me also when I was diagnosed (as it is to many however we got there) but it is a massive learning curve and good reason to evaluate your health. I now feel I have a much healthier lifestyle all round. There is a lot of information on here to get stuck into bearing in mind with insulin you need to keep an eye on your diet you are not dropping too low. You have a libre which is a great help and a good diabetes team from what you have said.
All the best!

 

[HSSS]

Having had someone very close to me go through very similar I just wanted to say well done indeed for seeking help and getting and staying sober. Whilst the diabetes is obviously a big shock please don’t neglect your self care in your recovery as you navigate this new hurdle. And both hurdles, no matter how big they feel right now, can be managed successfully with good support, a little experience and some knowledge.

As a type 2 myself some of the challenges will differ to yours but educating yourself is a great first step and there are some very knowledge insulin production challenged people here (type 1 is similar in management 3c even if the cause is different). It’ll take a minute to get your doses adjusted to suit your chosen diet but you’ll get there with the help of your nurse and the people in here

 

[conanthewarrior]

Thank you for your kind replies!

My insulin has been adjusted slightly, mainly thanks to the Libre where my diabetes nurses can see my graph on their end it helps with the adjustments.
I am on a bit more novorapid before breakfast and with my evening meals now, this seems to help. My lantus has stayed the same at 14 units.
I am 80% in range now, although my alarm went off around 4:30 this morning which was a mild hypo, so had 4 jelly babies.

@HSSS , the diabetes nurses explained to me what you said, that type 3C is treated the same way as type 1, which is why the often get confused. I got a letter from the hospital and they even said in it "My recent diagnosis with type 1 diabetes", so even the medical field must get them confused or use the terms interchangeably.