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Diagnosed Type1

I

Icebat

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
After a whirlwind few days involving a lot of waiting around at the GP and at hospital, and being sent to about 10 different people, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I guessed from the symptoms that it was diabetes, but I was pretty shocked when I was first told type 1 (although I definitely didn't fit the 'typical' type 2 profile in any way, so not entirely shocked.) The process was really confusing and stressful, but I'm glad it was diagnosed quickly in the end! Well, sort of, anyway - it's still more like they strongly suspect it's type 1 and are treating it as such, but aren't completely sure. Is that normal?

To be honest, I feel OK about it... other people seem worried for me, which is making me think "is it alright that I'm feeling fine?", but I think it probably is - I'll take it seriously and do everything I have to do, and as long as I do everything that's in my control there's not much point in worrying about the stuff that isn't. All the injecting and testing and carb counting is a hassle, but it's not that bad, there are worse things I could've been diagnosed with.

I've only had the insulin for three days and it's already starting to feel like routine. And yesterday my results were decent - I only got a high result once, and that was a 9.7 two hours after a smallish amount of pizza (I split my dose, and checked every 30-60 minutes afterwards and was back to normal). I know it's probably the honeymoon period, and partly just luck, but it felt a bit encouraging at least! I'm starting to put some weight back on too, which is good (I lost a stone in a couple of weeks, and my BMI was only 20 to start with so I didn't have much to lose)

The hardest part so far has been dealing with the practicalities. I hadn't been to the doctors since I was 14 (I'm 33 now) - not because I was trying to be macho or anything, I just haven't had anything worse than a cold in my adult life. So I didn't even know the most basic stuff, and I still don't really understand how the prescriptions will work (I've done one now, at least, but presumably I'll get a repeat one, however that works?), and why and when I'll need to see a doctor and all that kind of thing. Plus I'm very, er, socially anxious, so dealing with this kind of thing stresses me out. The diabetes nurse at the hospital was nice and informative about how to treat the disease, but nobody has told me much about the process as a whole and how it'll all work. Still, I belatedly booked a GP appointment for next week, so hopefully I can clear things up then.

I'm also a bit worried about when I go on holiday and stuff, but I guess people must do it all the time without any trouble?

Oh, and my finger tips are starting to get a bit sore, haha.

Anyway, I'm just rambling really. But this forum and site are really great, I'm glad there's such a good resource out there. I've already found it useful so many times, and getting as much information as I could in the few days between my first GP result and the follow-up did help to reassure me. So thanks to everyone involved!
 
Hello @Icebat welcome to the forum

Best advice is take one day at a time, don’t stress about the future and the ‘what if’s’, also listen to your body and try to ignore what other people think, having type 1 for me is living in the present and being knowledgable, I’d recommend reading ‘think like a pancreas’ written by a type 1.

We are all here to support you too, best wishes J
 
Double-checked to see if this was an old post I wrote a year ago or so, but other things in your post don't sound like me or my experience.

If your sugars were very high, and/or you had keto-acidosis, plus you're youngish and thin it makes sense to treat you as a type1.
If you had or will have a C-peptide and anti-GAD test, it might prove what type you have. C-peptide tells you something about how much insulin you produce (too much in type2, at least in the beginning, too little in type1). Anti-GAD will tell you if you have antibodies against your insulin-producing cells. If tested positive you definitely have type1. But there are more types of antibodies that won't show up on this test, so if they're negative you might still be type1.

I didn't have those tests, so I'm still not sure what type I have. I was initially diagnosed with type2, learned fast, found out my treatment didn't work well by testing a lot and swiched to being treated as a type1 whithin 6 weeks from diagnosis. This works fine for me, so I didn't feel the need to get it checked out further, although there are good reasons to try to find out.

You feel OK about it and see diabetes as just a hassle. That's wonderful! Makes life so much easier . I still feel that way, and I'm in over a year, but I do keep a weary eye on my feelings. Diabetes is always there and that might wear me out at some point. I plan to seek help as soon as it gets worse than a hassle an an occasional pain in the, err, fingers.
In the meantime, being a happy, knowledgeable diabetic (person with diabetes if you prefer) is not a bad place to be.
 
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Hi @Icebat ,

Welcome to the forum.

Take it all in bite sized chunks regarding the diabetes, ask any question as you go...

On the subject of presriptions. It is possible to set up a repeat script service online. your surgery will help you set up an account.
You can order online any time & have it sent to your pharmacy ready to collect. (Giving 2 days to process.)
You will also need a medical excemption card due to the nature of your condition & the script repeats.
This exempts you from prescription charges at the chemist. Again, ask at your GP surgery.

Regards.

J>
 
Oh, and you will get used to the practicalities, no worries. As for holidays and such, many posts about this, so read away or ask a question
 
Welcome aboard, @Icebat .

I second juicyj's recommendation of Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner.

Other good books are Sugar Surfing by Stephen Ponder and Beyond Fingersticks by William Lee Dubois.

They're aimed more at understanding cgm - continuous glucose monitoring - a sensor is placed on your arm and sends results to your phone every 5 minutes so you get a continuous graph showing where you've been so it makes it much easier to predict where you might be going, great for "steering" levels before they get too high or low.

Don't know where you are in the world, but in the UK a version called Freestyle Libre is starting to become available on the NHS, although it's a postcode lottery at the moment, it's possible to turn it into cgm by adding a transmitter to it.

Cgm makes an incredible difference to managing what is an inherently unpredictable condition, so I'd encourage you to look into that.

Travel won't be an issue. I've been away backpacking in Eastern Europe and Asia for months on end. You just need to make sure you've got your insulin and meter safe, and a ready supply of sweets for hypos. I'd ca' canny in the first few months, though: you probably don't want to be having your first bad hypo on unfamiliar ground.

One thing to watch out for in the first year or so is that many people launch into learning about it in a stoical, practical way, reckon they've got it sussed, then the reality of it hits home after getting some unpredicted highs or lows and then they become disillusioned.

It all seems so easy to begin with - 1 unit of insulin for each 10 grams of carbohydrate or whatever - but sometimes the arithmetic just doesn't work and newly dx'd can end up going through a phase of thinking what's the point.

There's no easy answer to that. The explanation is that as soon as you inject insulin and eat food, they're both subject to lots of bodily processes which you can't measure and which will tend to unbalance things. It doesn't mean you've failed if you get unexpected results, just that your body has thrown a wobbly. Using cgm and the adjustment tips set out in the books I mentioned above, there's some fairly sophisticated ways of mitigating those situations before anything nasty happens.

It can seem totally surreal to start with, but it's do-able.
 
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Hi
That is a positive post. We have just found out our youngest son is T1D, so I am finding out all I can
 
John boy 2 said:
Hi
That is a positive post. We have just found out our youngest son is T1D, so I am finding out all I can
Click to expand...

Hi @John boy 2 ,

Welcome to the forum.

Feel free to ask any questions.
Your also very welcome to start your own thread if you wish..
 
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