- Messages
- 419
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
Hi there, I was diagnosed at 22 and am now 25.
I'm a clever guy (degrees in maths and engineering) and have always had good control - HbA1c always below 7. But to achieve this I'm constantly making what I think are major changes to my insulin ratios.
It's been like this since the beginning, and it's all I've known. So I assumed it was normal. When I mentioned it to my doctors they never said anything meaningful about it. So I assumed it was nothing special.
But now that I'm recovering from a complete breakdown, and reading more and more, I'm starting to get the impression that what I go through is highly unusual. Everyone says "type 1 diabetes is a roller coaster" - but is mine worse than most?
I get the impression that a lot of type 1s determine a carb:insulin ratio for each mealtime, and how much to adjust for given amounts of exercise, and the regimen works pretty well for quite a while (months or years?). Sure, things might become unstable in periods of stress, and you get "bad days" but typically when it's over everything goes back to "normal".
For me, there's never been a normal. Let's look at an example: I'd have 120g carbs for breakfast, and one week I'd be needing 13 units of Rapid to have a good pre-lunch reading, the next week I'd only need 7 (lots of hypos and changing my insulin:carb ratios in between). Typically all my meal ratios and long-acting dosage would go down or up together, but not necessarily the same amount. Lantus (long acting) would float between 12 and 19 units. The changes would sometimes be sudden, over 2-3 days, or gradual, over weeks. My ratios would almost never stay the same for more than a month.
In the last two or so months, I've been taking roughly 1 unit of rapid for 10g carbs, all meals. (It crept up and down a bit over that time, but the same ratio worked for all meals.) Then, a change happened essentially overnight: I started needing 1 unit of rapid for 6g carbs at breakfast, and 1 unit rapid for 16g carbs for lunch and dinner. This lasted about 5 days and then I was back to 1:10 ratios again. No major changes I can identify - same diet, same level of exercise.
So tell me, is this something most type 1s go through, or is it unusual? I'm trying to build up the courage to discuss this with the endo next week, and I'd like to have a better idea of how unusual my situation is.
Thanks!
I'm a clever guy (degrees in maths and engineering) and have always had good control - HbA1c always below 7. But to achieve this I'm constantly making what I think are major changes to my insulin ratios.
It's been like this since the beginning, and it's all I've known. So I assumed it was normal. When I mentioned it to my doctors they never said anything meaningful about it. So I assumed it was nothing special.
But now that I'm recovering from a complete breakdown, and reading more and more, I'm starting to get the impression that what I go through is highly unusual. Everyone says "type 1 diabetes is a roller coaster" - but is mine worse than most?
I get the impression that a lot of type 1s determine a carb:insulin ratio for each mealtime, and how much to adjust for given amounts of exercise, and the regimen works pretty well for quite a while (months or years?). Sure, things might become unstable in periods of stress, and you get "bad days" but typically when it's over everything goes back to "normal".
For me, there's never been a normal. Let's look at an example: I'd have 120g carbs for breakfast, and one week I'd be needing 13 units of Rapid to have a good pre-lunch reading, the next week I'd only need 7 (lots of hypos and changing my insulin:carb ratios in between). Typically all my meal ratios and long-acting dosage would go down or up together, but not necessarily the same amount. Lantus (long acting) would float between 12 and 19 units. The changes would sometimes be sudden, over 2-3 days, or gradual, over weeks. My ratios would almost never stay the same for more than a month.
In the last two or so months, I've been taking roughly 1 unit of rapid for 10g carbs, all meals. (It crept up and down a bit over that time, but the same ratio worked for all meals.) Then, a change happened essentially overnight: I started needing 1 unit of rapid for 6g carbs at breakfast, and 1 unit rapid for 16g carbs for lunch and dinner. This lasted about 5 days and then I was back to 1:10 ratios again. No major changes I can identify - same diet, same level of exercise.
So tell me, is this something most type 1s go through, or is it unusual? I'm trying to build up the courage to discuss this with the endo next week, and I'd like to have a better idea of how unusual my situation is.
Thanks!