Grateful for some or any advice -newbie

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Cmg27

Member
Messages
6
Hi all,

I literally have just joined the forum in hope of some help/guidance or even support if anyone has any!!

I am currently around 12/13 wks pregnant and have really high blood sugar levels. My consultant thinks I have type one diabetes unrelated to pregnancy due to noone in my family having diabetes and I am only 27 years of age. He also told me that it is far to early for gestational diabetes to set it. I am currently taking insulin 4 times a day and even with trying to stick to low carb diet the levels arent coming down.

In short I am worried sick as none of the consultants will give me a straight answer as to whether this baby is going to be ok..
All i can read is horror stories online about horrendous labour and all the complications that can arise. Even the fact that the baby could be abnormally bigger - which might I add i wouldnt care as long as they arrive safely.

Has anyone had a similar experience??

I would really be grateful for any advice and thank you for even taking the time to read this.

:) :)
 
H

hels

Well-Known Member
Messages
311
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Cmg27 said:
Hi all,

I literally have just joined the forum in hope of some help/guidance or even support if anyone has any!!

I am currently around 12/13 wks pregnant and have really high blood sugar levels. My consultant thinks I have type one diabetes unrelated to pregnancy due to noone in my family having diabetes and I am only 27 years of age. He also told me that it is far to early for gestational diabetes to set it. I am currently taking insulin 4 times a day and even with trying to stick to low carb diet the levels arent coming down.

In short I am worried sick as none of the consultants will give me a straight answer as to whether this baby is going to be ok..
All i can read is horror stories online about horrendous labour and all the complications that can arise. Even the fact that the baby could be abnormally bigger - which might I add i wouldnt care as long as they arrive safely.

Has anyone had a similar experience??

I would really be grateful for any advice and thank you for even taking the time to read this.

:) :)
Click to expand...

Hi,

I was diagnosed as type 1 during pregnancy at 29 weeks. I reckon I must have been running high sugars for several weeks before this as I had contacted my GP with concerns due to extreme thirst but they didn't do anything at the time It can take a while to get your blood sugars down. I found breakfast the hardest to get right, any cereal or toast would send my sugars high so i stuck to omelettes. During pregnancy I just stuck to the foods that didn't spike me.

If your levels aren't coming down keep onto your diabetes team. Mine were really good and quite happy to take calls from me and go through my numbers and help me adjust my doses. It's a shock to the system and a lot to take in so on't worry about keep going back to them for advice and guidance, that's what they are there for.

Once diagnosed I had regular scans (about every 2 weeks). He measured ahead slightly but never out of the 'normal' range. At one point my amniotic fluid was out of the normal range but came back into normal. When he was born he was 7lb.

I was induced at 38 weeks. I was actually brought in slightly earlier than planned as I started having hypos. The birth was fine. It felt very medicalised as i had drips in both hands, monitors strapped to me and therefore didn't have much mobility but once I got my head around that that's how it was and that I wouldn't be bouncing around on a birth ball it was ok. I had an epidural and he came out no problems.

His blood sugars did drop a bit low after birth but improved with lots of feeding. He is now 4 months old and doing well. There was guesswork as to what my insulin requirements would be after the birth. I appear to be in the honeymoon period where I am on low doses but I think that is starting to creep up.

I'd advice hassling your diabetes team (make sure it's diabetes specialists you are speaking to) and concentrate on getting your blood sugars down.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask either here or by private message.

Try not to worry and good luck with your pregnancy.

Xxx








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C

Cmg27

Member
Messages
6
Thank you so much for replying.

As silly as it may sound its a bit more comforting to speak to someone who has been through all this.

My diabetic team seem to be a good help and are planning to send me on a carb counting course? The problem is that there is a year waiting list which will not be much help as I hope to know a bit more by then!!!

Sorry if I sound like an attention seeking weirdo, I literally didnt know were else to turn to seek advice. Dont get me wrong I have a huge amount of family/partner support, just none of them know what they are talking about if that makes sense..

I have never been so worried in my life!

I really sincerely appreciate you taking the time to reply xo
 
H

hels

Well-Known Member
Messages
311
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
No problem. I remember all too well how overwhelming it is to be told you are type 1 and getting to grips with different insulin doses and target blood sugar levels.

I haven't been on a carb counting course but quickly worked out the effect different foods had on my blood sugars. Most of the time I stuck to set insulin doses with my meals and limited my carb intake ( and stuck to a pretty boring diet). As I got a bit more confident I sometimes adjusted my insulin dose if I was having more carbs (I was pregnant over Xmas & New Year and had various meals out to deal with). My partner did hassle me a bit as he was concerned that I should eat more carbs for the baby.

The other thing I did was test, test, test.

I read a lot and I'd manage to scare myself about the birth. I was convinced that being induced early would inevitably lead to an emergency Caesarian - as I said before the birth was fine. It's good to do one research and understand what you are dealing with but sometimes you need to step away from google!


Xxx


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michaeldavid

Well-Known Member
Messages
387
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
not thinking
I would definitely endorse the recommendation to test, test, test. (I use Betachek Visual for this a lot - 15-20 times per day; and you'll find quite a few postings of mine on this website relating to them.)

Moreover, if heis's recommendation was helpful to you, then I believe the following may be helpful too.

Throughout the whole of the morning, and (less so) into mid-afternoon (until 4.00pm), I mostly eat only one thing: rye bread - with Biona Pear & Apple Spread. (The pear and apple spread in optional, but it's pure fruit with no added sugar; and it's delicious.)

I eat practically nothing else but rye bread in the morning, and I start off eating it slowly, building up as the insulin I take increases its effect. (You can see what insulin I take if you click on my name.)

I eat a little under 200g of rye bread per day. (I might also have a cheese sandwich at lunchtime, with regular wholemeal wheat bread, and a bowl of muesli - with milk, or with fruit juice. I'll have a bit of cake in the afternoon; and I'll cook an evening meal; and I'll eat further, quickly digested things later in the evening.)

And that near-200g of rye bread is the closest I ever come to bloody carb counting. I don't need to bother with that, so long as I keep testing. For the rye bread has a tremendous moderating effect on my blood-sugar level.

I appreciate that things will be different for you. You're not me; and you're pregnant. But surely you would have nothing to lose by trying.

Be careful, however, not to eat too much rye. For it's slowly digested, and your blood-sugar will rise in the evening if you do eat too much. (For the same kind of effect, spelt bread is pretty good too.)

My blood-sugar is usually near normal all day. I only very rarely have a serious hypo - I'd need to be seriously distracted for that to happen.

Throughout most of the morning, I tend to have regular low blood-sugar readings. But this is not a problem, due to the moderating effect of the rye bread.

I'm certainly not recommending that you let your blood-sugar keep as low as I tend to keep mine. (I tested my blood-sugar at 11.00 this evening - it was 4mmol/l; and for me, near bed-time, that's ideal. The insulin I took during the day has run its course, and I know I can go to bed safely.)* But the point I'm making is that I couldn't possibly maintain this level of control safely without the rye bread.

If I've been eating rye, then I know my blood-sugar will not CRASH.

The visually read testing strips, mentioned above, are fairly accurate for anything under 7 or 8mmol/l; and they're very accurate for low blood-sugar readings. (If my blood-sugar is below 4, moreover, they'll give me a result within 45 seconds; otherwise, it takes one minute.) And of course, I also use the meter-read strips - especially last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

* All this 'basal/bolus' stuff is completely alien to my own diabetic management, which is wholly unorthodox.
 
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Hellbunny

Well-Known Member
Messages
240
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi, I was also diagnosed with type 1 in pregnancy, though they originally diagnosed me with GD as it only cropped up in second trimester. I now have a very lively 3 year old! I'm on my 3rd baby now, my second baby was fine too. I'm now expecting number 3, had lots of highs this time so worried also, I've got a growth scan next week when I will be 28 weeks.
All you can do is try your best, diabetes is a lot to get your head around, and type 1 and pregnancy is reaaaally reaaaally difficult, the hormones play havoc with insulin requirements so you may find just as your insulin seems right, you need to vamp it up the week after (usually this starts in second/third tri)

Sorry for the waffle, but it's nice knowing there are others who were given the shock diagnosis in pregnancy, if that makes sense. Just stay positive, and do your best, that's all you can do xxx

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