Hbac1 advice

[localshop]

Hi there. I think you are going to Dafne right?
1 Your hba1c at such an early stage won't have longer term impact as complications take longer to develop. You might feel rubbish though and you are spending time worrying about it so that is not good.
2 As type 1s we are sold a myth IMO that it is possible to eat as many carbs as you like, as long as you calculate the doses right. In reality there are estimated to be 150 variables that go into a blood sugar result NOT just carbs injested although that's obviously a biggie. So I try to do the best I can and eat low carb for health and weight management plus I am too lazy to do what I was told on Dafne and weight out foods then do the sums to calculate an insulin dose 20 minutes ahead of a meal.
In summary i think this approach works if you live a very consistent kind of life in which activities and meals are highly regularised. I don't live like that so I have to accept a bit more variability in my blood sugars but that's my choice. You will have to work out this one but at least Dafne will give you tools.
You should not feel guilty about the failure to keep to that initial HBA1c. You are learning about all of this and it will get easier. Here's a couple of resources I've found helpful:
https://brightspotsandlandmines.org/ Adam Brown is a type 1 and this book is 'what I wish someone had given me when I was first diagnosed'
https://www.dietdoctor.com/video/podcast#37 This is about low carb however I enjoyed it because he seems to get just how stressful type 1 is . I sent it to my husband when he told me that all I needed to do was test more!

Anyway, I believe you will get a lot from Dafne because everyone there will get it and share your frustrations. I am still going to the pub with the people I met there 12 + years ago!

Thanks - I've just ordered the Adam Brown book

 

[Mad76]

Thanks - I've just ordered the Adam Brown book

Me too. Only £1.49 on kindle !

 

[KK123]

My regime is as follows

In the morning I take novorapid. And it takes AGES to work. About 45mins later I have a couple of cups of tea plus 2 brown toast with butter

Lunch again novorapid about 30 mins before. Can be anything . Today it was spag bol and half an orange

Afternoon tea and usually a bit of cake or a biscuit . Novorapid

Dinner as I said north african food . Or Asian. With nan / crusty bread usually

Lantus at bed time

This is me now. Following advice from consultant that I can eat what I want .
Seeing it written down makes me think it's time to reduce those carbs.

Insulin ratio. Like I said . Mainly guestimate. But for example 4 units novorapid covers my toast and tea at breakfast.

Hi there, well your Consultant is correct but that can make it hard to keep your levels stable and your h1bac at a level you are happy with. I love crusty bread/Na'ans/spag bol and so on as well but I do find it tricky to take the right amount of insulin with them even though I know my ratios. I know if I ate them often, I would struggle overall. I don't know the answer because I'm not sure it's possible to freely 'eat what you want' as well as get stable glucose levels all the time. Your Consultant probably has no idea what it means to live with up & down glucose so it's easy for him to say! I hope you don't mind me asking but are you prepared to look more closely at what you eat or just try to 'guess' your insulin requirements which seems to be making you anxious? x

 

[Mad76]

Hi there, well your Consultant is correct but that can make it hard to keep your levels stable and your h1bac at a level you are happy with. I love crusty bread/Na'ans/spag bol and so on as well but I do find it tricky to take the right amount of insulin with them even though I know my ratios. I know if I ate them often, I would struggle overall. I don't know the answer because I'm not sure it's possible to freely 'eat what you want' as well as get stable glucose levels all the time. Your Consultant probably has no idea what it means to live with up & down glucose so it's easy for him to say! I hope you don't mind me asking but are you prepared to look more closely at what you eat or just try to 'guess' your insulin requirements which seems to be making you anxious? x

Of course I dont mind you asking..I really appreciate all the input and advice I'm getting here.

I'm thinking my plan for now is that I'm going to have to change the way I eat. I'm going to reduce my carbs. But tbh not go full low carb or anything like that. It's got to be something I can sustain long term.

Also I know guestimating carbs ratios isnt ideal either. Hoping I'll get that sorted on the dafne course. Though that's still months away.

 

[KK123]

Of course I dont mind you asking..I really appreciate all the input and advice I'm getting here.

I'm thinking my plan for now is that I'm going to have to change the way I eat. I'm going to reduce my carbs. But tbh not go full low carb or anything like that. It's got to be something I can sustain long term.

Also I know guestimating carbs ratios isnt ideal either. Hoping I'll get that sorted on the dafne course. Though that's still months away.

That's good Mad76. At the start, what I did was to eat food where it was easy to calculate the carb count, ie, your toast (it'll be on the packet). So if your slice of toast is 20 carbs, I take 2 units of insulin (if my ratio is 1 unit to 10 carbs) and see what my level is 2 hours after eating it. Same with many other foods, see how many carbs are in 100g and then multiply that number by how many grams of the food you are eating. Keep on like that and you will build up experience in carb counting & insulin dosage pretty quickly. The results of your testing after food will show you whether you got it 'right'. I think there is an online course as well. x