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Hello

andysmum

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. My name is Debbie and I'm Andy's mum

Andrew is 20 with complex needs . He's been ill since he was a baby and the main chronic health issue has been his kidneys. After an acute illness 8 weeks ago involving 10 days in ICU and the following 6 weeks in hospital (still an inpatient now) we are preparing for surgery to have his fistula made to commence dialysis .

The most bizarre thing to come from the tests during this recent stay are his blood sugars which we have never been told have been a problem (however during his illness as a baby in the acute stage his pancreas was affected and he had a spell on peritoneal dialysis where insulin was added to the fluids used)

Andrew is really confusing the three consultants and not fitting to T1 or T2. He cannot have Metformin which they say would be there usual treatment due to his kidney failure. He is currently having Levemir & Novarapid and this week was supplied with a Dexcom 4 Platinium for CGM .

This is a whole new world to us as we have spent the past 20 years with a host of other medical problems which we have learned about

I've joined to try and learn as much as I can about diabetes and look forward to chatting with you all.
 
Welcome Debbie

There are several kinds of diabetes - the most common is T2 at about 90% of diabetics, then most of the rest are T1 or a number of other types such as Late Onset Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) or T1.5, Mature Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY), Monogenic, T3, T3b and so on. Hopefully the consultants can narrow down which type he has but in the meantime treating him with insulin as a T1 or T1.5 is probably best.

Anyway, I'm glad you have joined and I hope you will find helpful information and support here. I'm sure we can learn from you too.
 
Hi and welcome. It must have been so difficult over the years for both of you. I'm slightly surprised that metformin was even considered as it doesn't have a great effect but helps a bit if overweight and you can't have a low-carb diet for other reasons. The insulin regime should hopefully work well and the good thing about insuln is that it has few side effects. It almost doesn't matter what sort of diabetes he has as long as the insulin keeps his blood suagr under control?
 
Thanks for the welcome . Andrew is only 46kgs so very slim for his age . The consultants seem to be tweaking his insulin doses daily as still getting up to 15-19 by bed time and then plummets overnight , at times hypo but thankfully not for the past week .
Andrew does not eat food , having the same amounts of liquid feed at exactly the same times daily . The renal dietician has provided the diabetic consultants with the nutritional information of the liquid feed.
It's just another thing on the growing list of health problems . Diabetic consultant says once we start dialysis we will have 2 regimes ... Alternating when its dialysis day and when it isn't .
So much to take on board at the minute that my head is spinning
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. Im sure you wiĺl find it a great source of support and information. You certainly have a lot on your plate, if you have any questions just ask.
 
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