Hey all, going through a difficult time

[asortafairytale]

Right yes we def have contacts in Scotland (our director @jacqfromdwed is herself from Scotland). I need to speak with her but will be in touch again sooner than last time promise.

 

[kaylz91]

Right yes we def have contacts in Scotland (our director @jacqfromdwed is herself from Scotland). I need to speak with her but will be in touch again sooner than last time promise.

Ok fantastic thank you! x

 

[kaylz91]

Btw I saw the consultant, I had a list and gave him it, he wasn't very helpful to be honest, just skipped most of the stuff, told me to relax, checked my file on the comp, still no appointment coming up with the psychology department , he sorted out a Libre trial for me though and I go to the DSN to get the sensor applied on the 3rd October x

 

[jacqfromdwed]

Hi there, this is actually a lot more common than you might think and you are doing the right thing now by trying to nip it in the bud. It appears, that the main sense of anxiety here is the blood sugar aspect which has now directly affected your weight and has pushed it to the place that people are concerned. What you need to decide is does your weight play any part in this. Is there any part of you that is psyhologically gratified by having a low weight. If the answer to this is no, then there are a load of things you can do to increase weight such as adding creams and fats to your diet which will be completely negligible to your blood sugar and a dietician should be able to help with this . The good news is that phobias and specific anxieties respond really really well to the behaviouraol therapies. It maybe that while you are waiting for your appointment you could try some online resources or therapy? Some of the online stuff is quite good. Also if you have a low Hba1c you should be a priority under NICE guidelines as you are at higher risk.

 

[Member34835]

Hi. So sorry to hear your story. You are not alone with this I had a similar issue and it is very common for young diabetics to get anxious about food/insulin. I was amazed to hear that 60% of tupe 1s under age 25 have an eating disorder of some kind. I hooe you can find someone to help you feel safe around food and its brave to admit you have a problem so kudos to you. Please see bbc i player re diabulimia which features the Dwed charity mentioned above xx

 

[kaylz91]

@jacqfromdwed thank you for your comment, I'm just a little worried to add more fats in case it delays the carbs etc, I have an appointment with the dietician on the 17th October, also they re did my Hba1c last week and it was at 34 x

 

[jacqfromdwed]

@jacqfromdwed thank you for your comment, I'm just a little worried to add more fats in case it delays the carbs etc, I have an appointment with the dietician on the 17th October, also they re did my Hba1c last week and it was at 34 x

I was thinking actually that perhaps they could give you a CGM for a while so you could actually see what effects fats have on your carb counting, there is a wider issue here that may come into play as CGMs can become very addictive and may not help if your already obsessing. Might be worth a thought.

 

[kaylz91]

I was thinking actually that perhaps they could give you a CGM for a while so you could actually see what effects fats have on your carb counting, there is a wider issue here that may come into play as CGMs can become very addictive and may not help if your already obsessing. Might be worth a thought.

As I mentioned earlier I am getting a 2 week trial on the libre, getting that on Tuesday but I have so much else going on at the moment I feel I might not benefit properly from it, the DMO is back in my eyes, had another injection on Wednesday and hopefully the other eye is being done next week x

 

[Louise2016]

I suffered with eating problems myself after diagnosis, I had counselling which helped although for me it turned out I had a rare condition called Addison's disease undiagnosed too which was causing a lot of the anxiety. I'm not suggesting you have that jut explaining I was complicated lol. Try you're best to limit the hypos as the adrenaline you produce increases the stress. Don't worry about what foods you're eating at this stage, go for things you like most and try several smaller meals a day which puts less stress on the "main" meal. That will mean some advice from your nurses on the insulin. There are also many options for hypo cures from glucose tablets, fruit juice or jelly babies to name just a few, I find when anxious a liquid is easier. Where possible don't keep weighing yourself or counting the daily carbs just try your best. You can do this. It's all new and scary but you're not alone.

Wondering if anyone can lend some support and or point me in the right direction, I was diagnosed in November last year but now I've kind of developed a fear of food and am scared to eat too much, at 5ft 5 my weight has now become incredibly low at xxg and my BMI is obviously underweight and scoring xx. I only eat around just over xg carbs a day and the DSN/ Dietician/ Nurses etc all want me to increase this dramatically before something terrible happens but the fear is so huge of my bs going haywire that its not just a case of eat more as I cant, my Hba1c is incredibly low at below level as of the other week, my DSN has referred me to the psychology department but I received a letter saying there was a waiting list and I may not receive the help for a while, I have an appointment with my consultant in 3 weeks time that my DSN and consultant agreed to bring forward due to the things going on as I wasn't due to see him until the end of the year/ start of next year, anyway any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance x

@kaylz91 Firstly, let me say that I'm not T1, so con't comment on your drugs regime at all, however, I can empathise with your nerves about making changes without too much certainty of what the impacts might be.

In terms of a CGM/Libre; have you considered asking your nurse or Consultant if you could have a trial of something; probably the Libre?

Utilising the Libre gives you so much more feedback than finger prick testing ever can, and could be very useful in bolstering your confidence in what you are or aren't doing.

Aside from being terminally curious, I firstly tried the Libre to garner some insight into those times when er simply can't be pricking our fingers. I wanted to know that I wasn't going off-track, over time.

If you were using one, you could experiment with your eating regimes and be able to see exactly what the impact of upping your fats/proteins, in real time.

After surgery, almost 2 years ago now, I lost weight, from a starting point of xxkg (BMI xx), and like you I really needed to add it back, but was worried about increasing my intake too much. It's not a load of fun eating more than we want to, but having to accept it as a daily/weekly task just to be done. However, using the Libre, I could see there was nothing too scary going on in the background.

It took me a couple of months to regain the couple of kilos I had lost, as my body was recovering from the surgery too, but it worked in the end. Just for completeness, what I did was just eat a bit more at every meal, then a few evenings a week, I'd have some berries and cream during the evening, where I never usually would, as I'm not a pudding person

Again, I wholly appreciate I'm not T1, but for me it was all about building and maintaining confidence levels both in what I was actually doing and the impacts on my whole body, not just on the readings on the scales.

I really hope you find something that will allow you to edge forward Kaylz. I know how annoying it can be when people say things like "Just eat a bit more. Boy, I'd love to be able to eat whatever I like, and try to put weight on". There were times when I could have throttled them!