Hi, I never spoke on one of these chat forums before about my diabeties, I have had Type 1 diabeties almost 11 years now, and for the first 5 years or so i was fine and my blood sugar levels was doing fine then i left school and they went everywhere now its uncontrolled rangeing from 8-15, my doctor has told me to find a palce where i can talk to people about diabeties food etc, anyway, i have a terriable feeling my BS are like this cause of what i eat, i have no idea what i can and can not eat, im wondering if anyone can help me? i wanan go on a low carbs diet not just to get control of my BS but also to lose some weight, wonder if anyone can help me with what i should eat and stuff and a good way to get control of these BS cause there making me pretty ill, im struggling to do day to day things, any advice would be appreciated. :]
Hi :]
- Thread starter littosnowy
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totsy
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hi and welcome,
firstly can u let us know what insulins u are on? whether u carb count ? and im sure we will be able to help more,
since starting on basal bolus over 2 yrs ago and a lowish carb diet ive lost 6 stones, it took me a while to get my insulin ratios right but once i had its been fairly good
amanda
firstly can u let us know what insulins u are on? whether u carb count ? and im sure we will be able to help more,
since starting on basal bolus over 2 yrs ago and a lowish carb diet ive lost 6 stones, it took me a while to get my insulin ratios right but once i had its been fairly good
amanda
Do you find you think about stuff a lot, not stressing but just going over and over things? That is often a problem for people not being able to drop off straight away - my husband gets it occasionally and he takes a Bach flower remedy called White Chestnut which seems to help. If not, milk and lettuce are both supposed to help, so maybe a bit of cheese wrapped in lettuce and a glass of milk!? I don't sleep much but then I never have, nothing to do with diabetes. I have a pillow with a speaker in it and listen to audio books when I can't sleep. That seems to help me. Hope you get some rest soon.
I don't sleep much but then I never have, nothing to do with diabetes. I have a pillow with a speaker in it and listen to audio books when I can't sleep. That seems to help me. Hope you get some rest soon.
- Messages
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littosnowy,
Without carb counting its impossible to control your type 1 diabetes hence why your blood glucose fluctuates between 8-15mmol, you need to ask your diabetes nurse to enroll you on a carb counting course such as DAFNE (dose adjustment for normal eating) which will teach you to carb count and match your insulin accordingly. Take a look at the following link which you should find helpful:
http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
Nigel
Without carb counting its impossible to control your type 1 diabetes hence why your blood glucose fluctuates between 8-15mmol, you need to ask your diabetes nurse to enroll you on a carb counting course such as DAFNE (dose adjustment for normal eating) which will teach you to carb count and match your insulin accordingly. Take a look at the following link which you should find helpful:
http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
Nigel
That bdec thing was a great help to me when first diagnosed. Very very very useful especially the information it held on hypos and when to expect them + how to not "feed" your insulin - the insulin rollercoaster, chasing the insulin, whatever you want to call it. It was in my favourites list and I regularly checked it.
I had a honeymoon period for a year so it was a joke to start off with but when that ended I had to rapidly come up with a solution to quickly-rising sugars so I started out doing 1 unit of novorapid for every 10g of carbs plus 1 unit extra for every 5mmols over target I was. I got that off some random American website but the more I've learnt (including on DAFNE) the more I realise that was a fantastic baseline to start off with and it did me proud - HbA1cs between 7.1% and 7.4% until I went on the DAFNE course, after which I discovered I was injecting too much novorapid and not enough lantus but that's only because of my high sensitivity to it - for most people 1-3 units per 10g of carbs is normal whereas I move between 0.5 units and 0.75 units now. Many people, when starting to carb count, eventually find they need much more in the mornings than later on (sometimes double or triple), so don't be at all alarmed if that happens to you. Doesn't happen to me. But I think getting your morning ratio of insulin:carbs right first off is the way forward because after that's sorted your day is much more bearable and easier to handle diabetes-wise.
The tough part is getting the amount of fast-acting and long-acting in balance. Only take your long-acting up by a unit at a time and leave it 3 days like that without making further changes to anything at all. One unit extra of lantus for me can have a massive impact because I'm very sensitive to insulin. You can't make changes to both insulins at once otherwise it's pointless - you won't know what it was that worked/didn't work. One step at a time. Unfortunately whilst you're going through all the changes you might very well feel rubbish. You have to kind of treat the whole thing as a scientific experiment and write absolutely everything down - times, types of insulin given, how many units, how many carbs, did you add any correction units, did you knock off any 'decorrection' units, blood sugar readings on waking, before each meal, before bed, before snacks, note any exercise; then analyse the data, see patterns forming, make one adjustment at a time, re-analyse the data, are there other patterns forming? Etc etc until you can become stable. If you're a lady (I think you are but haven't checked) I'd also suggest noting times of the month alongside all this because for many women this leads them to go higher before, and lower during. It took me 2yrs to suss out this was happening to me - 3 months worth of records was all it took to show me the obvious cause of some 'unexplained' hypos.
I stopped writing everything down in the summer when I regained my short term memory after 2yrs without it and I was very stable with no illness etc, but I lost it again in September, and what with also being very unwell for several months, my last HbA1c was 9.1%. So as of today I'm writing it all down again - it's the only way. Good luck, and good on you for taking the steps you need to feel better again
I had a honeymoon period for a year so it was a joke to start off with but when that ended I had to rapidly come up with a solution to quickly-rising sugars so I started out doing 1 unit of novorapid for every 10g of carbs plus 1 unit extra for every 5mmols over target I was. I got that off some random American website but the more I've learnt (including on DAFNE) the more I realise that was a fantastic baseline to start off with and it did me proud - HbA1cs between 7.1% and 7.4% until I went on the DAFNE course, after which I discovered I was injecting too much novorapid and not enough lantus but that's only because of my high sensitivity to it - for most people 1-3 units per 10g of carbs is normal whereas I move between 0.5 units and 0.75 units now. Many people, when starting to carb count, eventually find they need much more in the mornings than later on (sometimes double or triple), so don't be at all alarmed if that happens to you. Doesn't happen to me. But I think getting your morning ratio of insulin:carbs right first off is the way forward because after that's sorted your day is much more bearable and easier to handle diabetes-wise.
The tough part is getting the amount of fast-acting and long-acting in balance. Only take your long-acting up by a unit at a time and leave it 3 days like that without making further changes to anything at all. One unit extra of lantus for me can have a massive impact because I'm very sensitive to insulin. You can't make changes to both insulins at once otherwise it's pointless - you won't know what it was that worked/didn't work. One step at a time. Unfortunately whilst you're going through all the changes you might very well feel rubbish. You have to kind of treat the whole thing as a scientific experiment and write absolutely everything down - times, types of insulin given, how many units, how many carbs, did you add any correction units, did you knock off any 'decorrection' units, blood sugar readings on waking, before each meal, before bed, before snacks, note any exercise; then analyse the data, see patterns forming, make one adjustment at a time, re-analyse the data, are there other patterns forming? Etc etc until you can become stable. If you're a lady (I think you are but haven't checked) I'd also suggest noting times of the month alongside all this because for many women this leads them to go higher before, and lower during. It took me 2yrs to suss out this was happening to me - 3 months worth of records was all it took to show me the obvious cause of some 'unexplained' hypos.
I stopped writing everything down in the summer when I regained my short term memory after 2yrs without it and I was very stable with no illness etc, but I lost it again in September, and what with also being very unwell for several months, my last HbA1c was 9.1%. So as of today I'm writing it all down again - it's the only way. Good luck, and good on you for taking the steps you need to feel better again
