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How long until I’m told if I’m type 1 or 2?


Thanks, will do. Had a good cry last night, and another one this morning but I’m glad I have everyone here to help. I imagine I’ll have a lot of questions about insulin doses etc. The nurse at the diabetic team in the hospital is calling on Monday to arrange to have me go in to get started next week. I have a lot of how and why questions just now, but giving myself a weekend off from worry - and off for some retail therapy with my daughter to treat myself. Thanks again
 
Thank you, that’s very kind. I’m trying to feel positive with many weepy moments. It is a shock but I’m keen to get started with the insulin and try and learn as much as I can.
 
Hello from another late onset (and very slow onset for me - 2.5 years from a T2 misdiagnosis to the LADA diagnosis) T1 who will come back later to say more! Loads more of us out there than is commonly believed and lots of support around these parts.
 
Hi @JMoli, me too. Diagnosed nearly 3 years ago, I am still on very low doses of insulin and feel a hundred times better than before. You may find (like me) that once you have access to insulin you can prolong the 'honeymoon' period and may only need to use a unit or two for meals and a small amount of basal (long acting).This may be enough for several years and is a much better prospect than soldiering on with no insulin (like many undiagnosed people do) and becoming seriously ill. Don't be afraid of insulin, it is not the enemy however much of it your body needs. The reason I mention amounts is that when you are starting off on small amounts (with a pancreas that may still be producing its own) it is usually easier to manage. x
 
Japes said:
Hello from another late onset (and very slow onset for me - 2.5 years from a T2 misdiagnosis to the LADA diagnosis) T1 who will come back later to say more! Loads more of us out there than is commonly believed and lots of support around these parts.
Click to expand...

Thanks and hi I’m wondering how this came about, it’s a bit confusing. I was generally well apart from horrible stomach problems for a couple of months prior to finding out (assumes it was the worst IBS flare up ever, I’ve no idea if that was related. Do you ever find out, probably not. Anyway, looking forward to meeting you all...
 

Hi, thanks for replying - that’s reassuring about the insulin. I’m not sure what to expect re the injecting and have terrible medical anxiety but not usually with needles oddly. Im trying to stay positive and should be happy that at least I’m diagnosed and getting help etc. I have lots more energy since quitting sugar and no longer have the afternoon slump so it’s not total gloom. I’m very confused with how to dose but it seems you’ve managed really well
 

I (sort of) do now but I certainly didn't at the start. It's not so much about 'quitting sugar', it's about not having sufficient insulin to cope with the glucose that comes from all carbs (which includes sugar too). Once you replace the insulin required you will feel tons better. Your team will lead you through the dosing at first and at some point you will know what to do yourself. Please feel free to ask any questions, we can't advise on dosage as such but we are allowed to tell you our little tips. x
 
In many ways I've found life easier since I started insulin. I don't have to worry so much about low carbs as I simply count them and inject accordingly. It does though take a while to get the insulin:carb ratio right and it also tends to change over time, but it's no big deal.
Don't worry about the injecting, it honestly doesn't hurt and is far less hassle and discomfort than finger pricking.
BTW I've just had my evening meal which included a rather nice fruit slice (46g CHO) that I wouldn't have contemplated when I was stuck on low carbing!
 
Hey, I'm sorry for the very late reply. I forgot I posted on this.

I see you're type 1. I hope you get the help and support you need from medical professionals and people on here.
I have my first appt today so will find out more info, when the woman on the phone told me looks like t2, I'm not sure she had the right file as she asked me if I was still on metformin, I told her I've never been on it.

Regarding foods etc, chicken, eggs, veg, basically stuff like bread, pasta and Rice are not good.
I had cauliflower rice the other day with Chilli, it's so nice and didn't affect my sugars. I've also found dark chocolate doesn't affect it either I have no idea why.

I will put a list of questions to them today. I'm having really bad issues sleeping too, diabetic nurses probably won't be able to prescribe short term sleeping tablets either
 

Thanks and good luck with the appointment. I’m having dodgy sleeps too, keep waking really early and I’ve never been a morning person. I’ve been looking for cauliflower rice, can’t find it in any supermarket nearby (where do I get my hands on this stuff?!) I’ve been eating lower carb too, swapped my two bits of toast (breakfast) for high fat Greek yoghurt with walnuts, berries and seeds and had my first normal reading yesterday! So then I had a panic about hypos - I really can’t seem to win with this anxiety. Anyway, hope it goes well for you today. My nurse is calling today to arrange to get me in for the insulin thing to bring me back down to Earth, I think I’ve been half pretending to myself the last few days that this has all been a mystery tropical virus and I’m actually fine!!
 

Thanks and good luck with the appointment. I’m having dodgy sleeps too, keep waking really early and I’ve never been a morning person. I’ve been looking for cauliflower rice, can’t find it in any supermarket nearby (where do I get my hands on this stuff?!) I’ve been eating lower carb too, swapped my two bits of toast (breakfast) for high fat Greek yoghurt with walnuts, berries and seeds and had my first normal reading yesterday! So then I had a panic about hypos - I really can’t seem to win with this anxiety. Anyway, hope it goes well for you today. My nurse is calling today to arrange to get me in for the insulin thing to bring me back down to Earth, I think I’ve been half pretending to myself the last few days that this has all been a mystery tropical virus and I’m actually fine!!
 

Hey . I went for my first appointment and the nurse looked and sounded puzzled. (They still don't know my type)
Initially I was told insulin 8 units before food and 10 long acting before bed.

When I went to appt, she looked at my numbers and asked what I'd been eating, so example one day before dinner it's 6.0, I injected 8 units of insulin but because I was new and not informed, what I was eating was very low carb if any especially at lunch time, I'd have tuna and cottage cheese for example with carrot sticks, what she couldn't understand is why I didn't go into hypos at any point when I've been checking 4 times a day and injecting insulin when not eating carbs.

Anyway day after they called me and told me to eat a meal with carbs in and not take any insulin, and see what happened. So I had a whole wheat wrap 30g carbs with chicken. My bloods before and after hardly moved. Confused some more, she told me on Friday to "eat as normal but healthier, and not to take any novorapid, only 10 units of lantus before bed"
She also advised if my sugars did rise say, above 10 then to inject a couple of units of novo to get it down.

My numbers have been nowhere near 10 with no Novorapid.

I also asked her why when I snacked on dark chocolate why it didn't send my sugars up, she couldn't answer.

So right now, I've been off NovoRapid for 5 days. My sugars have been highest 8.8. I'm waiting for a call to see what my next move is.

I did also manage to get some sleeping tabs to try and sort my pattern out. Still getting into that.

Hope you're well
 

Wow, what’s going on? How weird but sounds good too! Are you still taking lantus (still not clued up on all of this stuff) and eating carbs or are you mostly low carb?
That’s good you got some sleeping tablets, I’m still waking early - no idea what’s happened to my pattern but was watching Netflix at 4 am the other night.
Do you think they might switch you to tablets and take you off insulin? Would you prefer that? I’ve to go in next week to get started (delayed due to childcare stuff) and have books now to help guide me as it looks very confusing. The nurse said I would get a Libre on the NHS here and I could buy a miaomiao (which makes me sound very knowledgable but still not totally sure what happens)
I wish there was some kind of simple guide to understanding everything, it’s pretty overwhelming. I’m hoping the insulin will help with the weight gain as I’m making little progress despite eating lots of cheese, nuts, seeds, avocados, cream, dark chocolate, meat....I’ve been too scared to bulk up with pasta and ideally would be stuffing my face with biscuits (what I miss the most) but hey ho. Sorry, waffling on. Anyway, would love to know what happens next for you - it all sounds really positive
 
Glad you finally got an answer and are moving forward. All I wanted to say is Yes, once you have insulin on board you will gain some fat back slowly as its an anabolic hormone. Having higher sugars means you're pee ing out a lot of glucose rather than using it for energy or storing excess as fat. Since all the high fat snacks don't jack up any insulin you have they won't help you gain weight but at least you've been eating fantastically healthily all this time!
You could in theory hit the biscuits and the pasta provided you dose for it but if you'd like to remain on smaller doses it might be a good idea not to exhaust your beta cells.
I know type 1 must feel like a curve ball you didn't need after your break up and with your medical anxieties, but I think that it is true that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! You will be setting a fab example to your daughter and can still enjoy the occasional doughnut together. I hope you are making a big list of q & a and will be begging for an FSL to save finger pricking at least....good luck.
 

Hi, thanks so much for your lovely reply - it has been a pretty intense couple of months (and not in a good way) and I’m having good and bad days. I was very low on Sunday and just kept crawling back to bed and crying. Feeling a bit more positive now though and that’s really reassuring that the insulin will help me gain weight - I’m a stone less than I used to be and hate feeling so skinny. I guess I’m ‘lucky’ it’s Winter and can hide under layers. A fast metabolism is great but not with diabetes it seems. Ideally I’d like to mostly eat low carb with the odd pizza or fish and chips type meal (and some biscuits) as I feel like I have so much more energy these days, no mid morning or afternoon slumps. I don’t seem to have a dairy intolerance anymore, which I had for almost two years - I’ve had such a strange relationship with food, firstly the dairy problem and then some weird stomach thing on Oct/Nov (possibly a virus) so then tried the FODMAP elimination diet and now I’m lowish carb but fine with dairy suddenly.
I never thought I’d write this but today I’m feeling pleased to be starting insulin!
 
All your symptoms could be connected to leaky gut/auto immune but there is no way of knowing. Lots of adults get t1 following on from a viral infection so there's probably a story there. Once your sugars are normalised I think you will feel better anyway as I do think sugar swings can cause more than just physical symptoms.
Here's to fish and chips and chocolate chip cookies!!
 

Chocolate chip cookies sound amazing! Sometimes walnuts and almonds as a snack just don’t cut it. Can I ask - do you generally eat low carb?
 
JMoli said:
I’ve been looking for cauliflower rice, can’t find it in any supermarket nearby (where do I get my hands on this stuff?!)
Click to expand...
Iceland and Aldi and Waitrose sell frozen cauliflower rice, also Iceland have a mix of riced broccoli, seaweed etc which is interesting. You can always make your own. I prefer to save time and trouble by just eating florets of fresh cauliflower!
https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/iceland-4-cauliflower-rice-steam-bags-600g/68855.html
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/full-green-cauliflower-cauli-rice/796402-450668-450669
Good luck!
 

Thanks! I gave up trying to find it here and tried to make my own but it was a bit of a fail so I’ll have a look in Aldi this weekend. I used to hate cauliflower (blew up like a balloon) but I’ve discovered an amazing cauli-cheese recipe which my stomach seems to tolerate really well. It’s really fattening too which is what I need just now
 
Hey. I have no idea and neither do the nurses what's going on. I am just on the lantus at night time now 10 units. Been off meal insulin for over a week now and numbers in normalish ranges. I'd prefer the tablets as they are meant to help weight loss. The whole month of Jan I didn't lose any weight even though my eating dramatically changed. I think the meal insulin prevented me from losing weight.

I have an appointment in April with a diabetic consultant. Maybe I'll find out what they're doing.

When I left hospital I was taking insulin with meals.
Few weeks later no insulin with meals, just lantus at night.

Numbers stable. They provided me with glucose and ketone monitor and strips. Still on prescription.

Maybe I'll find out why dark chocolate has no effect on my sugars and some other stuff.

Sorry for waffling myself. I'm still up in the air and don't know where I'm going to land.

Hope you're well
 

Chris, I'm T2 so no personal wisdom to offer you here, however, I have read on here of folks, when newly diagnosed T1 who, once they start on insulin their pancreas sort of splutters back into life for a while, to a greater or lesser extent. It's almost like taking some insulin has given their pancreas a bit of support and a rest, allowing it to function a bit better for a while.

In most cases, for them, the need for insulin increases again over time.

Obviously, I have no way whatsoever if any of that applies to you, but maybe something to ponder, bearing in mind you are still taking your long actin?
 
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