How scary is living alone with type 1

[Babyweed]

It’s been a bit of a rough week, I ended up in hospital on Friday with DKA, that started in the middle of the night. Last night I had a hypo at 2.3 again in the middle of the night. I live alone and have to deal with it, that in its self isn’t a problem us diabetics are a hardy lot, but when it happens in the middle of the night everything seems so much worse, who do you turn to for support.
I wish they would change the NICE guidelines for the libre, at least you’d have some kind of warning that things are going downhill.

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Babyweed Sorry to hear about your DKA episode - hope your feeling better now ?

Just out of interest what insulins are you using ? Have you worked out why your going low overnight as a bit of tweaking might be required ?

In regards to support I think for type 1 it’s more mental than physical support we need, so a sounding board to bounce events against- so figuring out why this/that happened, I have to admit although I don’t live alone I’ve never required physical support but I do use my partner to talk things over with from time to time when I need to work something out and my brain has reached boiling point.

Hopefully the forum can help ?

 

[Fairygodmother]

Hi @Babyweed, T1 can be a challenge Ben when not living alone, but it can be more scary if there’s nobody to call out to when waking low.
A Libre, and alarms, would be good: have you tried asking your consultant for one after the DKA and the hypo experiences.
As JuicyJ implies, you could also talk about the insulins you use and their profiles.

 

[searley]

I live alone and diabetes doesn’t scare me at all

Lived alone for 5 years now.. I use a dexcom and prior to that the libre

So have multiple alarms go off around the house if going low

 

[Babyweed]

Thanks for the support. I have an insight pump. The DKA was caused by a kink in the tube we think. The hypo I don’t know what caused it. I will talk to my consultant about alarms. My basal rate was tweaked in March after doing some basal testing.

 

[MrsC93]

Hi, if you are at all able to use the free style libre it's fantastic, there is a new one called free style libre 2, you can set alarms to go off if your blood sugar drops below four and vise versa if you are going high alarms will go off over 13mmol 24/7 you can be alerted of risks

 

[oldgreymare]

Slightly off topic but I am seriously in awe of any pump users able to calibrate their insulin doses/ratios to stay within tight control just on fingerpricks only, I can't imagine even trying a pump without access to a Libre or CGM to fully monitor BG trends. Now I'm full blown type 1 after a few LADA years - tubing kinks horror stories make me very hesitant to try a pump - it doesn't take much lack of insulin to put me in full blown DKA.

 

[searley]

Slightly off topic but I am seriously in awe of any pump users able to calibrate their insulin doses/ratios to stay within tight control just on fingerpricks only, I can't imagine even trying a pump without access to a Libre or CGM to fully monitor BG trends. Now I'm full blown type 1 after a few LADA years - tubing kinks horror stories make me very hesitant to try a pump - it doesn't take much lack of insulin to put me in full blown DKA.

I’ve been on pump 6 months and had no delivery issues

I use tandem with Dexcom so would get a high alert

But in the same way if you were routinely testing bg then dka shouldn’t happen as you’d see your going high

 

[oldgreymare]

I’ve been on pump 6 months and had no delivery issues

I use tandem with Dexcom so would get a high alert

But in the same way if you were routinely testing bg then dka shouldn’t happen as you’d see your going high

I've never been close to DKA since starting to use CGMs, but had three episodes prior, - one life threatening - and agreed maybe these could have been adverted if I was more diligent with fingerpricks, but basically with my then lifestyle (24/7 crisis manager) which meant my welfare often came last, I lived way too dangerously - not going there again!

Edited to add I have been living strictly on my own for past four years, previously with a housekeeper but at other end of flat and not trained in diabetes resuscitation, so aiming to upgrade my ER protocols and instructions.

 

[bmtest]

For me living with family or alone is same I prefer being alone it more peaceful.

Going hypo in night does happen from time to time and it does happen when you have only seconds to spare.

But that's how it is I never awake the household and have recorded as low as 1.2 as long as you get something down your neck quick you won't go under. Yes you will be saturated in sweat and if went really low will have fear of fear but you will soon forget and gain confidence again.

I always quote the song in Grease " how low can you go" and its sometime near the knuckle.