moody and irritable

Just a thought until some other Lantus users or Type 1's come along.

You say you have very good control of your blood glucose levels.....reason I ask about this is that a couple of the many symptoms displayed when you are running very low numbers, in or around hypo territory is Irritability, personality change ???

It is normal to feel all the emotions, anger, sadness, depression, denial, etc etc........that in itself could be stressing you out and seriously affecting your whole 'persona.' Having been there many years ago, it is easier said than done to drag yourself out of it. It will take time, patience and co-operation of all your family. Talking about your worries and fears to someone close can help.

Hope I have given you some pointers to getting through this.

Curleous
I looked at your Hba1c of 12.8.dropping to 7.2, so unless you've tightened up a lot since it was done, it may be the opposite of Ken's suggestion. You may be running high. Many people don't noice, but some do get very ratty.
I would certainly advise you to keep really GOOD control and verify with checking at least twice per day.
It's not easy to do, especially when you are new to everything, but to aim to be as near non-diabetic as possible, would be a good idea.
Can you let us know your levels and diet and medication, so we can make some suggestions for "tweaking"
Hana

Hi Curleous,

What you're going through sounds very similar to what I went through earlier this year. I was mainly depressed and feeling down most of the time, but also got snappy and irritable, especially with my wife. I'm not perfect, and still have the odd 'Grrrr' moment, but I've got to say that addressing it was the biggest factor in the equation - possibly verbalising it cemented what I was feeling inside and forced me to do something about it on the outside.

I brought up the subject of lantus with my diabetes consultant and he dismissed that as a first port of call. He talked about blood sugar levels and other factors in my life. We discussed the chemical nature of depression (as opposed to the purely psychological side). When he got to the point of prescribing anti depressants I decided to give it a go without and see how I got on.

I'm convinced it was purely admitting to a professional how I was feeling and talking about my feelings and other circumstances (work, personal life, exercise, etc) that brought me out of that spell of feeling down and facilitated my doing something about it. That and the responses I got from the other forum users.

Have a think about something you may be doing that could be subconsciously making you feel down but isn't the obvious answer. For example: I know someone who had spent time at work flirting with a colleague, which indirectly made him go home and behave horribly to his loving spouse. He didn't realise this was making him behave in that way, and it was only when he admitted it to her and got over it that their homelife returned to normal. I'm not saying you are like this, but the mind is a curious thing and can often do things for strange reasons.

Or it could be the chemical imbalance that my doctor talked about.

Whatever it is, it's good to talk to specialists and rule things out. Get things off your chest when you talk to your doctor later this week and things might sort themselves out!

Let us know how you get on,
Sam.

Curleous said:

I do test six times a day and my 7 14 and 30 day averages are 6.0 5.9 and 5.9 respectively. Should i be looking to get these any lower as i have experienced several blow 4 readings at the moment. Are these averages a good indication as to hb1ac as well.

Many thanks again

Curleosu

Click to expand...

Those averages sound really good. A 30 day average of 5.9 should give you a probable HbA1c of 6%.

What you should try to avoid is going below 4 mmol/l. As previously stated this is considered hypoglycaemia and can have many side effects, if your awareness is good, then you will get the symptoms earlier than 4. If it is not good then you won't feel any symptoms at all when hypoglycaemic !

Well done Curleous. A great result. We weren't far out with the HbA1c, so that shows the site calculator is reasonably accurate. You have done really well.

I think you have earned a little celebration tonight, go for it......

Cholesterol Levels.

Here is a link to the Blood Pressure Association website which gives advice on how to lower Cholesterol levels. Basically you want to try and get TC below 4, however you also nered to be aware of HDL/LDL levels as well.
http://www.bpassoc.org.uk/BloodPressure ... pyourheart
AND
Here is the link from the British Heart Foundation about Cholesterol.
http://www.bhf.org.uk/Keeping_your_hear ... terol.aspx