New to diabetes

Hi Amanda

Long term diabetes, well to give you a bit of perspective on this little gem, I've been diabetic for 21 years now, and my husband been diabetic just under 31 years, and we both still lead a very active life and nither of us any major problems with any complications, though my husband did have problems with eyes 10 years ago.. But it does need to be remembered that when we joined the diabetic club, available treatments and kits were a lot more basic than available to day.. 31 years ago, no was no method of testing blood glucose at home, you could with a mini lab kit, test urine to see roughly how much sugar it contained :roll:

Even when I joined the club blood glucose testing, was done with a colour guide, meters came in several years later, very basic and cost the earth (my first meter set me back £150 VAT free) and took 2 minutes to produce a blood result!

So as you can see, we've faired very well and for diabetics that join the club today, prospects are a lot better than when we joined..

The trick is to maintain good control as much of the time as possible, there will be times when it's difficult to do so, illness, stress etc even a odd celebrations can knock out the levels a bit, but if over-all if your you maintain an high percentage of the time with good control then there should be no worries...

As to your querry of the 4.5mmol/l and taking sugar, this in some ways, a difficult on as for me it would depend on what I intended to do next to what I would do.. If I wasn't far off from having a meal then I would leave it..

But if a meal was some way off, exercising or driving I would have something to eat, this could be anything from 2/3 jelly babies if driving, to having biscuits, piece of fruit.. In the main what you to watch is that you don't cause your sugars to spike, so a slow acting carb might be better than adding sugar to a drink.. But some is down to personal choice though..

I found the key was to have easily eaten sources of carbohydrate to hand at all times - a few boiled sweets in my trouser pockets and a muesli bar in jacket / rucksack pocket / handbag. If there's time to test, then do so, but if you're sure it's a hypo, then best to eat first (a couple of sweets, then a biscuit or banana or muesli bar) and ask questions later to try to work out what brought it on.

Glad to hear you've been on a crab counting course - I did BSc Marine Biology, but still haven't got on a carb counting course, but have worked things out OK. I also got T1D as an adult, so have been careful about sugar levels, but not obsessive - I reckon I have to keep myself healthy for at least 50 years from 30 to 80, but that's not as long as for a child and teenage years usually mean a few years of very poor control, which I didn't pass through with diabetes. Not sure if others will agree, but there is a balance to strike between good control and normal life.

I am also quite new to diabetes, as im 22 and have only been diabetic for about a year. So trust me I know how you feel.

At first i was so worried about high sugar levels that I restricted myself quite harshly and wanted to do a Carb course but due to University I never got a chance to go so youve got a head start in controlling your intake. A few months in I started to relax, as long as my blood sugars are normal if i fancy a sugary treat I just increase my insulin slightly.

Try not to see diabetes as a restriction, If you want to put sugar in your tea just make sure you edit your insulin intake accordingly!

The best way ive come to describe it is "Everyone elses pancreas's are automatic, mines a manual"

Hi,

I am 31 year old male and I was diagnosed as a T1 in August last year so 5 months in. If you spoke to me in August or September I was terrified and regularly thought dark thoughts and worried about the long-term risks and complications. The physical injections and testing has never bothered me from day 1 as I just feel grateful the technology is out there that let's me know real-time how I am doing..

Speak to me now and I don't give the long term complications a second thought, probably helped by the fact that my control has been very good and I very rarely get a reading above 7mmol. I think they key to not worrying about the future is getting your control right. I know this is easy for some people and not so easy for others. However worried you feel now, you will not feel anywhere near this in the future.

What I found when I was first diagnosed was that I was completely paranoid that if I had a couple of peanuts or just ate something in between meals I'd end up losing my legs etc. After carefully monitoring the effect of what I ate between Aug and Dec, I realised that 'my' levels tend to remain okay with my eating habits (even if they fluctuate slightly). I made the odd error when eating new food for the first time but I learned from it immeidately and now I am in a position where I just 'look' at my meal, check my current level and almost always take the right amount of insulin to get back to 6mmol 2 hrs after eating..I never go over 8 thankfully...

I created my own Excel spreadsheet that populated some graphs etc so I could see patterns emerging at certain times of day etc and I am happy to share these with you if you want (or anyone else), they really helped.

JC