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Lesley_allert

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Type of diabetes
Type 1
so, I am not very good with technology but here goes!
I'm 53 and was diagnosed in November- what is that about????
Struggled with my weight all my life but managed to be my "ideal" for about 9 years with exercise and low carb diet- I have gained about 10lbs !!! Really cheesed off - first of all I was told I didn't have to change my diet but because my levels are all over they are now telling me to eat 3 meals a day and carbs! Still not back to full time work du to low hypos and been reduced to half pay Pretty PLEASE someone tell me this is going to change and soon!!!
 
Lesley_allert said:
so, I am not very good with technology but here goes!
I'm 53 and was diagnosed in November- what is that about????
Struggled with my weight all my life but managed to be my "ideal" for about 9 years with exercise and low carb diet- I have gained about 10lbs !!! Really cheesed off - first of all I was told I didn't have to change my diet but because my levels are all over they are now telling me to eat 3 meals a day and carbs! Still not back to full time work du to low hypos and been reduced to half pay Pretty PLEASE someone tell me this is going to change and soon!!!
Click to expand...

Hi Lesley - hello and welcome to the forum. Not being a T2, my post will bump your thread up into the recent posts "traffic" as people log on this evening.

In order to give them as much information as possible, could you tell us what medication you are on, and what sort of blood numbers you are routinely seeing, including your low hypos. How long have you been diagnosed?
 
Hi It's never good advice to anyone with diabetes to tell them to increase the carbs. It sounds like the dated advice that was common until recent years. Carbs do raise blood sugar; simples...
 
Hi @Lesley_allert ,

Welcome to the forum..

First things first. What diabetes medications were you prescribed?
There is no reason why you would need to change your diet prior to diagnosis. If that's what Worked for you..?

Do you keep a record/log of meals (carb count.) insulin dosage & blood sugars?
 
Sorry! Just seen these replies! Really am rubbish with technology!
I was diagnosed on 8th November when I was taken into hospital with severe dka?' Apparently I was an interesting case as most would be unconscious? I had been ill for a few weeks but put it down to stress! Weight loss, terrible acid thirst etc...
I was originally on 12 lantus at night with nova rapid as and when during the day. Some hypos last month were 1.8 which is when I was advised not to drive for more than 10 mins and that I must remain off work!!i have returned to work this week and seen the consultant- she says some of my hypos are just low sugar because my levels are too high so I now have 5 lantus in the morning too. But for eg yesterday I weighed my pasta and took the right amount of nova rapid but an hour later had a hypo at 3.4!!!!
So I am keeping a food diary and eating the carbs as suggested but am still unstable and about 10 lbs heavier!!!!!
 
Sorry! Just seen these replies! Really am rubbish with technology!
I was diagnosed on 8th November when I was taken into hospital with severe dka?' Apparently I was an interesting case as most would be unconscious? I had been ill for a few weeks but put it down to stress! Weight loss, terrible acid thirst etc...
I was originally on 12 lantus at night with nova rapid as and when during the day. Some hypos last month were 1.8 which is when I was advised not to drive for more than 10 mins and that I must remain off work!!i have returned to work this week and seen the consultant- she says some of my hypos are just low sugar because my levels are too high so I now have 5 lantus in the morning too. But for eg yesterday I weighed my pasta and took the right amount of nova rapid but an hour later had a hypo at 3.4!!!!
So I am keeping a food diary and eating the carbs as suggested but am still unstable and about 10 lbs heavier!!!!!
 
Hi @Lesley_allert - Welcome to this club that few want to be a member of. Diagnosis is a tricky period.

May I suggest to you that at the next meeting with your consultant, or DSN, that you mention that you'd prefer to eat in the way you have eaten for most of your life, rather than by loading up with foods that you didn't used to eat, and ask for their assistance in matching your insulin to those. If they don't agree, ask them why and explain that you don't understand their concerns. That might help to have a conversation about the situation.

In addition, weight loss prior to diagnosis is normal, and as you state that you went in with DKA on the 8th November, the likelihood is that you'd lost a fair bit or weight prior to that occurring - usually diagnosis at an older age is precursed by quite a long period of worsening symptoms, including weight loss, thirst, etc. Only you can answer whether that is true. As a result, what normally happens is that weight gain is your body recovering and rebuilding muscles (which have often been consumed as the body desperately tries to survive).
 
Pasta, one of the hardest food items to jab correctly for, and especially dependant on what it's with. I bet after the 3.4, later on you were much higher than you expected? (even if you didn't over treat the hypo).

Imagine a graph of Blood glucose levels after eating a jelly baby or glucotab - the levels would shoot up quickly, and also drop away almost as quickly over a very short time, with pasta being low GI it has a very slow long acting affect on BG, so stretch the graph out over 4, 5 or even 6 or more hours, novorapid kicks in in 20 mins (approx.) and lasts 3-4 hours so on a graph a quick rise (in affect) and then a gradual decline. If you overlay that with your pasta graph you'd see there's probably a big mismatch between 1-2hrs. hence the hypo.

Have a google for a book called 'think like a pancreas', you can get a digital version if you want;)
 
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