New Type 1 - sugar readings high 20's

Hello Christine and welcome, It sounds like you are having a pretty rough time with this. I do think you've ended up at the right place for some support from your fellow type 1's and i'm sure you will soon start feeling a lot better about things. I think @daisy1 will be in touch to give you some information so stay with us. Best Wishes

@Christina97587

Hello Christina and welcome to the Forum To help you along, here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope it will be useful to you. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 245,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

Hi @Christina97587
With levels like that of course you feel rubbish so a huge hug.
Right then, what insulin are you on and what have they told you about how much to take? Have you been given any carb counting education yet? Can you contact your team?
Answering the above will help people here formulate responses. X

Christina97587 said:

Hello... new to the group!

So I'm 24 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last week after a sudden onset of symptoms. I've had sugar readings of between 21-28 all week and I feel awful!
I'm reading lots of things on the internet about units of insulin per grams of carbs and I'm so confused!
I spoke won't the diabetic nurse specialist who said I could eat what I wanted but we just need to get my insulin levels right.
I've cut down on sugars and trying to eat a low carb diet but these sugars aren't budging and it's driving me crazy!
Any tips on how to get the thirst under control? It's so bad at the moment I'm drinking pints and pints of water and weeing all the time! I've even wet the bed a couple of times and I didn't even realise! (Talk about embarrassing)!! I feel exhausted too!
Currently objecting 10units Levemir morning and night and 8units novorapid.

Click to expand...

Those are high levels. It sounds like you're being started on low doses of insulin then having them increased, but even so it's not right you're so high and feeling so rough.

Give your DSN a call as soon as you can. Tell them what you've been eatng and what your blood sugar has been and I would hope they'd look at tweaking your doses.

Do you have a means to test ketones?

If you dnt have a contact number for your team and your levels remain in the 20s, I'd be phoning 111 for advice.

As a comparison, my level was around 25 when I was diagnosed and before any treatment.

Have you tested for ketones @Christina97587 ?

Hi @Christina97587 I really do urge you to contact 111 as soon as possible, your levels are very high and you need some assistance with this as you haven't mentioned testing for ketones I am guessing you don't have any way of testing this, but to be on the safe side speak to 111 to get some help, in e meantime drink lots of water, your kidneys will be trying to flush out the extra glucose so it will help, take care and let us know how you get on ?

Thanks for the update, you really need to look at taking a correction dose to get your levels down, however we cannot advise you how much, by calling 111 they should get a doctor to call you back and they may be able to advise you further on this, otherwise call your DSN first thing in the morning and get some advice over the phone regarding your doses, again please keep us updated and let us know how you get on

Hi. Yes, those levels are too high and need to be reduced urgently. First diabetics can't eat what they want even as a T1 on insulin - that's bad NHS advice. Eating too many carbs can cause weight gain and if you don't take enough insulin will cause high blood sugar. You are doing the right thing by reducing the carbs. It sounds like you do need to increase your insulin shots and it's not for us to advise by how much. If you have been advised to increase the shots gradually by the surgery then do just that. When you are able to contact the surgery they should advise on balancing your Levemir and tell you how to carb-count. Some GPs won't give carb-counting advice until you go on a course. My DN advised me in 15 minutes when she started my insulin so you may need to push to get started soon as this will give the best control. Watch the ketones. Personally I would only call 111 if the ketones go up and/or you feel unwell as it can involve a lot of hassle; it's your choice of course.

@Christina97587 No, your basal doesn't have to be the same amount as your Novorapid.

I understand you don't like hospitals, but if you call 111 you'll get the medical advice you need. Prolonged high sugars put you at risk of DKA, so you need some help in getting those levels down, especially as you have ketones.

Christina97587 said:

Currently objecting 10units Levemir morning and night and 8units novorapid.

Click to expand...

I wonder whether the problem might be that if you're on set units at the moment, 8 units Novorapid, it might just be that 8 isn't enough for what you're eating, so then your sugars will go up to the sort of levels you're seeing, and will then just stay there unless a correction dose of Novorapid is taken to bring them down. You can test that theory out by checking levels before a meal and then 4 or 5 hrs after - they should be about the same 5 hours after the meal - if they're not, if they've gone way higher and stayed there, that's a strong indicator the Novo shot for the meal was too small. If you then have another meal, you'll be going into it too high, so if 8 is not enough for the next meal, you're going to be getting into a cumulative series of increasing highs. I'd be inclined to have a serious chat with dsn/doc to assess whether 8 per meal is correct for you and advice on appropriate correction doses.

It won't always be like this. Once you're more familiar with how insulin works and figure out how much you need for each 10g of carbs, you'll be able to make judgment calls about how much for each meal, and if you miscalc and it goes too high, it is very common for us to take the odd 1 or 2 or 3 units to tweak it back down.

Christina97587 said:

Any tips on how to get the thirst under control?

Click to expand...

That'll only go away once your sugars are down to lower levels. When sugars are above 10, excess glucose starts going into the bladder to be peed away, and that in turn uses water, hence the thirst. Get below ten and it should sort itself.

As you're very recently diagnosed, I think docs are cautious about bringing levels down too quickly, because that brings some problems of it's own, but having you still running around in the 20's seems far too high.

As a very broad rule of thumb which is taught on carb counting courses such as DAFNE, 10g of carbs raises sugar by 2 to 3 on your meter, and 1u of Novo will lower by 2 to 3. But, like I say, it's a broad rule and doesn't work that way for everyone.

Let us know how you get on today.

Hi Christina,

When I was diagnosed T1 11 months ago(at 27 so a similar sort of age) my DSN slowly increased my insulin day by day and it took nearly 5 weeks before they were able to get me to a reasonable level. I know the temptation is to jump to larger doses of insulin(my brother and sister are both t1d so I had an idea of the amounts I needed to jump to but didn't), but it really is safer to lower the levels slowly and keep an eye on the ketones.

Hope you get there soon!

Jamie

Christina97587 said:

Hi everyone. So I've increased insulin today by 2 units. Still seeing the same levels though. Will increase again in 3-4 days and keep going until I see results. Will keep an eye out for ketones though. The thirst has been more manageable today thank goodness!

No diabetes runs in my family at all... I'm the oddity

Click to expand...

Did you speak to your nurse?

Both your insulins might need adjusting. Your nurse should also have given you an idea of carb amounts for your meals.