rfcpatrick
Member
- Messages
- 8
- Location
- Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Hi,
First of all, this is all my experience ever since I was diagnosed and it's quite long so it's all up to you if you decide to read it all or not but would appreciate anyone who reads it through!
My diabetes specialised nurse at diabetes centre suggested me that I could get loads of information on here so I am giving a shot!
First of all, I found out I was diabetic in a very strange way.
For me having a history of anxiety disorder, it was just one of the days I was having a panic attack but probably a big one, on the 8th of march. I ringed ambulance and they came down quickly. I was sweating, my bp was around 180/135 and having all those typical panic attack episode. They calmed me down in about 1/2 hour and started asking me questions. Kept asking me if I was on any illicit drugs. I said no because I don't do drugs. They kept asking me and did that graph thing to monitor heartbeats. After that, they did a blood glucose test I don't know why (?) lol. They kept saying 15, 15. I had no idea what that meant as I am originally from America and for having a father with T2 diabetes, I know it by mg/dl. Well, they took me to the A&E. To be honest, they didn't give a **** about my anxiety but was about to drop me a serious news that would change my life. A doctor came in and said 'you have a diabetes'. I didn't know how to take it. I asked twice, are you SURE I am? Is there a chance that it may be a wrong diagnosis? And he said there is no way because your glucose level from your blood sample shows 21.6mmol/l. It was my fasting bg as I hadn't eaten all day that day. I realised that it was equivalent to near 400 mg/dl and knew it was serious as when my father was first diagnosed with his, his bg was around only 210 mg/dl or around 11.5 mmol/l. They admitted me in hospital and I was observed overnight. For a person who has no memories of how it's like to stay overnight in a hospital overseas, it seriously freightened me. An old bloke with Parkinson's disease, another old person with seem-to-be lung cancer, I was in and out of sleep all night and was given insulatad and could lower it to 16 before I could leave with humulin the next day afternoon. I came home and was probably depressed for days. Thank God my uni broke up for half-term, I could get depressed and do nothing however much I wanted to.
Now, 3 weeks since I was diagnosed, I am such a newbie. I have no idea how to do proper carb counting nor how to manage my diet. Few lab results came in saying my HbA1c is 107 mmol/mol, I believe that's around 12%? It seems quite high but I am early in the stage so hoping to lower it over time. Also my triglycerides when I was admitted was immensely high with 80 which doctors said about 50 times higher than normal people but managed to get it down to 51 on my first insulin shot at hospital and 32 on my second shot. When I went to diabetes centre for follow up, there was another blood check so hoping it came down to at least within 10. Also they said I have protein in my urine but my follow up report says there was no albumin found, further 24-hour urine sample needed or something like that.
Wow, my story was long. I had to say all this because there is absolutely no one who understands all this. People I know think diabetes are for people who are careless and lazy, also they think it's like catching a cold, can be cured completely. One of my friends even asked that how come cancers can be cured but diabetes can't? That's such a lie.
Anyhow, I just have few questions as I can't get appointments with my GP nor my specialists and answers to these questions may improve my day to day life.
1. After I was discharged from hospital, I quickly changed my regime with novorapid and lantus.
Started with 14 units of lantus along with 4 units of novorapid every meal.
This is seriously wrong I think. In 3 weeks, after a bit of extensive bg measuring (at least 20 times a day), I finally adjusted with 30 units of lantus and 3-5g carb/unit novorapid every meal. Even this makes my bg reach over 10 occasionally. Morning bg has always been late 7-late 9 range every day even after increasing lantus units by more than twice suggested. I have no idea why it's happening. So far I had 2 hypos (one was just below 3.8, had some glucose tablets and after 20 minutes it went back up to 5.7) and the second one was far scarier. I was stupid because I took 8 units of novorapid to have about 100g of peanuts for snacks. It had about 22g of carbs so 8 units seemed about right. Then from 6.7, after 2 hours I felt a bit of heart attack like symptom and my bg was 3.4. My glucose tablet was in a car and I wasn't really bothered to go out so I had some hot chocolate powder to cover it with. Then 20 minutes later, got worse, it went down to 2.1. I had three spoons of those powder and still was around 1.8-2.2. I was really dizzy and couldn't even walk to my car. Eventually made it (it was 3 in the morning) and had 5 glucose tablets, got it up to 5.6 before I went to bed (woke up with 9.8!!!)
Do i have some kind of insulin resistance or is it just because I am not used to proper carb counting? I have no idea how I can control morning bg. A step by step but I'd at least like to keep my bg under 10 all the time for time being.
2. Why is low carb diet important to diabetics? If insulin is like what human body naturally produces, as long as diabetics inject proper amount of insulin, wouldn't it put them in a same position as normal people with normal bg? (Sorry if it sounds confusing). I mean normal people eat pasta, rice and all those starches regardless and still not diabetic. If diabetics eat them and give same amount of insulin as normal people usually release from their pancreas, wouldn't it be the same? With right amount of insulin, it sounds like diabetics can eat as much as carbs they would like?
I know it's really long but I hope someone can read it and share it with me. It'd be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance
Patrick
First of all, this is all my experience ever since I was diagnosed and it's quite long so it's all up to you if you decide to read it all or not but would appreciate anyone who reads it through!
My diabetes specialised nurse at diabetes centre suggested me that I could get loads of information on here so I am giving a shot!
First of all, I found out I was diabetic in a very strange way.
For me having a history of anxiety disorder, it was just one of the days I was having a panic attack but probably a big one, on the 8th of march. I ringed ambulance and they came down quickly. I was sweating, my bp was around 180/135 and having all those typical panic attack episode. They calmed me down in about 1/2 hour and started asking me questions. Kept asking me if I was on any illicit drugs. I said no because I don't do drugs. They kept asking me and did that graph thing to monitor heartbeats. After that, they did a blood glucose test I don't know why (?) lol. They kept saying 15, 15. I had no idea what that meant as I am originally from America and for having a father with T2 diabetes, I know it by mg/dl. Well, they took me to the A&E. To be honest, they didn't give a **** about my anxiety but was about to drop me a serious news that would change my life. A doctor came in and said 'you have a diabetes'. I didn't know how to take it. I asked twice, are you SURE I am? Is there a chance that it may be a wrong diagnosis? And he said there is no way because your glucose level from your blood sample shows 21.6mmol/l. It was my fasting bg as I hadn't eaten all day that day. I realised that it was equivalent to near 400 mg/dl and knew it was serious as when my father was first diagnosed with his, his bg was around only 210 mg/dl or around 11.5 mmol/l. They admitted me in hospital and I was observed overnight. For a person who has no memories of how it's like to stay overnight in a hospital overseas, it seriously freightened me. An old bloke with Parkinson's disease, another old person with seem-to-be lung cancer, I was in and out of sleep all night and was given insulatad and could lower it to 16 before I could leave with humulin the next day afternoon. I came home and was probably depressed for days. Thank God my uni broke up for half-term, I could get depressed and do nothing however much I wanted to.
Now, 3 weeks since I was diagnosed, I am such a newbie. I have no idea how to do proper carb counting nor how to manage my diet. Few lab results came in saying my HbA1c is 107 mmol/mol, I believe that's around 12%? It seems quite high but I am early in the stage so hoping to lower it over time. Also my triglycerides when I was admitted was immensely high with 80 which doctors said about 50 times higher than normal people but managed to get it down to 51 on my first insulin shot at hospital and 32 on my second shot. When I went to diabetes centre for follow up, there was another blood check so hoping it came down to at least within 10. Also they said I have protein in my urine but my follow up report says there was no albumin found, further 24-hour urine sample needed or something like that.
Wow, my story was long. I had to say all this because there is absolutely no one who understands all this. People I know think diabetes are for people who are careless and lazy, also they think it's like catching a cold, can be cured completely. One of my friends even asked that how come cancers can be cured but diabetes can't? That's such a lie.
Anyhow, I just have few questions as I can't get appointments with my GP nor my specialists and answers to these questions may improve my day to day life.
1. After I was discharged from hospital, I quickly changed my regime with novorapid and lantus.
Started with 14 units of lantus along with 4 units of novorapid every meal.
This is seriously wrong I think. In 3 weeks, after a bit of extensive bg measuring (at least 20 times a day), I finally adjusted with 30 units of lantus and 3-5g carb/unit novorapid every meal. Even this makes my bg reach over 10 occasionally. Morning bg has always been late 7-late 9 range every day even after increasing lantus units by more than twice suggested. I have no idea why it's happening. So far I had 2 hypos (one was just below 3.8, had some glucose tablets and after 20 minutes it went back up to 5.7) and the second one was far scarier. I was stupid because I took 8 units of novorapid to have about 100g of peanuts for snacks. It had about 22g of carbs so 8 units seemed about right. Then from 6.7, after 2 hours I felt a bit of heart attack like symptom and my bg was 3.4. My glucose tablet was in a car and I wasn't really bothered to go out so I had some hot chocolate powder to cover it with. Then 20 minutes later, got worse, it went down to 2.1. I had three spoons of those powder and still was around 1.8-2.2. I was really dizzy and couldn't even walk to my car. Eventually made it (it was 3 in the morning) and had 5 glucose tablets, got it up to 5.6 before I went to bed (woke up with 9.8!!!)
Do i have some kind of insulin resistance or is it just because I am not used to proper carb counting? I have no idea how I can control morning bg. A step by step but I'd at least like to keep my bg under 10 all the time for time being.
2. Why is low carb diet important to diabetics? If insulin is like what human body naturally produces, as long as diabetics inject proper amount of insulin, wouldn't it put them in a same position as normal people with normal bg? (Sorry if it sounds confusing). I mean normal people eat pasta, rice and all those starches regardless and still not diabetic. If diabetics eat them and give same amount of insulin as normal people usually release from their pancreas, wouldn't it be the same? With right amount of insulin, it sounds like diabetics can eat as much as carbs they would like?
I know it's really long but I hope someone can read it and share it with me. It'd be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance
Patrick
