Newly Diagnosed

Hi welcome to here! This is a great place for information and has really helped me. Someone more knowledgeable than me will reply soon

@daisy1 for the welcome. @Jaylee for a T1.

An experienced T1 will be along soon.
Meanwhile, don't panic.
It will take you a while to adjust to your condition and learn how to control it.
If your levels are still running high, talk to your health care team about the dosage you are on.
You might be able to up the dose a little under their supervision.

selya said:

Hello everyone!

I am a newly diagnosed diabetes patient -21 years old ( found out on Friday- so been out 4 days) but the doctors are still unsure what type I could be but analysing the blood results I have obtained and other symptoms they believe it to be Type1. Therefore, they have put me on insulin and they are Novorapid (between meal times) and lantus (once a day). I have only been prescribed these on Monday since I was under the monitoring of the hospital due to the weekends etc. The diabetes nurse gave me whole load of information regarding the diabetes and how it is manageable. They also gave me some advice regarding the diet and that I should watch my carbs. I have been told to take 3 units each time of novorapid and 6 units of lantus. However, since I have been back home from Monday and started taking the insulin watching the carbs I do not see much difference with the blood glucose levels when I monitor them. I am always between the range of 11.6 (mmol) to 26 which really scares me so much since I am cutting down on everything i used to eat and the end result is not what I want. However, I do find that lantus which I am taking as the last thing before bed tend to reduce it as the results are lower in the morning when I check. With Novorapid I am not quite sure if it is working or if I am doing something wrong with it. I take it literally right before I eat and I would like to if that's the right way to do it or is it better to take it few mins before I have my meal. I also find that the glucose levels spike up particularly after Lunch and remains high till the next morning.

I am so new to this whole diabetes thing and since I have been feeling so low after knowing this! I would really appreciate if you any of you guys could provide me with any information you know regarding my issue before I call my diabetes nurse.

Thank you!

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Hiya, I am also quite newly diagnosed but they are still working out my type as I’m not a clear cut case. This has been going on since November 2018.

I’m on long lasting and quick acting and my dosages are always changing as it is really trial and error. I was initially on 6 units of long acting but that is now 16. I was also very scared of the insulin at first, but I I feel so much better and you do get used to it.

When I was first diagnosed I ended up cutting out basically everything out and lost 1 stone in 3 weeks (I was thin to begin with anyway).

They key is don’t panic and also don’t be alarmed if it takes a while to get your dosages correct. As someone once said to me on this forum, diabetes is not a race it’s a marathon. I 100% agree with this.

Things will get easier and you will feel better soon I’m sure others who have much more experience than me can produce much better guidance

@selya
Hello Selya and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it interesting and helpful.

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 235,000 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 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. Most of these are 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.
  

Some restaurants have carb values on their websites. Some you can guesstimate with help from an app like carbs and cals.

Hi Selya.
This is my 1st post as I have only just been diagnosed with diabetes. I knew that something was wrong for a long time but it’s so difficult to get into the doctors where I live so god knows how long I have had it.

Originally the doctor diagnosed me with type 2 but he said that there’s a good chance it could be type 1. I was referred to a consultant in my local hospital which I was told could take up to 8 weeks to get an appointment. Suffering from anxiety myself, I had to find out quickly which type I have so I rang the diabetes clinic everyday to see if there was a cancellation, after a week I got lucky and managed to get a last minute appointment.

The consultant diagnosed me with type 2, the main thing was that I found out what type is was and could concentrate on that so that it eased my anxiety.

I advise to keep ringing and asking people if you are unsure about anything

selya said:

Thank you so much for that it gives me a lot of reassurance! I was wondering if you eat out or how you manage cravings because they have told me to keep my carbs consistent till my next follow up meeting to review my insulin dosage but it would be great if you don't mind sharing your experience on counting carbs when eating out etc please?

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Hi,

Well as I said, I’ve only been on the quick acting for a week but it’s worked very well so far and my numbers have almost always been in range. Other more experienced members can probably explain things much better than myself. But in my experience....

I usually check the restaurants website for the carb values or if not I use the ‘Carbs And Cals’ app. This app is really useful as you type in the food you are going to eat and it comes up with pictures of plates with different portion sizes and tells you the carbs in each of the portions.

My current dosage is 1 unit to 10g of carbohydrates. Which seems to be working for me. I understand most people are told this dosage at the start but it may be changed to suit your needs.

I keep a food diary and a note of all the food I have eaten. I usually do this in the MySugr app as i find this app also tracks my steps and in my case if I do a lot of walking I know I don’t need to take quite as much insulin. This was useful for when I saw the consultant.

Within this past week, I have found the insulin has given me much more freedom. Especially as I am on a city break at the moment with friends. I now don’t have to find a special restaurant that is low carb, instead I can just eat whatever they do and inject for it

selya said:

@Diakat Thank you! Yeah, I have been using that app since I was diagnosed but food items are kind of hard to guess and its not available on the app either.

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You can always give a small dose and correct later if need be, sometimes trial and error is the only way.

If the medics have asked you to keep your doses fixed for now it is because they are trying to work out ratios that work for you longer term. So stick with it for now.
In time you’ll learn to adjust your doses to fit what you eat. And if it goes bit wrong and you end up high how much to inject to get back into range.

OP - have they asked you to keep a diary? Basically every time you eat take you BG level before you inject / eat, write it down. Also write down the carb content of what you are eating and how many units of novorapid you've taken. 2 hours later take your BG again and write it down too. Writing down the time of day you are eating is also useful.

That will help your nurse work out how much insulin you need in relation to carbs at certain times of the day.

They will run you a bit high to start with because you need to reduce BG gradually and they will want you to avoid hypos until you're a bit more settled. You do need to inform the DVLA though.

If your BG is high 2 hours after eating that's because you didn't take enough insulin for the carbs you ate. Right now the nurse needs to know how your body deals with carbs so the diary is important - don't suddenly go low carb.

Can you speak to any of the diabetes team at the hospital? I had telephone calls with mine after I was diagnosed so they could help me adjust my dosages.

We cannot advise on doses here. I do understand that the weekend won’t be ideal for you though, hoe you still have a great time.