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Parenthood with diabetes

K

Keziab

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
My partner has had T1D since he was 15 (M29). We have our beautiful baby girl who has just recently turned 4 months old. I am desperate to support him during this time as since having our daughter his blood sugars have been ALL over the place - literally going from high to low and being stuck in this 'red' for hours on end. It doesn't seem to matter what he eats, when he takes insulin, we feel as though we have tried everything and nothing seems to be working. Due to these frequent highs and lows, he barely gets to spend any time with our daughter. This also puts the pressure on me more as the mum as whenever he cannot be with her, this falls onto me (and as mums know, after being with a baby 24/7 overnight and whilst your partner is at work, this can get exhausting incredibly quickly). I am just looking for some support or advice, to know we aren't the only ones in this situation, and how we can get his blood a bit better so he can actually spend some time with his daughter. Any recommendations would be hugely appreciated.
 
Hi @Keziab ,

Welcome to the forum & congratulations on your daughter.

When you say your partner gets “stuck in this 'red' for hours on end.” is this using a CGM like a freestyle Libre?
Does he check the reading against a BG meter?
 
Hi @Keziab although I cannot give medical advice, it would be useful to know a little more about a day or two's eating (especially carbohydrates) and dosage times. I was type1 when my daughter was born 41 years ago and although she was a source of great joy, stress wreaked havoc with my blood sugars, making them higher. I had a labour intensive job and the combination of injecting bolus insulin to bvring down the high levels combined with heavy work would mean that I could spiral downwards rapidly. Loss of sleep undoubtedly added to the problem. All I can say is that I was on a fairly high carbohydrate diet, ate at fixed tiimes and adjusted dosages when necessary.
 
Jaylee said:
Hi @Keziab ,

Welcome to the forum & congratulations on your daughter.

When you say your partner gets “stuck in this 'red' for hours on end.” is this using a CGM like a freestyle Libre?
Does he check the reading against a BG meter?
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! Yes sorry he has a libre sensor. Yes he often confirms it with his meter. He tends to be 'LO' for example corrects it with 3-4 jelly babies every 15 mins, it starts to creep up then stays in hypo, then he will go into the green (good blood sugar level between 5-9ish) then a little while later he'll be in the'HI' like 18 and then be in a constant cycle
 
Thank you so much for this! Yes the doctors recommended he didn't do nights with our baby as this messed with his blood. We aim for dinners around 5-6pm however with a baby it's always hectic! He has tried low carb dinners such as 50/60g, high like 145g, split dosing, taking before, taking after eating, but nothing seems to work. The only thing we can think is the 'never being able to chill when eating' but i don't know how we can help this
 
Keziab said:
He has tried low carb dinners such as 50/60g, high like 145g, split dosing, taking before, taking after eating, but nothing seems to work.
Click to expand...
Interesting carb range. ! was put on 240gm a day at the age of eight and still stick to that even though I don't have to. But in today's terms that is considered a high carb intake. What I would suggest is to try and stick on a lower level and (with consultation with his diabetes team) adjust the dose gradually. It may be that his consultant would disagree, but I would reckon 145g is a very high level of carbs for one meal.
 

Im sorry to hear of the problems your partner is having balancing his blood sugars. I’m sure that is also very hard on you, especially if you are being woken by his alarms at night.

I’m going to caveat this with the fact that I’m type 2 but I am on MDI with Lantus (long acting) and fiasp (for bolus, which is supposed to be a 15 min fast acting).

I certainly find a lower carb meal is easier to dose for. By lower carb for me I mean up to 60g.

When you say he takes 3-4 jelly babies every 15 mins how long does this go on for? Does he check this with his blood sugar meter as the CGM will be much slower to respond to the blood sugar increasing. Does he follow up with some longer lasting carbs? It sounds as if he’s getting a rebound high from over correcting the low?

Then possibly injecting too much insulin to treat the high?

If he’s doing all this and still getting significant swings then it wou,d be best for him to contact his diabetic team to see what they suggest.
 
In my experience, once you are LO it can be very very easy to over correct and then go HI, and then LO again and so on.

In theory the sensor should be warning him before he goes LO and then he can take a small amount of carbs to avoid the whole situation.

How is your husband coping at work?

I have had issues with hypos in the past but these have been almost completely eliminated by going on a pump. I would suggest he pushes his team for more help....

I wonder how confident he is that his bolus ratios are correct?
 
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