Please help me.

[cancerian87]

hiya Nick

i can completely understand what you're going through, though to be honest i find if people say that to me i just think that they don't really.

i read some of the posts about having being diagnosed 6 months, 2 week etc. i've had it for 14 years and i'm still in denial. i've seen countless pyschiatrists etc, and they don't help.

i went on a DAFNE course (which stands for dose adjustment for normal eating) as you're a bit unsure about the terminology. you didn't need blood sugars prior to going on it, as i never do them. so if you want to go just go on. i did need a week free to do it though, so you might need to book a week off work if you go.

to be honest, i didn't find DAFNE helped me. it thought me carb counting though you can buy those little diet books if you really want easy carb counting. those tiny books that are like banana, 15g carbs, 0g fat etc. might help. i use to be on a lot more insulin, but they cut me down by probably about 75%. i've just gradually worked it back up since then though as i don't feel comfortable giving a few units per meal etc.

the lumps that you're talking about i have. i have one massive one on my stomach which stretchs all the way across. the top part of my stomach is flat and the bottom is not. clothes buying is very hard. i don't do it in that area anymore but even now about 2 years on it's still lumpy and to remove the severe cases surgery is the only option. i would never use my arms. that's one area i couldn't do. i use to do legs but that's a hastle if you go out.

um i've forgotten the other things i was going to mention. sport isn't a big deal i don't think. if you feel a bit low just have something. maybe do a few units less of insulin if you've just had a meal, or if you do sport just before a meal then just drop a few at that one as your metabolism keeps going.

i feel sorry for you. well i feel sorry for all of us. i personally hate it. and think people that don't have it have no idea what it's like. my boyfriend dumped me because i'm depressed about this as well as other stuff. so you're kind of lucky that you have someone who wants to be there to help.

sorry it's not an uplifting joyful message, but i think i might as well just write down the truth of it, and there's nothing joyful about it.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Hi Nick

I had 2 slices of toast (32g in total) a fried egg, some freshly cut ham and a tiny dollop of HP tomato sauce. Not sure why but I decided to inject about 18 units of Novorapid. Can someone please help me with how to calculate what to inject for what I eat and what my sugar levels are? Would it just be a case of trial and error...???

18 units of novorapid is a huge amount to give for such a low amount of carbs that you had.
Initially DSN's normally tell newbie type 1's to inject 1 unit to 10g of carbs.....as far as I can see from the list of food that you gave you only just had 32g of carb which for new type 1's would be about 3 units of fast acting insulin.

Even if you were working that 1 unit of insulin equated to 5g of carbs, you would only give yourself 6 units.....

Worries me that you have injected such a huge dose whilst officially being hypo level as well. Much preferable to eat 3 or 4 jelly babies first to get your bloods up quick, wait until they are 5 or above and then inject and eat.

Initially, as said DSN's normally set new type 1's up to 1 unit of insulin to 10g of carb that you eat. So, add up the carbs that you are eating in total, and divide the toal amount by 10 to give you the units of fast acting insulin that you should be giving yourself.

Do this as a starting point....and speak to your DSN.....

 

[moonstone]

I agree and so far Nick you've only mentioned taking Levemir once a day - it isn't designed for that, you need it twice a day, so you're probably overcompensating for the lack of background insulin by injecting more of the rapid-acting. You need the background to give you a good level all day - you can test this by not eating (or only eating carb free foods) for a day and testing every hour and including a 3am test during the night, to see if you're dropping low then (dawn phenomenon). Obviously that shouldn't be a day involving exercise. You'll know if you're having too much because you'll go low. You can tweak the timings and doses to give you a good 24hr coverage with no peaks and lows. Then you should find your novorapid doses reducing drastically. I would personally only have had to inject 2.5 units max for that meal, assuming I wasn't low beforehand. If I was low I wouldn't have injected anything. I am very sensitive to insulin though so in total, I only inject about 20-25 units a day including my background, but still - 18 units just for that is really high. Three of us have now suggested the same starting point for you so it would be really nice to hear if you've been applying it and getting anywhere with it?