Problem with meals and hypo's

[fatKat]

Hi, right, i'm 46 been type 1 for 22 years and to be honest I havn't been that brilliant at controling my diabetes.

My main problem is eating. I've never been a big eater - more picking bits 'n' pieces throughtout the day. Anyway......for the past 3 months, i've regulary been seeing the diabetic specialist nurse every 3 weeks or so due to changing my insulin doses and just keeping an eye on my blood sugars.

My problem is, regardless what i say to the nurse regarding meals etc he doesn't seem to listen to me.

I simply can't eat every few hours. I can't do it.......breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Apart from the cost of all this I cannot eat that amount of times in a day, every day etc etc. I've tried to follow the correct way with meals but i'm now having hypo's all the time, I feel tired, worn out and fretting about what i'm supposed to do.

I'm sorry about this post cos I don't even know what i'm trying to say. Maybe i'm just letting off a bit of steam and maybe get some feedback on my predicament. . . .

.....so, what do i do ? Having breakfast is a trial even though its just a bowl on cereal, it takes all the will in the world to finish it. Then I can probably look forward to feeling horrible a few hours later so its 'more food' time...toast. More struggling to get it down...........then i have the inpending doom of lunch time........beens on (more) toast......things are getting harder now and i'm only half way though the day..........

Can you see what i'm trying to say. I simply can't do this. But back to the diabetic nurse. No matter what I say he's maid his mind up regarding what he's saying and what I must do and the mantra 'You must eat and take your insulin' . . I know that but I can't !

I'm not joking but I genuinely felt better when my bloods were a little high and its so (Expletive deleted) tempting to have my insulin when I need to..IE when i want to eat or feel hungry.....

This all sounds like i'm moaning and I do appologize for it but I just seem to be in a catch 22 situation. . .

Well that my rant...

Any wise words would be most appreciated.

Thanx for reading and all the best

Dean H

 

[noblehead]

Hello Dean,

What insulin regime are you on?

I'm type 1 also on MDI (novorapid and lantus) and only eat 3 times a day without the need to snack, when I was first diagnosed I was on the twice daily dose and like you had to snack even when I wasn't hungry, MDI and carb counting does away with the need to snack and this may be the route for you if you aren't on this regime already.

Nigel

 

[HLW]

I simply can't eat every few hours. I can't do it.......breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack.

I have always been told only eat at meals, no snacking (well unless it contains no carbs), by the nurse, the doctor and the dietician. I'm not on mixed insulin though, like Nigel says it might be worth considering changing insulin regime if the one you are on is not suiting you.

 

[fatKat]

Thanx for the replies...

I'm on Humalog 3 times a day and Lantus before bed.

I think after reading the replies that I should go back and ask for a possible change in insulin/doage and go from there. I simply can't handle this amount of food.

Thanx again

Dean

 

[HLW]

You should be adjusting the dose yourself depending on your blood sugar levels and what you eat, rather than adjusting what you eat to match the dose someone has dictated to you. See if you can get a referral to DAFNE or failing that a different diabetes nurse if the current one won't listen to you.

 

[fatKat]

I totally agree with the point regarding altering my own doses, its what I used to do. And to be honest i'm going back to doing that way. For me it seems to work a lot better than constant hypo's and 'chasing' my meals. Rather that than struggling to keep up if you see what I mean.

Just as an example, my before breakfast reading this morning was 8.7 so I've had 12 units of insulin. BUT, and I know this is wrong but I have yet to have breakfast. Why, because the thought is making me feel queezy. I also know this is wrong but i'll just have a big swig of Lucazade.

What I would usually do is have a few units of insulin (maybe 4) just to bring my blood down a little till mid morning or dinner time and have something to eat at about 1 or 2pm. I'm not saying this is right but it does keep my blood sugars at a resonable level.

As I said in my in my first post, I feel that the diabetic nurse simply wasn't listening to what I was trying to say . Initially, he had me on 16-16-16-28 which believe me was ridiculous. That lasted a few days as I spent 3 days with a constant hypo. Again, I went back and he reduced by 2 units for all does. This was still far to high and have now pulled it down to 12-12-12-24 which I feel is still a bit risky here 'n' there.

Question: regardless of the doses taken whether its 4 units or 12 etc or/and i'm eating very little, if my blood sugars are OK is this a problem.

Thanx again for the support B-)

Dean

 

[HLW]

I don't decide on a dose or inject before I have prepared the food and got it ready to eat, this way
I hope to avoid injecting too much.

Can you eat anything at all in the morning? You could have a very small breakfast and a small amount of insulin.

 

[becki]

Hi,

It makes it difficult, I don't know if this is something that you have looked at or would consider but what about a pump, hypos is one of the categories (in my area anyway), your background insulin is basically drip fed through the day and then you bolus as you eat - so eliminating the amount/frequency of eating. You do have to wear it all the time ( can take off for showers) but you'd be surprised you forget its there. You have to prove you can carb count and it took me about 4 months from start to getting the pump.

it may make you a lot more comfortable.
Just a suggestion, hope you get somewhere, not good about dsn because mine is fab and really listens x

 

[sugar2]

Dean,

from what you have said, your old approach was pretty mucj what I was taught to do......thinking of eating, test, have enough insulin to cover the about to be eaten carbs, and any correction required.

Thing is though...why are they taking such an interest in your control? What was the original issue that prompted all this concern in the first place? From what you have said, your dsn is taking an very ususal approach...as long as you are eating healthily, you shouldn't have to feed the insulin. I just wondered if there was something else going on? Otherwwise, seems odd advice :?:

 

[fatKat]

The main problem was my control that initially prompted the frequent visits to the DSN.

I had got into the habbit of having quite high blood levels (12s-16s and higher), mostly because I hated having hypo's. I started forgetting to have my lunch jab and things just got a bit silly.

To be honest my bloods are a lot better now, still a bit erratic but certainly better with a weekly average of about 7 or 8 which is certainly better than 14 !

Regarding the advice from my DSN, I did question some of his wisdom sometime afterwards and felt that the doses he wanted me to take was simply to much (12-12-12-28). I have since started to set my insulin dose to what I eat. This seems to work fine....at the moment but I feel OK with it and hopefully it'll get a little better.

Pump ! Yes, i have thought about it and i'm still concidering the possibility.

Anyway, many many thanx for the replies. It's certainly helped and given me food for thought.

Thanx to all

Dean