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Type 1 Struggling with diet and keeping my diabetes in control

H

hev123

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,
My boyfriend was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 2 years ago but ever since he has gotten older he has stopped looking after him self and not been keeping on top of his insulin. Every time he does his blood sugars they are always very high, I am so concerned about him. Could anyone give me tips on how to help him please? Also is it ok that he only takes his insulin after he has food or should he do it before he eats ?
 
Hi @hev123 ,

Welcome to the forums.

The timing of insulun injections is a personal thing, but it sounds like he would benefit from taking his insulin before eating. The only way to be sure is to test before eating and again after eating to see how much glucose levels have risen by.

Diabetics do sometimes undergo periods of burnout where the continual ritual of testing and injecting becomes overwhelming. This might just be a phase but high blood sugars can also affect a person's mood, leading to depression or becoming short tempered.

Is your boyfriend in contact with medical professionals?
 
urbanracer said:
Hi @hev123 ,

Welcome to the forums.

The timing of insulun injections is a personal thing, but it sounds like he would benefit from taking his insulin before eating. The only way to be sure is to test before eating and again after eating to see how much glucose levels have risen by.

Diabetics do sometimes undergo periods of burnout where the continual ritual of testing and injecting becomes overwhelming. This might just be a phase but high blood sugars can also affect a person's mood, leading to depression or becoming short tempered.

Is your boyfriend in contact with medical professionals?
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for replying to me,

Yeah that sounds about right he is so short tempered he gets very angry over the littlest things so that makes perfect sense. Yes he goes to the doctors for his check ups but he doesn’t seem to want to listen to them. He just won’t accept the fact he has diabetes so he doesn’t take it seriously. Can high blood sugars been serious for diabetics?
 
hev123 said:
Thank you so much for replying to me,

Yeah that sounds about right he is so short tempered he gets very angry over the littlest things so that makes perfect sense. Yes he goes to the doctors for his check ups but he doesn’t seem to want to listen to them. He just won’t accept the fact he has diabetes so he doesn’t take it seriously. Can high blood sugars been serious for diabetics?
Click to expand...

Diabetic complications are a well documented side effect of uncontrolled blood sugars. This is where I say, I don't want to worry you but.....

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/diabetes-complications.html

How high are his blood sugars? Do you know his hba1c average glucose level (probably done by his GP or the hospital).

Edited to tag @Juicyj ,@Jaylee @Scott-C @therower who may have something useful to add to the discussion.
 
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I am sorry to hear your troubles with your boyfriend, my brother has had diabetes for 14 years now and does not take care of himself even though he watched me grow up with diabetes for 38 years. The thing is that they do not want to face the fact of having diabetes, i have found people who get it in their 20s and 30s seem to take it hard. They were living a normal life then bang you are a diabetic and your whole life changes and you do not want to change so you take your insulin but that is it. Things have got that bad my brother has been told by the hospital that they are going to refuse to treat him as when he is rushed in they sort him out and then he signs himself out. It may be a good idea to seek mental help as well with diabetes and mental health problems are often together. I started seen the mental health team when i was 18 and am still seeing them now at 41, i hope you get him back on track or he can go through what i have been through. Laser treatment on both eyes, a total of 6 ops on eyes. 4 ops on hands, 1 op on elbow, being told at 21 i would need a kidney at 30, had a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2015 which was fine, then after the op all nerve endings are damaged and cause serve pain all the time, bladder and bowel problems, numbness below the knee and in hand, over the last two years i have had 131 appointments at different medical specialists and of course many admissions to hospital. The reason i have had these problems was because i was a brittle diabetic which means it was hard to get the correct BS and the only reasons i am still hears is for my kids who live with me and not wanting my parents to go through the grief of me taking my own life after want they have had to do since i was 3 years old.
 
leahkian said:
I am sorry to hear your troubles with your boyfriend, my brother has had diabetes for 14 years now and does not take care of himself even though he watched me grow up with diabetes for 38 years. The thing is that they do not want to face the fact of having diabetes, i have found people who get it in their 20s and 30s seem to take it hard. They were living a normal life then bang you are a diabetic and your whole life changes and you do not want to change so you take your insulin but that is it. Things have got that bad my brother has been told by the hospital that they are going to refuse to treat him as when he is rushed in they sort him out and then he signs himself out. It may be a good idea to seek mental help as well with diabetes and mental health problems are often together. I started seen the mental health team when i was 18 and am still seeing them now at 41, i hope you get him back on track or he can go through what i have been through. Laser treatment on both eyes, a total of 6 ops on eyes. 4 ops on hands, 1 op on elbow, being told at 21 i would need a kidney at 30, had a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2015 which was fine, then after the op all nerve endings are damaged and cause serve pain all the time, bladder and bowel problems, numbness below the knee and in hand, over the last two years i have had 131 appointments at different medical specialists and of course many admissions to hospital. The reason i have had these problems was because i was a brittle diabetic which means it was hard to get the correct BS and the only reasons i am still hears is for my kids who live with me and not wanting my parents to go through the grief of me taking my own life after want they have had to do since i was 3 years old.
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I am so sorry to hear that my heart breaks for you, you are so strong with everything you have been through I wish you nothing but health and happiness thank you for taking your time to reply to me. I try my hardest to help him he has started listening to me his blood glucose levels are 10.7 which they haven’t been that low in a long time which I am happy about because it means he is listening to me and doing his insulin before food, the reason why I downloaded this app was because I have never fully understood diabetes but thank you to people like you you are helping me learn so much about it so this means I can help him.
 
hev123 said:
I am so sorry to hear that my heart breaks for you, you are so strong with everything you have been through I wish you nothing but health and happiness thank you for taking your time to reply to me. I try my hardest to help him he has started listening to me his blood glucose levels are 10.7 which they haven’t been that low in a long time which I am happy about because it means he is listening to me and doing his insulin before food, the reason why I downloaded this app was because I have never fully understood diabetes but thank you to people like you you are helping me learn so much about it so this means I can help him.
Click to expand...
There is no need to thank any of us as we all want to help each other as sometimes you do not get the support you need. The thing with diabetes is that you are learning all of the time with research coming up with different things all the time, you are doing a great job with the support you are giving. The thing is diabetics/men can be pig headed and want our own way but you should take all the help you can as people are there to help. Every diabetic goes through the i am sick of this on a personal note quite a few times as you are only human, that is why i have a mental health team around me. At the end of the day looking after your diabetes comes down to the person who has it, they have to want to do it and you have many ups and downs but keeping your levels levels right. There has been times when i have not looked after myself the way i should like when i split up with my children;s mother. Stress can cause unstable BS as well as not eating but when you have diabetes you cannot help but get stressed at times. Good luck and there are always people on hear who will help even if you just want to let a bit of steam off.
 
leahkian said:
There is no need to thank any of us as we all want to help each other as sometimes you do not get the support you need. The thing with diabetes is that you are learning all of the time with research coming up with different things all the time, you are doing a great job with the support you are giving. The thing is diabetics/men can be pig headed and want our own way but you should take all the help you can as people are there to help. Every diabetic goes through the i am sick of this on a personal note quite a few times as you are only human, that is why i have a mental health team around me. At the end of the day looking after your diabetes comes down to the person who has it, they have to want to do it and you have many ups and downs but keeping your levels levels right. There has been times when i have not looked after myself the way i should like when i split up with my children;s mother. Stress can cause unstable BS as well as not eating but when you have diabetes you cannot help but get stressed at times. Good luck and there are always people on hear who will help even if you just want to let a bit of steam off.
Click to expand...

Yeah that is exactly true that’s why I joined this app I have learned so much already which is helping me understand more. Everything you have said makes total sense thank you so much for helping me.
 
@hev123 has your boyfriend been on a DAFNE course? There he will learn that the targets for type 1 diabetics are to have blood sugars:
  • 5.5 - 7.5 before breakfast
  • 4.5 - 7.5 before other meals
  • 6.5 - 8 before bed
Has your boyfriend read "think like a pancreas"? It's a great book that teaches the basics of how to manage type 1 diabetes.

Do you know what your boyfriend's hba1c is? There are DCCT risk curves that show the risk of micro vascular complications (like blindness, neuropathy and having a foot cut off, or kidney failure and needing dialysis increase the higher your hba1c is. The target for type 1 is to have it under 48 (6.5%) and this keeps the risk of dealing with these horrible complications as close to that of a non-diabetic person as possible.
 
@hev123 and boyfriend. Welcome to the forum.
You've already been given great , honest and important advice regarding your boyfriends diabetes.
Sadly there are times when we have to face up to certain realities in life. In this instance Diabetes will control and ruin your life...........if you let it.
You can deny having diabetes. It's not going anywhere though, it's just going to live and ultimately thrive with this outlook.
You can fight diabetes. Again, it's not going anywhere, it'll be there every morning ready to do battle with you again.
You can embrace diabetes. We know it's not leaving us, so why not make it earn it's living, use it to our advantage, make it the reason we achieve. It's a difficult way to do it but it can be done.
I feel your boyfriend maybe hoping that because he has no real symptoms at the moment and will be the same tomorrow that time his on his side. Sadly diabetes doesn't play by those rules. It's like a fungus growing deep down in the dark recesses of us and the longer we keep it in the dark, the more it grows. Your boyfriend along with your support ( he's already on a winner having you by his side ) needs to let light in. Realise that there's not many people as strong and as stubborn as us T1's.
There's so much we can do in life, even little insignificant things. Doing them and having T1 makes them all the better.
There's no reason why he can't be the very best T1 diabetic boyfriend there is, instead of just being the best boyfriend.
Encourage, praise and laugh with him and his diabetes.
Set small targets for your boyfriend, set aside a small amount of time each day to review that days diabetes. Set achievable goals, nothing unrealistic, just small steps.

I often think in situations like this buying a t- shirt with " I'm a T1 diabetic " slogan is a good start.

Good luck both . ( apologies I do tend to waffle:))
 
therower said:
@hev123 and boyfriend. Welcome to the forum.
You've already been given great , honest and important advice regarding your boyfriends diabetes.
Sadly there are times when we have to face up to certain realities in life. In this instance Diabetes will control and ruin your life...........if you let it.
You can deny having diabetes. It's not going anywhere though, it's just going to live and ultimately thrive with this outlook.
You can fight diabetes. Again, it's not going anywhere, it'll be there every morning ready to do battle with you again.
You can embrace diabetes. We know it's not leaving us, so why not make it earn it's living, use it to our advantage, make it the reason we achieve. It's a difficult way to do it but it can be done.
I feel your boyfriend maybe hoping that because he has no real symptoms at the moment and will be the same tomorrow that time his on his side. Sadly diabetes doesn't play by those rules. It's like a fungus growing deep down in the dark recesses of us and the longer we keep it in the dark, the more it grows. Your boyfriend along with your support ( he's already on a winner having you by his side ) needs to let light in. Realise that there's not many people as strong and as stubborn as us T1's.
There's so much we can do in life, even little insignificant things. Doing them and having T1 makes them all the better.
There's no reason why he can't be the very best T1 diabetic boyfriend there is, instead of just being the best boyfriend.
Encourage, praise and laugh with him and his diabetes.
Set small targets for your boyfriend, set aside a small amount of time each day to review that days diabetes. Set achievable goals, nothing unrealistic, just small steps.

I often think in situations like this buying a t- shirt with " I'm a T1 diabetic " slogan is a good start.

Good luck both . ( apologies I do tend to waffle:))
Click to expand...

Ah thank you so much for all your help and for taking your time to reply to me I really appreciate it. Everything you have said is so true I will take everything you said on board and try my best to help make this easier for him :) thanks again x
 
catapillar said:
@hev123 has your boyfriend been on a DAFNE course? There he will learn that the targets for type 1 diabetics are to have blood sugars:
  • 5.5 - 7.5 before breakfast
  • 4.5 - 7.5 before other meals
  • 6.5 - 8 before bed
Has your boyfriend read "think like a pancreas"? It's a great book that teaches the basics of how to manage type 1 diabetes.

Do you know what your boyfriend's hba1c is? There are DCCT risk curves that show the risk of micro vascular complications (like blindness, neuropathy and having a foot cut off, or kidney failure and needing dialysis increase the higher your hba1c is. The target for type 1 is to have it under 48 (6.5%) and this keeps the risk of dealing with these horrible complications as close to that of a non-diabetic person as possible.
Click to expand...

I will definitely get him that book to see if that helps him and his hba1c is 14 I think ? Does that average mean average blood glucose level ? Thanks for taking your time to reply back to me :).
 
@hev123 a hba1c of 14% is equivalent to an average blood sugar of 19.6 over the past 3 months. The target is to have a hba1c under 6.5%.

Blood sugar targets for dope with type 1 diabetes are:
  • 5.5 - 7.5 before breakfast
  • 4.5 - 7.5 before other meals
  • 6.5 - 8 before bed
So, at minimum he should be testing before every meal, to work out how much insulin to take for that meal, and before bed. Does he test? Does he understand how to adjust his insulin for meals eaten and current blood sugar? A DAFNE course would really benefit him to teach him these things, and spend a bit of time with other people with type 1 who are getting on with the testing and injecting and understand how frustrating they can be.
 
therower said:
That's gotta be typo of the day so far.
Laughing and smiling:):):):):)
Click to expand...

No typo, we're all dope. Or, I think I might have injured my ulnar nerves and I can't feel my little or ring fingers on my right hand! I'm hoping it will come back to life because I'm finding it fairly debilitating!
 
catapillar said:
No typo, we're all dope. Or, I think I might have injured my ulnar nerves and I can't feel my little or ring fingers on my right hand! I'm hoping it will come back to life because I'm finding it fairly debilitating!
Click to expand...
Damaged ulnar nerves. Sounds annoyingly painful. :banghead::banghead::banghead:
Not a typo??????? Well it still made me smile.
 
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