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Surgery & Type 1

C

Circuspony

Well-Known Member
Messages
981
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I may need surgery in the next month or so - possibly in/out in 1 day but that's still being discussed. The team doing the surgery are in a separate hospital to my diabetes team.

Any pointers from people who have managed their T1d through surgery? I'm very sensitive to cortisol so even the meetings have sent my blood sugar skyward.
 
Can you contact your diabetes team to discuss beforehand?
Are you on a pump or MDI?
General anstheasia or local?

If you'll possibly be in and out on the same day, I expect it's a relatively short surgery. Will you be managing your insulin yourself or giving over control to the hospital?
 
From my limited experience, if it's a local I'd expect you to be managing your insulin yourself. If it's a general, I'd expect the anaesthetist to be in touch before the op and you can discuss the treatment with him/her.

Good luck.
 
Hi
I had surgery recently on my shoulder.
They knocked me out for it.
I'm a funny onion MDI and do it all myself with no specialist or DSN.
The hospital had a Pharmacist phone to give me advice (!) on what insulin to give!
He was about 12 but as luck would have it he advised me to reduce my insulin on the day which i was going to do anyway.

On the day the anaesthetist was happy me being in the 7s with nothing on board only background insulin.
She seemed more concerned with the injection which she called a blocker and it was the biggest needle i had ever had in me!

The op took about an hour and i came round fine and dandy and my sugar levels hadn't moved.

I wish you well.
Tony
 
Thanks Tony
It'll be a general but like you i haven't been in touch with the diabetes team for a long time so I handle MDI by myself. I'll see if I can get them to talk to me (they've twice told me I've discharged myself from their care which is nonsense, so I gave up. They weren't much use with day to day anyway)

Background insulin should be ok so long as they don't leave me hanging around on an empty stomach all day, otherwise even Tresiba will drop me.

Team #2 had no idea i was T1d. Records in the NHS leave a lot to be desired. It sounds like I'll need to sort it all myself then!
 
Circuspony said:
Background insulin should be ok so long as they don't leave me hanging around on an empty stomach all day, otherwise even Tresiba will drop me.
Click to expand...
They should be able to put you on a glucose and/or insulin drip IIRC.... There are plenty of insulin users having ops, the anaesthetist should be able to cope.
 
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