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Type 1 diagnosed tuesday!

H

Hellbunny

Well-Known Member
Messages
240
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi everyone, i was diagnosed type 1 on tuesday 17th july. i'm 20 years old.
Its quite a long one so i'l start somewhere :crazy:

2010 i found out i had what they thought was gestational diabetes with my first son, 34 weeks along. No history of diabetes in my family and my BMI was 20.0 at 34 weeks so normal weight, no risk factors of diabetes either. Had a GTT 6 weeks after giving birth it came back normal.

2011 second pregnancy, again diagnosed gestational diabetes but at 6 weeks along.. so extremely early. Both pregnancies my numbers were stable, i had to use novorapid with my second though as pregnancy guidelines are less than 7.8mmol 1hr after eating, i couldn't eat any carb without going over that number. During my second pregnancy i was tested for GAD antibodies and C-peptide or something, the diabetologist said my blood tests showed borderline and i am likely to develop type 1 diabetes. I shunned it off and forgot about it, surely they had to be wrong as my numbers weren't anything like a type 1 would be!

May 2012 i gave birth, healthy baby, over the moon!
June 29th i had a GTT done, came back 9.8 :silent:
Also that day, i had my MMR vacination, because i showed low immunity to Rubella during my pregnancy blood tests.. :crazy:
The nurse told me to be careful with my diet and come back in 1 year for another test.

July 6th, i came down very unwell, fever, chest pain, shivers, my nephew had chickenpox caught from a birthday party we both went to. I had no spots so thought i had the flu or a bad cold. I got worse over the weekend so the monday my mum took me to A&E as a couldn't stand, walk and my chest had a crushing pain. Got seen by the docs quickly and i was told the next day i was neutropenic (low white cell count making me suceptible to illness/infection) and i did infact have chickenpox! The spots showed later that night.
I got out of hospital 2 days later on a wednesday.


Less than 1 week later, tuesday the 17th i'd eaten soup for my dinner followed by a small milkyway bar, 1 hour later i had a weird feeling that i should test my sugars.. i went to check and they were 25.4mmol :***: :oops: waited 10 minutes and rechecked, 24mmol. Phoned the hospital to see what they wanted me to do (with the worry of me being type1) she said come in if worried, so i rechecked and was 26.6mmol.. not going any lower :(
Went in and the constant peeing began! followed by horrific dehydration, i have never known dehydration like it in my life, i got seen quickly and they hooked me on to drips, i stayed in hospital for 2 days, had bloods done, early DKA.


So thats my story, sorry its abit long, after reading a thread on here about the possible link between MMR and T1, also Chickenpox viruses and such and T1, i'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this?

Currently on Lantus at night and novorapid with meals, though i'm getting an awful lot of hypos! I had 2 units of novorapid with 40g porridge for breakfast, 1 hour later i felt shaky and my sugar was 2.8 :?: my DSN is phoning tomorrow as i'm not sure what to do, i was originally on 4units with meals but due to my hypoing alot (i had a big vegetarian lasagne for dinner with 2 units and again i dropped to 3mmol 1hour later)
 
Hello and welcome from another type 1. Goodness me that is quite a story :shock: you poor thing. It will take time for your body and your mind to get around diabetes. Its different for everyone and hypos are not nice at all, can be very worrying. Your DSN will probably advise you to take a little less insulin with your meals if you are having a lot of hypos ( if by chance your DSN doesn't ring by the afternoon, PHONE as they are often busy and do forget things at times)and later on try and get on Carb Counting course, it could really help you. :wink: Its an awful lot to take in and it will take time to adjust and get your head around, especially with a young family to look after, always busy. My daughter has had Chickhen Pox twice, but she doesn't have diabetes and as far as I now I have never had Chickhen Pox. Take care and if there is anything you need to know or are worried about just ask, and others will try and help as well. Best wishes RRB
 
It's so sad that this is how it's eventually diagnosed and treated.I'm lucky in that mine progressed less dramatically. You really should keep on at the d-nurses esp in the early weeks and months. You sound like me in that I was very insulin sensitive (well still am really) I asked for a child pen to cover half units, still need it.

Please post here as much as you need to. The first few months are a challenge with the fiddling and carb counting/insulin ratios, test test test, esp anytime you feel weird test! Hopefully the d-nurses asked you to keep a food diary for them. Two books that also really help me, Think like a Pancreas and Using Insulin, can't recommend them enough.
 
Thanks for the quick helpful replies RRB and Sanober :)
My DSN was really nice today, she phoned me twice even on her day off! She told me to not use novorapid with my evening meal and let her know what happens, i tested 2 hours later and got a 7.6mmol which i was pleased with! She told me about the honeymoon period and thinks i'm going through that right now, i've done abit of looking around on here and it seems the length of time this lasts can vary between everyone?
I also had glandular fever in march 2009 (which was 7 months before my first pregnancy started) so i'm not sure if this is linked also.
I'm just so scared of my 2 children getting this horrible thing, its difficult enough managing my own levels let alone a baby/child, i really feel for those out there who have kids with this.

I'm also so anxious of going hypo, especially with the kids, i'm not alone a huge amount of time since my partner works from home which is brilliant with this to contend with, i was planning doing some voluntary work along side college in september as i do want to be a nurse but again i'm worried about control, i'm just telling myself i have to be the one in control and not let this thing control me, easier said than done.

Thankyou again for the advice, its nice to know people are in the same boat (or not so nice since it would be ideal if nobody had diabetes) I will certainly check out the books :)
 
Also another question, since the high sugar episode tuesday evening, i keep getting dizziness coming over me, i will be fine one minute then i will feel dizzy :?
I'm thinking i will have to reduce my lantus also as i just checked and its 4.3 and i don't want to go to bed on that :(

Edit, it then dropped to 3.1. i've recovered from that but i'm so scared to go to sleep now.
 
I used to be scared of going hypo until a lovely LADA lady on this forum advised me to try to be calm which is the best thing to do. Your DN will have taught you how to correct? Also when during your early hypos you will have very obvious symptoms, they can be scary but as long as you are able to test, correct, test.. I would suggest you let your close family/friends know, I didn't want to make a big deal but during the first few months I did have hypos during work/social events and people appreciate knowing the signs so they can step if you need it. I've handled it myself bar a couple of times when others noted I was being odd haha.


Night hypos are different but I was re-assurdd by my DN I would extremely likely wake up...she was right. I miscalculated my insulin once and woke up heart pounding! Jelly babies at 2am is weird.

The Using Insulin book suggests If you can, test at 2-3am you're reading should not drop more that 1.7. Did the DN tell you what your bed time reading should be? I used to be 9 -11 now 6-8 I tend to eat dinner and allow 3 hours to pass to make sure am not going too low. But am more confident with cab counting. You should try testing 1hr, 2hr, 3hr after dinner.

How many units basal/bolus are you? And what is your insulin to carb ratio or are you on set amounts of bolus?
 
Thanks for the reply! :)
I was on insulin in pregnancy so i'm used to the hypos, but during the later stages (or because i hypo'd alot) my awareness became really bad, i would be at 1.8 and only then would i begin to yawn, so i'm worried i will lose awareness. Thankfully when i'm in the 3-4mmol range i do feel abit shaky/jittery so i make sure i have plenty of sugary drinks/sweets in to sort myself out.
It feels so scary now i know its permanent, i'm constantly going from feeling fine about it, happy/relieved i'm diagnosed and the next minute i feel trapped and out of control, what did i do to deserve this etc, i know its not my fault but the the thought of this forever is overwhelming but i have to stay strong for my kids.

Originally the DSN put me on 10units lantus, and 4 units of novorapid with each meal, but i was hypoing around 8x a day so i'm currently on 6units of lantus, 1unit with meals (40carb breakfast, 40 carb lunch and 50carb dinner) also having a snack after 2 hours (around 10gram carb) to stop the hypo, but she told me if i'm hypoing still then she will tell me to not bother with novorapid for now, just to keep testing incase i start going up.

I've not really had much advice regarding readings, but she said generally 2 hours after a meal to be under 8, but 9's are fine for now, i'm not sure about morning readings but yesterday was 3.2 (too low) i was on 10 units lantus/basal before, but last night i injected 6 units and this mornings reading was 6.8.

Thanks for the advice, it really helps knowing i'm not alone with this :)
 
You'll get there I can assure you.

It is tricky but you will get there. I understand the frustrations of being stuck with this condition and feeling like you can't forget about it. But as you stabilise and you learn more and more you WILL be able to forget about it for several hours at at time and actually feel WELL within yourself.

The way to think about it is this, does a basket ball player score every single he chucks the ball towards the hoop? No. If you can get it right 80% of the time, you're definitely winning :clap: Also the other thing I tell myself is "I'm not a robot", because even if I get it spot on then things may still not quite go my way. The best approach is just to be aware and plan ahead.

Most importantly don't become focussed too much on getting it all the right at the same time.

Big sugar swings definitely need addressing, going hypo too quickly definitely needs addressing. The aim is to get the right balance of Lantus and Novo (or no Novo, who knows we're all different).

Feel free to PM anytime if you need to x
 
Hellbunny said:
I'm just so scared of my 2 children getting this horrible thing, its difficult enough managing my own levels let alone a baby/child, i really feel for those out there who have kids with this.
Click to expand...

Hi there Hellbunny,

I know what you mean completely - I'm Type 1 and I've got 2 little boys and it would break my heart if either got Type 1 diabetes.

There is something that you can do and which I do and that is make sure that your children have vitamin d supplements; here is a link to a study discussing this.

http://housemajority.org/seaton/pdfs/27/5448201.pdf

Note that it says 'In children who received vitamin D supplementation regularly, the risk [of developing Type 1 diabetes] was reduced by about 80% if the child had received at least the recommended dose compared with those receiving less.'

The amount of vitamin d the children (from birth onwards) were given in the study was 2000 IU daily. The RDA in the UK is 400 IU for adults and 200 IU for children. I give my 3 1/2 year old 2000 IU a day and my 1 year old 1000 IU a day - he'll go up to full dose when he's 2 - there's no real reason other than parental caution as to why he isn't on the full 2000 IU's now though.

The vitamin d you want, by the way, is vitamin d3 in drop form - I buy mine from the US as bizarrely it's cheaper to do that than buy here. Drop me a line if you want more info.

Some people feel that vitamin supplementation is all a con and a way to extract more money from us, but I figure if there is evidence like that and the known toxicity levels for vitamin d are about 20,000 - 50,000 IU for several days then why on earth not? I discussed this with a GP friend of mine and he responded by putting all his children on vitamin d supplements!

As to your own diabetes; I'm very sorry to welcome you to the club but you will get used to it and if you use this forum you'll find lots of help (the method I find the very best in controlling blood sugars is to do as you did whilst suffering gestational diabetes and drop the carbs). You are on very low amounts of insulin at the moment so please be careful with hypos though!

All the best

Dillinger
 
Hi Hellbunny,

I suppose there is a very slight similarity from my story to yours. Without the chicken pox though.

1999 I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid, treated for about 12mnths with carbimazol and propranalol.
normal thryoid function for about a year. Then overactive again. Went on to be given radio iodine treatment and consequentialy went underactive. Treated with thyroxine.

2005 gave birth to a 10lb baby.........during the later stages of pregnancy had +1 sugar however when tested again 1 week later no sign of sugar.

2006 ( just under a year from my baby being born ) Whilst on holiday sudden blurred vision, ridiculously thirty and peeing like there's no tommorow. Came home went to optitions who sent me with a letter to my GP within 2 1/2 weeks I was on insulin and was told I was T1.

My friend is a nurse and said that even though my +1 sugar had gone back to normal, she thought that with me having such a big baby that I should have been monitored. Although I dont see how it could have been prevented!

I have also read on the F/B site alot of people having been diagnosed with T1 after chickenpox or some sort of virus.

I second what Dillinger says about carb counting I would higly recommend it.

Dillinger I found that article re the vitamin D supplement interesting and am going to ask about it as like you I will do whatever it takes to prevent my son having T1. I ensure he eats a healthy balanced diet and gets lots of excercise and fresh air. Thank you!!

Lucy. xxx
 
Thanks for the replies! Really helps alot :)

Update on me, 2 weeks ago they took me off insulin as i was hypoing on one unit of basal.. they've told me to monitor and phone them if my readings start to rise. Whats interesting is my readings have been normal since i've started the vitamin D tablets, really bizarre but maybe a co-incidence. I will certainly get the drops for my children though, anything that will help prevent this.

I'm dreading the numbers creeping up again, currently my fasting/morning readings is around 5mmol, 2 hours post meals i'm on 4-6mmol, so normal.. if only it would last!
 
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