Type 1's help!

[Miriamenily]

I've been type 1 for 7 years now. I was diagnosed at 14 and have never been able to control. I'm now at the point where I need help I'm terrified of complications I am about to move to the other side of the world and I am a bit lost! I've recently had a missed miscarriage and since then I've been so exhausted, hardly sleeping or eating and my sugars are crazy. Any advice welcome and appreciated.

 

[Natalie1974]

Well done on taking a step in the right direction and seeking help...to admit that you're failing takes real courage.

We all have times when we let things get on top of us...but please don't worry...with a bit of work...it's nothing that can't be put right.

First things first...apologies in advance for bombarding you with questions but will help us to get a clearer picture of where you're at.

Are you under the care of GP or hospital? Can you book an appointment to discuss things with them? Have you had an Hba1c recently? Are you carb counting?

There are many experienced type 1's here who although can't help with medication...can give you the benefit of their experience and help point you in the right direction

 

[Natalie1974]

Meant to add...so sorry to hear of your miscarriage that's a terrible thing to go through...I hope you have some good people around to support you x

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Sorry to hear of the miscarriage. Can you tell us a bit more about the insulin regime, whether you are carb counting and what your typical diet now is? What is your typical weight/BMI when not pregnant

 

[madsal]

I've been type 1 for 7 years now. I was diagnosed at 14 and have never been able to control. I'm now at the point where I need help I'm terrified of complications I am about to move to the other side of the world and I am a bit lost! I've recently had a missed miscarriage and since then I've been so exhausted, hardly sleeping or eating and my sugars are crazy. Any advice welcome and appreciated.

I went through the devastation of miscarriage tears ago. Go very easy on yourself,the impact of what has happened to you is massive. You will start to feel better,but your sugars are bound to be wild. I believe the most important thing for you is to allo yourself the time it takes to move on. I found a group which supports women who have miscarried and it helped a lot. Couldn't see it at the time but looking back it was invaluable.Talking helps.xx

 

[himtoo]

Hi @Miriamenily
welcome to the forum
so sorry to read of your miscarriage.
you have come to the right place for help. there are loads of us about to assist you -- just keep posting !!

maybe you could give us a bit more info regarding your daily routine , insulin , how often testing , exercise , etc etc.

all the best !!

 

[Juicyj]

No wonder your sugars are all over the shop, you have been having a hard time, I hope your ok. There will still be a lot going on in your body, hormones will be causing your BG to be erratic, so lots of testing to see what is going on will help you. Have you checked out what your support will be where you are going ? Try not to worry about complications that you may or may not have, the stress of this won't help you, try and work on the day to day management of your care, this is what you can deal with and will help you focus better on your control, you already have a lot to deal with.

Try to get more sleep and eat regularly too, try some walks in the daytime to get your stress levels down, I know both of these will be hard for you but as said above try and talk to those around you, you need some support right now.

 

[Miriamenily]

Thanks for taking the time to message me! I'm finding it really hard to get all testing done regularly because I took to throwing myself into work and not concentrating on anything. I asked my diabetic dr today if she would allow me to have the meter in my stomach again for a week to monitor them closely to help but she didn't seem confident. I want to try alarms and things too so I am aware of testing and not just forgetting it. I'm getting there anyway it's just hard.

 

[Miriamenily]

Hi thank you for taking the time to help me. I am throwing myself into work so just now my routine is I am up at 6 every day for work I have two cups of coffee every morning and don't eat till around lunch time most days. At work I'll always eat lunch but maybe not dinner at the minute because I just feel so sick most of the time. I have gone down in weight to around 7 stn 6. I get home from work around either 7 or 9 depending on my shift and work over time just now so long days and rotas weekly. Leaving not a lot of time for anything else tbh and I'm pretty rubbish at testing these days I just don't know how to make it stick

 

[Miriamenily]

I am carb counting but don't eat much now a days. My hba1c was high last time and I'm expecting a new reading in the next week hopefully I got the blood taken today. I weigh 7,6 now but I should be 8,6 normally. I can't thank you all enough it's really nice to have this support

 

[Juicyj]

I know it's easier said than done, but testing is key to control, set up Diaconnect on your phone and so each time you test you log the result in there, it will help you to monitor your BG better, it's not an alarm so still requires you to input but maybe if you change anything then just do this, Diaconnect produces charts and you can then see trends and patterns which will help you a lot with your control.

I know work is a good outlet to focus on but you need to put yourself first lovely, your life comes before anything else so please look after yourself x

 

[himtoo]

Hi thank you for taking the time to help me. I am throwing myself into work so just now my routine is I am up at 6 every day for work I have two cups of coffee every morning and don't eat till around lunch time most days. At work I'll always eat lunch but maybe not dinner at the minute because I just feel so sick most of the time. I have gone down in weight to around 7 stn 6. I get home from work around either 7 or 9 depending on my shift and work over time just now so long days and rotas weekly. Leaving not a lot of time for anything else tbh and I'm pretty rubbish at testing these days I just don't know how to make it stick

thanks for the very honest reply !! WOW !! where to start !! I was diagnosed at 14 too. Much like you I never really eat breakfast - black coffee was my only "food until lunch time when I was in work ( looking back it was dawn phenomenon ( high BG's) and i always wanted to wait till my bloods were lower to eat my first food )
enough about me though !

why are you "throwing" yourself into work ? ( i may have answered this myself - post miscarriage - totally understandable )does your employer allow you any break time to test etc ?

why are you feeling sick all of the time ??

this next bit is old person speak ( i am 57 )so it may not resonate with you -- but trust me "if you don't look after yourself nobody else is going to" - especially at work sooooo...............my advice is start small and TRY and just get a couple of tests a day in and as @Juicyj says -- get them recorded to a phone app.

your medical peeps will want to help you get your BG's sorted but in fairness they will want to see some commitment from you to KNOW you are taking it seriously - in this sense your health care is a 2 way street.

well I have said enough for a start and I am sorry if this hasn't been the nicest message in the world ( but part of me just wants to give you a big hug , tell you not to worry , and that I will wave my magic wand and make it all get better for you )

all the best !!

 

[tim2000s]

Hi @Miriamenily . Sorry to here about what's been going on. That's really tough. If you are struggling to remember to do things then I highly recommend choosing from a couple of apps to stick on your phone.

One Drop has the ability to alarm at times that you set it to for what it calls "Scheduled Meds". This is really useful if you forget to test, take insulin, eat, etc as you can add the alams in and it will tell you what to do. If you are struggling remembering all of this it is very helpful. It also allows you to take photos of food and other things to build up a personal database of your own information. Alongside this, it is designed to allow you to share how you are doing with other users, which leads to encouragement and operates similarly to the forum.

Dario and Diaconnect, whilst not having the social media aspect, provide the ability to set up reminders throughout the day to test. This may also be useful for you.

Many of the apps also include reminders. These are just the ones I've looked into.

 

[Ella5]

Hi! I have had 3 miscarriages. But now I have 3 healthy children.

Please look your bg levels. I wrote down everything I ate and controled my bg in every 2 hours. Don't let your bgs too high or too low,since it is bad to your embryo. The embryo will grow too big and you will have too much water in your stomach. So, if everything is under control you will be within 9 month a successful and happy mom. Good luck!

Edited by a mod to remove incorrect information and potentially dangerous advice

 

[Ella5]

Before preagnancy, in order to not to be stressed, I recommend to use natural remedy called rhodiola rosea extract with alcohol. It helped me to get over. I took every morning 15 minutes before breakfast it. Good luck! God blessing to you and your family!

 

[Miriamenily]

thanks for the very honest reply !! WOW !! where to start !! I was diagnosed at 14 too. Much like you I never really eat breakfast - black coffee was my only "food until lunch time when I was in work ( looking back it was dawn phenomenon ( high BG's) and i always wanted to wait till my bloods were lower to eat my first food )
enough about me though !

why are you "throwing" yourself into work ? ( i may have answered this myself - post miscarriage - totally understandable )does your employer allow you any break time to test etc ?

why are you feeling sick all of the time ??

this next bit is old person speak ( i am 57 )so it may not resonate with you -- but trust me "if you don't look after yourself nobody else is going to" - especially at work sooooo...............my advice is start small and TRY and just get a couple of tests a day in and as @Juicyj says -- get them recorded to a phone app.

your medical peeps will want to help you get your BG's sorted but in fairness they will want to see some commitment from you to KNOW you are taking it seriously - in this sense your health care is a 2 way street.

well I have said enough for a start and I am sorry if this hasn't been the nicest message in the world ( but part of me just wants to give you a big hug , tell you not to worry , and that I will wave my magic wand and make it all get better for you )

all the best !!

It's okay don't be holding back I need the help the right way not the easy way lol. I think I've started to feel sick all the time because I have literally run myself down so low with not taking days off and hardly sleeping. How do you connect up to your phone ? I'm using the insulinx meter just now which is handy because it has a target bg programmed into it. Thank you!

 

[Miriamenily]

Hi @Miriamenily . Sorry to here about what's been going on. That's really tough. If you are struggling to remember to do things then I highly recommend choosing from a couple of apps to stick on your phone.

One Drop has the ability to alarm at times that you set it to for what it calls "Scheduled Meds". This is really useful if you forget to test, take insulin, eat, etc as you can add the alams in and it will tell you what to do. If you are struggling remembering all of this it is very helpful. It also allows you to take photos of food and other things to build up a personal database of your own information. Alongside this, it is designed to allow you to share how you are doing with other users, which leads to encouragement and operates similarly to the forum.

Dario and Diaconnect, whilst not having the social media aspect, provide the ability to set up reminders throughout the day to test. This may also be useful for you.

Many of the apps also include reminders. These are just the ones I've looked into.

Thank you so much for your advice and help I'm going to have a look into these apps and see what I can pull up. It sounds silly because everyone should remember they need to do this but I just have so much other stuff in my head I can't focus so I forget and my dr advised maybe getting that sorted first but this is a priority to me my body first.

 

[himtoo]

it is really tough because your mental wellbeing and your ability to look after yourself physically day to day pretty much go hand in hand.( so can see where your Dr is coming from )
do you have some holiday time accrued where you could maybe take a couple of days off and just concentrate on "you"

i keep coming back to( in my mind) , just try to slow yourself down a bit if you can and take things 1 day at a time , try not to worry , try to get 1 or 2 small things right each day ( testing and food wise ) and don't beat yourself up about what you don't do.
( living with D is a marathon race really - not a sprint round the track once )

haha - i am personally not the best person to ask as regards getting apps to work on phones -- this is 1 thing that I can talk the talk but not walk the walk
there are others here on the forum that can help loads with that sort of thing though
i will tag @Mrsass and perhaps @Juicyj will come back and advise too.

 

[Juicyj]

Heya, it's so important to look after yourself, you need some time to help manage your BG levels and to also eat properly too. The apps mentioned above can be downloaded from the store on your phone, providing it's a smart phone though. I know Diaconnect is free, just search for it in your store and once downloaded you can access direct - shout me if you have an issue with it, it will help you mentally to take charge too, so stay positive and take some time out

 

[Miriamenily]

it is really tough because your mental wellbeing and your ability to look after yourself physically day to day pretty much go hand in hand.( so can see where your Dr is coming from )
do you have some holiday time accrued where you could maybe take a couple of days off and just concentrate on "you"

i keep coming back to( in my mind) , just try to slow yourself down a bit if you can and take things 1 day at a time , try not to worry , try to get 1 or 2 small things right each day ( testing and food wise ) and don't beat yourself up about what you don't do.
( living with D is a marathon race really - not a sprint round the track once )

haha - i am personally not the best person to ask as regards getting apps to work on phones -- this is 1 thing that I can talk the talk but not walk the walk
there are others here on the forum that can help loads with that sort of thing though
i will tag @Mrsass and perhaps @Juicyj will come back and advise too.

I am going to see what I can do with time off because I need it I think. You guys are great I really appreciate your help!