The thing that scares me most is having to bolus and getting it right. I seriously worry that if I don't get the dose right / wait the require 15mins that I'm going to fall flat on my big fat ar** and end up in A&E.
Exactly. We've all had that worry, and some of us have ended up in hospital or on the pavement (although, in my defence, I was in my twenties and it wasn't my fault the pubs were licensed to 3:00 am...)
I had some major disasters in my first year or two, and much later than that too.
Which is why I still had spells even quite late into it where, although, touch wood, I've never been "burned out" in the sense of not treating it, I've been seriously narked off with the unpredictability of it.
Enter stage left, cgm.
Bg moves around a
lot and we're meant to keep it in a tight range without being able to see it much just through brief strip glimpses: yeah, right, no wonder we make mistakes and get annoyed with it.
You'll have seen libre/cgm mentioned before. It's difficult to describe to someone who hasn't used it before how much easier managing T1 is with cgm.
When you can see how bg is moving in real time, you know that if you've made a bolus mis-calc, you've got a 20, 30 mins heads up on sorting it out with a scoof of apple juice, crisps, biscuit or whatever long before you're on the pavement.
Then, as time passes and you have seen thousands of cgm traces in different bolusing/meal situations, it just becomes easier to make the right judgment calls, because you've seen the effect of things in the past, and anticipate how your latest decision might pan out.
What happens is that the approach becomes more subtle: a pinch of carbs or insulin instead of a ladleful.
Things which I would have written off as T1 unpredictability a few years ago have changed: some are still unpredictable, but with many, I can now review the graph and say, ok, that happened because of x, y, z, and you just sort of store that stuff away for future use, sometimes without realising it. It just sort of accumulates through seeing so many traces and makes it easier.
This all makes it way easier to push out straight lines even in complex situations, with the reassurance of knowing that when it gets messy, as it will always do with T1, you're getting an early heads up on it before it gets too messy.
Pretty much every report I've read on cgm with T1 reports not only the numbers game, but also distress scores: these little bits of plastic stuck on our arms make people happier and more confident because they can now see and steer it, instead of reacting after the event.
Sue, I'd really strongly encourage you to look into cgm options, such as whether libre is scripted in your area, or privately funding it or dexcom. It really does make a serious difference with getting rid of the infuriating, disempowering surprises and uncertainties which T1 chucks at us, and that can be a real turnaround point.
Anyway, best of luck, and I see there's now a post from therower about crisps, one of my favourite subjects...