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Type1 progress

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grahamrb

Well-Known Member
Messages
107
It is now 14 months since my wife was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of 78

Sugar levels still range from 3 to 19

Despite this we are in range (4 to 10) between 65% and 70% of the time which is a miracle!

We don’t think that this will be bettered

There is still a lot of guesswork but that’s how it has to be.

Correction factor is always 1 to 3

Breakfast is the same every day (ratio of 1 to 5)

Lunch varies we sometimes eat to suit the 8 units required

instead of the other way round (ratio 1 to 10) or we guess at using 5 or 6 units

Dinner is an anachronism since it is at a different time every evening , sometimes at home or in a restaurant or a takeaway
Ratio of 1 to 8. We never seem to get it right since the reading at10pm tonight was 14, last night it was between 3 and 4
When it is that low we do something about it, when it is high we don’t bother

So in conclusion we will just carry on unless the average percentage in range goes down

The biggest problem is deciding what to eat, we lead busy lives and sometimes we decide what to eat about 10 minutes before eating, we are not good cooks in fact it took me over an hour to create some soup and that is with all the ingredients in front of me. Then there is all the clearing up afterwards,soup tasted delicious but was it worth the effort?
 
I think you are doing brilliantly, 65% to 75% in range is a massive improvement. And I'm so glad that you feel free to go to restaurants and decide on meals at the last minute.

I guess the other benchmarks is hba1c. Do you have any idea what that is running at?
 
grahamrb said:
I think that it was about 65 from memory,still a long way to go
Click to expand...

Speaking as someone who's had a lot of hba1cs done in 52 years of T1, while it's not fantastic it's not terrible and I've had a lot that were higher....:)
And I suspect that given your wife's age they may want her to run a bit higher than younger T1s (Hypos can be more dangerous if you are older as they can lead to falls.) And I also suspect that her next one may be slightly lower.

I still think you are both doing brilliantly. :)
 
You're doing great! But I'm thinking you might not be accurately counting carbs? It is wonderful you are going to restaurants, but they do take guesswork.

I think especially at 78, not taking enough insulin is better than too much. You don't want lows and my only worry is in the 3''s is not overly dangerous, it can make you feel lousy, but it just seems like one of these times it might end up lower.

I would get a Libre with alerts, it would really help with those lows, at least you would have an alert. Plus most of the time you would easily know by a scan that you are trending going lower and maybe eat something before you get there.
 
grahamrb said:
It is now 14 months since my wife was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of 78

Sugar levels still range from 3 to 19

Despite this we are in range (4 to 10) between 65% and 70% of the time which is a miracle!

We don’t think that this will be bettered

There is still a lot of guesswork but that’s how it has to be.

Correction factor is always 1 to 3

Breakfast is the same every day (ratio of 1 to 5)

Lunch varies we sometimes eat to suit the 8 units required

instead of the other way round (ratio 1 to 10) or we guess at using 5 or 6 units

Dinner is an anachronism since it is at a different time every evening , sometimes at home or in a restaurant or a takeaway
Ratio of 1 to 8. We never seem to get it right since the reading at10pm tonight was 14, last night it was between 3 and 4
When it is that low we do something about it, when it is high we don’t bother

So in conclusion we will just carry on unless the average percentage in range goes down

The biggest problem is deciding what to eat, we lead busy lives and sometimes we decide what to eat about 10 minutes before eating, we are not good cooks in fact it took me over an hour to create some soup and that is with all the ingredients in front of me. Then there is all the clearing up afterwards,soup tasted delicious but was it worth the effort?
Click to expand...

Hi Graham,
It sounds that you and your wife are working hard to keep her within the range. I find that checking with finger sticks to confirm low, or very high, Libre/Dexcom readings does help. You mention the correction factor, so I assume that you do corrections when blood glucose goes unexpectedly high. My readings often shoot up because of some infection or virus (or food that I haven't cooked myself). I am fortunate to have a brilliant team of diabetes specialist nurses at the hospital whom I can contact via email or telephone.
I am one of those people who was diagnosed with type 1 at a mature age, despite siblings and cousins who were diagnosed as toddlers, and whose GP, wrongly, assumed type 2. So, I'm lucky to be alive.

Good luck with everything.
 
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