Women and type 1 - does anyone have good control ?

azure

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9,780
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
My control is quite good. My last Hba1C was 29. Sorry, I'm not sure what that is in 'old money'.

I have an insulin pump and I've always tested my blood sugar a number of times a day. I find that helps a lot because I can nip any problems in the bud most of the time. I also count carbs carefully (I eat around 180g a day) and have meals that I know will work most of the time. The big thing that can throw me is eating out. That can put my blood sugar up because it's easy to underestimate the carbs.

As far as my period goes, I find I can go low in the couple of days before, and then my blood sugar rises when it starts. At the moment I'm pregnant, so I'm anticipating control getting harder. Not quite sure how that'll go, but I'll stick to my usual weapon - vigilance.

It was a scary report though and I worried reading it as it seems like diabetes can undermine all the healthy things we try to do. Roll on a cure!
 
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Juicyj

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My control is quite good. My last Hba1C was 29. Sorry, I'm not sure what that is in 'old money'.

I have an insulin pump and I've always tested my blood sugar a number of times a day. I find that helps a lot because I can nip any problems in the bud most of the time. I also count carbs carefully (I eat around 180g a day) and have meals that I know will work most of the time. The big thing that can throw me is eating out. That can put my blood sugar up because it's easy to underestimate the carbs.

As far as my period goes, I find I can go low in the couple of days before, and then my blood sugar rises when it starts. At the moment I'm pregnant, so I'm anticipating control getting harder. Not quite sure how that'll go, but I'll stick to my usual weapon - vigilance.

It was a scary report though and I worried reading it as it seems like diabetes can undermine all the healthy things we try to do. Roll on a cure!

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the pregnancy.

I do test quite a lot and carb count also, I eat low carb to try and reduce the room for error, but even with this perfect or as near to perfect BG still evades me, I laugh as I say this but have always referred to my type 1 as 'work in progress' and so it goes on !!

Best wishes ;)
 
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azure

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9,780
Type of diabetes
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Thank you :)

Sounds like you're working really hard to control your blood sugar. For me, an extra thing that helped was my pump. I found it impossible to get my basal dose right on MDI. I had awful nocturnal hypos one night and highs the next. None of the long-acting insulins matched what my body needed. With my pump, my blood sugar stays stable because the basal is perfectly matched. My basal needs vary a lot over the day and my pump can allow me to have exactly the amount of insulin I need.

So any mistakes that lead to high or low blood sugars are related to my boluses and/or carb counting. That's easier to sort, I find. I'm sure my Hba1C would be worse if I didn't have my beloved little pump.