# Hi all newly diagnosed type 1... Only 3 months in honeymoon phase great name :-).



## Levi (Sep 23, 2017)

So newly diagnosed on the roller coaster of ups and downs of diabetes. Honeymooning already and now 38 days insulin free..  Anyone else having same experience?


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## Ljc (Sep 23, 2017)

Hi Levi, welcome. Just saying hi as I’ve no experience with honeymooning but others here do, hopefully they will be along soon.


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## Northerner (Sep 23, 2017)

Levi said:


> So newly diagnosed on the roller coaster of ups and downs of diabetes. Honeymooning already and now 38 days insulin free..  Anyone else having same experience?


Hi Levi, welcome to the forum  How did your diagnosis come about? What insulin were you given initially? There's a theory that when you are given insulin it allows your beta cells to take a bit of a breather and restore their capacity to produce insulin again, at least for a while. I'm a rather strange case myself (but not unique) - I was put on a TDD (Total Daily Dose) of 65 units of insulin initially. This reduced fairly rapidly in the weeks following, but then my need for basal insulin (lantus in my case) continued to reduce over the following months and years. Eventually, after 4 years I had to stop the lantus altogether because I was still waking very low and having the occasional night hypo - I now haven't needed basal insulin for over 5 years  I still need novorapid for my meals, but this has also reduced significantly, I now need a TDD of around 12-20 units.

Diabetes is very strange and unpredictable and, it seems, can be quite different according to the individual. Some people honeymoon for a few weeks, some for months, and if you are especially weird like me, sometimes years! It can make it difficult when/if you start needing insulin again because it's hard to predict when your pancreas might decide to squirt out a helpful dose of its own, making dose calculation difficult and you need to be on your toes with testing  

What are your levels like now? I'd really recommend getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas. It covers all aspects of living with Type 1 and I still find it helpful on occasions, 9 years after my diagnosis. 

Please let us know how you get on, and if you have any questions or concerns, please ask away


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## Levi (Sep 24, 2017)

Ljc said:


> Hi Levi, welcome. Just saying hi as I’ve no experience with honeymooning but others here do, hopefully they will be along soon.




Hello... Not many responses apart from one good as can see. Very unrelatable time it feels like. Thanks for answering


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## Levi (Sep 24, 2017)

Northerner said:


> Hi Levi, welcome to the forum  How did your diagnosis come about? What insulin were you given initially? There's a theory that when you are given insulin it allows your beta cells to take a bit of a breather and restore their capacity to produce insulin again, at least for a while. I'm a rather strange case myself (but not unique) - I was put on a TDD (Total Daily Dose) of 65 units of insulin initially. This reduced fairly rapidly in the weeks following, but then my need for basal insulin (lantus in my case) continued to reduce over the following months and years. Eventually, after 4 years I had to stop the lantus altogether because I was still waking very low and having the occasional night hypo - I now haven't needed basal insulin for over 5 years  I still need novorapid for my meals, but this has also reduced significantly, I now need a TDD of around 12-20 units.
> 
> Diabetes is very strange and unpredictable and, it seems, can be quite different according to the individual. Some people honeymoon for a few weeks, some for months, and if you are especially weird like me, sometimes years! It can make it difficult when/if you start needing insulin again because it's hard to predict when your pancreas might decide to squirt out a helpful dose of its own, making dose calculation difficult and you need to be on your toes with testing
> 
> ...




My diagnosis came about after walking about with symptoms for six weeks and two failed. A and e attempts.  Seemed very rushed on the day though as was informed through doctor thay my kidneys were packing and in stage 1 failure to then be told I have type 1 diabetes after attending hospital. I was on levemir twice a day and Novorapid originally but was then changed from Levemir to Lantus. So say your TDD reduced rapidly over next few weeks as did mine but within maybe 50 of my diagnosis I'm now fully free of relying on insulin at all and pancreas seems to be showing signs of intelligence. I'm abit sceptical about my situation and diagnosis tbh. If I do have to go back on injections like you said can make it difficult which I'm already dreading as that's one of the biggest downfalls to me of have this. Testing stringently as do know want any complications or long term effects and yeah they're reasonably good one maybe two highs a week of above 10.  So yeah, know just lost with adm as 47 days now free of insulin but not many others to relate or even see if others have experienced. Thanks for getting back to us. Will have a look up on recommended book. So whats your thoughts after hearing?


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## Wirrallass (Sep 25, 2017)

Hi Levi and a warm welcome to our exceptional forum. I'm Type2 so I am unable to advise you I'm sorry but this forum has a collective wealth of knowledge and others will come along to chat with you ~ answer any of your queries ~ and give you advice. We're a friendly bunch of souls and we'll accompany you on your diabetes journey so stay with us and do please keep us updated on your progress. Take care.


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## Bloden (Sep 25, 2017)

Hiya Levi and welcome. My honeymoon was much more subtle than yours...I was never in a position to lay off the insulin for a while.  It must be a mix of a relief/stressful waiting to see what happens next. What did the doctor say (apart from "wow!")?


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## Levi (Sep 25, 2017)

Bloden said:


> Hiya Levi and welcome. My honeymoon was much more subtle than yours...I was never in a position to lay off the insulin for a while.  It must be a mix of a relief/stressful waiting to see what happens next. What did the doctor say (apart from "wow!")?



Hello and thankyou.. Most certainly a relief in terms of not having to have injections (the worst part for me)  but stressful also as when checking my bloods I'm waiting for good numbers to come up , hoping there not too bad. Didn't really get the wow from doctors as I hoped!!  More of a under guidelines I should be taking insulin but my argument is my levels are within reason and target to which they have now agreed with me.


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## Ljc (Sep 25, 2017)

Levi said:


> Hello and thankyou.. Most certainly a relief in terms of not having to have injections (the worst part for me)  but stressful also as when checking my bloods I'm waiting for good numbers to come up , hoping there not too bad. Didn't really get the wow from doctors as I hoped!!  More of a under guidelines I should be taking insulin but my argument is my levels are within reason and target to which they have now agreed with me.


I’m afraid you will get some professionals who will try to bang a square peg into a round hole.  
One concern I do have is, I hope you’re not having to cut down your carbohydrate intake too much to obtain good levels without insulin.


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## Levi (Sep 25, 2017)

Ljc said:


> I’m afraid you will get some professionals who will try to bang a square peg into a round hole.
> One concern I do have is, I hope you’re not having to cut down your carbohydrate intake too much to obtain good levels without insulin.



I did think that myself.  I have cut down my carbs but I was eating to many anyway before diagnosis. Now just healthy eating with right portion size and days I do fancy high carbs I.e sweet pancakes bread or ice cream etc  I just eat at earlier time to allow more burn off before bed.


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## Northerner (Sep 25, 2017)

Levi said:


> Hello and thankyou.. Most certainly a relief in terms of not having to have injections (the worst part for me)  but stressful also as when checking my bloods I'm waiting for good numbers to come up , hoping there not too bad. Didn't really get the wow from doctors as I hoped!!  More of a under guidelines I should be taking insulin but my argument is my levels are within reason and target to which they have now agreed with me.


When I told my consultant that I had stopped needing lantus, 4 years after diagnosis, he said that it would probably only last a month or two, and that I'd be back needing it before long. That was over 5 years ago  This is what my overnight levels looked like yesterday, can't really argue with this! 

 

These things are very unpredictable, unfortunately, and certainly cases such as mine are very rare, so it's not unusual for healthcare professionals to be sceptical and not to have encountered it before.

What was your main problem with the injections?


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## Levi (Sep 25, 2017)

Yeah your right there could be they've never experienced such cases as I know all don't go through and seems only a few of us do. 5 years doing well ;-).. Must be loving it haha. I hate doing the injections. Not something I enjoy at all.
You say you stopped Lantus are you not on anyform of insulin at all?


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## Northerner (Sep 25, 2017)

Levi said:


> Yeah your right there could be they've never experienced such cases as I know all don't go through and seems only a few of us do. 5 years doing well ;-).. Must be loving it haha. I hate doing the injections. Not something I enjoy at all.
> You say you stopped Lantus are you not on anyform of insulin at all?


I still need novorapid for meals with carbs in, although that has reduced considerably since diagnosis (down from 45 to around 12-20 units a day).

Not a good place to be in if you hate the injections - if you do need to go back to injecting I'd suggest discussing it with your DSN otherwise you could develop a very negative relationship with your diabetes, and that makes for a pretty miserable time of it given the nature of the condition  The injections have never really bothered me. They might sting occasionally, but on the whole I find them painless - if they were hurting you then that could be due to being tense, or needing a different length/gauge of needle (or both). The main 'pain' about injecting I find is getting the dose calculation right, with all the factors that can affect it  Given I need to inject insulin, and without it I'd rapidly become very ill, I may as well just accept it, but I do understand why some people feel resentful about it, particularly in the early days when it means a huge change to your life from what went before.


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## Levi (Sep 25, 2017)

Aaah OK that's not too bad. Needles and insulin pens are fine and I can inject perfectly Its just my side of things with doing it. Dosage must be hard especially if difficult to predict what your body is going to do that's why I'm happier of them for minute.


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## Ditto (Sep 25, 2017)

Hello Levi, welcome to the forum.


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## Tally (Sep 28, 2017)

Hi Levi and welcome to the forum

I’ve only been diagnosed for just over a month and I’m currently in the honeymoon phase, it’s definitely tricky trying to work out your dosage.


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## Levi (Sep 28, 2017)

Hey and thankyou.. Sorry to hear your here too! Hba1c is 120. I don't understand as mine was last 7.1?  you still taking anyform of insulin as I was on both Lantus and Novorapid but haven't need any now for 50 days.


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## Tally (Sep 28, 2017)

I’ll be honest I’m not sure how the HBA1C is calculated they just gave me that number 

I’m on Levemir morning and evening and I’ve been slowly reducing my rapid insulin to stop me crashing in the afternoons, so now depending on what I have I’m only on 1 unit with my lunch and 2 max for dinner, but the last few days even that’s had me dropping between 3-6 mmol in just over an hour, so it’s been a bit of a game of avoid the hypo 

I’m due to see the nurse next week so I’ll see what she has to say


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## Maz2 (Sep 29, 2017)

Welcome to the Forum Levi.


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