# hi there



## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

Got diagnosed in November 2010 and trying so hard to be a good new diabetic but so so hard! have type 1 and so dissapointing when i cant reach my target numbers, i am on novorapid 3 times a day and levemir at night which i am trying to get right and not suceeding very well


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## Northerner (Mar 12, 2011)

Hi, welcome to the forum  You haven't been diagnosed long so don't blame yourself if you are still trying to get to grips with things! Are you on fixed doses of novorapid or have you been taught how to 'carb count' - to change your dose according to the amount of carbohydrate in your meals and snacks? If on fixed doses then it can be very tricky to maintain good control, and you need to ask your team about a course such as DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) - this will make things much better!

There is a lot to learn! I would recommend getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults by Ragnar Hanas. It will explain everything you need to know about living with Type 1. Well, maybe not _everything_, but for those things it doesn't, you have us! 

In the meantime, please ask anything that may be troubling or confusing you, nothing is considered 'silly'!


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## Copepod (Mar 12, 2011)

Welcome akls77. Don't be too hard on yourself - you're probably still in honeymoon phase, which means your pancreas is still producing some insulin, usually a bit randomly. 
There's more to life than ideal blood glucose numbers - what sports / activities do you do?


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## am64 (Mar 12, 2011)

welcome to the forum x have a good look round no questions are regarded silly here... good luck


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## teapot8910 (Mar 12, 2011)

Welcome to the forum akls77  x


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## Robster65 (Mar 12, 2011)

Hi aksl. Welcome 

Once you get chatting on a few threads, you'll get a good feel for where the middle line is between tight control and living a normal life. We all struggle to pin it down sometimes, but you will go mad if you worry too much.

Rob


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## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

*Thanku*

thanks for being so nice, i was diagnosed with diabetes in pregnancy gestational i injected 3 times a day then, then i had my baby who was 1 last month from having him to november i was fine saying that though i probably was in what you say the honeymoon period then got really ill lost alot of weight which i thought was brill as ate loads and shed loads lol but i was really ill downside then got diagnosed type 1. i am going to learn carb counting and as insulin not fixed i can tell to a point how much i need to what i eat although many times not right things oops! i think i got used to injecting through bein pregnant! just so disppointing to see double figures 3 quater of the time even mornin never under 7.3 gosh that feels better sorry to go on but such a relief to talk to poeple who can understand x


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## Northerner (Mar 12, 2011)

It makes a big difference to talk to people who know how you feel, and there are loads of us here!  Iwas in a similar position to you for the first few months - I sort of knew how to adjust my novorapid, but didn't really understand the ins and outs. If you are high most of the time it's most likely that either your levemir needs increasing or you might even need to take it as two injections, 12 hours apart (for some people it doesn't last 24 hours so it can run out when you still need it).

It would be a good idea to ask you DSN about the levemir to help get your levels doen a bit, but don't do it without talking to him/her first as it can be tricky to get right.


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## teapot8910 (Mar 12, 2011)

The Carbs & Cals visual guide book is great I find for learning how to carb count, I bought it a few months ago and am already learning some by heart xx


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## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

*r.e*

can u please let me know where i can get the carb book please my diabetic nurse showed me and it was excellent but didnt show me author had so many different portions its amazing some1 went to the trouble of taking photos of them all lol i am soon to start the course with my dietician for 4 weeks.  I am on 22 levemir at night which seems high (i never know whats high) i read some 1 took 16 in the morning 16 evening. novo ranges from 6 to 10, 6 is basic food though! x


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## Northerner (Mar 12, 2011)

akls77 said:


> can u please let me know where i can get the carb book please my diabetic nurse showed me and it was excellent but didnt show me author had so many different portions its amazing some1 went to the trouble of taking photos of them all lol i am soon to start the course with my dietician for 4 weeks.  I am on 22 levemir at night which seems high (i never know whats high) i read some 1 took 16 in the morning 16 evening. novo ranges from 6 to 10, 6 is basic food though! x



People's needs for insulin vary so much it's impossible to compare really. I started on 20 lantus, but currently I'm on 5 units! 

You can get the book here:
Carbs & Cals: A Visual Guide to Carbohydrate & Calorie Counting for People with Diabetes


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## teapot8910 (Mar 12, 2011)

akls77 said:


> can u please let me know where i can get the carb book please my diabetic nurse showed me and it was excellent but didnt show me author had so many different portions its amazing some1 went to the trouble of taking photos of them all lol i am soon to start the course with my dietician for 4 weeks.  I am on 22 levemir at night which seems high (i never know whats high) i read some 1 took 16 in the morning 16 evening. novo ranges from 6 to 10, 6 is basic food though! x



If you click on where it says Carbs & Cals it should take you to Amazon which is where I bought mine  I'm on 14u of Lantus a night and adjusting my NovoRapid according to my meals. The visual guide is brill though, helped me lots xx


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## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

*excersize*

i should do more excersize but with the baby its hard to fit it in thats no excuse though lol i hate hypos and when i do more i go dwn quite fast have a good warning signs so i can get to it b4 it gets to bad. thank u u guys u have made my day x


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## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

*my mind*

i know even when i think or look at food what should be or not going in my mouth its just i just keep putting it in! i get so excited every monday this is the week todays the day i begin then i get peckish! but i am startin a new log book monday so will try then again, and i have high cholestrol to so have to try my best but not beat myself up 2 hard balance x


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## Steff (Mar 12, 2011)

Hi and a warm welcome to the forum


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## akls77 (Mar 12, 2011)

*hi*

hi chatterbox i love quotes x


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## martindt1606 (Mar 13, 2011)

Hi

I've been T1 diabetic since May 2010.  Started with Levermir and Novorapid but switched to Lantus in October as bloods sugars were all over the place especially late in the day.  Switch had minimal impact and last month I saw a DSN who I hope will become a permanent fixture (I'd only previously seen nurses once...).  First thing she did was change needles and injection sites.  I'm now using 4mm needles and injecting Novorapid into stomach and Lantus into top of legs.  We agreed a plan that next stage would be to move to split Lantus (evening & morning).  However stage 1 results so far mean I can stay on the single lantus injection regime.  In addition my NovoRapid injections are down at least 2 units per meal.  

I've pushed my GP and hospital for a place on a DAPHNE course but although my local hospital is listed as a DAPHNE centre they have no plans to run a course.  I use the carb book mentioned elsewhere and find it useful to a degree but I have great difficulty understanding that a big plate full could contain minimal carbs.....

As a compromise at my second appointment (on Friday) my DSN has attached a glucose monitor hoping to run it for a week so that she can explain how the food I'm eating impacts my blood sugar.  Hopefully I will then understand my basic food regime.

Cannot wait for the results and review - already have a big question BS at 15:00 4.6 no food and only water to drink so why 11.6 at 18:30????

Sometimes it just all seems too complex / variable / random......


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## everydayupsanddowns (Mar 13, 2011)

Martin re your 'mystery rise' two possibilities immediately suggest themselves. 

1. If you can repeat the rise pretty much any day then it suggests your basal (lantus) is too low. Basal should be just enough to keep your BG level if you miss any meal (and therefore take no rapid acting insulin)

EDIT: It's probably also worth mentioning that yout 'correct' basal level is quite likely to change through the year. It's also worth pointing out that your basal requirements may very well not be as flat and level as your insulin's flattish delivery profile. Insulin pumpers often spend a long time when they begin insulin pump therapy finely adjusting their basal insulin delivery rates throughout the day. For those os us on MDI it's usually more a case of getting your basal to be 'least worst' using insulin delivery time(s) and splitting the daily dose into 2 uneven injections 12ish hours apart and then adjusting meal bolus ratios to cover any shortfall/allow for over active basal at different times of the day. Hope this makes some kind of sense!

2. If the 4.x was following a hypo that you did not detect (don't know how good your warning signs are) the rise might have been caused by your liver going into 'emergency mode' and releasing it's store of glucose into your blood. 

Hth
m


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## everydayupsanddowns (Mar 13, 2011)

Akis

hi and welcome. Hope you get some good support with the carb counting. It will help your BG stability enormously. Ask all the questions and post all the things which confuse you. Chances are someone around here will have been there before you 

m


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## chrismbee (Mar 16, 2011)

Hi akls77 and welcome 

There is a thread in the "off the subject" area inviting people to explain where their usernames stem from - yours certainly doesn't give any immediate clues!

All good stuff already posted, but may I add the thought that the number of injections isn't necessarily related to severity of your condition?  I routinely find that, when the subject of diabetes arises with somebody for the first time, they are visibly shocked when I proudly confirm that I have 4,5,6 sometimes 7 injections in a day.  I quickly follow this up with an explanation that the more times you inject, the closer you are to mimicking the action of a healthy, working pancreas (pumps, of course, take this to a much higher level - I'm just not convinced I'm ready for one).

It was after reading through the various threads on this forum that I decided to experiment with splitting my Lantus.  Previously I was on 28 units at bed-time; now I take 10 at bed and 20 in the morning and, so far, it has been a great improvement.

Don't worry too much what other people take, as we are definitley all different.  I have heard of some taking 100's of units, but there are other factors at play there eg. insulin resistance.  You gotta work out what's best for you.

Good luck.


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## akls77 (Mar 17, 2011)

Hi, my name was supposed to say mlk77 my name is michelle and the other letters are my middle name and last and numbers date of birth! but i didnt get that name so i got this 1 instead lol, i am really fed up today i wana wash all the insulin out an start again i can not get my morning numbers under 7 with all the trying in the world with my levemir so friggin hard! my diabetic nurse says keep going up 2 units until i do it but i feel like be whole syringe at this rate and im putting on weight so feel like a big levemir balloon lol x just me having a rant 1 of those days


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## Northerner (Mar 17, 2011)

Keep going! It's one of the most difficult things to get right is the basal insulin (the levemir) - once you have that at the correct dose you'll start to feel better about things  How many units are you on now?


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## everydayupsanddowns (Mar 17, 2011)

Did I read that you have a baby keeping you busy?

If you are still having to get up in the night it might be an idea to do a quick BG test around 3am or 5am.

Just pushing Levemir ever upwards to get morning readings down might be exactly right, but if you are going hypo overnight and your liver is dumping glucose into your bloodstream as an emergency rescue measure and bounding you into a high (Somogyi Effect) then you might actually need to reduce your dose to get your FBG numbers down.

M


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## akls77 (Mar 17, 2011)

yeh i have a beautiful baby boy who is 1 and a irish boy, happy st patricks day to you all.  I am currently on 22 levemir but have been tryin different doses but i am going to start tryin a unit every 2nd night til i get it i think. I know i should not b hard on myself but i goto bed with such high hopes then see from 8 to prob 11.3 at a high and feel rubbish all over again. plus i feel fat and blur


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## akls77 (Mar 18, 2011)

I may sound thick buts whats fbg x


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## Northerner (Mar 18, 2011)

akls77 said:


> I may sound thick buts whats fbg x



Not thick at all!  FBG = Fasting Blood Glucose .


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## chrismbee (Mar 18, 2011)

Bet you're having fun with your 1 yr old? I loved that time in my kid's lives - they were so entertaining.  Just wait until they start to speak 

Don't be put off by your Levemir dose; some on here take less, some more (I'm currently splitting my Lantus 12 at bed and 18 in the morning). You need whatever you need!
Have you heard about basal testing? This is the best way to see how your long-acting insulin is coping with your background glucose.


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## Witchy Mum (Mar 23, 2011)

teapot8910 said:


> The Carbs & Cals visual guide book is great I find for learning how to carb count, I bought it a few months ago and am already learning some by heart xx



Got that book on Amazon, works out cheaper and we love it!!  It is so much easier when you can see the picture and work out your carbs.  My daughter sometimes look through it just to see what she fancies for dinner!!


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## Holpol (Mar 25, 2011)

Has anyone got any experience with the carb counter on the i phone or i pod, we were shown it by my daughters dietican and it looked brilliant and as its an app easier to carry about than a book.


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## shiv (Mar 26, 2011)

I've heard lots of good things about the Carbs & Cals app if that's the one you mean Holpol! I'll definitely be getting it when it's on Android


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