looking for support / advice

I am 19 years old. I have made a lot of poor decisions regarding my diabetes the past few years. I am now looking to turn my diabetes around. I have been diagnosed for 17 years. I struggle with taking care of myself properly. I have decided to approach this as a new diabetic. I would love any tips and advice. I dont know any other diabetics and would enjoy being able to talk to someone who understands what life is like with diabetes in the mix.

Hi Roxy

Welcome to the forum

I am afraid that it is very very quiet on here and it is nice to see someone new posting.

I am a Type 2 so maybe not necessarily the right person to talk to about this BUT .....

Well done on deciding to turn yourself around, that is a huge leap of faith in yourself and a major factor in being able to control everything.

Did/do you have problems with eyes/feet/cholesterol etc etc etc when you were in your early/mid teens at all due to mega highs or lows?

Personally I find it totally understanding that teenagers and children want to fight against their diabetes and medication and restrictions as it is so unfair that they can't have what others around them are having. it must be horrendous to go through puiberty with hormones doing whatever they want to do AND try to control your levels in some way whilst actively kicking against it all

God alone knows how you all cope and I totally admire and feel for you, because I am not sure that I would have been very good at it!

I hate to sound glib and as though I was quoting from dieticians etc, but honestly if you can keep to a regular and fairly healthy diet then this will help you a lot. I truly don't agree with people saying you must eat this or that...a little bit of what you fancy is often not a problem, you just learn that there are some thing you just cannot eat (in my case meringues which I love) as they blow your sugars out of the water. Maybe it is easier sometimes for a Type 1 than a 2 (who is not on insulin) to adapt to these spikes although I know it often isn't as easy as that.

Have some exercise and try to keep as fit as you can. Go for your regular 6 month checkups and blood letting to discover what your blood sugar levels were like 12 weeks previously ( called a HbA1c test). Make sure that they are checking your bloods for cholesterol, triglyceride levels and liver function tests. You also need to give them a urine sample to test for other possible content like protein and albumin.

Get your feet checked out. Depends where you are in the UK depends on whether you get to see a Podiatrist (like me) or just a nurse, BUT they should be giving you a neurovascular assessment at least once in 12 months. That means listening to the pulses in your feet and testing your sensory ability in your feet as well as making sure that your feet look good and that you have no cuts / cracks etc in them. Any more info required about your feet send me a post or personal message on here

If you would like to know more about diabetes and get together with others then consider being a 'lay advocate' with Diabetes Research Network...link below. It is a NHS run department and they run various workshops (all free and food available at all day courses and travel expenses paid), which will give you some insight into new research into all types of diabetes plus a lot more about your condition. Plus it gets you meeting lots of others with diabetes and you normally get to speak to Drs and nurses who are actively engaged in research and can ask them anything you like ! They are approachable and like being asked questions and hopefully might be able to help you further

http://www.ukdrn.org/patients.html

Re the above I sit on a couple of panels in the South West for the DRN.

Hope any of this may be useful to you and hopefully a couple of the other Type 1's might come up and help you on here too.

Best wishes
Nick

Hi Roxxy,

Sorry for taking so long to reply.
Well done for deciding to make a change. I was diagnosed nearly 5 years ago as type 1. It's not easy and some days I still feel like giving up and jsut doing what ever I want, eating what I want not testing my level etc. But there is always a bigger part of me that stops me doing all those things.

In someways i think I was lucky in that I wasn't diagnosed until my early 20's, so I didn't have to go through my teenage years with it, I think it would have been much harder. At 19 I think now is the time to start nailing this, you will be fine.

As you have been diagnosed for so long, I'm sure you know all the blurb inside out. But I would recommend starting with checking your bg levels regularly (& if you are not already, making sure you take you insulin!).

When you wake up, before meals and before bed. Make sure you are eating regularly, you don't have to eat loads but you need to give the insulin something to work with and keep your body fuelled.

One of my nurses said, if you can get your morning bg reading good (4.0-6.5) you are set up to have a good day. I think she was right, a good reading in the morning means I wake up feel less tired and ready to start my day, but I high reading leaves me sluggish and tired.

Another thing to do if you are not, is book to see your diabetes nurse. For as much as I have had my fair share of problems with them, to start with they were key.

Hopfully you will have someone who is understanding and will help, rather than lecture you on what you haven't done in the past . Don't look back and regret anything. Everything happens for a reason, you've made the decision to get things on track and I wish you the best of luck.

Post on here with any questions, issues or rants.

I just hate being different I dont want to fight against my diabetes anymore because im starting to have side effects from it and it scares me but its like i have this mental block that i cant get past and no one understands i want to care but its like i cant. I jus t want someone to understand what im going through. Its so hard i find it very overwhelming .

It is very overwhelming, but honestly, once you have even a little control you dont feel so different to everyone else.

I have found that the constant highs & lows are what are draining and make me feel different. Always worring when the next hypo will be. Etc. But once you have a small hold on things you wont worry so much, and thing start to get better.

If you go to your nurse she might be able to suggest a group for you to join? I know in London there are a few different session that run, where ppl of similar ages or situations (pregnancy/ pump users/ newly diagnosed etc.) meet on a monthly/ weekly basis.

Don't try and do it alone, the health professionals are paid to help, so don't worry about reaching out to them for guidance.
x

Thanks Beanie

Nick

Hi Roxxy,

How are you getting on? Things any better?