This seems like a nice friendly place and I'm thankful for that because I need to learn more about this disease and for this old dog it's hard to learn new tricks LOL!!!
So to start off I'll tell you about the day I woke up as a diabetic.
I think it was April 15th. I woke up with a very dry mouth and it was so dry my tongue hurt. Then I had leg cramps in both calves, then my foot, then the thing that bugged me the most, my right foot pointed down and it wasn't me pointing it it did it it's self and the muscle near my shin were hard as a rock and hurt for a couple hours. Then when I got out of bed my vision was so blurred I had to feel my way to the bathroom. I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on with me. I was thinking the leg cramps were from maybe not drinking enough water the day before because it got pretty warm and I was outside all day in the sun, so I just drank water and had a banana for breakfast and I felt better. I wasn't thinking the blurred vision was related so I called and made an appointment with my optometrist. So April 26th I went to see her. When I told her I think my eyes changed over night she looked a little concerned so after she looked at my eyes for a while and tested them, she asked one of the interns to take my glucose reading. The reading was 469. I didn't know what the number meant until my optometrist came out and she said, "Brian, you don't need to order new glasses today, you need to go see your doctor."
So that same day my physician was able to get me in. She confirmed I had diabetes. At first she thought because of my age that it was type 2, but after the blood work came back she changed my diagnoses to type 1, so off to see another doctor. She set an appointment to see an endocrinologist and got poked and prodded even more, but she's great. She put me on Humalog for before meals and Lantus for bed time. At first I was a little nervous about giving my self injections, but it wasn't that bad.
I guess the hardest thing has been finding foods to satisfy my hunger. I've lost quite a bit of weight (25lbs) and most of it has been muscle it seems. The reason why I think it's mostly muscle is because I'm a very lean guy. My whole life I've worked out, in fact just days before I woke up with the blurred vision and muscle cramps I rode my bike about 50 miles and did my push-up workout which consists of 350 push-ups with all the reps added together and now I can't even do half of my workout reps and riding my bike I struggle riding 20 miles. I can also feel bones in my shoulders and I haven't had boney shoulders since I was a teenager. It seems like all this weight has been lost since that day with the blurry eyes and muscle cramps.
I used to be on a 3,200 calorie diet due to working out 5 to 6 days a week, but now with drastically cutting down on the amount of carbs, I think i'm getting about 2,200. It seems like if I go much over 2,200 calories my blood sugar gets out of control, but with lower calories I can't workout like I used to. I don't know if I should try to get back up to 3,200 calories and take more insulin or try to get used to not being as active as I used to be and eat less.
Welcome Brian! I don't have diabetes, but have been managing the hell outta my daughter's diabetes for about 14 months. I'm glad you found Juvenation. It's a great place to find others to lean on and learn from. My connection with other people with diabetes, and parents of kids with diabetes has kept me (more or less) sane.
One thing you'll probably find is that you can get back to your usual diet pretty quickly. Well, within reason. In the beginning we had a lot of restrictions and challenges as we learned how to use insulin effectively. But now, about 14 months later, my daughter eats almost exactly like she did before diabetes. Pretty much the only change is we don't let her have ice cream in the evenings because the spike is five hours later, so it's harder to deal with if she's asleep. So ice cream is a after lunch occasional treat. Otherwise, as long as she eats a balanced meal, she eats whatever she wants to. And if she wants more food, she just takes the insulin for the extra.
The beginning is the hardest, but after awhile counting carbs becomes absolutely second nature.
Welcome Brian. Like Michelle said after you get use to how to manage your insulin you can eat just about what ever you use to. I wouldn't cut you activity that will help with your numbers in the long run. Are you keeping a log book? Its a bit of a pain, but can really help you see how the sugars effect you and what foods work best for what times of day. Like pizza has a lot of carbs and fat, so you get two spikes from it right after eating and a few hours later when it hits your intestine. Again like Michelle I don't have type 1, but my daughter has for 4 years. I'm also new to this site and am finding it very helpful. Check out my profile I made some logbooks that you can print and put in a binder. One is for if you are using a pump and one is for injections.
I just hope my kids don't ever get diabetes. I think it's easier to deal with me having it, but please not the kids.
I have been slowly adding more carbs day to day and my numbers the past 3 days have been pretty good.
I have been keeping a log about how many carbs, protein, fat, calories and insulin. I got used to that other than the insulin because back in the late 80's and through the lat 90's. I was a semi pro runner so I had to keep track with what I was eating, but back then I was eating around 4,000 calories due to all the running I was doing.
Coleen, I will check out the info you have on your profile and luck and god bless you and your daughter. Oh, one other thing, I've been thinking about talking to my doctor about an insulin pump. What pump does your daughter use.
Michelle, thanks for the advice about the ice cream. I've always been an ice cream junkie even when I was a competitive runner. The other runners would look at me weird when I'd order a 32 ounce M&M blizzard and all the other runners would get like a small cone. LOL!! Don't worry I didn't do that all the time, just after a huge race or a big track meet. I wouldn't even dream about that now days. God bless you and your daughter as well.
Thanks Coleen, I looked at the files you uploaded. I think I might use some of them.
The info also reminded me of some questions I have for my doctor. Mostly about what to do if my sugar drops so low that I can't eat. I've heard of people getting to the point where they can't swallow anything. That just scares the heck out of me. My sugar has dropped to about 45 a couple times. Luckily I had my glucose pills but wow, I felt very weird for about 2 hours. Then my sugar jumped to about 200 something both times.
Pick up some of the small cake jell next time you are the supermarket. You can put that on the gums and it will be absorb very quickly. Make sure its cake jell and not icing.
Lynn uses the Medtrinic MiniMed pump. Its worked well for us.
One of the worst things about all this is I was trying to reenlist in the Army, but they were reviewing my medical records on a leg injury for about 1 and a half now and now with being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes I don't have a chance. A final decision is supposed to be made like next week. I have to report to an Army base for tests on my leg and a 2 mile run so they can see that I still can run and I was feeling great about it because my 2 mile times that I have timed myself have been around 10 minutes and I have to run 15 minutes or better. I haven't called my recruiter yet to tell him that I've been diagnosed with type 1 yet. I think I'll just wait and tell the Army doctors next week. Time to hit the help wanted adds :( I have been doing temp work and odd jobs for people but I was trying to reenlist so financially we'd be a lot more stable. I've also applied to be a police officer as well but I'm not sure how this will effect my chances. I've heard of police officers being let go for being diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 while serving as an officer.
I would really check into that. I don't even know what to say about the Army and being a Police officer. The mom in me wants to say you can do anything you want to do with diabetes, but I can see why the army might be an issue...guess you will find out when you talk to the doctors. I would do some research on the JDRF site and see if you can find anything about your rights. I don't think being a diabetic would effect your ability to be an officer.
I'm pretty sure anything in the armed forces is totally out. With the police I could probably still get a desk job or something like that, but they take people without diseases over people with diseases.
I always say "I hate to welcome you to the club", but you're now one of us so, WELCOME!! I too as a youngster wanted to join the army and unless things have changed in the last 33 years, it was a definate NO. My husband is now a retired Leutinant of a police Dept. One of his guys developed Diabetes as an officer. He was given a position (not by his chosing) that was off the streets (read no gun required) to teach at Elemantary Schools, to Health educators... Good luck to you in the endeavers you persue.
Welcome to the nicest bunch of folks you'll ever meet! I also was dx with type 1 at 42. I tesst my blood glucose 4 times daily and on MDI's 4 times daily. We are here to help you!
I was looking so forward to getting back in the Army. I was an active duty soldier from 89-93 and I don't know why I ever got out. Hopefully I'm not rejected by the police department. I remember when I was talking to a police recruiter I over heard someone asking about diabetics in the police force and it didn't sound very good.
I also test my blood 4 times a day and I take Humilog before each meal and Lantis before bed.
I can't wait until my doctor finds out what my ratio to carbs is so I can figure out how much insulin I need on my own. I'm also going to talk to my doctor about insulin pumps and continuous monitors since I like to go on all day hikes and all day bike rides. When I'm working out I just would feel more at ease if I knew what my blood sugar levels at all times. I've had many very low sugar attacks after working out or doing yard work and I don't want that to happen anymore without me knowing I'm in a blood sugar nose dive. I've gone from 200 to 45 in a 2 hour time period about a week ago and I don't want that to happen again.
I didn't mean to sound discouraging. Lots of things that were off limits 30-40 years ago is now a go. For example, I also always wanted to be a pilot. Untill about 5-6 years ago it was not possible. Now type 1's can get a pilots license!! So if your heart is to be in the Army, check it out, it may be do-able now...Donna
You didn't sound discouraging, actually your reply made me think about still meeting with the Army medic board. They have been reviewing my re-enlistment application for about 1 and half years now. Actually it's been in a file that long and they finally got back with me. Because of a leg injury I had about 2 years ago, they were seeing if they could give me a waiver on my leg. Today they wanted to see if I could still do the running part of the PT test which is to run 2 miles in 15 minutes and I ran it in 10 min 30 sec today, but after I ran they asked me if I had any health problems since I applied to re-enlist and I told them about my diagnoses with type 1 and they told me because of that I can't get back in. They were actually very sympathetic with me and a high ranking warrant officer looked at me with tears in his eyes and saluted me and said thank you for your service and said that he was sorry for all the bureaucracy. There is still hope. He also told me that he'll see what he could do.