Fist of all, thank you for reading. I just hit my 10 year anniversary this month of being diagnosed with T1. I was 26, now 36. Though I have always had a certain level of anxiety about the disease, it has for some reason really been giving me trouble the last 2-3 months.
I guess for the most part I (think) I have done “ok” with my diabetes. Most A1c are 6-7, but I used to deal with a lot of lows, I had 1 seizure and 2 car accidents bc of dangerous low blood sugar. My biggest fear is dealing with diabetic problems later in life. Things like constant pain, neuropathy. Hence, I would rather lean of the low side of my blood sugars. My thoughts were that if I go low, I can just grab a juice box and get it back up pretty quickly, but if I go high, it’s injection and waiting for sugar to stabilize and a general longer time period being high. However one issue I struggle with is night time highs. I work in a restaurant and getting done late, being hungry and not being able to regulate enough before sleeping ending with highs in the 300s or worse occasionally for a few hours overnight until I can correct in am.
So that’s me, I just got on the freestyle libre and it does give me better perspective. I used the deacon for a few years but had difficulty affording it. I am always trying to be better but as we all know, it doesn’t go away and we all struggle with it, and have weak moments.
So I guess the reason I bring this up, is multi reasoned, I get really nervous that any time I get a tingle in my toes or foot, that the “end is near”. And I just don’t know how to get over it, there are times I feel paralyzed by the fear of something becoming a permanent issue. How do you all deal with this? How do you know if something is a big deal? Or maybe you just slept weird and it goes away. For those of you that do have complications, how do you deal with it, emotionally, physically?
Thank you for reading and hopefully responding, I appreciate any advice.
Hi Simon @SiGuy , Welcome to TypeOneNation Forum! Here you will find that you are not alone - your anxiety, frustration, your Highs and lows, and everything else you will find someone here who is experiencing some of the things that you experience. I was diagnosed at an age 10 years younger than you and now I’m more than 40 years older than you and I still have all my fingers and toes and I too awake in the morning with funny aches but eventually they go away and very rarely are caused by diabetes.
I can see how your work schedule could really cause havoc with your BGL management, missing sleep too is a major factor too with BG and life in general. On workdays, what is your meal schedule? Does your meal schedule differ on non-work days?
Concerning your “lows” - for me, I’d much prefer to be a little higher than risk hypoglycemia - and NEVER get behind the wheel and drive without first knowing that your body glucose level [your BGL] is at a safe place and then stop after an hour of driving and recheck BG. Diabetes didn’t cause those two crashes [not accidents], they were caused by negligence.
HbA1c in itself does NOT tell the whole story. An A1c of 6.5 means that your average BGL is 139 mg/dl; this average could be a BG value of 259 mg/dl combined with a 19 mg/dl. It could be your swings from high to low that are your greatest concern - they were for me. For years, I thought I was doing really great because my A1c hung close to 6%; a couple of times my wife found me passed out - one time the medics trying to awaken me got a BG reading of 9 mg/dl; the guys first on site laid me out as dead. That scared me and now with a Dexcom continuous monitor I’ve eliminated lows and greatly narrowed my fluctuations.
I suggest, that rather than dwelling on the negative that you instead work toward living the fullest, most active and productive life as possible. Live your dream! … and make diabetes fit your lifestyle. That doesn’t mean that you should forget the dangers of diabetes, but rather use them as motivators.
You are 10000% not alone… I’m the exact same way!
i’m a very ‘healthy’ individual but this is on my mind on a daily basis!
The times when it’s not on my mind as ‘bad’, i realize it’s when i’m busy, working out, having fun, etc!
i started a channel for tips thoughts advice and would love for you to check it out…
I am 61 now, was diagnosed at 13. For the first few years I didn’t worry. Then I quit testing AND stopped worrying, because fsck it, we were all gonna die in a nuclear war anyway.
When I had my first kid, around age 30, I started to worry a bit. I’d check for spots in my vision, and I’d always hold my breath reading lab reports to find out whether there was any protein in my urine.
But at 61, I’m sort of back into fsck it mode. We’re all gonna die some time. So the best we can do is, just like anyone else, keep putting one foot in front of the other, as long as we can. I’m lucky in that I’ve never really had any serious complications, so maybe I’m just weird that way.
It’s a crap shoot. My brother and I like to joke that although I got the gene(s) for diabetes, he got the gene for male pattern baldness, so I was the lucky one.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that you need to live your life. Don’t let diabetes define you, because you are much more than a diabetic.
I get it, you just want to live life with confidence, knowing that your sugars are normal and wont have an effect on your long term health. We have to find a regimen that works for us. We are all different, but sometimes medically prescribed and treated the same. I struggled with highs for 13 yrs before realizing that all i needed was an adjustment with my long acting insulin. It took a fellow diabetic who has greag control of their health to make the suggestion! I was only taking the long acting once per day until he suggested twice per day! It was like magic, my sugars were more controlled. Obviously CHANING YOUR MEDS IS SOMETHING YOU MUST DISCUSS WITH YOUR DOCTOR, but its helped me to rest at night, knowing that my sugar is better controlled. A continuous glucose monitor is also extremely effective in easing that anxiety that comes with worrying about your glucose levels.
Very well said Ashley @ashysam, very often we can learn ways for managing our glucose levels and living life from others who are going through what we are experiencing. I always discuss significant changes in my insulin therapy with my doctor before I make changes; minor tweaks I make myself and report them - and how they worked - next time I see the doctor. I’ve found that the best doctors will listen to what I’ve learned so they can share this knowledge with other patients.
This is all part of each of us needing to be our own primary care physician - it isn’t easy but our own skills will come with time and experience of careful and intelligent observation.