Hello, I'm new here and would like to share my story and ask a few questions

Type 1 and LADA
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Hi everyone, I am new to type 1 and would like to share my experience with it so far.

I was diagnosed with type 1 last September and it’s been… okay so far lol.
I was diagnosed after the typical symptoms except I would call it a “dry mouth” instead of "thirst.
My most recent and only (so far) HbA1c was in December, and I got 5.1%.
Now, I know some of you are wondering/worried that I might be experiencing regular hypos… although I have experienced 3 (2 in last 4 days) hypos so far, my bg numbers rarely drops below 70.
I would like to mention that my doctor said anything above 60 is not really consider a hypo, but the hunger and little shakiness I feel above 60 are “false hypos”, not quite sure if this is actually true but that’s what she said :stuck_out_tongue:.
My after meal numbers are usually 120 mg/dl and under, and I usually allow myself a snack if it’s under 110.

So, now with some questions to the veterans…

Q.1 Is it easier for some people to control diabetes than others?

Q.2 Taking insulin on certain parts of the body takes longer for the insulin to kick in, is this true?

Q.3 Are fast foods a big NO NO? (and I mean “fast foods”, not fast food restaurant salads and burgers w/o any condiments)

I know I have few more questions but this is all I can think of now lol.

I would also like to say that I respect everyone on this site and other forums with diabetes that are fighting everyday.
I got a lot of quality information as well as motivation from all of you for the last few month, and I thank you for that! :slightly_smiling:

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Hi there, welcome to the club!

  1. it is for sure easier for some people to control diabetes, that has to do with education and means (like pump or CGM) available, but also sheer luck sometimes. i always remember that kid that came to the same meetings my parents and i would attend, and his parents were struggling sooo hard to keep those numbers in range, and mine were by far easier.
    i would also consider that you are in a phase we call “honeymoon”. it is the phase directly after diagnosis where you still have some functioning beta cells left and they help enormously in keeping those numbers in range. you can definitely prolong this state by taking good care of your numbers as you are atm. but treasure it, as it will go away for sure and your diabetes will probably become harder to manage as well… :worried: sorry!
  2. everyone has his/her favorite injection spots, for me, the insulin works the fastest in my arms (as i am really thin there). this is totally normal.
  3. on this question you will get various answers. i personally dont avoid any foods in particular, i prefer to keep my freedom of eating, so candy, spaghetti, white rice, i have it all.
    with good prebolusing the spike is even avoidable, but be aware, that we are not reaching for numbers as they are in non diabetics. we try to get as close to them as possible, but even for the best of us it is almost impossible to have normal BG all the time. so after meal spikes are a somewhat normal thing for many of us…
    now i understand that BG is easier to manage on a low carb diet with carbs that absorb slowly, but i personally think that for me to keep up my morals and keep fighting the good fight i need to be able to eat whatever i want (with the according insulin dosage of course :wink: ), or i’d get discouraged within weeks. does this make sense?
    keep the questions coming, good luck! :four_leaf_clover:
    Angela
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Those were some very informative answers! Thank you :smile:

I forgot to mention something when I was asking the first question though.
I actually asked my doctor in December when I had my last appointment if this was my honeymoon period, and her answer was no… and she insisted that I shouldn’t hope for a honeymoon because of my age.
Honeymoon is more common in young patients and the older you are, it’s unlikely. (I’m 34 by the way)
Not sure how much of this is true but I kept telling her I DON’T want honeymoon and wasn’t being hopeful.
I don’t want it because the simple fact that as you mentioned, it will be harder to control and don’t want to go “readjusting” to life again lol.
She also mentioned that most honeymoon are followed by a constant hypos because the less insulin that is required, and I barely changed the dosage since getting discharged in Oct.

My doctor is one of the best in her field in the country I currently reside in, but not quite sure how credible she is on this topic.
I hope she is right though lol.

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From what i know, Honeymoon in kids can be stronger (i know a kid who was off insulin during his honeymoon).
but i am almost 100% positive that it lasts way longer in adults than in children, as the overall attack on beta cells in adults is generally slower. (look up LADA, latent autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, the form of T1 Diabetes often dxd in adults)
If diabetes is caught early in adults, they can often conserve a big, helpful part of their insulin production. the attack on the beta cells in children is faster and therefore the honeymoon is shorter.
so apparently your doctor and i have opposite opinions, but that’s alright. just dont get disappointed once your TDDs and BG start rising and get more difficult to control.
maybe some other T1s, diagnosed later in life (@Terry4, @Melitta @meee maybe, i have no idea when all of you ppl were dxd) can weigh in on that.

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Maybe you’re right, I’ll just have to wait and see.
In the mean time I’ll do a little more research into this topic :smile:

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I agree with @swisschocolate. I was diagnosed with T1D when I was 30. I was slow onset, but clinicians were not aware of LADA at the time (1984) and I was never tested for antibodies. I actually had symptoms at least a year before I was diagnosed. After diagnosis my diabetes was not that hard to control with insulin. I remember starting insulin and thinking, “This is not that hard to control.”

So I disagree with your doctor. I think the honeymoon period can be prominent in adults. And helpful, too. The more you can make it last, by maintaining more normal blood glucose for longer, the better off you’ll be. What your doctor may be referring to is the situation when your pancreas turns on and off in an intermittent fashion. That could make dosing with external insulin more difficult but my experience with a honeymoon was all positive.

I’ve also noticed that many T2Ds that pay close attention to their diabetes and practice tight control can get better results than me due to the partial function of their pancreas.

Sorry you had to join our cohort but I wish I was more aware of my condition at an earlier point in my journey, like you appear to be. Take full advantage of your partially working pancreas. If you’re not on a CGM (continuous glucose monitor like Dexcom), I would strongly encourage you to get on one as soon as possible. That will help you to learn quickly how your insulin, food and exercise interact. This will help you steer a path that is more beneficial to you for a longer time.

Good luck.

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Does it matter? If you feel bad at a certain number, then the sensible/logical/rational thing to do is stay above that number, regardless of what label the doctor chooses to attach to it.

A great American statesman once asked someone, “If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” The other person replied, “Five.” He was then told, “No. Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.” Labels aren’t reality. They’re just labels. The reality is what you must deal with and manage.

Q1. I won’t repeat the excellent advice you’ve already gotten, except to add that the ease (or difficulty) of management varies not only from person to person, but from time to time with the same person. You will have times when it’s smooth sailing, and other times when it’s problematical. That’s the nature of diabetes, I’m afraid.

Q2. Yes, definitely yes. And this, too, varies from individual to individual.

Q3. This is a subject on which people have strong opinions. Personally, I do not consider any particular food to be prohibited. I can eat whatever I care to—IF I bolus properly to counteract the carbs. In practice, there are foods I avoid simply because I don’t want to have to take that much insulin (and deal with the possible weight gain from eating all those carbs). But it’s a matter of personal choice, not some abstract absolute rule.

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Like Terry4, I had symptoms for over a year before diagnosis of D at the age of 63 years. Toward the end of that honeymoon year or more, I was passing out every afternoon around 3:00 P.M., so I gave up driving for obvious safety reasons. My D symptoms were complicated by the fact that I got Celiac Disease at the same time, so I was always sick to my stomach and had a chronic headache from that. There were other symptoms from both diseases. Finally when I was 63, my doctors and I had figured out more or less what was going on. I was first dx’d as Type 2 because of my age, but since the Type 2 medications just made me sick without helping my blood glucose, I soon went on insulin. The insulin doses I started with have remained pretty much the same since I first started insulin 22+ years ago.

In summary and as I mentioned earlier, I had a D honeymoon for more than a year starting at around 62 y.o., dx’d at 63.

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Thank you for your advice and I totally agree on your input about “label”.
I ALWAYS correct it if I feel like a low coming.

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62 huh… so it seems like I do have honeymoon from the looks of it lol.
I hope I don’t panic when it ends :stuck_out_tongue:

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Thanks, and if you don’t mind me asking, did your bg ever go above 200 mg/dl during your honeymoon?

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what came to my mind supporting the honeymoon thesis:
you said, you never had to lower your insulin dosage since being discharged:
maybe you were already in honeymoon by then, so you never had to lower your doses.
just an idea, maybe your doctor is still right :wink:

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You see, when I was first omitted my need for insulin was dramatic, I needed quite a lot of amount to bring down my bg after meals. (If I remember correctly, it was 14 units of humalog on the pen)
But this was when they were still trying to bring down my bg of 500 mg/dl.
After 2 days of my bg being all over the place, they finally found the right amount of insulin, and from there the unit I require slowly decreased and by the time I was sent home, I only needed 7 units (for regular meal).
Of course I do adjust my dosage according to what I eat, and if I don’t, my bg does spike up.
As soon as I was discharged, I quit smoking, started “regular” exercise (I did and still do play football(soccer) and ice hockey on the regular basis) and lost 4 kg.

I do have to see my doctor next week to get my prescription so I’ll talk to her again about the info. I got from you guys.

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One more thing, I read somewhere that 1 unit is actually half a unit on the insulin pen, is this true?

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That’s how I exactly feel lol

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No. A unit is a unit no matter where it comes from. Assuming that insulin has not been stored improperly or gone stale for some reason, the only thing that makes a difference is the actual potency of the insulin itself—U40, U80, U100, U500, etc.

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Thanks for clarifying that.
I don’t remember where I read that but now I know.

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Yes, I went over 200 mg/dl many times while on my honeymoon.

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Hi @supajap! I was 28 when diagnosed and my “honeymoon phase” only lasted about 2 months. However, I started showing symptoms of T1 6 months before diagnosis so I would argue that my honeymoon phase was more like 8 months.

But anyway, honestly, I was happy to be OUT of the honeymoon phase because for me, my blood sugar was more consistent. When I was still honeymooning, my pancreas would randomly decide to start working again and spit out a bunch of insulin out of nowhere, sending me into unpredictable and scary lows. Now that I’m out of that phase, I feel more in control after a lot (A LOT) of practice using insulin and counting carbs, and of course learning how my body reacts to stress, lack of sleep, exercise…all of those lovely factors :slightly_smiling:

Maybe I’m just trying to find the silver lining, haha, but with that all being said, it does seem to be easier for some people than others. I have a nutrition and exercise science background so that helps me out big time, but I have learned that everyone’s diabetes is different - for instance, I know a fellow diabetic who can drink juice without spiking. JUICE! She takes insulin for it, but if I did that, there’s no way my insulin could keep up with a fast acting carb like that. No way. You’ll learn about your own unique diabetes through lots of testing!

Injection sites: not sure if someone already answered this, but your stomach absorbs insulin the fastest, then usually hips, thigh, and tricep. I’m sure there are people on this forum who have used other sites I don’t even know about, haha. Just remember that where ever you inject, it’s the same amount of insulin, the only difference is when it peaks, or when it is strongest. For instance, I inject my stomach when I’m correcting a high, for breakfast because I’m more insulin resistant in the morning and my cortisol levels are highest (which elevates blood sugar), and when I’m eating a higher glycemic food like crackers or something. Your rules may be different.

For me, fast foods are pretty much a big no-no. I had a subway sandwich once, thought I counted the carbs pretty well, and I was over 200 mg/dl within a half hour. But I can make a burger at home and eat it with a honey wheat bun from the store and I’m totally fine. Who knows. I just try to make my own food as much as possible. Sometimes I’ll splurge on Papa Johns pizza but I always regret it, haha. So much insulin, and I still feel like crap. Chipotle is ok, though. And delicious…

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hi supajap!
1)
i was diagnosed at 36 years old. i had the typical desert thirst and the rest of it for about a month or two before. they started me right away on insulin and i had a spectacular 18 month honeymoon at least. i attribute the long honeymoon to eating low carb-under 100 grams a day and being very vigilant and very scared. i would cry when i saw a number over 200, which was rare. during the first two years i hardly used any bolus and got by on just basal and it was so easy. i found tuD right away, thank god, and learned so much from the members on the site. during my honeymoon, things were a cakewalk. it was glorious. my a1cs for the first two years were all under 6. now it is harder.
2) this i have heard though i dont know how true it is for me.
3) i havent eaten fast food in the four years ive been t1 except for new york pizza, which i eat when i go back home to new york. i live in spain and good restaurant food is plentiful and cheap with loads of beautiful salads and meats and cheeses. i didnt eat much fast food before being t1 because of this, so that wasnt a problem for me. there are things that give me problems, like rice. i miss rice but it is just impossible for me, as is pasta. i also miss sugary cereals, just cereal in general. i used to love that stuff. and potatoes.

i do still eat dark chocolate and in the summer i do ice-cream with lots of insulin and physical activity.

welcome to the rubbishest club ever. :slight_smile: