I'm new here so I thought I'd post a little intro about myself. I'm a 24 year old library tech, and I've been with my boyfriend for almost 6 years. He was diagnosed with T1 the first year we were together, when he was 20.
I've tried to be supportive, and we adjusted our eating habits a lot in that first year, but then we sort of fell into a rut. This past year he's been having a harder time keeping himself regulated, and he's beginning to have health problems because of it. I've tried looking for doctors, and we do finally have both a family doctor (only took me 3 years to find one :/) and an endo for him. The problem is that our FD knows next to nothing about D, and the endo is almost impossible to see, so my BF is having a really hard time finding anyone to give him day-to-day practical advice. Once he opened up to me about how much trouble he was having a lot of things made more sense to me. Now I'm trying to educate myself more about this disease and the things I can do to make it easier on him.
So far I've gotten a really warm welcome (I can't believe how many people have commented on my page!) so I thought I'd introduce myself and join some groups.
Welcome to Tu Diabetes, Becky! I hope your boyfriend will join us as well for all the valuable information and support he can get here! We've all been newly diagnosed though many of us were diagnosed before we had the internet and wonderful sites like this one. Those of us who could come here early on are the lucky ones!
I know it's scary but most of us find that in time we manage our own blood sugars with help from this site and books like Using Insulin by John Walsh which I strongly recommend. It will really help him look at the various settings he uses and get them closer to what he needs. You also can get valuable advice about food and carbs here. Best of luck and feel free to ask lots of questions!
Hey Becky, welcome! My daughter is your age. :) I've been Type 1 for 25 years. I was diagnosed about 3 years after I got married so my dear husband has been through this journey beside me for a long time. I applaud you for making the effort to learn what you can - it will help both of you.
I hear what you're saying about the wait for getting an appointment with the endo. I've been with the same endo for 25 years and it takes about 3 months to get an appointment with him.
Does your husband's insurance provide for a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator)? Typically CDEs are much easier to get in touch with or to get in to see quickly if you need help. My CDE always has samples, literature, advice, and she did the training for my pump and my Dexcom cgm (continuous glucose monitor).
My CDE is in the same clinic as my endo and has a direct line of communication with my endo - so if I walk in with a problem that she can't handle, she walks down the hall and finds my endo to ask.
Another thing you might want to consider is asking the endo if your boyfriend can fax or email his bg test results to the endo for suggestions between appointments. My endo allows me to fax my readings in if I have a problem I can't solve and he calls me back with suggestions.
Maybe this type of set up would help your husband (and you) find some support. And please ask if we can help in any way.
One final thought since you say he's struggling. Whenever I'm struggling, it helps me to log *everything* in a little notebook...insulin doses, what I eat, how many grams of carb, any other physical symptoms or stress. Logging can be a pain but it really helps to see where you need to make changes. For that reason, I keep a paper log all the time now even though my pump collects most of the same data - it helps me to see the patterns on paper.
Becky, you really need to follow Zoe’s advice and get your boyfriend to join us. He needs the direct access to all the information and be able to ask questions himself.
But I guess you getting the questions answered he is at least getting the information. So good for you. You obviously care for him a bunch.
I've been pestering him to join a forum, any forum, for months now. I think he's finally getting close to the point where he's run out of any other options or excuses that he may actually join...but just in case he waits another week (or month, or year *sigh*) I figured I might as well.
I try to walk a fine line of being supportive vs. being irritating (read 'diabetes police') because I'm well aware that me trying to control HIS disease doesn't help his D, or our relationship.
Thanks for the book suggestion Zoe! As you might guess I'm a huge bookworm and working at a library gives me access to some pretty good resources, but I love getting suggestions on books that other people find helpful. I'll see if I can find that one :)
I'm not sure if our insurance covers that, but I'm planning to call our provider and have a long chat about what is/isn't covered...it's something I've been lazy about TBH, but it needs to be done. I'll add that to my list of questions to ask. As for faxing things to his endo...I think it's unlikely. The one my BF sees is apparantly the best endo in the area (which says a lot since we live in Edmonton which is supposed to have this awesome diabetes program...which we have yet to get much help from...) but he's also a bit of a jerk. It's been impossible to so much as get him on the phone and my BF has only seen him once since his original Dx, so I'm pretty sure I can rule out anything useful from that quarter.
Of course since he technically HAS and endo I can't convince my BF to try another one that might be more helpful...
I have the advantage when it comes to research though, since that was a large part of my library tech training, so I have to try extra hard not to flood his inbox with 'Look what I just found!' diabetes emails on a slow day at the library.
Thanks for the suggestions :) Keep 'em coming! I'm playing catchup here and I want to learn everything I can so that when he is ready to ask me for help (which he does do eventually) I can give him all I've got!
Hi Becky , welcome to TuD ; I noticed you became a member of the Canada People group already ...fantastic as there are different things related to diabetes for Canadinas , such as the Disability Tax Credit ...with several discussions on that site .In order to see a CDE ( at the Diabetes Clinic ) one likely will initially require to be referred by the GP ...this is how it is in BC ! I agree a GP is not the one , who will guide and coach a type 1( person has not been trained into the complexities !), BF needs more than the " basic " ...take care of each other ! Yes to Edmonton !!!
Welcome and good move on joining this site :) I haven't been here long but I already consider it my go to place for info and support, like a family. A book that they recommended me here as well and I'm still enjoying in "How to think like a Pancreas" and I like this one specially because is not only packed with good info but is humorous so it would make a good read for both u and your BF.
Welcome. While you might think your boyfriends diabetes is "his," diabetes affects those around us. We even have a term "type 3" used to describe someone who is in some sort of relationship with a person with diabetes. There is even a group here for type 3s.
I agree with bsc. I think it's great when the "Type 3"s seek information and support as well.
Understanding what your boyfriend is dealing with will help you as you respond to him. Many people here will tell you that their loved ones can often tell when they are high or low before they can tell themselves based on personality change or even just the look on their face. My husband has saved me many times.
I saw that recommended somewhere and I'm actually about 1/2 way through it. He's a great writer, but I'm finding it's gotten to be a tougher read now that I'm further in. It's getting a bit more technical, and without me having personal experience I'm finding it isn't absorbing as well as I'd like.
It's way better than some of the other books I've flipped through though, that's for sure. The first few chapeters were really good, and I did find myself agreeing with many things he said...or having a lightbulb monet like "Ooohhh, THAT'S why that happens!" which is exactly what I'm looking for.
I did join the group for T3s, and I love that there is one! I'm also planning to call my work's insurance company because I've been trying to figure out what is/isn't covered for him (he's on my plan as well, and it's overall a fairly good health plan) because their literature is pretty useless when it comes to diabetic stuff. I looked around here and other places and the consensus seems to be that you need to call and ask directly, maybe even push a bit to get them to cover certain things? Maybe I'll ask that in the Canadian forum as well, but I'm hoping that I'll be pleasantly surprised and they'll cover everything...maybe even cover the cost of a pump? *fingers crossed*
Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone, it means so much to me to have a group that I can talk to that will understand what's going on, both for myself and hopefull for my BF. My friends just don't get it, and we don't know anyone else who is T1. We do have a friend who's T2, but he's not taking hcare of it properly, and he doesn't understand the differences anyways.
It's a huge releif just knowing that this is here. :)
I thought the same thing about the book! It gets too technical, I start yawning and put it away and switch to smthg more entertaining (i just devoured hunger games series in a week) but then picked it up again and skipped ahead. Then I realized, duh if i'm not ready for that chapter i can always come back to it later... and that is what i ended up doing later when I switched to the pump and I got curios about the differences on insulin peaks. So yeah it's packed with info so don't worry if you don't breeze through it, I still haven't finished mine.
I realize you're talking about Think Like a Pancreas which I haven't read. But I always assume it serves the same purpose as Using Insulin which to me is a very practical guide, but one that I go back to for help with issues when they come up; not necessarily one I read through for entertainment. I think it would be more useful for the Type 1 himself to read!
