Hi, I was recently diagnosed at the age of 56 with type 1 . I am so happy to find this group as I have so many questions and could really use the support. It’s so overwhelming at times. I am currently on Tresiba at night. I also just started using a cgm dexcom 6. Looking forward to chatting. Thanks !
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Welcome!
Ask away! What are some of your questions?
Welcome, @BSE! There are many TuD members diagnosed T1D as an adult. I was diagnosed younger than you were, at 30. Even though type 1 diabetes was once known as “juvenile diabetes,” statistics show a significant demographic diagnosed as adults.
You’ve located a great community that helps support people with diabetes. Peer support can be a valuable asset when living with diabetes. No one knows the challenges you face better than someone who lives with it 8,760 hours every year.
You made a great choice starting a CGM so soon! It can teach you many things about your metabolism that would otherwise take much longer to learn. It’s also a great safety system. Feel free to ask any questions you may think about.
Thank you for responding ! When I was diagnosed I was shocked. I found out from lab results that my cardiologist did as routine. My AIC was 13 and fasting blood sugar was 300. That was this past sept. I found an endocrinologist asap and she said because I am thin (110 lbs ) she would test for type 1. Results proved her correct and she says I am in the honeymoon period . I started on tresiba and now take 3 units at 830 pm. My dr is thinking of adding an oral med around dinner time because she wants my levels to be lower at that time. I’m afraid that by doing this my blood sugar will drop too low. ( that terrifies me so I’m always snacking ! And carry food wherever I go. ) yep gained weight. I have a snack at 9pm ( yogurt and nuts ) or cottage cheese etc. is it ok if blood sugar goes up to 200 after eating the snack at night if it comes down or are those spikes harmful. I have eliminated oatmeal which I love because 1/4 gives a rise and sweet potatoes. I am a healthy eater. I haven’t had bread or fruits. And I miss fruit
I wrote a novel lol so sorry. Just so nice to have someone to discuss with.
Ps. My A1c is now 7.4
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From your dosage, it sounds like you are LADA with a lot of insulin production remaining. It is inherent with these LADAs that if you take a bolus dose (like your end suggests for mealtime) that your pancreas and the bolus are able to process the carbs from the meal before the bolus is consumed, hence you need to “feed the insulin”. Before modern basal and fast-acting insulins, all diabetics did this ALL THE TIME. Needing to feed the insulin does not mean you did something wrong, and the CGM (and practice) should make it easier to know when and how much to feed the insulin.
The type of meal affects this. My breakfast (cereal, milk, and fruit) always needs the snack at the 2-hour mark (usually a greek yogurt), whereas a dinner of two slices of pepperoni pizza does fine with a 1U bolus and no snack, because the fat and protein in the pizza slows the digestion of the carbs to cover the 4-hour window.
The honeymoon period is also a good time to practice the skills you will need when your diabetes gets worse, since those antibodies are still attacking your pancreas.
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Glad you found this site, allot of really knowledgeable people. Keep in contact and ask any questions or concerns you may have. Knowledge is a big part of living with diabetes, and make no mistake live you can!
Hi Bill, thank you for taking the time to explain everything to me. I feel overwhelmed because it seems so complicated figuring out what to eat and when the time comes for me in near future how much insulin I will need with meals. I feel like I have eliminated many things from my diet that I used to eat that are healthy and I enjoyed I’m afraid to eat oatmeal every morning like I used to because I noticed my blood sugar goes above 200 (but does come down ). I love sweet potatoes and fruit and I have eliminated those too since diagnosed. I still eat my plain chicken breast,Greek yog, cottage cheese , eggs which I ate before but now that’s my basic diet Oh and I can’t forget almonds and walnuts. I snack during day and probably too much . Lol Also a few veggies. Should I be eating more variety and adding insulin or just try to limit my carbs bec right now I’m only taking the tresiba at 830 pm. I feel like I’m babbling on again but I get so confused . I did notice that I start to feel like I need to eat when my blood sugar reads around 110. So I always watch the cgm and never let it go low bec my endo scared me about going unconscious . I guess she didn’t know who she was talking too lol. I feel like this is a second job. I feel like I carry a mini supermarket of food in my pocketbook bec I’m so scared I won’t feel well.
Thanks again for listening. And your breakfast and pizza sound great lol
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Thanks John for the kind words. I am glad that there are people to talk to about my diagnosis. It’s very scary and overwhelming. I know that I will have many questions going forward. Do you use a cgm ? I just started on dexcom 6 and it doesn’t always come that close to my fingersticks. Sometimes it’s 20 point difference but other times very close. So when I look at the reading I don’t know which it is. I just watch the graph.
Between Medtronics and insurance I am using my Medtronics 530g with enlite cgm. I like it. Have been working for two weeks trying to upgrade. If/when able will be x-2 and G-6 but for now that’s where I am. Actually I am not even using my 530 yet waiting for insulin and new transmitter to arrive. I am mid with aic’s over 12. My sugar has always been hardheaded due to alot of stomach/gastro/cancer issues.
Diet is up to the individual with type 1. If avoiding those foods you love is making you unhappy then you need to find out how to dose for them (which means mealtime insulin). Since you’ll be on mealtime insulin sooner or later then it may be easier to learn how to use it now than when you don’t have much if any backup from your pancreas.
Ask your Dr. about your options with fast acting insulins, there is the old standby humalog and it’s copycats, Regular insulin which is good for higher fat meals since it starts acting slowly and stays in your system longer (although at this time probably wouldn’t be your best bet), and Afrezza an inhaled insulin that gets out of your system super fast so there is little chance of lows.
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I was diagnosed at age 69 and yes you can teach an old dog new tricks. I have a kitchen scale. Since I do MDIs, I have a list of fruits I eat and how much by weight I can eat per unit of insulin. I use CalorieKing to find the carbs. I also like ice cream and potato chips, just not every day and use the scale for them. Welcome to the group.
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There are some wonderful people here that can share their experience with you and answer all sorts of questions about how they deal with situations! Just ask!
Eventually either now or later you will want to start getting used to fast acting insulin adjustments. I eat fruits and bread, you just take insulin for it. I generally eat about 100-120 carbs a day and I love fruit, I just don’t have huge bowls of carbs at any given time. I prebolus so I don’t spike as much after eating. That way if I want oatmeal I eat oatmeal. Your needs would be low right now so it’s easier to learn. But yes scary, it’s just no choice eventually.
I believe we all probably carry a “snack” at least something for a quick fix. Personally I am happy with my BG staying around 100-120 range. I started insulin at age 50. Weight gain unfortunately for most of us seems too easy!
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One more thought. Most T1Ds have an insulin-to-carb (I:C) ratio that starts at 0g carbs, since they don’t produce their own insulin. With your pancreas still working, your pancreas should be able to handle meals (or snacks) of a certain size without a bolus, then a bolus of 1U per so many carbs above that. In my case, I don’t bolus for meals up to about 30g carbs, than 1U/30g above that initial 30g. When I make spaghetti bolognese, I weigh the pasta to get 30g from the pasta, then use lots of sauce. My two slices of pizza have 60g carb, hence 1U bolus.
For snacks, I aim for 15g carbs or less, and have the snacks after my bg has recovered from the previous meal.
Experimentation will tell you what your numbers should be, the base before bolus, and the I:C ratio after the base. Note, however, there are 42+ things that affect your bg, so there is a lot of variability in individual “tests”. So, don’t feel bad if occasionally your bg is higher than expected for a meal.
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Thank you for explaining to me. It makes sense now and so interesting. I hope I can figure this all out going forward. Right now I don’t bolus but then again I have limited my diet to a limited variety of food. I haven’t even added fruit or pasta . I stopped my steel cut oatmeal I like because my sugar goes way up over 200 with just 1/4 cup. It does come down though. Just not sure if that’s ok though. I think I may get a second opinion from another endo. Maybe my treatment plan should be different. Right now it’s just tresiba at bed. By the way, your pasta dish and pizza sound pretty good right now ! I stopped after work for salmon . One of my limited choices 
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Hey BSE - I’ve been following this feed and can for sure “feel your pain.”
Here’s my story: I was diagnosed in 2005 as T2 (about 12 years after my 2nd child was born) - I had gestational with both pregnancies and had always been told “watch out it might return”.
When diagnosed as T2 I constantly was told I didn’t fit the profile of a person with diabetes. So that’s the back story… and until 2015 my general practitioner mostly helped manage my diabetes. I say mostly because I did visit the endo and since things were fairly under control (A1C hovered around 6.1, I was fairly active walking or low mileage running 3-4 times a week) I was good with that.
In 2016 my A1C started to rise despite my efforts to manage it with diet, exercise and metformin. When I realized I could no sustain the type of diet I was on - like you I had eliminated most carbs from my diet, and even THAT wasn’t working, I began seeing the endo regularly.
She changed my diagnosis from T2 to LADA, started me on low levels of Humalog and a few months later Tresiba. Those were both life changing in different ways. The Tresiba gave noticeable change to my morning fading BG readings. And the insulin shots at mealtime let me relax a little. About 6 months later, And after hundreds of finger pricks and 5-7 daily injections of insulin my endo switched me over to OmniPod delivery system. I began using the Omnipod for insulin delivery in November. And began using the Dexcom G6 CGM about a week ago. I’m realizing the learning curve for these devices is pretty steep.
I’m super thankful for the technology and the times we live in - I’m a novice at both the Omnipod and the Dexcom G6 and I’m still refining the amount of basal insulin that I take… I need to retrain my brain to eat snacks now and then until I have it worked out. . (I don’t feel a low coming on, but with the CGM and it’s alert system, I’m starting to be able to actually see how my body reacts to what I eat!) My basal insulin dose is super small, but for me it works SO much better than the Tresiba.
I have been able to reintroduce foods into my diet that I HAD been forced to eliminate for years…
So this crazy long reply is meant to be encouraging… the journey is long and each day brings new adventures along the way.
I feel like I’m learning a new language. I’m also glad to hear other people’s stories- it helps me realize how unique we really are and how this disease affects everyone so differently. Don’t be afraid of the next change your endo suggests.
Thanks for sharing your story.
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Years ago an endo at a diabetes center told me, “you can eat anything you want”… but then added that as long as I does my insulin for it. That was the BEST advice any Dr ever gave me about my type-1b diabetes.
My fav diet is of course the C-food diet, wee food, eat food. (my loss of 8lbs since previous apt is what prompted that). Hey, anytime I want something, especially considered questionable by OTHERS, I can always just say, I am following my doctors orders, and be 100% truthful!
Welcome BSE . I was diagnosed as Type 2, saw an endo, and after most meds didn’t work, went on injections, then the Medtronic 530 and Dexcom G5. My then current endo was a dictator and I didn’t know better, but after attending a Taking Control of your Diabetes Conference about a year ago, I learned that the MD and I should be a TEAM but with him giving me suggestions, but ultimately it was MY diabetes and I needed to learn how to control it.
I found a new endo that would work with me as a team and the first thing he did was test. I still didn’t fit the mold as my cpeptide came back at 0.20 which means that while my pancreas is producing insulin, its negligible. But I’m not fully Type 1 yet as I don’t have any antibodies.
Today I’m on the Omnipod with humalog, the Dexcom G6, and thanks to lower carb eating (about 40-60 healthy carbs per meal) I’ve lost some weight and am currently at an A1C of 6.0.
This group is wonderful! Ask lots of questions and you’ll learn a bunch here. Welcome!
I think what you explained makes a lot of sense. I didn’t even know there was insulin you can inhale. My meals are very simple since I’m allergic to msg I don’t eat processed food. But I miss just my healthy fruits and cereal. Just having a sandwich with bread’! My endo doesn’t seem to guide me through this. My sister insists I see someone else and tells me I shouldn’t be limiting my meals like I do. My endo said no fruits and if I do then berries. I noticed my sugars are running lower than usual and I’m up at 4 am most nights My sugar is dropping so I eat. I get scared. Who wants to get up at that time to eat lol😩. I have a snack of Greek yog and nuts usually around 9pm before bed. Then on top of this my dexcom which I just started this month is so different from my finger sticks. So last night I was afraid to sleep that my sugar would drop too low. Maybe the tresiba should go down from 3 units to 2 begire bed? Maybe I shouldn’t even be on this. Yesterday was my hardest day. My bs for me was low in the am and it didn’t seem to go up after breakfast or snack in the morning so once again I got worried because I thought maybe something was wrong and it will keep going lower. I had juice which I hadn’t had in 4 months since diagnosed and my bs went up after awhile so I felt better seeing but then I was thinking what if it drops again. Damn anxiety. It so overwhelming and confusing bec I just want to do the right thing. Wow. I’m sorry I rambled on.
Hi taitaitai,
Thank you. This group is so helpful. I’m learning so much
Hi , I was thinking it’s alwsys best to have less insulin but now I understand maybe it’s best for me to have with meals so I’m not so limited. Do I get an insulin pump and if so which company ? Also my dexcom sensor is reading about 30 off or more at times from fingerstick. Any ideas why ? I placed the sensor more to my side this time. Dr said ok but now I’m not sure. Thanks !!! So appreciate all the help.
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