|
Grandson had to see his doctor this week and his insulin is going to be changed and the diet.If he eats carbs he has to inject where before carbs were encouraged.Has anyone else got the new diet?Grandson has a few more appointments to learn about it. Annie
|
|
Hi Annie
my o.h. has just recently been diagnosed with diabetes but doesn't have to inject - yet. He has to take medication and look carefully at his diet. On his lists from the nurse he has to eat more carbs in proportion to protein, so obviously nothing new has reached us in darkest Norfolk lol
Hope he gets on ok once he is used to the new way of dealing with the diabetes.
Lizx
|
|
Grannie
they seem to be changing it all the time, dad used to be on 2 injections a day now they have told him 4 a day, he used to be able to tell which insulin he needed and change it accordingly as he used to draw up own syringes now its all pre done and he is having so many more hypos that he doesnt feel in control.
Wish they would go back to the old way for him but no they have to go with prgress!!!!!
Hope your grandson get used to new way
|
|
I am so glad that as we have been dealing with diabetes for so long we are allowed to alter things to keep our sugars even. No matter how hard you try it isnt always possible, but some leeway is allowed.
You DONT have to accept the pen method, just tell your GP or Diabetic nurse that you want to go back to the original method that suited you. Neither of us use a pen. Being on 2 types of insulin, it doesnt work well, doubles the number of injections. I feel twice a day has been satisfactory for over twenty years and I dont intend to change. You are the person who has to cope with the treatment after all. So long as you are obviously accepting that you need treament, you should have what suits your life.
|
|
Nudge this because I am sure other diabetes sufferers on here could make useful comment.
|
|
A friend I made through the internet lost her daughter last week.
She was 25, had been diabetic from the age of 4, but they had always had trouble keeping it under control.
She had been stable for about 2 years, was working as a nurse, and had a wonderful loving boyfriend.
sylvia
|
|
Sylvia, that's so sad. My sympathy to your friend and all her daughter's family and friends. Her boyfriend must be devastated too.
May she rest in peace.
Lizx
|
|
Liz
Thanks
it has devastated everyone
The mother is a wonderful woman, who has lots of friends through the site ................ and the girl was achieving all she wanted to do.
It does make you ask WHY??????
sylvia
xxx
|
|
Thats always the unanswerable question when someone young and productive is taken early. I have tried to get som people to take Diabetes seriously, but there is still this idea that it is 'just a bit of sugar'. and why should I stick to a diet.
My OH has stuck to the rules for nearly 44 yrs, and still he has no feeling in his feet and legs, needs to see a chiropodist every 4wks, and now has a bowel complaint traceable to diabetes and the effect on nervous tissue.
|
|
My son diagnosed Type-1 insulin dependent at three-and-a-half nearly 40 years ago. I just wish everyone was aware of the problems that can occur.
The rise in Type-2 in young people is staggering - but I always think this is due to a relatively unhealthy diet that some of them seem to adhere to from babies.
|
|
As many know, my No.1 was diagnosed with Type I (insulin dependent) diabetes about 3 years ago. He had first been diagnosed with Type II (diet, exercise, pills) but after a couple of years it became obvious this was not right. It is rare to be diagnosed Type I after age 50 - that's why it used to be called "juvenile diabetes".
I strongly, strongly recommend that your grandson do two things.
First, keep those appointments and take the whole thing seriously. He might try to get into a specific diabetes care program, for the kinds of things that GPs don't generally do, if that isn't what he's already doing. No.1 sees his own GP regularly, but is also seen at the endocrynology department at a hospital here. He also sees an opthalmologist yearly to monitor his sight, and has heart tests yearly as well.
Second, have a consultation with a dietician, or better, take a sort of course in nutrition for diabetes. Here, the hospital department holds regular seminars for people starting carb counting (more below). Our GP is actually a staff doctor at a community health clinic we choose to go to rather than a doc in private practice (this is local to our part of Canada and won't apply to you). The clinic offers a three-session diet course for diabetics, and also regular foot care.
Carb counting means having as precise an idea as possible of how many carbohydrates you will eat at a meal, and injecting the amount of insulin required for that. This means that your "ratio" has to be determined -- how many units of insulin for X amount of carbs. So it calls for careful monitoring during the start-up carb counting period. It really is the best approach, and it really isn't that hard.
Packaged foods have to display the nutritional values on the label. The carbohydrate grams for X amount of the food will be given. I hate the way most do it -- a 533 ml tin of beans tells you the amount of carbs in 100 mls. So that's 5 servings plus one for the cat. I do a lot of fractions.
If you cook, you count as it goes in. 20 grams in the carrots, 10 grams in the celery, 10 grams in the green beans, 10 grams in the onions, 100 grams in the potatoes, 20 grams in the flour -- 170 grams total for a stew, round it up to 180, divide by 3, and you have three servings at 60 grams each. This is why I cook in bulk and freeze! Labeled with the carb count per serving in the package of 1 serving (his lunch) or 2 servings (our supper).
If your grandson doesn't cook but has a spouse who does -- well, he should maybe start pitching in. Chopping vegetables while watching a movie on Sunday afternoon is an easy way to get the week's meals going.
This seems like a huge burden when you first look at it, but it really isn't. And it's good for everybody. Makes you more conscious of what you're really eating, and more likely to eat a whole lot better, diabetes aside even.
Dieticians can provide lists of the carb values of raw foods. There are also lists of the carb values of restaurant / fast food, but the best thing there is to eat it as seldom as possible and keep it simple. Things aren't always what they seem. Healthy-looking Chinese dishes, for instance, are usually loaded to the brim with fat and sugar.
The big thing: vegetables vegetables vegetables. Not potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips -- not all at once, that is. Some. But more green non-root veg. Beans (peas and corn are high carb), cauliflower, brocolli, peppers, salad veg, sprouts, squash -- all of the wonderful fresh veg that none of us eat enough of.
This all means testing blood before meals, and calculating the insulin based on the ratio + anything needed to adjust for blood sugar levels. No.1 resisted it for a long time.
Then he almost died, twice, last May, when a bad stomach flu threw his blood sugar so sky high (if I say 44, those who know will gasp) his blood was (as the doctor described it) pretty much sulphuric acid - which can damage the heart beyond recovery. He was lucky, and suffered no permanent ill effects it seems.
This is one reason why it is so important to go to those appointments, take those courses, make sure he knows everything. We didn't know the havoc a simple stomach bug could wreak.
No.1 exercises well (garden and cycling in summer, snow shovelling and walking in winter) and - this is the good part - eats really really well. A lot of that is because I'm a pretty decent cook (he does all the dishes and laundry). But it isn't hard to cook and eat well. It takes some time, but it is just so worth it.
If he wants my chicken saag recipe (chicken, frozen spinach which is better for you than fresh, tinned tomatoes which are better for you than fresh, some onions which are so good for you, and spices and yogourt, brown rice, and voilà, heaven on a plate!), let me know. ;)
By the way, No.1 has his morning and evening (background) insulin shots, plus a shot with every meal. I totally understand why he was resistant to it. Everyone with diabetes is. It's unfair.
|
