Any pregnant Type 1 diabetics?

[dieciocho]

Hi,
I'm looking for other pregnant Type 1 diabetics in London, just to have someone to keep in contact with and share advice/horror stories/support each other etc.
I don't actually know anyone at all with Type 1, despite having had it myself since 1989

My worst was below 1mmol, when in hosp after having dd - nobody warned me what BFing did to sugars, and I just couldn't get hold of enough carbs to keep going... Soup and a sarnie at 5pm then nothing available until 7am breakfast.

I was unconscious & fitting when they eventually found me - dd had apparently been crying for "about an hour"

It was a notifiable incident for the hospital and as a direct result, t1s are no longer allowed private rooms, and have to be checked on every 2(? I think!) hours through the night.

And to come round by yourself from a fit is possible so long as your liver hasn't previously dumped it into you - it needs about 24-48 hrs to recharge its stores each time. If your liver has done that, a glucagon injection won't work as all it does is kick start your liver.

I only used to fit if I had a hypo at night time, never in the day. I had my last one when I was 14.

Rue that must have been awful

Oh Rue, how horrific.

I've been unconscious (usually early morning), but not fitted - that I'm aware of.
I think I've had an ambulance called 3 times, by parents/housemates/partner. In over 20 years, I'm not too worried by that statistic.

Yes, your liver is very clever; it just needs at least a whole day to replenish its stores.
TBH I doubt any of us would allow ourselves to verge anywhere near a really low-low reading twice in a row, would we?!
It just feels so unpleasant that I know I'd be on tenterhooks the day after a bad hypo making sure I was running that little bit high.

Rue that's awful! I didn't know about the liver using up its stores until recently. Again I'm annoyed no professional told me - there should be a lust of things you're told on diagnosis.

If you fit then and the glucagon doesn't work what do they do? I'm sorry I'm being morbid I would just like to be armed with the info.

List not lust! Nothing about being diabetic is lust-worthy!

That's my understanding,puds. We always run Ds a bit higher after a nasty hypo.

Hope you ladies are all well and looking forwards to a chilled out Sunday.

Weird discovery this morning...if I eat breakfast before 8 I don't seem to need as much insulin. Anyone else found this? About 1 unit to 10g as opposed to 2.5 units to 10g.

Lowest I've been is about 1.4 and scarily seem pretty sane! Cause i now check my sugars every few hours, haven't had any nasty lows. Today seems to be a higher day, was 5.6 during night, good i thought but 10 waking up? Took insulin with a cup of tea and was 6.7 then an hour later was 7.4! Took more insulin and had something to eat and they're now sitting at around 6. Still not sleeping which is making me feel horrendous :( hope others are doing better than me! X

Puds I'm like that - my bolus ratio changes about 4 times a day, fortunately on a pump I can just programme in the different ratios & times they apply to and leave it to work out how much insulin I need. It varies from 1u to 8g up to 1u to 16g carbs depending on the time of day.

My basal rate jumps around a fair bit too, and varies from 0.75u/hr up to 1.8u/hr. and it gets a whole lot more interesting the more pg I get! And when not pg I have 2 different programmes set up, one for days 1-14 of my cycle, the other for days 15-28 (ish).

Forgot to add - if you fit and glucagon doesn't work then it's admission & sliding scale, pretty much.

Well I think I've cracked breakfast (for now...). Eat it earlier! Bona have you tried an early breakfast? Anything after 8 and I'm buggered but this morning I had two pieces of toast, four and a half units and in target in an hour! It's a miracle!

I normally eat breakfast between six and seven and I still need more than 12 units for two slices of toast!

Oh bloody hell. Perhaps my sensitivity has just increased again then!

puds - thanks for thinking of me, but I've tried it ALL ! And for the record a cup of tea will DEFINITELY send me 1 or 2 mmol up. Milk is definitely not my friend!

I think 1.9 is probably also my lowest low and I can count on one hand the number of times I've been below about 2.5. I've been pretty lucky and still have very good hypo awareness - reckon about 3.6 when I start to feel it, by 3.2 feel awful. But then I have only had diabetes for 5 years and I think the longer you have it, the more hypos you've had, the more accustomed your body becomes to the feeling...

Also lucky enough never to have had a hypo I couldn't treat myself. I figure it's one of those things, though, which is bound to happen eventually.

Rue - love how the hospital's response to that horrific f-up on their part was to stop diabetics enjoying a private room. How about... um... warning new mothers about needing lots of carbs when BF'ing and perhaps making some extra food or sugary drinks available?!

At clinic tomorrow and looking forward to hearing the baby's heartbeat again. Find myself looking forward to the MW bit and dreading the DSN / nutritionist. I find them pretty patronising.

Morning (afternoon!) ladies! Zombie today following another delightful night. We've had a week of ridiculous highs, despite monitoring, insulin change, canula change. Sigh. Overcompensated last night for a 20 and spent 1 1/2 hours getting him up from a 2 something in the small hours.

Hope you don't mind me looking in on the chat, it helps me to understand how things work and think of other things we could try. He's usually between 4 -7 with a post meal spike of 12 if he doesn't carb early enough. These numbers are strange - I'm putting it down to a combo of cold/tiredness/puberty. Hope we get out of the other side of it sharpish!

Rue what a nightmare with the hospital. Grrrrrrr. And yes re warning re bf-ing. I'm not looking forwards to the inevitable chat I have to have with ds now he's going through puberty about having a carb snack available/prior to, erm, well, boy stuff!!

how lovely re hearing baby heartbeat. Gorgeous.

Brambles sorry your ds is having a rough time in afraid I don't know much about how it effects boys in puberty!

So who does everyone see in pregnancy? From finding out I've seen DNS (who I love) fortnightly, sometimes that would have just been a phone call if all was going well. I saw DNS with consultant at 6, 16, 24, 28 weeks. My diabetes consultant sometimes joins in these appointments which will continue at 32, 34, 36 weeks. I have only met my community mw once and she didn't even want to see me but I can see my specialist mw at any if the above appointments and often pop to see her on the times I don't have a scan so I can hear the heartbeat

I've had scans at 6,8,12,20,24,28 weeks and will have them at 32,24,36 weeks.

Just wondering if it duffers much for each area I hope that isn't too garbled

Yes, it differs! I'm in west London.
I'm having fortnightly appointments too, but see either a diabetes specialist OR an obstetrics specialist at these. I don't have MW appointments, but can ask to see one if I have any questions that the doctors haven't answered.
The MWs at my ante-natal clinic are not diabetes specialists, but rather "complicated pregnancy" specialists (heart problems, kidney failure, all 3 types of diabetes etc).
I have had a 12-week and 20-week scan and will have a 28-week, 32-week and 36-week scan.
I've been offered appointments with the dietician, but in my experience, they're always patronising, so I've declined.

Oh yes I got offered an appointment with the dietician but declined!

I have fortnightly appointments and at each one see MW, consultant obstetrician, DSN and diabetic nutritionist. Each appt takes 1-2 hours as I wait for them all to see me. I like seeing he MW - makes me feel more normal and helps get comfortable with the normal pregnancy stuff, not just being diabetic!

Had scans at 6 & 12 weeks, then will have 20 weeks x 2 (one 'normal', one cardiac), then 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36 weeks scans. I am I can't complain they're not keeping an eye on me.

Brambles - you are welcome any time. These extreme swings in your son sound awful and he must feel like sh!t too. Would imagine hormone surges are behind a lot of it.... or could he be eating stuff when he's at school which he shouldn't be / isn't shooting for?

These swings ctainly aren't normal. I'm on 'lockdown' with him today to get his chilling out day basals sorted. Bless him! I do wonder if what he's eating might be being miscounted at times, but he's on a pump so is very good at keeping up with the insulin.

I think we sometimes know more than the dieticians we aree sent to see!

Glad they're keeping a close eye. How lovely to have a view in to baby with the additional scans.

Well I'm officially on the merry-go-round from tomorrow - 7 1/2 weeks and off to the joint antenatal clinic, where I'll be weighed, measured, BP done, wee dipsticked. Then wait to see DSN and midwife (together), then wait to see 2 consultants (together) along with their registrars, students etc etc. Let the fun times roll...

They'll have me on fortnightly appts from now till delivery given half a chance, am hoping I can talk them into less often, at least to start with!

Brambles - whenever I go through an unpredictable patch (which happens from time to time) I tend to go low carb for a week or two just to let myself balance out and regroup. Then introduce carbs again slowly and get back to grips with my bolus ratios.

Low carbing for me is quite and easy and mindless way to get good control back if things are going awry. Not a long term solution for me personally, but might be worth a try if things are really getting scary. It can be pretty healthy and tasty too!

That's a helpful strategy - we do use it now and again, but good to link it particularly to difficult times. I must admit, I felt myself tense up when he sked for white toast - erm, no love! Not today! Things certainly are better all round on a low carb diet, much fewer swings.

Good luck on the merry go round rue!

It's weird but this time around I've found they're far less interested in me - which is a good thing! I can remember the first time lots of visits to diabetes nurse, her looking at my carefully written out BG diary, her telling me to increase insulin...I suppose this time it's a bit like teaching granny how to suck eggs. This time for me it's all just scans. And I'm hoping to get to chat to my obstetrician to rant and rave about not having ask her politely about the dreaded induction hormone and sliding scales.