T1 diabetes - bumps, births, babies & beyond!

[RueDeWakening]

New thread, form an orderly queue here please >>>

:o

Hi bona my dd is also just 9 months a couple days ago absolutely no interest in crawling as yet will roll wherever she wants to go go or squeak at her big brother and gets what she wants that way. Im soo envious of you I go back to work 19th of this month totally dreading it
Pretty sure my hba1c will be rubbish compared to last time too.

how is everyone?

I'm wondering about scans. When do we have scans,as pg diabetics? I had a dating scan a few days ago (8 weeks) but am confused about the others we have. Can anyone help?

Bumpity bump

hi vjones.

other than some people having an early scan like you did, you will have the standard 12 & 20 week scans, then around the same time you should be offered a foetal cardiac scan, and at 24 doppler scan to assess the efficacy of your placenta and hence risk of pre eclampsia. then at weeks 28, 32 & 36 you will be offered sequential growth scans to establish whether your baby is showing a normal pattern of growth, cord blood flow and liquor volume.

in terms of diabetes appointments it will depend very much on what your control is like and how you manage it. so if you are someone who is in tight control, doesnt have issues with hypos and will be self managing your changes in insulin, then they will want to see you a lot less frequently than somebody that needs more help. i use a contour usb meter so basically download and print the log and trends and they just check that i didnt get hba1c of 5.5% by having loads of hypos. oh and they generally make a few dumb comments about "ooooo your dropping 3 points overnight your basals too high" after iv explained several times that having had toast etc before bed then set alarm for 2am my blood sugar was 7 so i corrected....

Thanks. I've been told already that all pg diabetics see the consultant every two weeks, which I guess is just what they do in my area because I've had great control for years now so am not a cause for concern at the moment.

My levels seem to run slightly high and I'm still getting the hang of how much insulin I need now but hopefully it'll settle down.

Was hoping I would get an extra scan between 12 and 20 weeks so we can find out what we're having ;-)

vjones, with the appointments they often have a standard protocol of appointments but you should be able to discuss this and if you feel its too frequent, explain why, both in terms if your health but also your work commitments. if they feel they need to see more in terms of numbers, you can suggest emailing with the understanding that if they arent in the right place, you might have to come in more frequently.

if they want your bp and urine to be checked more frequently then you can usually get these done without the excessive wait at your gp practice; just establish what the boundary is for any concern eg if bp more than x or 2+ protein you will come to the clinic.

make sure YOU are happy with whatever schedule you arrange. the standard practices are often designed to be suitable for the poorest controlled highest risk diabetic, and they should be prepared to adapt with your personal circumstances in mind.

ps. due to hideous experience i had with first pregnancy and the fact i wanted referral through different hospital, i chose to have private scans at 8 & 11 weeks and didnt go to nhs until 18 weeks this time; private scan 75% certainty of it being boy at 11 weeks. its a boy. private scans arent ridiculously priced to be honest....

Wow,didn't realise the baby's gender was even developed enough at that stage! How much did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

Hi vjones I think how often you see consultant and are scanned must vary by area and hospitals. I was seen every 4 weeks till late 2nd trimester(unless having issues with bg) then every fortnight and twice weekly the last 3 weeks but I think thats due to concerns I was needing slightly less insulin. In terms of scans with my 1st straightforward pregnancy with ds I had an early scan, 12 week scan, 20 week scan and then fortnightly growth scans from 26 weeks. Hope that helps I had a private gender scan with 2nd pregnancy at 16 weeks(didnt want to know 1st time)that said girl and was right dd is sleeping in her cot at end of my bed.

I lost you all again! Hope everyone's getting on ok.

I'm so fed up. I'm struggling quite a bit and my hospital are being shit

My consultant said he wanted to see me two months after I was discharged following dka. Last month I still hadn't heard anything so got my nurse (from gp surgery) to chase it and they didn't know anything about it. Made my dr do a new referral and I received an appt for April with the consultant who I've never seen!! (I've been seeing mine for ten years). So now I'm at a point where my levels are all over the place, I've been in hospital because of it, I'm completely fed up I have bruised legs, lumpy stomach and painful fingers and I haven't been seen in a clinic for over a year. I've got to ring my consultants secretary every week to see if there's been a cancelation.

I'm going to try everything I can to get a pump. Children get them automatically and I know I'm jot a child but I used to be

spotty poor you my levels are not the best right now either, have gone back to body step and feeling a bit stressed as my mum had been recovering from what we thought was hepatitis due to a rare reaction to antibiotics but her most recent blood test shows one of the levels are not reducing well the other has gone back up anc she has had more tests to be carried out I am so worried about her also 1st day back at work tomorrow

Oh poor you hoping are you getting any further with a pump? My hba1c is 6.5. I thought it would be higher, am I right in thinking if me levels are yo-yo ing that can make an ok hba1c reading?

Not really spotty I did ask again last week when I saw my dsn if it may be an option to give me better control but I didn't think I met the criteria apparently they are getting more funding for pumps and if mdi isnt providing good control then id be in with a shout however my hba1c at last check was 40 I think thats 6%? But like you im sure thats due to yoyoing more than stability! Its a weird one though as when I checked 2 hours post lunch on sunday I was 9.9 but as I was working didnt correct by 1 hour later I was 5.8!!so had I corrected I would have gone hypo. I also got offered a last minute place on dafne for 10th feb but cant do it as wouldn't be able to get childcare for 9-5 mon-fri well I could for Friday bit thats no good another week and my sis in law could have helped but not those date so a long wait now. I forget are you on a pump spotty?

how is everyone else havent seen rue bona or diec puds

No, no pump for me I'm so fed up I feel like I'm running out of places to inject!

spotty you poor thing. Have tonsay um totally fed up too but its a combination of everything thats bothering me diabetes is only a large part of it.

you dont have to have poor control to get a pump. whilst NICE guidelines might say certain things, its down to how the consultant controlling the purse strings perceives things and making a compelling case to him or her.

poor control plus a pump, doesnt result in automatic improvement. it is brilliant tool but you need to put in lots of hard work to figure things out and then and only then can you achieve more stable control. i would hand on heart say that you need to understand enough about how things are working to eliminate the really problematic readings before you even think about a pump. have you read 'think like a pancreas' by gary scheiner? its about £10 on amazon and utterly brilliant. i got it very early in my diabetes career and it enabled me to ignore the well meaning but useless advice i got from diabetes nurses etc (it is written by a US diabetes educator that has diabetes himself) and also 'pumping insulin' by john walsh is brilliant even if not pumping yet! i hope this doesnt sound condescending i am just trying to help and want everyone with type 1 to feel healthy and in control and not reliant on nurses and doctors to help them feel that way!!!

Also, HbA1C alone is not a measure of control. If yours is 6% then yes maybe on the surface of it you wouldnt think poor control, but you have had DKA and lots of hypos, that is not good control and if this is the criteria being applied in your area, and you want a pump, use that to your advantage.

I have terrible dawn phenomenon, and have basal rates that vary 4 fold as a result. On MDI obviously this is a disaster if you are using a flat profiled basal such as lantus. The only way I could manage on this (as was not prepared to run with the stupid advice from diabetes nurse that it was ok to wake up with blood sugar of 10) was to set my alarm for 4 am and take a big slug of novorapid. in pump application this type of lifestyle compromise is considered a big deal - my hba1c at the time was in the low 6s but i was getting up several times in the night to achieve this which is considered too much hassle (the people that wrote the rules obviously dont have kids!).

Hope things start improving for you soon.

Well I saw the nurse and she thinks I'm going low over night and wants my evening levemir reduced which fills me with horror! I don't think I am going low over night as I tend to wake up if I do, or at least wake up with a headache. Hba1c was actually 7.0 so receptionist read it wrong

My consultants secretary said if there's no cancelation by Friday she will over book me into an appt so at least I can see him.

Levels have been in the 4s and 5s today which is good. Rations seem to be 2u/10g at breakfast 1.5/10 and lunch and 1/10 in the evening, anyone else (not preg) like that? So frustrating. Apparently there's a metre that tells you how much bolus insulin you're carrying etc but you have to go on a training session to use it.

Apparently 1u/10g is too much for dinner

Spotty, could you do a 3am test to see if you are dipping low? I know it is a pain to set the alarm but it would be worth checking out I think.

She did suggest that but I'm not a good sleeper and if I get woken up at that time of morning I can't get back to sleep. Also question I should know the answer to, just don't trust myself atm, hypo three hours after eating is background insulin (most likely), right?

hey spotty, 3 hours after meal is tricky one...novorapid is advertised as lasting up to 4 but i assume 3 myself, people find different tho. is this in afternoon tho? lot of people have big dip in basal insulin need late afternoon so could be the culprit.

on the night time thing is really is worth testing; i tend to set alarm every night! like you i wake if i go low; i never have rebound highs either, and need way more basal at night. if that is the case might be worth considering injecting novorapid at 4-5am so its active the problematic times; increasing basal will just make you low and/or hungry at other times of day esp afternon (if your on lantus or levemir)

ps the ratios you were saying. yup on shots and not pregnant mine varied even more i think. maybe 1u:5g breakfast; 1:10 lunch and1:15 evening (so slightly compensating for not being able to vary basal rate on injection too).

It was three hours after breakfast, which I thought I had sorted re novorapid. My levemir is split. I know I should have a fasting day but it would make me feel rubbish.

Oh and thanks