Hello Josh:
Gee, I’m sorry that you are doing this without support. Well, you have it here now. You could also phone your nearest Diabetes UK branch. They probably have meetings and get togethers where you could meet People with Diabetes, your own age.
I wish you weren’t feeling down about this but I can certainly understand why you are. Many newly diagnosed Diabetes go through denial and depression for years. Maybe that is where I got off “lucky”. I was diagnosed(dxd) at age 3 and at about age 6-8, I was more or less told this is what you have, this is what will happen, here are some pointers, get on with Life. I didn’t know there was a choice of accepting Diabetes or not.
Certainly there was no time for pampering. It will be 47 years of Diabetes for me in Dec/08. I did have a couple complications that could have gone bad but I started learning about Diabetes and turned then ariound.
You have a lot more information, newer meds., better tests, technical gadgets to help you. Go through what you feel that you need to until you accept this disease and learn all you can. Don’t sit back. You have to control it. You have youth on your side, that’s a plus but it won't take you past too many years of uncontrolled Diabetes.
As Peter(a cool Diabetic for 37 years
) mentioned, testing is Very important. I test 7-9 times a day. That’s how you know how foods(and different amounts of), stress, exercise, alcohol and other beverges, weather, etc. are affecting your blood sugar. You need to talk to your Dietician about how many carbs that you should be eating. Eating too many carbs are NOT good for you. White foods like potatoes(like a medium potato), pasta, bread should be consumed in smaller anounts. You should eat a balance of most foods. Sugary foods should be excluded totally unless you have a low blood sugar episode. Meats , small amounts of dairy products and most vegetables are Good. Whole grain breads, whole wheat pasta(Dreamfields pasta also), brown rice, etc. are acceptable.
Fruits are Good for you to tame the free radicals but in small amounts like 1 medium apple, 12 grapes, I medium banana for dessert or a snack until you figure out your system. Fruits are supposed to be Good for your brain also. The results aren’t in on mine yet.
Drink your 6-8 glasses of water a day to get rid of some toxins, to get rid of some of the sugar in your blood, to keep your kidneys flushed, to keep you Good looking, etc.
You should test when you get up. Knowing and/or correcting that number can make or break your day. Test before and after each meal, before bedtime and when you are ill or feeling weird.
You are in the “honeymoon” phase right now so it my be harder to get your numbers exactly where you want them. Of course, it can be difficult other times since so many things effect our blood sugars.
Disagreements go on about sugar numbers but keeping them between 4 and 7 most of the time is what works for me. Some can tolerate a bit higher sugar levels due to their genes. You may need to be between 4 and 6, I can't say. Try not to stress out about it. Many stress out when they don’t have a Perfect number and don’t realize that they are sometimes raising their sugars themselves by stressing out about getting that Perfect number.
You didn’t say the types or amounts of Insulin that you are on or what your A1c was.
As far as meters go, they usually differ in accuracy. They can be 10%-20% off. I have tested 3 or 4 times in a row and I picked the number in the middle. This rocedure would not be feasible to do often however unless you can have as many strips as you want. The blood in your body is continually moving that is one reason why the numbers will change within minutes.
Anyways, I hope that this helps a bit. The world is in your grasp. Eventually Accept and Learn about your Diabetes. Go out and conquer.
More questions? Just ask. Good luck in your studies.
