The trails and tribulations of being a type one diabetic and dieting!

A number of months ago I wrote a blog about how suffering from type one diabetes, had made me sort of become a diabetic detective through the years.  Infuriatingly, my blood sugars of late have been all over the place and I just wasn’t able to work out why this was the case.  I am now pleased to declare to you my friends that this case has JUST been solved……or else I think it has!

As any good diabetic detective should do, I forensically went through all aspects of my life to try and explain why my blood sugars were misbehaving.  Six months ago my Diabetic Nurse had nearly kissed me due to her being so overjoyed at how well managed my diabetes was.  I had lost almost three stones in weight, my blood pressure and cholesterol were great, and my average blood sugar reading was under the targeted figure of 7.0.

A month ago I got a bit of a bollocking(pardon my French) about my diabetes at the diabetic clinic.  I’d put on a bit of weight, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels were higher than they should be, and my average blood sugar reading was now 8.0….argh.   I hated all this being the massive perfectionist that I am.  I gave my nurse my word that I would sort it.  Thing was though, I wasn’t completely sure how too!

In an attempt to get better control I’ve examined what goes in my body like never before.  I altered what I eat late at night in case that was the reason for my high blood sugars in the morning.  I also came off certain medication for a few days to see if this made a difference, but doing both of these things didn’t alter anything.  I upped my night time insulin at night but yet again I still got high blood sugars first thing in the day.  About a week ago it was really starting to get me, I woke up in the middle of the night and my blood sugar was 18.6, i.e, horrendous when it should be between 5.0 to 7.0.  I was just soooooooo exasperated at what was going wrong…..WHAT THE HELL WAS IT???

Then, I stumbled on another possible theory, could it be due to me trying to diet?  This has meant that I’ve been drastically reducing my insulin dosage for my evening meal due to eating less, i.e but reducing my insulin too much.  I used to have twenty to thirty units at tea time, yet now I had reduced it massively to just eight to ten units.  I had nothing to lose but to test this theory out.

I feel a bit apprehensive saying ‘CASE SOLVED’ in case I am yet proved to be wrong, but this is definitely how it feels right now.  The last three days I have upped my insulin more for my evening meal and for three days on-the-trot I have woken up in the morning with BRILLIANT blood sugar readings, e.g. all been in the fives, 5.7, 5.0, 5.2.  I am that overjoyed to have seemingly finally cracked this case that I feel like crying, really I do. I have enough going wrong with my health right now, I certainly don’t need my diabetes adding to that list as well.

I guess my experience just illustrates how hard and tricky it can be to try and diet if you’re a type one diabetic.  Of course I have upped the exercise too, but I also needed to start eating less and this is where my difficulties lay.  I have felt so wound-up at not being to work out what was going wrong.  You have to constantly monitor what you put inside your body, or not put inside you as was in my case.  It has required a great deal of patience and perseverance on my part, but finally I feel I have got there(it took long enough though).  FINALLY, I THINK THIS DIABETIC DETECTIVE HAS CRACKED THIS CASE!!