Aa
Diabetes 1
hey, i have a girl who is my best friend in the whole world. She is God given to me, but she is a diabetic type 1. She has had it since 12. I am hurting for her because everyday i see her have to go through this awful disease. I can't possibly watch her go through anything bad with this. I have heard all about the average life span of people with this disease from people living 40 years old -90 years old. They all say take care and monitor it good and you will be ok. She has a pump but every week she will go low and then eat something and go sky high up to 600 sometimes. My question is ..going low and then going high like that...just how bad is that, saying this happens twice a week? How can i help her without you know getting on her nerves. Please tell me. I can't lose her. God spent extra special time on this girl. She is like my own teen angel.
Google "Bernstein diabetes" for Bernstein's book on controlling blood sugar in type 1 diabetics. Also, read the book "Pumping Insulin" by John Walsh and Ruth Roberts, 3rd edition. By applying the knowledge in these books, she can live a healthy, normal life with blood sugars averaging 80-100 mg/dL, and do everything you do.
I am sorry it took so long to post an answer to this one. Some people seem to be more prone to the complications than others are. There are some people who seem to have complications happen even if they keep tight control over their blood sugars while others seem to be able to be lax without severe problems. There seems to be a genetic factor in the likelihood of complications, and we can't really tell yet who is the lucky diabetic and who is not. Research has proven that keeping glucose levels tightly controlled (as normal as is possible for a type 1 diabetic) does protect the person from complications. But my answer to your questions is: we don't know whether a constant glucose of 200 will damage your girlfriend or not.
I think the answer it, probably, YES, for that number is high enough to cause damage to tiny blood vessels that feed the major organs and eyes. That kind of number on a constant basis is also high enough to sap her energy levels and leave her feeling tired all the time. Nowadays, it really IS possible for most diabetics to keep their numbers lower than that without severe lows. It boils down to testing often and adjusting often. This protects us from both lows and highs.
I think the answer it, probably, YES, for that number is high enough to cause damage to tiny blood vessels that feed the major organs and eyes. That kind of number on a constant basis is also high enough to sap her energy levels and leave her feeling tired all the time. Nowadays, it really IS possible for most diabetics to keep their numbers lower than that without severe lows. It boils down to testing often and adjusting often. This protects us from both lows and highs.
I have one more question. Let's say in theory that my friend's blood sugar stays about 210 or so pretty much all the time. How bad is that? Will her being that high all the time have a big effect on her?
The high going to 600 seems like this may be her real problem. And her problem fixing her low and causing this kind of high means she is not fixing the lows properly if this kind of high reaction is happening often. Frankly, we ALL can make occasional mistakes and see numbers that are "off" occasionally. If those numbers are not out of the normal range for very long, no lasting damage is done. Many of us live long and very normal lives, other than the fact that we need to balance those glucose readings every few hours during each and every day.
The real damage happens when numbers are either low or high for a long period of time. If she tests often and corrects numbers out of the normal range fairly quickly and successfully, she may be able to live for a long and healthy time.
You mentioned that she eats something and then has the high. Her problem may be in what she is eating to correct the low. We can feel awful when low, and the best correction is when we DRINK quickly-absorbed carbs, not when we eat slowly-digested carbs. Gatorade is supposed to be the quickest-absorbed liquid, for it is designed to be absorbed by the body in the quickest time frame possible. Juices are good for quick-absorption, also.
The highs after lows tend to happen because we eat carbs that aren't quickly-absorbed, and then maybe continue to add carbs because we don't recover quickly, and then find that we overdid the correction. You can suggest the quickly-absorbed juices or Gatorade rather than slowly-digested foods (the worst things she can eat are carbs combined with fats, for the fats slow down the absorption of the carbs she needs when low). If she refuses to heed this advice, then really all you can do is continue to make the suggestion and hope she eventually learns this for herself.
Most of us do learn by experience, though. Some of us listen to suggestions better than others of us (our personalities are different and some are less able to listen to outside suggestions than others). Why don't you tell her you discovered this web site and bring her here yourself? The very best help you can offer is to bring her to sites like this where she can hear from her peers (I am one of those healthy long-timers, diabetic since age 12 myself, and doing just great 35 years later -- about to celebrate my 48th birthday without any problems) and she can communicate with us herself. Most of us prefer to learn first-hand, but we tend to like to hear from others who have had the disease a long time and who have figured out ways to live with it successfully.
Another suggestion is to take her to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's website at www.jdrf.org and let her click on the Online Diabetes Support Team link and she can ask us herself any questions she has. We will answer her questions one-on-one, and we can also offer support for those days when she feels all alone in the daily balancing act. Many folks write to us complaining that their beloved family and spouse and loved ones really cannot fully understand our lives since they watch from the outside. If she has had the bounce from low to extreme high only rarely, and if she corrects the high immediately, then she is probably fine except for the fatigue that sometimes sets in for a few hours after a low -- lasting damage is done only when numbers are high too often. There is a test done to check the average number during the past 3 months that can give a better idea of how good her real control is (the hemoglobin a1c test -- normal is about 5-6 and diabetics are considered well-controlled if the number is below 7). But if the numbers bounce often, then there may indeed be something different that would work better for her lifestyle, and one of her peers probaby has figured it out and will be glad to e-mail with her to help her figure out how to level out the numbers so she feels better.
The real damage happens when numbers are either low or high for a long period of time. If she tests often and corrects numbers out of the normal range fairly quickly and successfully, she may be able to live for a long and healthy time.
You mentioned that she eats something and then has the high. Her problem may be in what she is eating to correct the low. We can feel awful when low, and the best correction is when we DRINK quickly-absorbed carbs, not when we eat slowly-digested carbs. Gatorade is supposed to be the quickest-absorbed liquid, for it is designed to be absorbed by the body in the quickest time frame possible. Juices are good for quick-absorption, also.
The highs after lows tend to happen because we eat carbs that aren't quickly-absorbed, and then maybe continue to add carbs because we don't recover quickly, and then find that we overdid the correction. You can suggest the quickly-absorbed juices or Gatorade rather than slowly-digested foods (the worst things she can eat are carbs combined with fats, for the fats slow down the absorption of the carbs she needs when low). If she refuses to heed this advice, then really all you can do is continue to make the suggestion and hope she eventually learns this for herself.
Most of us do learn by experience, though. Some of us listen to suggestions better than others of us (our personalities are different and some are less able to listen to outside suggestions than others). Why don't you tell her you discovered this web site and bring her here yourself? The very best help you can offer is to bring her to sites like this where she can hear from her peers (I am one of those healthy long-timers, diabetic since age 12 myself, and doing just great 35 years later -- about to celebrate my 48th birthday without any problems) and she can communicate with us herself. Most of us prefer to learn first-hand, but we tend to like to hear from others who have had the disease a long time and who have figured out ways to live with it successfully.
Another suggestion is to take her to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's website at www.jdrf.org and let her click on the Online Diabetes Support Team link and she can ask us herself any questions she has. We will answer her questions one-on-one, and we can also offer support for those days when she feels all alone in the daily balancing act. Many folks write to us complaining that their beloved family and spouse and loved ones really cannot fully understand our lives since they watch from the outside. If she has had the bounce from low to extreme high only rarely, and if she corrects the high immediately, then she is probably fine except for the fatigue that sometimes sets in for a few hours after a low -- lasting damage is done only when numbers are high too often. There is a test done to check the average number during the past 3 months that can give a better idea of how good her real control is (the hemoglobin a1c test -- normal is about 5-6 and diabetics are considered well-controlled if the number is below 7). But if the numbers bounce often, then there may indeed be something different that would work better for her lifestyle, and one of her peers probaby has figured it out and will be glad to e-mail with her to help her figure out how to level out the numbers so she feels better.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Diabetes - Type 1 Community
Here are three summertime recipes that will satisfy your hunger without wreaking havoc on your blood sugar.
If you have prediabetes, type 2 diabetes isn’t inevitable. Find out how you can stop diabetes before it starts.
Diabetes-friendly recipes and tips for your game day party.
Are there grounds to recommend coffee consumption? Recent studies perk interest.
Simple ways to keep your blood sugar in check.
8 blood sugar-safe eats.
