Type 1 Diabetes

[Jas]

Hi,

I am a Doula and I am in contact with a lovely lady at the moment about being her Doula. She isn't a member of BellyBelly yet but I thought I would just put a post in here to see if there are any other ladies that have experience with being pregnant with Type 1 Diabetes? If there are I will direct her here to chat!

Thanks

[Carla MP]

Hi
I am 8 weeks pregnant today and a type 1 diabetic. I have had my firs appointment with the specialist about my diabetes and pregnancy today. Im scared stiff...he seems to think my sugars can be alot tighter and told me allthe risks involved.....i have to go on another insulin again like I used to have before but Im so scared now. My Hcg levels are 42 200 today and the nurse at the hospital said they are ont he lower end for 8 weeks......Im having a scan tomorrow, Im absolutely scared out of my mind. Are these levels ok...she said they were still healthy but lower than they should be...is this the calm before the storm for a m/c?

[Jas]

Hi thanks for you reply I have sent my client the link for this thread so hopefully she will be here soon. Check this link out -

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...pregnancy.html

It has all the suggested hcg levels and your level is definitely in the normal range especially seeing you are 8 weeks along and the category you fit into is for 7w-12w preg. I don't know why things like this are said to women to make them worry unneccessarily.

When I first went to the dr to confirm my pregnancy I couldn 't get into my normal dr but I was too excited to wait and the one I saw said yea well so many pregnancies miscarry before the 6week mark so no need to do anything until after that! The next time I saw a different dr and she said yes it was true but that she should neve r have said that ezpecially seeing as I have no particular risks fot miscarriage.

Congratulations on your pregnancy I am sure everything will be fine!

[Carla MP]

Thankyou Jas, I feel a little better but still very worried. It hasnt been a smooth ride....

[mfcr06]

I am 29 weeks today and have have Type 1 diabetes for 26 years.

This is Bub No 2 for us!

[Jas]

Hi mfcr06,

I hope your pregnancy is going well I have sent this link to my lovely client and hopefully she will be in here to chat soon!

[Carla MP]

HI Mfcr
Welcome....and first of all congratulations on your pregnancy!!!!!! can I pick your brain abit..... I am an insulin dependant diabetic too and have been for 11 years...my sugars have been ok...not the best they can be not never bad enough to cause any major problems. But this is my first pregnancy and I am scared stiff already let alont to think about what could happen becasue I am a diabetic.
Can you please give me some advice of how to keep my sugars nice a tight during this pregnancy, i am having some problems. also how were your pregancies being a diabetic? hope you can help....fanks!

[melbel]

Hey Fi fancy seeing you over here!! Not long to go now!

Carla, Did the do say why they were changing you back to your old insulin? I am going to take a guess and say you were on lantus and they swapped you back to the old protophane rubbish. If this is the case you may like to know that you dont have to do this if you feel your control was better on the other insulin. Docs quite often use the term that they are not safe in pregnancy which is not true. In fact NO insulin is listed as safe for pregnancy but this is only because there have not been enough type 1 diabetics in the world for the studies to categorise them asa category A drug. There have been no adverse effects on babies from any insulin ever so if you like theinsulin yu were on you may want to question your doc further as this kind of treatment is quite old school...not many endos will change you back to the old stuff these days are there is really no need to. There is a great website just for type one diabetics that Fi and I are members of called realitycheck and there are quite a few type ones preggas at the moment if you want more information. Same for your friend Jas..she may like to pop over there and have a chat also.

[Carla MP]

Thanks MelBel
Im on Actrapid 3 times a day and he put me back on protophane before bed as my other doctor took me off it awhile back. I must admit, i do need something to carry me through the night but I cant keep them stable.....having so many hypos because of pregnancy and just scared to death really...how the hell do you stay stable?
the only way i can keep my sugars kind of stable is to starve myself..not really a solution!

[melbel]

okay so when you were off protophane were you on any other long acting at all? If were on no long acting I now understand why he put you on protophane. have you thought about the newer insulins at all like maybe a lantus and either humalog or novorapid combo....that may help the hypos to be less severe. You do appear to be on what is these days quite a kinda old fashioned insulin combo, but hey if it works, don't knock it!
The hypos will be a right royal PITA for the next few weeks. the best you can hope to do is treat them asap and ride it out...there is no real magic solution for the first trimester hypos, some people get them worse than others but because so many other hormones are having their say at the moment it is a tough one.

[Carla MP]

hey Melbel
I have never heard of those other ones. So you think they would be alot more user friendly than what I am on now. I have always been on these but if there is something else out there that is better, I want it. I started off on humalog.....but the others i havent heard of. so its normal to have all these hypos then?.....I guess Im worried about any birth defects all becasue i didnt keep strict sugars.
hey thanks for all your advice....dont feel as alone as I did.
xox

[melbel]

perfectly normal to have lots and lots of hypos up to about 16 or weeks......its all the other hormones making you incredibly insulin sensitive. In fact if you werent having hypos it would be unusual. then it usually levels out until maybe week 24 or so then it will go the other way and you will need heaps more insulin for the last trimester, like up to 3 times as much as pre pregnancy. It is all normal for us!

With regard to the other insulins they MAY be of benefit to you but hey I am no doctor so I cant say for definite. i do know that a lot type 1 d's these days use them in perference to protophane and actrapid unless of course they are on insulin pumps like myself. I use humalog in a pump which has been of enormous benefit to myself in getting precise control.

oh and birth defects.....my high risk ob said to me once she would only be worried about that if your hba1c got over 10 so you would have to be really really out of control for that to be a d related issue.

[Carla MP]

So your on the pump..how do you deal with that. I dont think I could do it.

[mfcr06]

Hey Mel!!

Carla - what Mel said

I am also on a pump using Novorapid. I pushed the pump thing last year and got it all sorted before I even thought about falling pregnant this time.

I dont really envy you being on actrapid and protophane (or as we realitycheckers call it protopain). It must be really difficult to control bsls.......

Carb counting I have found to be my godsend. I am not really sure however how that would work with actrapid and protophane. Novorapid starts working within 20mins and is completely gone at 3hrs, so it is relatively easy to calculate the insulin:carb ratios.

Seeing a dietician to help you sort out your ratio would be a good idea as it is far to hard to do on your own if you dont really know what you are dealing with.

HTH.

[Carla MP]

realitycheck..is that a website???

[mfcr06]

certainly is.

It is for Type 1 Diabetics (although some Type 2ers lurk around).

Reality Check - Young Adults with Diabetes.

It is a wealth of information. There is also a link to a type 1 diabetes and pregnancy information page which is also good.

[melbel]

there are quite a few type 1s pregnant onthere at the moment to so a wealth of info Carla.

[Carla MP]

thankyou so much girls....