Type 1 Diabetes

[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.