Hello everyone..My name is Amy, I have had insulin dependent diabetes for five years, since i was 17. For the last three years i have been battling high sugars, usually in the mid teens but its not unusual to see high 20s. I do not really have access to a Diabetic educator or nurse to help monitor my sugars and give advice, therefore i have just been increasing and decreasing my insulin based on my sometimes sparatic, sometimes routine blood sugar testing.i really need to get these sugars under control, i want to have children and i want to live as long as i can..what i am looking for is tips and advice on how i can put my foot down and feel better. I am tired of just letting it go because it is more comfortable than dealing with the hypoglycemic feelings as my sugars become more normal. Please Help.

First thing I would suggest would be to regulate the food you eat. Try to plan meals where you know EXACTLY how many carbs you're eating and stay away from the guesswork for awhile. Even McDonald's is fine as long as you have the nutrition handout from them. Just be sure you're not guessing at anything. Then try to keep the carbs to about the same number for each meal....just for awhile. When you have the food regulated then you can work on your insulin ratios. I don't know what ratio you're using but maybe you're eating 45 carbs for breakfast and you're ratio is 1:15. Then that would be 3 units. Test before you eat and test again 2 hours after you eat. Is your blood sugar number still high? Write it down no matter what it is. Write down all the numbers and what time you tested. Now test before lunch. Write down the number. Do the same for each meal do this until you start to see some patterns. If, after breakfast, your blood sugar is still high using a ratio of 1 unit of insulin for 15 carbs then try a new ratio of 1:10 the next day. But always, always test often when increasing your ratio. You don't want to take a chance of dipping too low. You may even find that you have different ratios for different times of day. I don't think that's uncommon at all.

It's hard and a lot of work but you know what to do. Just make sure you keep track of everything and test when you should and before long you'll see the patterns and where you need to change things. You'll feel better when you get some better control over things. And if you are still having trouble after a couple of weeks then it really is time to get in touch with an endocrinologist or diabetes educator so they can help you out. One you get your ratios under pretty good control then you can try some of the guesswork again, once in awhile, and see how it works out. If you do it all the time then you may lose control again.

And I'm sure you know all this since you've had diabetes for 5 years but sometimes you just need to hear it again.

Good luck.