r/diabetes

I am 40 years old, but recently I feel like I woke up in the body of an 80-year-old. I just need to put this out into the universe because the people around me keep telling me 'you'll get used to it' or 'it’s not that bad.' It feels incredibly dismissive and it makes me feel so isolated.

My quality of life has completely plummeted.

A bit of background. I have been dealing with severe mental health struggles for years, including Major Depressive Disorder, dysthymia, severe ADHD, and social anxiety. Because of this, I haven't been able to work for several years. I live alone, and my home and my hobbies were my only survival mechanisms. Coding, gaming, working on my oil paintings, and painting miniatures were the only places where I could quiet my ADHD brain and escape. They were my lifeline.

The nightmare started when my vision blurred slightly. An eye doctor told me I had early-stage cataracts. Around the same time, my feet began burning and tingling at night, I was constantly exhausted, and my teeth suddenly started deteriorating rapidly. Because of a severe needle phobia, I hadn’t done blood work in years. That was a mistake I am now paying for heavily. Every single one of these symptoms began worsening at an alarming rate.

It turned out to be diabetes. I fought back hard and managed to drop my A1C from a dangerous 10.93 down to 6.6. But even with that win, the physical toll has been brutal. I now suffer from neuropathy and chronic leg ulcers that make it hard to move around, meaning endless doctor appointments that trigger my social anxiety to the max. My skin has also given up. Every tiny nick on my legs turns into a permanent scar that never fades.

The breaking point happened recently with cataract surgery in both eyes. I am now trapped in a living hell of trying to adjust to losing my natural dynamic focus. The surgeon completely downplayed it, casually mentioning I 'might need reading glasses.' He failed to warn me that this surgery physically strips away your eyes' ability to focus on anything up close without artificial help. Because my hobbies require precision at multiple close distances and a full field of vision, multifocal glasses are useless to me. Right now, I am stuck using temporary plastic glasses. Whenever I am awake, I try to force myself to do basic things around the house like cooking or attempting my hobbies. But after just a few minutes, the glasses trigger a pounding headache and I am forced to stop.

Living alone, I feel my communication channels with the outside world shrinking to nothing. In recent months, my mobility was already ruined by my legs and the cataracts. Now, post-surgery, I am completely buried inside my house. Even my final source of comfort, just looking down at my cats when they sit on my lap, is gone. They just turn into a blurry smudge.

I’m not looking for toxic positivity or quick fixes. I just want someone to look at this whole picture and acknowledge how brutally hard this is. I am not giving up, but the exhaustion of losing my safe spaces is just overwhelming right now, and I really needed to feel heard.

The only reason I find a bit off is because one is restricting what they can really eat. And when I had my A1C a while back my sugar would still spike the same so I found it dumb to be really restrictive on food.

My son 35M has been diabetic since age 16. The NHS has been great looking after him but they won’t fund him an insulin pump (basically he’s too good at managing it). I’ve just had a pension payout and could fund one for a few years.

1. is it worth it?
2. Will the NHS still monitor him
3. How easy is it to transfer back to the NHS/old system when the funds run out?
4. Are there any other things I need to think of.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Many have asked why he would want it if he’s managing well. Firstly it’s the constant injections, belly fat is really destroyed. Secondly it’s that support it would give so he can relax a bit, as you all know it’s just very tense.
You may also wonder why he cannot afford it himself. Well he did have a decent job as an ‘on the road’ engineer but his sugar levels fluctuated greatly at night and often caused him diarrhoea in the mornings. This meant he had to call in sick because he couldn’t drive. His sick record crept up and rather than be sacked he resigned. Since then he has started a new career path, working in an office as a project coordinator. They know his circumstance and tbh know he’s stuck and are only paying him just above minimum wage. Frustrating but long term there will be opportunities and they are retraining him. It’s difficult to start again at 35 and I would just like to give him one less thing to worry about.

How do you all do this? I am finding it hard to stay awake during work. My sugars plummet when I do a food shop. I used to be energetic and fun and now I am falling asleep all the time.

I dont really mind the high sugars, but I swing so rapidly between 3.8 and 11.4 that it exhausts me. Maybe I am just a big baby idk.

I just did a small tesco shop and I am sitting in the car waiting for my sugars to go above 5.5 when they are currently 3.1 ...

Backstory if relevant: MCN pre cancerous removed in 2023, left with only the head of pancreas, no spleen. Ginormous scar, big sads. I started metformin a week ago as my HbA1c reached 47. So like it doesn't even matter if I am have mad lows and highs because that 47 is probably as high as it will go. Idk. Again, maybe I am just a big crybaby

Hi everyone! I’ve been diagnosed with t1d for 8 years but i’ve always used humalog & lantus mdi or admelog when i was on a pump. I just got my lantus refilled but I’m currently having problems with my insurance and am unable to get my humalog refilled and only have 60u left so i’m switching to using Novolin R that you get otc at walmart. From what i’ve read i know it works a little slower and the duration is longer so i’ll definitely need to prebolus a little earlier? My carb ratio is 1:6 so i do generally take quite a bit of insulin I do have a dexcom g7 to monitor while i’m adjusting and switching however it’s not always accurate as im sure you guys know lol so i am slightly worried about that. Obviously I am talking to my endo team as well but I was wondering if anyone had any personal experience or advice with using novolin and what to expect with switching from lispro? thank you in advance!!

Hi I’m a male 17 and I’ve been dating this girl (3 months she’s amazing lol) and I’ve been trying to learn more about her condition (she has type 2 diabetes ) what would be some advice on how I can support her / gifts I can get her to make her feel better. I've seen in my research these pads called site hero’s that can help with irritation and i know she uses a dexcom and also has an injection point for her pump which both tend to scar her skin. I’ve had a lot of conversations with her to understand more but I would definitely love some guidance on ways I can better support her thank you in advanced

Hello I'm looking for some insight about my numbers, normally I range from 6 to 10 or thereabouts but in the last 2 weeks my numbers are widely up 12 to 18 basically doubled. I'm on fast acting and long acting insulin and jardiance. It's not making sense I take the right amount of insulin for the carbs that I eat.

Any other LADA friends out here just like what the heck! Some days I feel like my pancreas works and the others, I look at food and my sugar SKYROCKETS!

Sometimes I take the same amount of insulin for the exact same meal and it’s perfect and others it plummets me.

Treating this is so hard!!!

Hi I am 23 year old diabetic since 7 years, an intern doctor and a tech guy

So watching the last apple event last September reveling the new apple watch series 12 with all this advanced HR & HRV monitoring I got this idea, can we use them to predict hypoglycemias a little bit earlier ?

I know a lot of you already use sensors and CGMs but from where I am even if I can get them they are expensive to the point that they aren’t worth the money I am paying, which leads to Me depending on blood monitoring, and for hypoglycemia I used to say I am a living sensor as I feel the symptoms, I get to check and then oh yeah I am hypoglycemic lets eat

but this has one problem as I mostly feel the manifestations late, especially when I am asleep or at work, So I got that idea as the increasing Heart rate is one of the first manifestations of hypoglycemia mostly I can use it to get an early alert (especially in sleep) as based on specs apple watch can give you alert if your heart rate increase with no detected motion for like 10 minutes

of course it will have a lot of flaws like when you are in motion or if you have a nightmare during sleep or in particular parts of sleep cycle, but in some situations it can be life saving or at least increases my sensitivity to it especially when combined with HRV (which decreases with hypoglycemia in like 60% of T1D “based on some researches I read)

so here is my question espically for people who already own one ? does my theory works with you ? Have you ever detected hypoglycemia based on your heart rate or get an indication ? Does smart watches or health trackers have any other benefits for us as diabetics ?

I just need to rant about how much I hate this product. The first one stops working after 3 days. I finally replace it after it doesn't start again overnight. Two hours later I brush against a doorframe and it pops off. I try to put on a third but blood gushes out when I put it on and it won't stick. I put on my final one and it stops working after a few hours.

A product this important to a diabetic's health cannot be this piss poor and prone to failure, especially with how much the greedy assholes at Abbott charge for them. I want to switch so badly to another CGM but this is the only one my insurance will cover. I'm calling them tomorrow. I've gotten single replacements before but never this many at one time so we'll see how that goes. Then going to my endo to see if they can fight my insurance to cover another CGM so I can be done with this.

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