The first twelve months after diagnosis The information on this page is more from personal experience, what I have learned along the way and communications with other people who experienced similar problems. My experience was being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after extreme symptoms that got gradually worse over a period of weeks. This resulted in a week in hospital being monitored constantly. Once you have been diagnosed your aim should be to control your glucose levels at a steady level, ideally no less than 4mmol and no more than 7mmol of glucose in your blood. It is not uncommon for the first twelve months that you struggle to keep this balance. In an ideal world your glucose levels would read 5.8mmol. Having strived for this in the first twelve months I ended up with an average reading near to this but the hypo’s (low sugar levels) that came with it made living a normal life very difficult. I personally now aim for my levels to be nearer to 7mmol which I find gives that extra bit of insurance to avoid a hypo and this works well for me. If levels are not controlled you can develop problems with:- • eyes • kidneys • legs and feet • heart • circulation Whilst this can seem very daunting by following a healthy diet and regular exercise these can be avoided. During the first twelve months your glucose levels may be very eratic, changing day to day, week to week and can seem extremely difficult to control. My first few months tiny changes in diet resulted in large changes in glucose readings, which now has largely stabilised. It is important to realise that your mind and body needs time to adapt and balance itself. During this time it is advisable to test your blood glucose levels regularly. As well as helping you maintain your levels it gives you a long term understanding of what affects your levels ie. Certain foods take them higher exercise can drop them. Knowing the balance can only be found by testing. In the first twelve months I experienced frequent hypos (low sugars) which left me feeling depressed, dazed, lethargic, drained, with a lack of concentration and bumping into things became a normal occurrence. Simple things like injecting insulin after meals instead of before helped me. Lots of hypo’s can be very difficult to deal with but with regular monitoring and talking to your doctor or diabetes team these can be brought down to a point where they are manageable. Again this takes time. The first twelve months of my condition seemed never ending, lots of changes in my insulin injecting and lots of low points but eventually this balances out. It is possible to live a normal life but it takes time to get use to regular testing, regular injecting, regular healthy meals and regular exercise – eventually its just becomes habit.