I’m 30 years old and had T1D since age 15. My first child I had at 19, my second was just over 2.5 years ago and now I’m 25 week into my 3rd. I’ve also haven’t been to an Endo since age 18 and pretty much manage everything myself (except going to high risk ob while pregnant). I do have my 1st appointment with an Endo in a few weeks. Just need some advice if anyone has had 3 or more children successfully.
Hi @Lizzy2856 and welcome to the forum. I can’t answer your question but hope you’ll forgive me for asking one of my own: how do you manage without an endo? On the forum you hear members advocate for being our own doctor as we know or body’s needs best - but even so I might look to my endo as a “second opinion” to my own. Just wondering - do you have a phenomenal primary care doctor you use instead?
Nope I was an IV drug user for a long time (most of 10 years)so it wasn’t exactly my first thought. I was sober for my first my and didn’t go to rehab untill I was about 6 months with my second. I’ve been sober now in April ( when this baby is due) 3 years. I buy everything over the counter and was seen by nemors as a child so I had a very good foundation but never followed through with care as an adult. I’ve had a few dka events over the years but mostly been lucky I guess my a1c is usually no more than 8. something but my sugars were still pretty high and low so still not good. The lows I’ve had with this pregnancy have been really scary like low to the point of blacking out but violent that’s more under control now but I still can’t trust the a1c because of the “highs” ( anything over 160 1 hour after I eat) mixed with the lows ( I function without feeling low around 40) but my sure hasn’t really been over 250 very much and I have novolog now so it much easier to manage the highs but before I was just using novlin N bought over the counter
Congratulations on your sobriety - keep up the good hard work! I hope your endo can get you on track so you can avoid those extremes as much as possible and improve your A1C. A pump could help with that and it may well come up for discussion at your visit, so you might look into them if you haven’t already - at least to get an idea of what’s out there.
Did you ever read the book Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner? He has diabetes himself and works in the field so has a unique personal perspective that can be particularly helpful in addition to your work with your endo. I read it for the first time after 50+ years living with diabetes, and I still learned a few things - and it was actually a fun read!
At the risk of nagging, I suggest you take some records to your doctor so they’ll know what you’ve been eating, if you’ve been exercising, etc. It will help them in making adjustments. 160 am hour after eating isn’t bad, although I don’t know what the guidelines are during pregnancy.
Wishing you all the best with baby #3 - are your other two excited? Take your time writing back - you may be busy with the kids.
I have had 3 children successfully with Type 1 diabetes, the last when I was 38. I had been a Type 1 for 19 years when she was born. But my endos wanted me to aim for lower blood sugars while pregnant than I would normally have had. So seeing an endo could be a plus. And all the best with your 3rd child.
Thank you I’m glad to know it’s possible to survive. My great aunt went blind after her second child (who was born with alot of difficulties) and she died at 32 before I was born so this was more than 30 years ago. Things have improved since then I know. I’ll be going on the omnipod soon and that has me nervous but I’m glad to know this is survivable thank you.
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Hi @Lizzy2856 . I switched from Tandem to Omnipod and can share that Omnipod’s algorithm works better for me. I hope the same holds true for you - time will tell. I’ve shared some of my “adventures” using the pod - if you do a search you’ll find a couple of threads where I have posted. I did find a went higher the first couple of pods - a common experience until the system learns your body’s patterns so keep that in mind especially if you switch while pregnant.
All the best to you! Looking forward to hearing when your bundle of joy arrives!