Type 1 Diabetes Health Center

Because type 1 diabetes can start quickly and the symptoms can be severe, people who have just been diagnosed may need to stay in the hospital.

If you have just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, you should probably have a check-up each week until you have good control over your blood sugar. Your health care provider will review the results of your home blood sugar monitoring and urine testing. Your provider will also look at your diary of meals, snacks, and insulin injections.

As the disease gets more stable, you will have fewer follow-up visits. Visiting your health care provider is very important so you can monitor any long-term problems from diabetes.

You are the most important person in managing your diabetes. You should know the basic steps to diabetes management:

  • How to recognize and treat low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
  • How to recognize and treat high blood sugar (hyperglycemia)
  • Diabetes meal planning
  • How to give insulin
  • How to check blood glucose and urine ketones
  • How to adjust insulin and food when you exercise
  • How to handle sick days
  • Where to buy diabetes supplies and how to store them

Insulin

Insulin lowers blood sugar by allowing it to leave the bloodstream and enter cells. Everyone with type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day.

Insulin is usually injected under the skin. In some cases, a pump delivers the insulin all the time. Insulin does not come in pill form.

Insulin types differ in how fast they start to work and how long they last. The health care provider will choose the best type of insulin for you and will tell you at what time of day to use it. More than one type of insulin may be mixed together in an injection to get the best blood glucose control. You may need insulin shots from one to four times a day.

Your health care provider or diabetes nurse educator will teach you how to give insulin injections. At first, a child's injections may be given by a parent or other adult. By age 14, most children can give their own injections.

People with diabetes need to know how to adjust the amount of insulin they are taking:

  • When they exercise
  • When they are sick
  • When they will be eating more or less food and calories
  • When they are traveling
Review Date: 
May 15, 2012
Last Updated:
August 6, 2014
Source:
dailyrx.com