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Hi Everyone!

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RuthE

RuthE

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi ‍♀️

I just found out last week, day after my birthday, that I’m Type 2 Diabetic! My mum had baked me the most delicious cake too Oh well, I got answers as to why I’ve been so ill lately! My blood test showed a result of 121 whichever measurement that is?! I’m not sure of all the tests and measurements yet. I bought myself a blood glucose monitor today and I’ve been really worried because it’s tested super high all day... my vision was bad and it was just long distance before but now it’s going blurry close up too. I’ve been taking metformin for only a week so I don’t know how quickly it’s supposed to start lowering your blood sugar. My blood today was 22.4mmol/L at my last test.
 
Metformin? That isn't how it works I'm afraid. If you want to lower your numbers then you will need to stop consuming the carbohydrates which are the source of the glucose.
 
Drummer said:
Metformin? That isn't how it works I'm afraid. If you want to lower your numbers then you will need to stop consuming the carbohydrates which are the source of the glucose.
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Wow! That’s a little rude! Of course I have changed my diet and I’ve been eating low carb foods and being strict with my sugar intake!
 
Hi @RuthE
welcome to the forum
theres some great advise around on this forum hope you find some of it of use
has the Dr / Nurse guided you with any dietary advise in addition to putting you on Metformin (the most popular medication for T2)
 
RuthE said:
Wow! That’s a little rude! Of course I have changed my diet and I’ve been eating low carb foods and being strict with my sugar intake!
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Sorry I didn't mean to offend - so many GPs hand out the tablets without any useful information - or even with positively unhelpful advice on diet. Hopefully the Metformin is not up to its usual tricks which can be rather distressing, and that the new way of eating starts to take effect in the near future.
 
Welcome to the forum @RuthE

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. With your levels where they are at present it is not surprising that you are experiencing disturbed vision and feeling generally rubbish.

Well done on making changes to your diet. With these changes you should start to notice that the symptoms ease, and your vision will improve. If you can get to grips with this, you can look forward to a slice of cake for your birthday next year (we all deserve a treat, but it might just be smaller).

Great to read that you have already bought a glucose test kit. This can help you to find out who’s different foods impact on your glucose levels. If you test before your meal and then again two hours after you will start to get a measure of the impact of each meal. This alongside a food diary, with the amounts of carbs included, will help you and your health care team make choices about changes to diet/and or portion size.

This is a manageable condition and there is plenty of information both on this forum and also on the DUK website. Have a look around and come back with any questions that you have.
 
Hi @RuthE and can I welcome you to the forum. Those test results are in the red zone but all is not lost. Many of our members have been in there and most have got back down to near non-diabetic levels.

There is a lot to get your head round but a good place to start is with the numbers. See if I can help with what they are.

The 121 will be a result from a HbA1c test. This does not measure blood glucose directly. It measures something else which gives you an idea of your average blood glucose over the last couple of months or so. Anything over 48 says your blood glucose has been running higher than is sensible and gets you a diabetes diagnosis. The higher the number the more you and your HCP's need to focus on getting it down. Anything over 100 should really be attracting their attention. It is usually measured at 3 or more month intervals and is a good way of assessing how your diabetes management is going in the longer term.

The 22.4 reading is a spot reading telling you what your actual blood glucose was at the time you did the test. It is used to measure the effect of eating and to identify things which give a big rise in blood glucose. You can then eliminate those things for your diet. Taking a measurement first thing in the morning is a way of "testing your diabetes temperature". A non-diabetic would expect it to vary between 5 and 9 through the day and rarely go over 10. It is generally highest and hour or two after eating and lowest just before eating. 22.4 (you do not say when you took it) is far higher than is comfortable at any time and consistent with your 121 HbA1c.

Hope that helps with the numbers and my interpretation of their significance. To me it is no wonder that you are having problems with your vision, many members report it with high blood glucose, especially when your blood glucose is changing rapidly. I would expect you to feel a bit rough generally at times and head for the loo a lot. Don't despair, diabetes is serious and if neglected over a long period can have unwanted consequences but with a bit of focus it can be tamed and managed and permanent damage can be averted.

So, read around the forum and the main site and get to understand diabetes and the various options for taming it. Ask any questions you like, nothing is considered trivial or serious on here. Everybody is different and we will try and help you work out a plan to get your diabetes under control.
 
Drummer said:
Sorry I didn't mean to offend - so many GPs hand out the tablets without any useful information - or even with positively unhelpful advice on diet. Hopefully the Metformin is not up to its usual tricks which can be rather distressing, and that the new way of eating starts to take effect in the near future.
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It’s ok, it just took me by surprise that you jumped to the conclusion that I wasn’t doing anything else about my diagnosis. I have immediately changed the way I think about food and my health. I’m only taking on pill a day at the moment and increase to 2 tomorrow so maybe once I get more in my system I’ll notice a difference. Thanks
 
Hi @RuthE and welcome to the forum

That is rather high and so is your spot test considering you've lowered your carb intake, may I ask did they give a reason as to why they think it is Type 2 you have? I'm wondering if you could in fact be Type 1 or another Type so it might be worth pushing for further tests to determine which Type you are

I don't want to worry you by saying that but I've had a look at your profile and see your age which some "professionals" would just diagnose as Type 2 rather than investigating further
xx
 
Hi @RuthE , welcome to the forum.
Tbh I am wondering the same as @Kaylz . But please don’t panic about this ok, it’s just that the different types of diabetes (and their are many ) needs to be dealt with differently .
So if you don’t mind I have a few questions for you, that will help us give you the best advise.

What symptoms did you have that drove you to the dr.
Did you lose weight unexpectedly.
When are you testing your blood glucose (BG)
Aprox how many carbohydrates are you having a day .
Once again sorry for all the questions .
 
RuthE said:
It’s ok, it just took me by surprise that you jumped to the conclusion that I wasn’t doing anything else about my diagnosis. I have immediately changed the way I think about food and my health. I’m only taking on pill a day at the moment and increase to 2 tomorrow so maybe once I get more in my system I’ll notice a difference. Thanks
Click to expand...
Hiya and welcome! It's worth saying that you actually don't want to bring down your levels too quickly as this can cause other complications - including more permanent eye damage, so try not to panic and you will see numbers come down. Blood sugar levels can be impacted by stress, illness. inflammation and all sorts of other factors, including lockdown so have a look at other stressors in your environment too.
 
I'm sure Drummer didn't mean to offend but many people don't change their diet and imagine that the medication will be enough to do the trick. So the fact that you have taken measures to look at your carb intake should hopefully result in a reduction in your blood glucose levels. It is easy to under estimate just how much carbohydrate one is having and that really is where testing before and 2hrs after eating will help you identify which foods you can tolerate as everybody is different. You will see that from the various posts here that some people can tolerate porridge but for others it will cause a huge spike and best avoided and the same will be true of other foods. A lot of testing but worth it in the end.
 
Hi RuthE, welcome to the forum.

Just popping in to say hi and well done on the changes you've made so far. Your vision and other symptoms should improve over time as you BS levels go back to normal so for now, you're doing the right thing by focusing on managing your levels.

We've got some really good info on the forum so do take a look around. We also have a good guide to help with understand the blood sugar numbers which you can find here: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/managing-your-diabetes/testing.
 
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