Queen of the Cats

[Leaderofthecats]

Hello.

My name is Rosslyn.
🙂

I managed to get my hbac01 down to 40 (yay!) ...but... Had to move from the city centre, where I walked everywhere, to the middle of actual nowhere when lockdown hit.

The country is very nice but the weather in this area is comparatively grim and the walking possibilities are exremely restricted. There are no roadlights, so it's pitch black after about 5pm for example... Or sometimes like night all day in winter.

Things ... Slid a bit since then. But I didn't think I was doing THAT bad until my last hbac01 result came back. It was 70! Yikes!

Since then I've completely overhauled my diet and am trying to do a good amount of exercise especially interval cardio. I reckon I'm doing really well. It's been about 10 days now maybe more, and things seem fairly sustainable.

I tried to take Metaformin but it was absolutely horrible. I lasted a week but became really depressed, demotivated, and had horrible abdominal pain, explosive diarrhea and constant nausea. It was sabotaging everything I'm trying so hard to do. And that was only 500mg! With food.

I also see that a study was done showing that Metaformin isn't even great if taken by people who are exercising diligently anyway, and that about 1/2 the participants actually did worse than the people who just sat on their arses taking Metaformin and also worse than the exercise only group.
I'm absolutely not going to stop my new exercise regime. I'm going to get all skinny and toned again and I like Beat Saber too much to tone it down.
I wasn't taking Metaformin when my hbac01 got down to 40 before, and hopefully I can do it again. Fingers and paws crossed!


Nice to meet you.

 

[Drummer]

I also had the same reaction to Metformin - but luckily I do not need it, though I do need to keep my intake of carbs quite low to have a Hba1c which is almost normal.
I live in a seaside town and we can see the sea from the back bedroom window but I have been afraid to go out as it would have been disastrous to be fined and the police have not exactly covered themselves in glory during lockdown. Harassing women out exercising or going to buy milk now seems to occupy their time on duty - or even off. The trampoline in the back garden seems to be a good safe spot for a bit of bouncing and stretching until the streets are safe again.

 

[Spozkins]

Sounds like you're really pro active in dealing with this and you're doing a really grand job. Welcome to the forums.

 

[Leaderofthecats]

Thankyou both for your replies.

I was discouraged from testing my own blood sugar by both the NHS doctors and that Desmond rammy, and could never have afforded the testing strips when I lived in the city as the rent for my crappy student shoebox (shared with 3 other folk) cost £120/week more than housing benefit even with the chronically unwell person bonus (I have various long term health problems so am signed off long term). Which is absolutely ridiculous but that's just what happens when there's literally no rent cap anywhere in this country.

So. There's a vast data chasm which is just forever missing. Data about what I was doing and eating, in relation to whatever my blood sugar was doing that ended with a hbac01 of 40.
Sure would be handy to know though, eh?


As for my present doctor (who's actually better than the other two options for my parish, surprisingly) he's fairly a massive idiot and has some very ridiculous notions. For a start, he doesn't seem to understand how time works.

He was trying to 'splain that my hbac01 result of 40 was due to taking Metaformin. Even though that result was like, a year ago. I was prescribed one month of Metaformin four months ago. And didn't even take it, because the leaflet said it shouldn't be given to anyone who has chronic vomiting. My main reason for being signed off right now is chronic vomiting. A few months back I even had a stomach ulcer diagnosed. He probably doesn't even bother to learn this kind of thing, I reckon. He phoned up to badger me at 4:58pm then wouldn't listen to a damn thing I said since he was knocking off at 5pm, which also has me a bit salty. It's no environment to be prescribed stuff like Metaformin, imo.

Tbh if being prescribed Metaformin retrospectively lowers an hbac01 test 8 months previously even if you don't take it, then not taking it seems like a grand idea anyway.

Well he's also trying to claim that 15+ years of a vomiting condition are all caused by an ulcer that wasn't there until a few months ago, so he may just be on crack idk.

I understood the concept of time and chronological order by the time I was like, 3.
Don't most people????

 

[Leaderofthecats]

In related news, did you know that there's only 300 calories in half a bottle of dry white wine??
I've been getting gently trolleyed before bed for a few days and it's having a distinct improvement effect on my waking blood sugar level.

Before, it would often be exactly the same as when I went to bed even after 10-12 hours (I was asleep for a long time when on Metaformin, as I was knackered and felt like dog c**p), while now it's dropping like 2-3 mmol/L after about 7-8 hours even though I'm also now having a healthy but carby snack right before I sleep. 🙂 Today I'm having a clementine.

I was needing to bump up my calorific intake anyway, because I'm not eating 1,500 calories a day after my dramatic diet change. Most of my calories are coming from houmus right now. It's all good though.

I also just found out that the Linda McCartney mozarella burgers seem surprisingly suitable for diabetics and have like 250 calories each, which is loads! So I'm quite chuffed with that. 🙂 I had two of those and a bowl of soup four or five hours ago, and still feel quite stuffed.

 

[Leaderofthecats]

I live in one of the safest parts of the UK in terms of covid-19. We haven't had a new case for weeks, and out of a population of 20,000 nobody has ever died of it here. The police really don't give a hoot about people walking around, I sometimes just roam around playing Pokemon go.
There's not much out here, there are no lights or pavements and it gets dark extremely early, we get a lot of nutters speeding over the blind hill and round the blind corner right next to where I live, and it seems to be constantly pishing down all Winter, but people can and do walk for miles without any problem. We can go into town or wherever, and stroll about - there's usually nobody else around anywhere anyway.

It's really unfortunate that the police are power tripping in other areas. In my experience of being in the city they don't socially distance properly while pestering folk about why they're out walking around, either.

I'm glad you can at least bounce in peace, in a nice place. 🙂

I'm off to sleep now, g'night 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

In related news, did you know that there's only 300 calories in half a bottle of dry white wine??
I've been getting gently trolleyed before bed for a few days and it's having a distinct improvement effect on my waking blood sugar level.

Welcome to the forum @Leaderofthecats

Drinking too much isn’t good for any of us (which we all know, of course). I gather they’ve stopped even trying to talk about ‘safe levels’ because however little you drink, there are potential health benefits in reducing that futher.

So we do all need to keep an eye on our intake (I enjoy a little something myself too, but am trying to give my liver a few days off per week, and aim to stay under the 14u recommendation)

But anyway...

What may be happening with your BG levels is that the alcohol is keeping your liver occupied overnight. The circadian rhythms generally lead to a release of glucose, either in the early hours around dawn, or just after rising from bed. Additionally the liver trickles out stored glucose 24h a day to keep things ticking over.

Dawn Phenomenon in diabetes (or FOTF - Foot on the Floor where people get it on rising) can see a significant hike in BG, or just a gentle rise, due to glucose pushed out by the liver.

Where the liver is processing alcohol, it impairs it’s ability to release glucose, so the after effects of alcohol can be to reduce Bg levels.

Which may be what you are seeing 🙂

 

[Ditto]

Hello and welcome. 🙂 You need to quit the daily drinking, your liver will be under pressure from the D, you don't want to put it under further pressure and lose your liver (like me). 🙄 I wouldn't bother with the Metformin, just do low carb imho. Also, can I ask, do you actually 'throw up' violently or does your food just 'slide' up? My son has had the same problem for a couple of years and is quite poorly with one thing and another. The surgery just doesn't 'get it' they think he's vomiting but it's different. Son ends up with a wheelie bin full of recompostable green bags of regurgitated food at the end of every week. Just don't know what to do about it.

 

[Leaderofthecats]

Dry white wine famously lowers blood glucose, which is why lots of T1 are warned against drinking it before going to bed. And why I'm drinking it specifically, even though it's fairly horrible.

Dehydration was causing problems for a while, but drinking too much water turned out to be far easier than drinking too much wine for me. 😛 And did more to raise BS at the time too, but hydration should be much better in the long run.

I'm not drinking anything except water daily. The wine was for about six days and it helped lower BS compared to not drinking it. My liver probably isn't too bothered tbh.

The vomiting varies. Sometimes it slides out, other times it's a fair blast. I haven't been vomiting except in relation to Metaformin since my diet overhaul, but it tends to kick off at the same time as my periods.

:-( that sounds awful for your son. Sorry that I can't be more helpful.

 

[Ditto]

No worries. 🙂

 

[Leaderofthecats]

I'm testing at 7.2 mmol/L just now as a fasting result after taking a walk. 🙂 well chuffed with this!

Hungry now , so having the remains of my lettuce and tub of houmus, as I have about 1/3 of each left, and a nice bowl of my homemade vegetable soup. 🙂