New Type 2 diagnosis

[Lazydave]

Hello all

New T2 diagnosis here (2 days ago). Head in a whirl. Partly wondering how to deal with it and partly blaming myself for the drinking, eating badly and inactivity that has brought me here Still I have no choice but to deal now, and reading the posts on this forum has really helped a lot already. Can't get to grips with the glucose tester I was given and out of the 5 strips / prickers I got 1 reading and 4 fails. Any tips on that appreciated. Also I still can't work out other than first thing before food when I am meant to test? I'm sure it will all become clearer but I'm finding the lack of knowledge quite stressful at the moment. On the plus side I've already batch cooked a nice spicy chicken mushroom and lentil stew, which I know will be safe from the kids!

 

[Docb]

Morning @Lazydave and welcome to the forum. Early days with a meter can be a bit of a problem until you get the hang of it so persevere! Is your problem getting blood or getting a reading from the meter having got a drop of blood?

Do you know the result of the HbA1c blood test which led to the diagnosis? If not, then ask your surgery for it because it is one of the starting points in developing a strategy to get things sorted.

 

[Lazydave]

Hi Docb. Thanks for swift reply. My HbA1c was 100. Annoyingly the diabetes specialist at the surgery called me and said I was pre and send me a video to watch on how to avoid it. That changed when I went in. With the meter no matter how much blood I put on the end it just asks for more than errors. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have been put on metformin starting with a small dose and building up. Bit worried that my kidneys are aching a bit. Not sure if it’s from that or if I am honest 30 years of alcohol abuse catching up with me. It’s certainly a time for introspection and regret at the moment

 

[Docb]

What meter do you have? My technique is to put the strip into the meter (an Accu-Chek Nano) and while it is firing up and going through its set up I jab a finger to get a drop of blood. When the meter is ready I dip the end of the strip into the blood drop and and it wicks up on to the test area of the strip. I wonder if you are trying to get the blood drop to drip onto the strip? If so than that is a bit tricky. I remember trying that to start with but soon found that the once the end of the strip gets in contact with the blood drop, the blood is drawn up automatically.

A HbA1c of 100 is getting up to the red zone and deserves a bit more attention than a prevention video and metformin. My thought for you is that you spend a little time getting to grips with diabetes and the various approaches to dealing with it. The main site, the learning zone and this forum are good places to start. Above all ask questions about anything you do not understand and we will do our best to clarify things.

 

[Lazydave]

It’s a contour plus blue. Yes I’ve been trying to put drops of blood on the strip. Do you lie the meter flat and put your finger on it or ate you holding it with the test strip pointing up. Thanks for your replies 🙂 I’m hoping I can get more strips and sharps when the chemists open later today but I’ve missed my fasting reading now

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Lazydave

One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.

You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark. Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest.

Over weeks and months of experimentation you can gradually tweak and tailor your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline, your budget and your BG levels - and a way of eating that is flexible enough to be sustainable long-term. 🙂

Sounds frustrating to get so many fails with your BG meter. Generally the strips are quite ‘slurpy’ and don’t mind hugely which way up they are, but a decent-sized droplet to ensure the strip is properly filled is important. As is knowing where the opening is (some are on the sides, some on the end, some on the top). This helps the strip suck up the blood sample.

More on fingerprick technique here:

Painless Pricks, by Alan S

 

[Lazydave]

Thanks. They have taken more blood to look at my liver function and want to do a CT scan of I think my pancreas. Should get blood results next week hopefully

 

[Lazydave]

Welcome to the forum @Lazydave

One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.

You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark. Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest.

Over weeks and months of experimentation you can gradually tweak and tailor your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline, your budget and your BG levels - and a way of eating that is flexible enough to be sustainable long-term. 🙂

Sounds frustrating to get so many fails with your BG meter. Generally the strips are quite ‘slurpy’ and don’t mind hugely which way up they are, but a decent-sized droplet to ensure the strip is properly filled is important. As is knowing where the opening is (some are on the sides, some on the end, some on the top). This helps the strip suck up the blood sample.

More on fingerprick technique here:

Painless Pricks, by Alan S

Thanks everydayupsanddowns. Much appreciated and very helpful. The whole when to measure thing was a bit confusing

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks everydayupsanddowns. Much appreciated and very helpful. The whole when to measure thing was a bit confusing

People test for various reasons and that determines when they test.
To monitor progress, day to day, week to week, etc then people will test first thing in the morning. Bearing in mind this reading is often the last one to come down.
To test the effect of your meals /food on blood glucose level then people test before eating and after 2 hours. If the increase in 2-3mmol/l then that meal is OK, as levels come down then no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal is where to aim at. This will use lots of strips initially but gives you lots of information on which to base your dietary changes.
Also people test if they feel unwell.
Testing is useful if you then act on the data it gives you.
Finger pricking should be painless once you get practiced. most monitors only need a pin head size of blood, too much can cause failure just as much as too little. You normally just touch the strip where the blood goes in onto the drop of blood and it is sucked in by capillary action. So not on top of the strip. There may well be a YouTube video of how to use the monitor you have.

 

[Docb]

It’s a contour plus blue. Yes I’ve been trying to put drops of blood on the strip. Do you lie the meter flat and put your finger on it or ate you holding it with the test strip pointing up. Thanks for your replies 🙂 I’m hoping I can get more strips and sharps when the chemists open later today but I’ve missed my fasting reading now

Neither! I pick the meter up in the hand that I have not pricked and dip the end of the test strip into the blood drop, usually with the strip parallel to the finger I have pricked and everything horizontal. As @everydayupsanddowns says, the thing is quite clever and as soon you dip the end in the blood drop, the blood gets sucked up onto the test strip and the magic happens!

 

[Deb_l]

I have the Contour Blue and wasted quite a few testing strips before I got the hang of it. My method; pop the testing strip into the meter, do the finger prick and get the drop of blood, pick up the meter and hold horizontally. Lightly place the tip of the strip against the drop of blood and the testing strip will do the rest and draw it up itself. You don’t need much blood.

I’ve adopted a low carb approach and only test now if I introduce a new food or something unusual happens. The monitors are definitely a useful bit of kit to track your progress and it helps to keep me motivated.

Everything will feel so overwhelming at the moment but this site has so much useful information and this forum is brilliant for support. There’s no such thing as a daft question!!

 

[Lazydave]

Thank you everyone. After hunting a bunch of pharmacies I now have a lot of strips to practice with and got it to work first time so I’m taking that as a win! I do appreciate all your responses thank you

 

[Lazydave]

Ignore that. Tried further post meal tests and 8 failed. Either wanting more blood despite being soaked in it or erroring saying it didn’t like the test strip. Might have to look for my own device

 

[JJay]

Are you sure you have the Contour Plus strips? There are three types of Contour strips and they're not interchangeable. Too much blood can upset things as much as too little.
Here's a video which might help:

 

[Lazydave]

Are you sure you have the Contour Plus strips? There are three types of Contour strips and they're not interchangeable. Too much blood can upset things as much as too little.
Here's a video which might help:

Thanks JJ. I watched that and it was not working for me. Deffo the right strips. I reread the advice above and put my finger on horizontally and it work so all good. Just frustrating. Watching that vid on a big screen you can see it's the tip. Looked different on my phone with no glasses!

 

[Leadinglights]

I usually prick a finger on my left hand and then I always bring the test strip that is already in the monitor held horizontally in my right hand to the drop of blood and touch gently and the blood will run into the reservoir in the strip..
My monitor (Code free) only gives you seconds to apply the blood after you insert the strip.

 

[Lazydave]

Thanks. Horizontal with the finger at a right angle seems to be the trick

 

[rebrascora]

I was actually told to hold the meter with the test strip in so that it was at a 45 degree upward angle so that the capillary action sucked the blood up. I assume this ensures that the test strip doesn't get "flooded" particularly if the meter was lower than the pin prick of blood. This always works for me and I have done thousands of tests.

The big problem I have is that my meter hates not being warm and I usually have to stuff it down my bra for 5 mins before it will work, even in the house. It is really not a good situation particularly when I am hypo and need to test straight away. Grr. I absolutely hate this Caresens meter and I have already been sent 2 replacements, all have the same problem. I have replaced batteries umpteen times and it still complains that the batteries are low when it is cold (not warm) but works fine once I warm it up. 😡

 

[Lazydave]

I was actually told to hold the meter with the test strip in so that it was at a 45 degree upward angle so that the capillary action sucked the blood up. I assume this ensures that the test strip doesn't get "flooded" particularly if the meter was lower than the pin prick of blood. This always works for me and I have done thousands of tests.

The big problem I have is that my meter hates not being warm and I usually have to stuff it down my bra for 5 mins before it will work, even in the house. It is really not a good situation particularly when I am hypo and need to test straight away. Grr. I absolutely hate this Caresens meter and I have already been sent 2 replacements, all have the same problem. I have replaced batteries umpteen times and it still complains that the batteries are low when it is cold (not warm) but works fine once I warm it up. 😡

Maybe I should have shoved it up my jumper for a bit! I was outside and cold trying to get it to work so wonder if that is a thing. Wishing I didn't have it now as after I finally got some strips my readings have gone from 8.9 pre lunch to 12.6 post dinner. I guess it will take some time for the medication to kick in and my lifestyle changes to take effect.....

 

[Leadinglights]

Maybe I should have shoved it up my jumper for a bit! I was outside and cold trying to get it to work so wonder if that is a thing. Wishing I didn't have it now as after I finally got some strips my readings have gone from 8.9 pre lunch to 12.6 post dinner. I guess it will take some time for the medication to kick in and my lifestyle changes to take effect.....

It will take a while for medication to kick in but watching your intake of carb is also important if not more so than the meds. As you level is quite high then more information about the suitability of a meal would be obtained by testing before and 2 hours after you eat rather so you have a comparison. The aim is for no more than 2-3mmol/l increase from you meal. You don't then need to be testing in the cold unless you are having a picnic. Maybe concentrate on one meal at a time, choosing the one which is the most carb heavy so you can establish a repertoire of 'safe' meals.