Testing etc

[Evie60]

Hi Everyone
As I'm still new to this I have been reading some of the comments etc on the forum and a lot of you are talking about testing etc. My doctor never mentioned anything about checking my levels etc also they haven't really gave me any ideas what I should and shouldn't eat. I have had more luck reading the various comments here.

 

[pottersusan]

Hi Evie60

Welcome to the forum. there are lots of much more knowledgeable people than me on here. but briefly levels between 4 and 8. And carbohydrates are the food of the devil for us diabetics though different people react differently to different foods - there is no 'one size fits all'!

 

[Northerner]

Hi Everyone
As I'm still new to this I have been reading some of the comments etc on the forum and a lot of you are talking about testing etc. My doctor never mentioned anything about checking my levels etc also they haven't really gave me any ideas what I should and shouldn't eat. I have had more luck reading the various comments here.

Hi Evie, many doctors and nurses say you don't need to test unless you are on insulin or similar, as they assume the only reason to test must be to make sure your levels are not going too low. However, what they completely miss is that testing can really help you to monitor your progress as you make adjustments to your diet and activity levels. Most important of all, it can tell you if the food you are eating is something that you tolerate well or if it is something you should either reduce or replace in order to get better blood glucose readings. This is explained very well in the blog article Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S - well worth a read! 🙂 Many people find that their individual tolerance for things can differ to another person's, so it's important to know firstly what might be good, and then test to see if it actually is good for you! 🙂 There has been some research recently in Israel which shows that the bacteria we have in our gut is very individual to us, and it is this which means that porridge for breakfast might be really good for one perosn, but terrible for another!

It should be noted that you only really need to do a lot of testing at the beginning whilst you are working out what to keep or remove from your diet - once you have established this you only need to test when you try something new, or for the occasional progress check 🙂 A lot of people like to do a 'fasting' test when they get up in the morning, as this is a good indication of your general blood glucose control 🙂

 

[Stitch147]

Hi Evie and welcome to the forum. I'm one of the lucky few who's Dr agrees with type 2's testing as I was given a meter at my first appointment. If I wasn't testing I would never have known that my levels were not coming down when taking metformin to start off with. And it was due to this my Dr changed my diagnosis to a different rarer type of diabetes and got me on the right medication. Unfortunately not all Dr's see it this way with type 2's.

 

[Pine Marten]

Hi Evie60, I'm another type 2 who didn't get much info from my surgery at first 🙄. The surgery has got a lot better recently, but most of the knowledge I have gained has come from the excellent contributors on these forums.

Follow Northerner's good advice and links above, and get yourself a meter - Codefree one from Home Health or Amazon is the cheapest. Once you've got a handle on things and are able to control your levels you'll feel ever so much more confident and in charge!

All the best to you - let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Mini-Vicki]

Welcome to the forum Evie 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

Hi Everyone
As I'm still new to this I have been reading some of the comments etc on the forum and a lot of you are talking about testing etc. My doctor never mentioned anything about checking my levels etc also they haven't really gave me any ideas what I should and shouldn't eat. I have had more luck reading the various comments here.

Once you have a couple of weeks testing written down with what you have eaten the Docs can have an idea where you are at. Good luck & welcome 🙂

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome from another T2 who's 14 months in, and in the same boat as you.
You may very well have a regular blood test done at the doctor's. HbA1c. This will give blood sugar level over 2/3 months and will be in double figures (or.trcripple!!!). This is a different scale to the 4-8 measurement.

 

[Evie60]

Once you have a couple of weeks testing written down with what you have eaten the Docs can have an idea where you are at. Good luck & welcome 🙂

Thanks for your reply. No one has ever mentioned doing any sort of testing. I will ask the question at my next visit which should be next month. Still not sure what my HbA1c is think the nurse said 6.7 but will get there in the end.

 

[Ralph-YK]

HbA1c is like an average blood sugar over a couple of months. It's done with blood taken from the arm. These numbers could be anything from in the 40s to over 100.

 

[Pine Marten]

Evie, your 6.7 (in old money) is equivalent to 50 (in new money) 🙂 - I'm always confused when both systems are used!

 

[pat.y]

Testing has taken me from almost going on to insulin to have my medication reduced instead. I found that all the foods the nurse recommended I eat shoot my blood levels into outer space, Now I know what I definitely can't eat.