Hi
@Unhappy Hudson , welcome to our friendly forum.
I’m glad you took the nurses advice and came here, the guys and gals helped me an awful lot when I first joined this site, we’ll help you too.
I’d like to reassure you that Diabetes is a condition that we can manage well once we have the right info and are prepared to make some changes.
Ask as many questions re diabetes as you need to ok,
Self testing sadly is not usually encouraged for T2 s by the nhs unless we’re on medication that can cause hypo’s, Metformin doesn’t normally. We here believe it’s cost cutting
We on here believe that self testing is the only way to discover what carbohydrates our body can and can’t tolerate, yes you’ve read right , carbohydrates.
We’re all avid food label readers on here, most of us totally ignore the traffic light system on the front of food packs etc and turn to the label on the back and just look up the carbohydrate content not the of which are sugars.
It’s the potatoes esp mashed, rice, pasta , breakfast cereals, bread esp white, grapes and fruit that original came from the tropics that is not too good for us but we are all different in what we can tolerate well.
Don’t worry their are lots of good subsitues and the good news is, we don’t usually have any problems with protein or good fats.
As for testing we usually test ourselves immediately before eating then two hours after starting to eat .
Do ask your practice for a glucose meter, but if the refuse you the cheapest one to self fund that we know of is the SD Codefree, it’s the ongoing cost of the test strips you have to watch th Codefree strips are around £8 for 50, where brands from the chemist cost £15 to 30 for 50
I suggest you have a read of
test-review-adjust by Alan S
painless-pricks. By Alan S
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php. Jennifer advise .
If you have to self fund testing strips
teting-on-budget by Alan S
For future reference You’ll find the above and more at the top of the newbies forum the thread is called
useful-links-for-people-new-to-diabetes.
Well I have gone on rather a lot haven’t I
. Given you tons of homework too
😱
Just take your time with the reading matter ok. Try not to worry you’ll get the hang of things and we’re always here to help, it’s also a good place to have a bit of a rant and when you need a laugh, have a look at our jokes entertainment forum
