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CollaredDove

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Great to find you all. I have borderline diabetes, possibly secondary to haemochromatosis (iron overload where iron gets dumped in the pancreas among other places). Sometimes called bronze diabetes due to involvement of the liver.
If anyone has this I'd love to hear from them as Im pretty shocked at how rapidly this has happened. HbA1c in April 38, September 44 and December 48 so it's happened very quickly and my consultant says is likely to be Type 1.
Hope everyone is as well as possible, best wishes, jean
 
Hi and welcome to the forum, I am a regular type 2 so cant comment on your situation but just wanted to say welcome 🙂
 
Hi welcome , mum to T2 lad , you’ll find lots of help on here x
 
Hi and welcome from me too.
I am Type 1 (diagnosed Diabetic Feb last year and Type 1 testing confirmed in July) but not with the same cause. My HbA1c was 112 at diagnosis so I would say that you probably have quite a bit of wriggle room at this stage... if that makes you feel a bit less worried.

If you have not yet been started on insulin you could try a low carbohydrate diet and see if that slows it's development.
It means cutting out sugar and cakes and biscuits and sweets and reducing your consumption of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous and breakfast cereals possibly including porridge in that list too. That may seem like it doesn't leave much else to eat but it can be an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around what to buy and how to cook it, especially if you increase your dietary fat.... something which we have been conditioned to believe is bad for us for almost all of our lives but may in fact be better that the high carb diet that we have become used to.

Anyway, if you want to know more about low carb eating there are plenty of us here to offer you tips on how to get started. Even though I am now on insulin and could theoretically eat whatever I want, I still prefer to eat low carb and use the minimum insulin to cover it
 
CathyB said:
Hi and welcome to the forum, I am a regular type 2 so cant comment on your situation but just wanted to say welcome 🙂
Click to expand...
Many thanks Cathy - guess I should fill in my profile now Im here. Thanks for the welcome!
 
Last edited:
So sorry everyone - lovely welcomes, much appreciated but my replies have got muddled. Im used to another forum (Health Unlocked/British Lung Foundation) which is very different in layout. I'll have another go on here tomorrow. Bit more intro - Im 73, have stage 3 copd, barretts oesophagus, haemochromatosis (genetic, required 2 parents with same mutated gene) for which I have to have blood taken every so often to get rid of the excess iron, bit of osteoporosis and a few other LTCs but health not too bad considering. Sleep well x
 
Hello and welcome, sorry that the diagnosis and onset symptoms/levels happened so quickly. I was recently told I am Type 2. There are lots of people here who can help.
 
Actually there are believed to be many sub groups of the various types of Diabetes (Type 1, Type 1.5 (LADA), Type 2, Type 3c and MODY) and insulin may be required to treat patients with of all those types I believe.

My breakfast oats were the last thing I gave up, carbs wise, before I started to see my BG readings come down into single figures. Part of the problem with them is that they are slow release so whilst they don't spike your BG quite as sharply as sugar or highly processed carbs do, they keep your BG high for many hours.. as many as 8-10 hours in my case, so any carbs I ate after breakfast caused a further spike of my BG which piggy backed onto the oats spike and resulted in my BG getting progressively higher. Low GI granary bread and wholemeal pasta had the same effect. I very rarely eat bread or pasta anymore, maybe only once a month if that and just a very small amount of oats in the Eat Natural Low Sugar Granola that I have for breakfast with berries yoghurt and seeds, but I have insulin to offset that now.... I spent the first 6 weeks of diagnosis on a very strict diet and Type 2 oral meds before they realised that I needed insulin. By that time I had overcome my sugar addiction and was converted to low carb eating and it meant that there was less chance of hypoing if I needed to use less insulin, so I stuck with it.

Sorry to hear you have so many other health issues. Adding diabetes to the mix is a bit of a kick in the teeth, but you will soon get the hang of it and we are here to support you in any way we can.
 
rebrascora said:
Hi and welcome from me too.
I am Type 1 (diagnosed Diabetic Feb last year and Type 1 testing confirmed in July) but not with the same cause. My HbA1c was 112 at diagnosis so I would say that you probably have quite a bit of wriggle room at this stage... if that makes you feel a bit less worried.

If you have not yet been started on insulin you could try a low carbohydrate diet and see if that slows it's development.
It means cutting out sugar and cakes and biscuits and sweets and reducing your consumption of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous and breakfast cereals possibly including porridge in that list too. That may seem like it doesn't leave much else to eat but it can be an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around what to buy and how to cook it, especially if you increase your dietary fat.... something which we have been conditioned to believe is bad for us for almost all of our lives but may in fact be better that the high carb diet that we have become used to.

Anyway, if you want to know more about low carb eating there are plenty of us here to offer you tips on how to get started. Even though I am now on insulin and could theoretically eat whatever I want, I still prefer to eat low carb and use the minimum insulin to cover it
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply Barbara. Yes I gather my levels arent high relatively speaking but its the speed they've got where they are that alarmed me. Now it makes sense as Ive read that T1 can come on quickly, whereas from prediabetes to diabetes Ive read it can take up to 10 years. Im sure you all know all this but Im trying to get my head round it.
Ive been doing low carbs for the last three months, and only unprocessed whole foods, but my levels still went up. Diabetes secondary to haemochromatosis is usually T1 as the iron stored in the pancreas stops it producing insulin properly. So being borderline at the minute, I have the insulin treatment to come.
It must have been very scary to get your diagnosis. How do you find it using insulin? I cant somehow imagine it but I guess it must become familiar after a while. I hope you're in good health now, that it's well controlled and you have good healthcare people. Best wishes jean
 
rebrascora said:
Actually there are believed to be many sub groups of the various types of Diabetes (Type 1, Type 1.5 (LADA), Type 2, Type 3c and MODY) and insulin may be required to treat patients with of all those types I believe.

My breakfast oats were the last thing I gave up, carbs wise, before I started to see my BG readings come down into single figures. Part of the problem with them is that they are slow release so whilst they don't spike your BG quite as sharply as sugar or highly processed carbs do, they keep your BG high for many hours.. as many as 8-10 hours in my case, so any carbs I ate after breakfast caused a further spike of my BG which piggy backed onto the oats spike and resulted in my BG getting progressively higher. Low GI granary bread and wholemeal pasta had the same effect. I very rarely eat bread or pasta anymore, maybe only once a month if that and just a very small amount of oats in the Eat Natural Low Sugar Granola that I have for breakfast with berries yoghurt and seeds, but I have insulin to offset that now.... I spent the first 6 weeks of diagnosis on a very strict diet and Type 2 oral meds before they realised that I needed insulin. By that time I had overcome my sugar addiction and was converted to low carb eating and it meant that there was less chance of hypoing if I needed to use less insulin, so I stuck with it.

Sorry to hear you have so many other health issues. Adding diabetes to the mix is a bit of a kick in the teeth, but you will soon get the hang of it and we are here to support you in any way we can.
Click to expand...

That's lovely, thanks so much!
 
Neens said:
Hello and welcome, sorry that the diagnosis and onset symptoms/levels happened so quickly. I was recently told I am Type 2. There are lots of people here who can help.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
Welcome to the forum @CollaredDove
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis along with the many other health conditions.

As @rebrascora has said it is useful to focus on the carbohydrates that you eat, since these all get converted to glucose. Simply working out how many carbs you are eating at each meal, can then help you to start to reduce them. This can be done by simply swapping things. Like Rebrascora I started with breakfast. I used to eat porridge, which spiked me heavily and I was eating 60 g of carbs. I now make my own cereal using quinoa flakes instead of oats, and have reduced the carbs to 20g even though I am adding fruit and yogurt. Now spike and less insulin needed now. Other meals are not as easy as they vary so much. At home we work to a target of carbs, which is flexible, and weigh our ingredients to get somewhere near the target. For meals out, it is do the best I can.
 
SB2015 said:
Welcome to the forum @CollaredDove
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis along with the many other health conditions.

As @rebrascora has said it is useful to focus on the carbohydrates that you eat, since these all get converted to glucose. Simply working out how many carbs you are eating at each meal, can then help you to start to reduce them. This can be done by simply swapping things. Like Rebrascora I started with breakfast. I used to eat porridge, which spiked me heavily and I was eating 60 g of carbs. I now make my own cereal using quinoa flakes instead of oats, and have reduced the carbs to 20g even though I am adding fruit and yogurt. Now spike and less insulin needed now. Other meals are not as easy as they vary so much. At home we work to a target of carbs, which is flexible, and weigh our ingredients to get somewhere near the target. For meals out, it is do the best I can.
Click to expand...

Hello SB2015 - thank you, Im so appreciating the replies im getting. To see that you can reduce the insulin you need by eating well is great to hear. I had thought that quinoa which I do occasionally have in place of porridge (always with jumbo oats for the fibre) is just as high on GI index as oats. I'll swap over to that now and see how that goes. I already have blueberries and half a standard sized banana plus Fage yoghurt, so quinoa wont be a huge tweak.
Im not sure I would do well with calorie counting - at present I just make an estimate in my head, but if I have to then I will. Generally I self manage my conditions pretty well - I take relatively few medications - and am much more healthy and functioning than would be expected for the stage of copd Im at. So hoping I can do as well with insulin management - Im just getting used to the possiblity at present. And it's all made easier by people here like yourself, so many thanks again 🙂
p.s. Does 'pumping' mean doing weight training, or a form of insulin delivery? Excuse my ignorance!
 
rebrascora said:
Hi and welcome from me too.
I am Type 1 (diagnosed Diabetic Feb last year and Type 1 testing confirmed in July) but not with the same cause. My HbA1c was 112 at diagnosis so I would say that you probably have quite a bit of wriggle room at this stage... if that makes you feel a bit less worried.

If you have not yet been started on insulin you could try a low carbohydrate diet and see if that slows it's development.
It means cutting out sugar and cakes and biscuits and sweets and reducing your consumption of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous and breakfast cereals possibly including porridge in that list too. That may seem like it doesn't leave much else to eat but it can be an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around what to buy and how to cook it, especially if you increase your dietary fat.... something which we have been conditioned to believe is bad for us for almost all of our lives but may in fact be better that the high carb diet that we have become used to.

Anyway, if you want to know more about low carb eating there are plenty of us here to offer you tips on how to get started. Even though I am now on insulin and could theoretically eat whatever I want, I still prefer to eat low carb and use the minimum insulin to cover it
Click to expand...
Always love your responses @rebrascora ..!
 
Martin9 said:
Always love your responses @rebrascora ..!
Click to expand...
Thank you! I can only speak from my own limited experience and what I have gleaned from the wonderful members of this forum whose help has been invaluable to me, so any compliment has to be reflected on the forum as a whole, which is such a wonderful resource.
 
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