32.7 mmol UPDATE

[Rickstar88]

Hi all, and thanks so much for all those who responded to my original post. Loads & loads of helpful advice kindly given to me.

So, made a start reacting to that advice and pleased to say, that whilst no where near perfect, my levels have calmed down. Averaging low to mid teens over the past several days with the odd spike to around 20. Mainly because I think I cut down on carb intake. Mindful of other post stating sudden drops in carbs can affect eyesight, so far so good, just feeling a little bit tired & lethargic.

I am T2 due to organ damage and not due to weight issues. My BMI is normal. In fact, my concern with having a stricter diet is losing more weight. I have lost around 5kg in the past month or so, down from my post hospital stay where I was around 80kg. Pre hospital during my alcohol dependency I was around 88 - 90kg. Losing the extra 5kg recently means I have had to put an extra hole in my belt to keep my trousers from falling down and look like a bag of shit with a knot tied in the middle! 😛

My dehydration has improved, the skin on the backs of my hands were drying up, my bowel movements (despite being on Lactulose daily) were dry and difficult to pass, peeing an awful lot too, and I was feeling thirsty all the time, but both the poo and the dry mouth are both better as well as trips to pee have reduced. Still maintaining a decent water (with added electrolytes) intake but was drinking way more than (my) normal.

Started a spreadsheet (only yesterday) to log all my data regarding diet, weight, mmol's etc, which will help me to manage things immeasurably better than before and will be useful supporting evidence for my GP and for future diabetic reviews. Copy and paste of data so far shown below.

TIME	DAY	DATE	MEAL DETAILS	CALS <2500	CARBS <130 p/d	WEIGHT	BMI <25	mmol
0015	SAT	01/01/22						13.4
1035	SAT							17.6
1930	SAT					74.3	21.0	14.3
2015	SAT		CHILLIE CC, CHEESE & BREAD ROLLS	852	186
2100	SAT		CHSE/CAKE, ICE CRM, DBL CRM	821	82
2130	SAT					74.7	21.1
2230	SAT							20.8
2322	SAT	01/01/22		TL 1673	TL 268	74.7	21.1	AV 16.53
0906	SUN	02/02/22				73.4	20.8	17.0
0930	SUN		2 X BLACK COFFEE	3	0
1115	SUN							16.2

Also, got some Ketone urine sticks & please to say I have no issues there. Also, via Amazon, got myself a new monitor and access to testing strips which will enable me to test as and when without having to battle with my surgery for consumable re-supplies.

I should have my latest HbA1c from the bloods my surgery took on 22 December 21 middle of this week and will post them on here.

Once again, thank you to you all.

Have a Happy & Healthy New Year.
Rick

 

[Leadinglights]

This may be your way of eating with just 1 meal per day but you are loading your body with a huge amount of carbohydrate all at once. Which is why so are seeing a massive 6mmol/l increase from your meal adding to an already high level. All that excess glucose is floating around in your body.
People tend to try to even out the carbs between their meals so to restrict the rise from any one meal to 2-3mmol/l
For example I have around 70g carb per day with approx 15 g at breakfast, 20g lunch, 25g dinner, the rest is drinks.

 

[Docb]

Hi @Rickstar88. Looks like your decision to get a grip of things and take on board that it was down to you to get things sorted is paying off. Bit of a way to go but you are heading in the right direction and thankfully a long way from those very concerning high 20 and low 30 readings you reported before. Phew, and well done.

I'll echo @Leadinglights comment that spreading your carb intake out a bit might help your damaged pancreas to cope by not hitting it with a big slug of glucose all in one go. I would also be thinking about how to reduce the total carbs you are taking in. Most of us using carb control to keep blood glucose in check would see a daily intake of 260+g as too high. I aim for half that, others less. It will need a bit of thinking about because you want to do that without loosing more weight - if anything you need to do it whilst increasing the calories.

 

[Rickstar88]

This may be your way of eating with just 1 meal per day but you are loading your body with a huge amount of carbohydrate all at once. Which is why so are seeing a massive 6mmol/l increase from your meal adding to an already high level. All that excess glucose is floating around in your body.
People tend to try to even out the carbs between their meals so to restrict the rise from any one meal to 2-3mmol/l
For example I have around 70g carb per day with approx 15 g at breakfast, 20g lunch, 25g dinner, the rest is drinks.

Thanks for the response.
My chart maybe a little misleading. I usually have breakfast, a light snack(s) during the afternoon and a meal late afternoon/early evening. I also drink quite a bit of water along with the odd smoothie/milkshake, recipes for both used I got from this site. Have not entered the details on what I ate during the day, on my first day of keeping the log. Also, my regular patterns eating/exercise have been a little out of kilter due to the festive period & covid.

Your carb intake levels are amazing. Work needed for me to have less carb high food/meals in my cupboards. Referencing the Carbs & Calories Counter book for this. What do you have for breakfast to get around 15g carb?

Thanks again
Rick

 

[Rickstar88]

Hi @Rickstar88. Looks like your decision to get a grip of things and take on board that it was down to you to get things sorted is paying off. Bit of a way to go but you are heading in the right direction and thankfully a long way from those very concerning high 20 and low 30 readings you reported before. Phew, and well done.

I'll echo @Leadinglights comment that spreading your carb intake out a bit might help your damaged pancreas to cope by not hitting it with a big slug of glucose all in one go. I would also be thinking about how to reduce the total carbs you are taking in. Most of us using carb control to keep blood glucose in check would see a daily intake of 260+g as too high. I aim for half that, others less. It will need a bit of thinking about because you want to do that without loosing more weight - if anything you need to do it whilst increasing the calories.

Thanks.

I take Creon 25000, which I am told helps take some of the pressure off my pancreas during digestion. As I mentioned before, I am concerned at the very recent discovery of a 1cm cyst in my liver. MRI to determine type of cyst on 7th of this month.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks for the response.
My chart maybe a little misleading. I usually have breakfast, a light snack(s) during the afternoon and a meal late afternoon/early evening. I also drink quite a bit of water along with the odd smoothie/milkshake, recipes for both used I got from this site. Have not entered the details on what I ate during the day, on my first day of keeping the log. Also, my regular patterns eating/exercise have been a little out of kilter due to the festive period & covid.

Your carb intake levels are amazing. Work needed for me to have less carb high food/meals in my cupboards. Referencing the Carbs & Calories Counter book for this. What do you have for breakfast to get around 15g carb?

Thanks again
Rick

I have either Full fat Greek yoghurt, 40g berries, 10g All Bran or low sugar granola or thin slice toast (25g) with eggs of some sort, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, smoked salmon (not all at once but combination of)

So really you had a lot more carbs in the day than it at first appeared from your table.

 

[Rickstar88]

Thanks.

I take Creon 25000, which I am told helps take some of the pressure off my pancreas during digestion. As I mentioned before, I am concerned at the very recent discovery of a 1cm cyst in my liver. MRI to determine type of cyst on 7th of this month.

I have either Full fat Greek yoghurt, 40g berries, 10g All Bran or low sugar granola or thin slice toast (25g) with eggs of some sort, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, smoked salmon (not all at once but combination of)

So really you had a lot more carbs in the day than it at first appeared from your table.

Thanks for the breakfast info.
Yes, milkshakes will prob count for around an extra 70g carbs.

 

[Lily123]

Thanks for the breakfast info.
Yes, milkshakes will prob count for around an extra 70g carbs.

It depends on what make of milkshake. Fast food type milkshake are extremely high in carbs.While some milkshakes where you add the milkshake powder to milk are normally not as high

 

[Rickstar88]

Thanks Lily.
Home made, one large strawberry & one large blueberry. Fresh fruit, semi skimmed milk, little greek style yogurt and vanilla ice cream in both. My book says, carb content for powdered shakes for 1/2 pint is 32g. But mine will prob be a lot higher due to ingredients and quantity.

Also, I dont usually eat that late, and if I do its just a light snack as I like my digestive system to finish its work before I go to bed. Sleep is very important to me as it was a total mess before abstinence in my alcohol dependency days. Much much better now.

Thanks again

Rick

 

[Lily123]

Thanks Lily.
Home made, one large strawberry & one large blueberry. Fresh fruit, semi skimmed milk, little greek style yogurt and vanilla ice cream in both. My book says, carb content for powdered shakes for 1/2 pint is 32g. But mine will prob be a lot higher due to ingredients and quantity.

Also, I dont usually eat that late, and if I do its just a light snack as I like my digestive system to finish its work before I go to bed. Sleep is very important to me as it was a total mess before abstinence in my alcohol dependency days. Much much better now.

Thanks again

Rick

With the any food in the Carbs & Cals book I was told by my diabetes clinic to go by what the back of packets says as the book is going to be a carbs amount that covers every possible make

 

[Rickstar88]

With the any food in the Carbs & Cals book I was told by my diabetes clinic to go by what the back of packets says as the book is going to be a carbs amount that covers every possible make

Thanks Lily

Only just got the book. Going to use it as a guide, rather than as a bible. But thanks for the heads up.

 

[Lily123]

The particular high carb in there is the actual milkshake base for the milkshakes and the ice cream

Thanks Lily.
Home made, one large strawberry & one large blueberry. Fresh fruit, semi skimmed milk, little greek style yogurt and vanilla ice cream in both. My book says, carb content for powdered shakes for 1/2 pint is 32g. But mine will prob be a lot higher due to ingredients and quantity.

Also, I dont usually eat that late, and if I do its just a light snack as I like my digestive system to finish its work before I go to bed. Sleep is very important to me as it was a total mess before abstinence in my alcohol dependency days. Much much better now.

Thanks again

Rick

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks Lily

Only just got the book. Going to use it as a guide, rather than as a bible. But thanks for the heads up.

People often find that things like fruit based smoothies have a bigger effect on their blood glucose levels than the individual ingredients suggest.
Your milk shake is potentially quite high carb, but depends on how much of each of the milk and ice cream you use, as you have the book look up the amounts. Some digital scales always to hand are a useful addition to your kitchen equipment.
It is very easy to underestimate the weight of something.

 

[mikeyB]

One thing in your original post, @Rickstar88 that caught my eye is that you say you are T2 because of “organ damage”. With your history of alcohol consumption I assume that organ is the pancreas.

If that is the case, you aren’t T2, you are 3c and should be on insulin according to the latest NICE guidelines. That for sure would explain your extravagant scores for BG, your thirst, and peeing a lot. Get yourself a doctor who keeps up to date. Just because you used to drink a lot doesn’t mean you deserve shabby treatment.

 

[Rickstar88]

Further update: Managed to get my readings down, thanks to reduced carbs, to far more acceptable levels. As my Hb1Ac was around 80+ a few months ago, my GP scripted me Dapagliflozin for a month, with instructions to get my bloods done after 3 or 4 weeks to see if they are having a positive impact on my levels.

Had bloods taken on 22 Dec 21 and just rang my surgery for the results and to ask for my current Hb1Ac to be told I was not tested for this! I am so p**sed off. After explaining that I was instructed by my GP for bloods to be specifically tested for this, I was told to expect a phone call NEXT Tuesday, sometime in the afternoon, to advise me when I can go back for another blood test.

So fed up. Sorry all - rant over.

 

[Rickstar88]

One thing in your original post, @Rickstar88 that caught my eye is that you say you are T2 because of “organ damage”. With your history of alcohol consumption I assume that organ is the pancreas.

If that is the case, you aren’t T2, you are 3c and should be on insulin according to the latest NICE guidelines. That for sure would explain your extravagant scores for BG, your thirst, and peeing a lot. Get yourself a doctor who keeps up to date. Just because you used to drink a lot doesn’t mean you deserve shabby treatment.

Hi Mikey,

Pancreas (2018) & Liver (2021). Also had a kidney removed due to cancer (2016). Cancer no connection to my alcohol consumption.

You are the second person on here to mention that I could possibly be T3c

Thanks for your input & concern.
Rick

 

[Leadinglights]

Further update: Managed to get my readings down, thanks to reduced carbs, to far more acceptable levels. As my Hb1Ac was around 80+ a few months ago, my GP scripted me Dapagliflozin for a month, with instructions to get my bloods done after 3 or 4 weeks to see if they are having a positive impact on my levels.

Had bloods taken on 22 Dec 21 and just rang my surgery for the results and to ask for my current Hb1Ac to be told I was not tested for this! I am so p**sed off. After explaining that I was instructed by my GP for bloods to be specifically tested for this, I was told to expect a phone call NEXT Tuesday, sometime in the afternoon, to advise me when I can go back for another blood test.

So fed up. Sorry all - rant over.

That's why I quite like what my surgery does which is give you the blood test form so you can make sure they have ticked the right boxes and them you book the test at the nearby pharmacy as the surgery does not take blood.

 

[Rickstar88]

That's why I quite like what my surgery does which is give you the blood test form so you can make sure they have ticked the right boxes and them you book the test at the nearby pharmacy as the surgery does not take blood.

Thanks for the message.

 

[Rickstar88]

Thanks for the message.

Going to try and book a private blood test now. Fingers crossed

 

[rebrascora]

Had bloods taken on 22 Dec 21 and just rang my surgery for the results and to ask for my current Hb1Ac to be told I was not tested for this! I am so p**sed off. After explaining that I was instructed by my GP for bloods to be specifically tested for this, I was told to expect a phone call NEXT Tuesday, sometime in the afternoon, to advise me when I can go back for another blood test.

How very frustrating! Did you ask what they did actually test for? I would certainly be asking that question when you get your appointment next week.
I believe there are private HbA1c tests which can be done on a spot blood test that you just send off your own sample, rather than having to book a private blood test where blood is drawn.

Personally I would hang fire until you speak to someone next week though. The important thing is that you are seeing a good reduction in your BG levels and the HbA1c will almost certainly reflect that when you eventually get it done through the NHS. I know it is nice to have that reassurance via an HbA1c but I think sometimes we put more store on that result than it perhaps merits, especially when we are home monitoring. I understand that when you are putting a lot of hard work into dietary changes, it gives you a boost and incentive to continue when you get a good official HbA1c result.