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6 months since diagnosed with type 2

D

dave32

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Pronouns
He/Him
Hi guys, it's taken me since my diagnosis in June of this year to really feel like I can talk about having type 2 diabetes. I really feel like I have left my young family down, I have three young children, my wife and myself down.
I have always been too fat but never really had any issues so this diagnosis came right out of the blue. I cannot help but feel that this has given me a death sentence aged 38. I am really worried I am going to die and lose my sight. My blood glucose HbA1c was 52 and my weight was.139kg
I immediately began a course of calorie deficit and gym running to shed weight and to get my blood glucose down. In October my weight was 108kg and HbA1c was 38.
Presently, my weight is 100kg and I am targeting further loss. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep my blood sugar at these levels indefinitely, or will they simply begin to rise as I get older regardless of weight and activity level.

I now understand that this condition will ultimately lead to my death, I'd just like to not die before my children are old enough to deal with it.
 
dave32 said:
Hi guys, it's taken me since my diagnosis in June of this year to really feel like I can talk about having type 2 diabetes. I really feel like I have left my young family down, I have three young children, my wife and myself down.
I have always been too fat but never really had any issues so this diagnosis came right out of the blue. I cannot help but feel that this has given me a death sentence aged 38. I am really worried I am going to die and lose my sight. My blood glucose HbA1c was 52 and my weight was.139kg
I immediately began a course of calorie deficit and gym running to shed weight and to get my blood glucose down. In October my weight was 108kg and HbA1c was 38.
Presently, my weight is 100kg and I am targeting further loss. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep my blood sugar at these levels indefinitely, or will they simply begin to rise as I get older regardless of weight and activity level.

I now understand that this condition will ultimately lead to my death, I'd just like to not die before my children are old enough to deal with it.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum and very well done on your weight loss and getting your HbA1C down to normal.
You have to be mindful that once you have a diabetes diagnosis it is indicating that your metabolism has struggles with carbohydrates and although the weight loss will have meant that you are able to cope with them better it is not something that you can now ignore and go back to previous eating habits.
There is every reason that if you maintain the dietary regime that has given you the success you will be able to maintain where you are. Many of us have been diagnosed at a much older age than you and are able to keep blood glucose in the normal range by making their low carb or whatever they chose just the new normal way of eating.
 
First of all congratulations on the weight loss, that's a superb effort and you should be proud of yourself.

With regards to your Hba1c, your number - whilst high - isn't *that* high. I got a phone call last Wednesday out of the blue and was told mine was 120! My BG was then measured at >28 (the machine doesn't go higher than that so it could have been anything!).

At age 38, given the action you're now taking and where your Hba1c already is I don't think you need to worry about dying just yet. You've made some really beneficial changes already. And yes, with the right diet and exercise routine it's very possible to keep the numbers down.

To give some context to your weight, what is your height if you don't mind sharing?
 
Thank you for the kind responses, I really hope I can maintain my present blood glucose levels. I just wish that I could have faith that I will not end up with high glucose levels out of no where

I am 6'3, and have always need active even if I was far. I have only recently had to give up rugby as 3 children under the age of 5 is hard to handle for my wife of I'm playing every Saturday.
 
At that height your weight is coming into a good range.

I'm a shade under 6'2 and hit 115kg in 2020 and am now hovering around 88-89kg so can relate to your journey.

Just keep at it and you'll succeed...
 
dave32 said:
Thank you for the kind responses, I really hope I can maintain my present blood glucose levels. I just wish that I could have faith that I will not end up with high glucose levels out of no where

I am 6'3, and have always need active even if I was far. I have only recently had to give up rugby as 3 children under the age of 5 is hard to handle for my wife of I'm playing every Saturday.
Click to expand...
You can always get a home testing monitor so you could do a weekly finger prick test to make sure you are keeping on track and take action immediately rather that waiting the 6-12 months between HbA1C tests. Just do a waking /fasting reading once a week and as long as it is staying around 6mmol/l and not drifting above 7 then that will indicate you are maintaining your HbA1Cin the normal range.
Inexpensive monitors can be bought on line, GlucoNavii, TEE2 and Contour Blue are ones with the cheaper strips.
The finger prick test just monitors a moment in time rather than the HbA1C which basically is the three month average prior to the test.
 
dave32 said:
Hi guys, it's taken me since my diagnosis in June of this year to really feel like I can talk about having type 2 diabetes. I really feel like I have left my young family down, I have three young children, my wife and myself down.
I have always been too fat but never really had any issues so this diagnosis came right out of the blue. I cannot help but feel that this has given me a death sentence aged 38. I am really worried I am going to die and lose my sight. My blood glucose HbA1c was 52 and my weight was.139kg
I immediately began a course of calorie deficit and gym running to shed weight and to get my blood glucose down. In October my weight was 108kg and HbA1c was 38.
Presently, my weight is 100kg and I am targeting further loss. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep my blood sugar at these levels indefinitely, or will they simply begin to rise as I get older regardless of weight and activity level.

I now understand that this condition will ultimately lead to my death, I'd just like to not die before my children are old enough to deal with it.
Click to expand...
Hi Dave and welcome to the forum. Glad you found the courage to share your feelings about your diabetes diagnosis. It can be overwhelming to begin with but you have already taken positive steps to get your blood glucose down. The latest HbA1c result is very good and together with the weight loss is really going to make an impact on your long term health. There are people on this forum who have been living with and managing their diabetes for decades.
As we age unfortunately some of us are more prone to ill health but that doesn't stop us living our life. We make the necessary adjustments to diet and activity levels along with medication to stay as healthy as we can.
At 65 years old I have no intention of writing myself off because I have diabetes. My plan is to get my HbA1c under 48 and hopefully reduce the medication and enjoy my retirement .
 
Hi and welcome. As others have said, well done on the progress so far, eg: the weight loss and lower HbA1c levels, etc. It is absolutely not / never too late to make better life choices. There are countless examples of people on here who live with and manage their diabetes and live "normal" lives (whatever that is).
Continue what you have been doing, read up on the subject on here, (the learning zone), check out the low carb recipes on here and on the freshwell website, etc.
Remember its usually (for T2D) not just calories but carbs that we need to keep an eye on, all carbs, not just sugars.... Good luck with it and keep us updated on progress....
 
Who on earth has been feeding you such total tosh about early death?
With your HbA1c being only 52 at diagnosis you were barely into diabetic numbers, so as long as you are an ordinary type 2 with nothing exciting going on, a lower carb intake should keep you in normal numbers for blood glucose after meals, and then you'll probably be getting normal HbA1c numbers for the foreseeable future.
With all the misinformation about how healthy some types of carbohydrate are it is no wonder so many people have problems losing weight and keeping glucose levels down.

If you can get hold of a meter and check your glucose levels two hours after starting to eat it a meal should help you avoid anything you should not/can't eat.

My only problem these days is keeping up with my changing shape, as even after 8 years from diagnosis and at the age of 73 I am still changing from a ( ) to more of a ) ( and having to alter my clothes to keep up. I had many years of fighting with my GPs and the advice to eat healthy carbs and was almost spherical at diagnosis, so I really do not want to look like a 2 week old party balloon.
 
Welcome to the forum @dave32

Hope you have found it helpful and reassuring to hear other people's perspectives.

We have lots of members on the forum with many decades of diabetes under their belts. It is a serious condition, but the choices of meds, monitoring options, and understandings of how the body can respond to weight loss / menu changes (and in some cases even put diabetes into remission) can make effective management of your diabetes more possible than ever.

You've done brilliantly with the weight loss, and reduction in your HbA1c. Keep it up! :star:<3:star:
 
That’s some great results with bringing your weight and HbA1c scores down so well.

Keep doing the right things like you’re already doing and I’m sure you’ll be around for many many years.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I can understand completely your comments and feeling like you've let people down. I swore I'd not be a fat dad before my daughter was born 15 years ago but it's only really the last 18 months or so my weight's improved (either side of diagnosis in early June). I feel quite similar, I could and should have done things earlier and over 15 years ago swore I'd not be a fat dad with limited impact. Unfortunately I can't change the past.

Looking forward my wife and daughter have been really supportive and helped me feel good about losing weight and bringing blood sugar levels back towards normal. And I think my hope is that losing weight and getting more exercise is going to prolong life despite the diabetes and if not then at least improve it's quality. The weight loss and normalisation of blood sugar has also led to falling cholesterol which hopefully your GP team's been looking at and you're seeing similar results.
 
@dave32 - mate - just being born guarantees a death sentence since nobody is immortal, are they! Meanwhile let's accept what life chucks at us the best we can and try and get the most out of our lives whilst we do manage to survive!

The best bit of advice I can still give to anyone 'new' is to never stop asking questions whether it's about diabetes or indeed anything else that happens to be bugging you. This forum is a goldmine of info - certainly about diabetes obviously but people on here also have personal knowledge about all sorts of other things too depending what their life, health, work and hobby experiences happen to be. 🙂
 
dave32 said:
Hi guys, it's taken me since my diagnosis in June of this year to really feel like I can talk about having type 2 diabetes. I really feel like I have left my young family down, I have three young children, my wife and myself down.
I have always been too fat but never really had any issues so this diagnosis came right out of the blue. I cannot help but feel that this has given me a death sentence aged 38. I am really worried I am going to die and lose my sight. My blood glucose HbA1c was 52 and my weight was.139kg
I immediately began a course of calorie deficit and gym running to shed weight and to get my blood glucose down. In October my weight was 108kg and HbA1c was 38.
Presently, my weight is 100kg and I am targeting further loss. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep my blood sugar at these levels indefinitely, or will they simply begin to rise as I get older regardless of weight and activity level.

I now understand that this condition will ultimately lead to my death, I'd just like to not die before my children are old enough to deal with it.
Click to expand...
It’s not a death sentence. My dad had diabetes and died of totally unrelated cancer at age 87. Very healthy and active until then. My husbands father is diabetic and he’s 90 in May, again fit and healthy
 
dave32 said:
Hi guys, it's taken me since my diagnosis in June of this year to really feel like I can talk about having type 2 diabetes. I really feel like I have left my young family down, I have three young children, my wife and myself down.
I have always been too fat but never really had any issues so this diagnosis came right out of the blue. I cannot help but feel that this has given me a death sentence aged 38. I am really worried I am going to die and lose my sight. My blood glucose HbA1c was 52 and my weight was.139kg
I immediately began a course of calorie deficit and gym running to shed weight and to get my blood glucose down. In October my weight was 108kg and HbA1c was 38.
Presently, my weight is 100kg and I am targeting further loss. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to keep my blood sugar at these levels indefinitely, or will they simply begin to rise as I get older regardless of weight and activity level.

I now understand that this condition will ultimately lead to my death, I'd just like to not die before my children are old enough to deal with it.
Click to expand...
I was diagnosed in October with HbA1c 67, went down to 59 a month later, and now heading towards remission. And I'm bigger than you. Reducing carbs, mainly sugar, bread etc, plus exercise has worked for me
To be honest doctors have been telling me I'd die young because of my weight since I was a child, but I'm 58 and doing ok....
 
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