• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Advice for mum

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
E

EmmieLou

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
My mum has recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after finding out during a pre-op appointment.
This obviously cancelled the op and caused alot of upset. since the diagnosis there has been absolutely no support or help from anywhere. Is this normal? Apparently there's no diabetes team/dietician at the practice just been told to calorie count and not eat many carbs by a nurse practitioner who has a reputation for her attitude...

I really want to help her with this get some good solid information so she can get on top of this as soon as possible. I think there are some tablets to come as well but think she just feels lost and not sure what she should do with her diet other than cut out the biccys n sweet stuff

Any advice please? x
 
You need to know the figures as I presume for the op to be cancelled they most have been high?
The nurse who said not to eat many carbs is right, it is not just sweet stuff.
 
What actual result of the blood test do you know? - just trying to establish whether it's going to be a huge hill to climb or a smaller hillock.

It's not only sweet stuff a diabetic body has difficulty dealing with - it is all carbs in our diet we need to limit.
 
Thanks for the replies. I don't know the figures but will ask to see the letter...
Think it was more her attitude, it's ok saying don't eat this n that but what can she eat then that won't cause further problems... it just feels there was no info or help given to get going. I'm going to get her on this website and maybe call the helpline. The letter mentioned some scary realities of the condition yet there seems to be limited support for it
 
EmmieLou said:
Thanks for the replies. I don't know the figures but will ask to see the letter...
Think it was more her attitude, it's ok saying don't eat this n that but what can she eat then that won't cause further problems... it just feels there was no info or help given to get going. I'm going to get her on this website and maybe call the helpline. The letter mentioned some scary realities of the condition yet there seems to be limited support for it
Click to expand...
The thing is we are all different tolerance to foods. Why not suggests she reduces the portions of carbohydrate foods like bread, cereals, potatoes, rice, and pasta.
 
Hi @EmmieLou, and welcome to the forum. If you read around the forum you will find that the support for T2's after diagnosis is very variable and we have a lot of members reporting experiences like yours. We are here to help.

The first thing to find out, her GP should know it or can get it from the hospital, is the result of the HbA1c test used to diagnose T2 diabetes. As @trophywench, says this tells you how big a hill she has to climb. You can then work out a plan to suit.

The second thing is to realise that T2 is manageable and the risk of developing any of the complications you have read about can be reduced to next to nothing. Read around the forum and you will find that there are four basic strands to getting sorted, lose weight if you need to, organise your diet to reduce carbohydrate intake, medication and exercise. You will also see that finding the best route depends very much on the individual and the trick is to find what combination of those strands that suits your mother.

Finally, if you can get your mother to join the forum that would be great. Peer support can be a great tool in getting on top of T2 and that is the strength of this forum. There are centuries of lived experience on here and there is usually somebody around to answer questions and nothing is considered too silly to ask. We have all been at the beginning and fully realise that what is obvious to us can be a complete mystery to somebody just diagnosed.
 
Welcome to the forum @EmmieLou . Sorry to hear about your Mum’s diagnosis.
As @Docb has said this is a manageable condition and there are lots of people on here with excellent tips to help you.

Becoming familiar with the amount of carbs in the foods that she eats will really help her. As well as the more obvious sources such as pasta, potatoes and bread these are often hidden away in sauces.
It is not that any foods are forbidden it is more a case of finding out how many carbs her body can cope with at a meal, then choosing what to eat to match that. Where foods are lower in carbs this can be a bigger portion, with high carb foods this needs to be a smaller portion.

When we set ourselves a target of 30g of carbs at each meal we were surprised initially how small the portions looked at first but now we are used to it, and bulk out our meal with lower carb veg. A useful rule of thumb we use is that if veg are grown
  • Under the ground they are high carb
  • Above the ground they are medium carb
  • On the ground they are low carb
Using this we made swaps to reduce our carbs.

I hope that is of some help.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top