Another Newbie that hasn't a clue what to do!

[Gooner9]

hi, 4 weeks since DX, doctor pretty much told me nothing other than 'don't change anything till you see the Nurse, she'll sort you out'. I saw the Nurse last week, turns out she's new and doesn't see newbies like me, them we played Nurse v Dr tennis for a bit. Outcome was, I keep taking metformin, 4 a day for the next 3 months then I book myself in to see the Nurse. Still waiting for a dietician appt and the eye check one, no advice or help other than 'you've got a great team looking after you' looks like I've only seen the two weak links .
The only stats I know are upon diagnosis my blood was 119, 3 weeks after taking the meds I'm 111, the doctor says his chart doesn't go that high. He says it the highest he's seen! My diet is good, I'm 13st6 and 5'10" with no symptoms at all, really none at all. Everything I've read is soooooooo confusing and I've no idea what to do to help or what hinders.

 

[Martin Canty]

Hi Gooner, welcome to the forum....

You will get a lot of advice & help from this group, we support each other & keep ourselves accountable.

One of the first steps you can take is to evaluate your diet..... Cut out (or reduce) all starchy products like potatoes, pasta, rice, bread etc. Next is to get a test meter & start testing. Codefree from amazon is used by a lot of this group as the strips are cheap.

 

[Gooner9]

Hi Martin, thanks, I asked on a test meter and my DR said there was no point till they got my blood under control. I'll have a look at these and google what I need to be looking for on the results. The DX was a surprise but so far the talk of 'the best support' and the actual lack of it have been the biggest surprise so far. I'm sure I can sort it 🙂

 

[Alison Carr]

Hi Gooner - read the thread I just opened about 15 mins ago - I am a newbie and the support from the forum members has been invaluable. Get a Codefree blood glucose monitor as Martin suggests, and record your food and results before/2 hours after both breakfast and dinners daily. Look at articles, and lectures on u-tube, books on the Low Carb/HIGH fat/no added sugar and see if this might be something which could work for you. I've only been on it four weeks and my blood glucose levels are coming down nicely and I am not hungry very often at all; but its not for everyone - there are other forms of diets which are good. We may think our diets are good - in the older way of looking at things, but the low carb/high fat diet is very effective and personally I never found the low fat things any good - low fat foods often have sugar etc added to give them flavour, but eating carbs you do want more carbs. Keep asking questions as you think of them on the forum - read books - and fight back! Regards, Alison

 

[trophywench]

Hiya - was that a fingerprick, meter reading at over 100? - cos most of em only go up to 33 in the UK! If it's accidentally calibrated with the wrong (read US LOL) measurements they are scary numbers indeed cos they are actually 18x the ones we use.

Or - were they HbA1c tests, taken from a vein in your arm, put into a vial and sent away to the lab to be tested?

 

[Martin Canty]

wrong (read US LOL)

I am wearing out my calculator translating from what I understand to what you guys understand.........

 

[trophywench]

Well - you chose to join a UK forum! LOL

 

[Gooner9]

Hiya - was that a fingerprick, meter reading at over 100? - cos most of em only go up to 33 in the UK! If it's accidentally calibrated with the wrong (read US LOL) measurements they are scary numbers indeed cos they are actually 18x the ones we use.

Or - were they HbA1c tests, taken from a vein in your arm, put into a vial and sent away to the lab to be tested?

Hi, they were the blood tests by the nurse, I guess that's the HbA1c?
Thanks.

 

[Gooner9]

Hi Gooner - read the thread I just opened about 15 mins ago - I am a newbie and the support from the forum members has been invaluable. Get a Codefree blood glucose monitor as Martin suggests, and record your food and results before/2 hours after both breakfast and dinners daily. Look at articles, and lectures on u-tube, books on the Low Carb/HIGH fat/no added sugar and see if this might be something which could work for you. I've only been on it four weeks and my blood glucose levels are coming down nicely and I am not hungry very often at all; but its not for everyone - there are other forms of diets which are good. We may think our diets are good - in the older way of looking at things, but the low carb/high fat diet is very effective and personally I never found the low fat things any good - low fat foods often have sugar etc added to give them flavour, but eating carbs you do want more carbs. Keep asking questions as you think of them on the forum - read books - and fight back! Regards, Alison

Thanks, I'll get one of the test thingies and will read up on the lc/hf diets. Hopefully things will make sense soon 🙂

 

[Stitch147]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

[trophywench]

OK - 111 correlates to 12.3 in the old measurements we used. In old measurements we're aiming for less than 6.5 if possible - or less than 48 in new measurements. A non diabetic will have an HbA1c of 5 ish

So! - you are definitely diabetic LOL, but it is coming down and it's VERY early days.

Onwards and downwards!

Do you feel B awful? - cos I just cannot imagine being that high and still able to function, frankly?

 

[Gooner9]

Hi, thanks for the reply, oddly no! No symptoms at all, over the last year and a half or so I've lost 4st, diet & exercise, and I feel pretty chipper, no idea what a hypo or hyper is. Struggling to understand it really, only went to the Docs to find out what my cholesterol was, when I got the call and the DX he said I looked surprised, he wasn't wrong!

 

[Gooner9]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Thanks, v impressive reduction stats, well done 🙂

 

[Carol F]

Goodness..it sounds like a complete change.. i do hope you get your numbers sorted. i got a shock with my wee boy.. he was playing football and training for 2hrs.. swimming and winning at sports day... yet when we arrived at the hospital his blood sugar was 33....hes the fittest wee boy and eats well.. just lucky we were on the ball and the hospital didn't waste anytime. The numbers are coming down now 6.2 & 4.3 today but he is suffering from a sore head.. i suspect as his numbers were so high and now round about normal his wee body is renaging. Today is day 3.

 

[KookyCat]

Welcome aboard Gooner9 🙂 My consultant once told me that most folk don't "feel" high blood sugar at all. I thought he was bonkers because if I crack a 9mmol/l I want to curl up into a ball and have a nap, after I've drowned in fizzy water, but I'd guess he might be right that maybe lots of folk don't feel it. That great team might surprise you eventually (let's hope so), some of them have this notion that they have to move very slowly in the beginning which sort of feels like they're doing nothing at all, but then they get a bit more useful so let's hope you've got one of those teams 🙂

 

[Gooner9]

Goodness..it sounds like a complete change.. i do hope you get your numbers sorted. i got a shock with my wee boy.. he was playing football and training for 2hrs.. swimming and winning at sports day... yet when we arrived at the hospital his blood sugar was 33....hes the fittest wee boy and eats well.. just lucky we were on the ball and the hospital didn't waste anytime. The numbers are coming down now 6.2 & 4.3 today but he is suffering from a sore head.. i suspect as his numbers were so high and now round about normal his wee body is renaging. Today is day 3.

Thanks, hope he he doing okay 🙂

 

[Gooner9]

Welcome aboard Gooner9 🙂 My consultant once told me that most folk don't "feel" high blood sugar at all. I thought he was bonkers because if I crack a 9mmol/l I want to curl up into a ball and have a nap, after I've drowned in fizzy water, but I'd guess he might be right that maybe lots of folk don't feel it. That great team might surprise you eventually (let's hope so), some of them have this notion that they have to move very slowly in the beginning which sort of feels like they're doing nothing at all, but then they get a bit more useful so let's hope you've got one of those teams 🙂

Thanks Kooky, when my bloods start to drop, will there be and side effects or anything like that? Just worried that if I'm fine, well, I think I'm fine! When I start dropping, will I feel different then?

 

[HOBIE]

hi, 4 weeks since DX, doctor pretty much told me nothing other than 'don't change anything till you see the Nurse, she'll sort you out'. I saw the Nurse last week, turns out she's new and doesn't see newbies like me, them we played Nurse v Dr tennis for a bit. Outcome was, I keep taking metformin, 4 a day for the next 3 months then I book myself in to see the Nurse. Still waiting for a dietician appt and the eye check one, no advice or help other than 'you've got a great team looking after you' looks like I've only seen the two weak links .
The only stats I know are upon diagnosis my blood was 119, 3 weeks after taking the meds I'm 111, the doctor says his chart doesn't go that high. He says it the highest he's seen! My diet is good, I'm 13st6 and 5'10" with no symptoms at all, really none at all. Everything I've read is soooooooo confusing and I've no idea what to do to help or what hinders.

A lot of nurses have not much idea. Some are excellent at what they do but. Welcome Gooner9 🙂

 

[Soidogbob]

My GP sent me for an intro with the nutritionist, she aked me hows you your diet? i respond pretty cool and easy going........

She ripped me a new 1 and m response, what diabetes? A little 5"6 woman 130KG woman giving me a hard time was too much.

No support from NHS done better here.