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Another newbie!

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T

Tgn

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
hi to all, hope you are all keeping in good health as best you all can with diabetes.
My name is Tony, I live in Yorkshire uk, after retiring as a company manager 5 years ago due to my disibilities becoming a lot worse, plus another 4 operations on my spine leaving me a lot worse than when I started having them, I cannot explain much at the moment as it will be a very long and boring introduction, but has left me in an electric wheelchair plus some very severe pain with part nerve damage.
With my inactivity as above, I became overweight, with having the wrong diet and no exercise at all, I have now just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
This has been a reality check for me, to at least start having a better in take of food! As far as I know, if I had looked after my diet when I first became inactive I may not be in this situation now? Any advice on this area would be appreciated, I know I cannot go back and change this now, but I just wondered if this was the case?
I have other questions and proberbly concerns as I go on, but I will leave my intro here and hope to chat in the near future.
Take care to you all
Tony
 
Hi Tony, welcome to the forum.... Sorry to hear about your tale of woes.....

What treatments have they got you on & how is your diet (I think you covered the exercise part).

Many of us cut or significantly reduce our carbs, particularly grains, rice, cereals, starchy vegetables etc as part of our ongoing management.....

BTW, what part of Yorkshire, I spent many a summer there with my Grandparents in Harrogate & have quite a fond memory of North Yorkshire.
 
Welcome to the forum, Tgn. You're right that exercise and body weight are important in lessening chances of developing type 2 diabetes and controlling it when developed. However, diet and medication are also important, particularly reducing carbohydrate intake, not just sugar. Have you been prescribed any medication? Are you able to do any exercise eg swimming, some gym exercises? In some areas, GPs can refer to diabetes education courses and / or reduced price gym, swimming etc.
 
Hi Tgn, welcome to the forum. We are a very friendly bunch and will try to answer any questions you have, so fire away - no question is daft!

Northerner will probably be along in a bit, with useful links and information. Keep in touch, and all the best to you 🙂
 
Welcome from a fellow T2.
 
At the moment I have just been prescribed metformin,500mg X twice daily, because of my other issues I am on another 5 medications before this one, so another to add! Lol.
I have been to the diabetes clinic yesterday the first time after being diagnosed, so I have plenty to get through to understand my diet. It's not difficult to work out what I can eat it just takes a lot of looking at labels before buying food, well my wife does, God bless her, she is like an angel to me, she has been so patient these last few years with my difficulties.x.
Exercise is none at the moment, as every move I make, be it upper body or lower body can be extremely painful, this can also lead to an attack like very strong electric going from my lower back to my toes, I can get very poorly with this, I have stopped breathing twice, luckily I was at the a&e at the time, so exercise can be very very scary and painfull.
Thankyou for your welcomes
Take care
Tony
 
Hi Tony - unless you are PRONE to developing T2 in the first place - there's a query over whether you'd have got it or not. If it was merely a matter of not putting on weight - how are there ever morbidly obese (or just 'extra cuddly' LOL) folk - who haven't got it?

I mean - is there any in your family? - and if it happened to be undiagnosed at their time of death - of apparently something else they happened to have wrong with em at the time (eg 'Heart Failure' - funny that, a lot of people die when their hearts stop beating, so I've heard ... and oddly enough, I had frequent palpitations in the weeks leading up to my diagnosis and when people die of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, which is caused by far too high constant BG - they actually die of 'MULTIPLE organ failure', cos that's what the acid poisoning' in the blood does to all the internal bits of you) - how would we, a few generations later - know? Well - we never will!

You've had a number of things going on, which automatically increased your Blood Glucose and therefore, your pancreas to have to work harder to counteract it - all unbeknownst to you! - before you ate a doughnut or whatever else you might be thinking was 'wrong' that you ate.

1. Any inflammation anywhere from your big toe to your bowels - increases the BG
2. Any pain occurring - increases BG
3. Any mental stress - good, or bad! - increases BG
4. Certain drugs - especially steroids, but others can do it too - increase BG
and probably some other things I haven't thought of yet.

Soooo - I would rather think your pancreas and the rest of your body actually said 'You really have to be joking - now - Dad! I really can't cope sorting all this out on me own, any more - so I shan't!'

Soooo - you've got to try and give it a hand wherever you can - and plainly exercise isn't one of them. So both drug treatment and diet both assume even greater importance in your case. With a bit of luck and a following wind - give your body a bit of a rest and it will be able to cope better - and actually therefore help you cope even slightly better with all the 'other' stuff.

We highly recommend a lower carbohydrate content of your food intake. It's important to get enough protein and the right fats (dairy and otherwise) to sustain your bodily needs, rather than being what you just fancy eating when what you fancy might easily be something you can't - now - cope with. Portion control is as important as actual content here.

But nobody can actually tell you what amounts and what exact things, because we are all so different - not only likes and dislikes but also metabolism and things which nobody can guess. The only way of telling whether you are OK eating this or that - is to test your BG using a glucometer - a blood glucose meter. sadly they are not usually supplied by the NHS to anyone not also being prescribed 'hypoglycaemic agents' eg the main ones being insulin and sulphonureas - and you aren't. But - if you can possibly fund one yourself that's better than not having one at all.

Crikey - I think that's enough! Good luck with it all - and anything you want or need - ASK!
 
trophywench said:
Hi Tony - unless you are PRONE to developing T2 in the first place - there's a query over whether you'd have got it or not. If it was merely a matter of not putting on weight - how are there ever morbidly obese (or just 'extra cuddly' LOL) folk - who haven't got it?

I mean - is there any in your family? - and if it happened to be undiagnosed at their time of death - of apparently something else they happened to have wrong with em at the time (eg 'Heart Failure' - funny that, a lot of people die when their hearts stop beating, so I've heard ... and oddly enough, I had frequent palpitations in the weeks leading up to my diagnosis and when people die of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, which is caused by far too high constant BG - they actually die of 'MULTIPLE organ failure', cos that's what the acid poisoning' in the blood does to all the internal bits of you) - how would we, a few generations later - know? Well - we never will!

You've had a number of things going on, which automatically increased your Blood Glucose and therefore, your pancreas to have to work harder to counteract it - all unbeknownst to you! - before you ate a doughnut or whatever else you might be thinking was 'wrong' that you ate.

1. Any inflammation anywhere from your big toe to your bowels - increases the BG
2. Any pain occurring - increases BG
3. Any mental stress - good, or bad! - increases BG
4. Certain drugs - especially steroids, but others can do it too - increase BG
and probably some other things I haven't thought of yet.

Soooo - I would rather think your pancreas and the rest of your body actually said 'You really have to be joking - now - Dad! I really can't cope sorting all this out on me own, any more - so I shan't!'

Soooo - you've got to try and give it a hand wherever you can - and plainly exercise isn't one of them. So both drug treatment and diet both assume even greater importance in your case. With a bit of luck and a following wind - give your body a bit of a rest and it will be able to cope better - and actually therefore help you cope even slightly better with all the 'other' stuff.

We highly recommend a lower carbohydrate content of your food intake. It's important to get enough protein and the right fats (dairy and otherwise) to sustain your bodily needs, rather than being what you just fancy eating when what you fancy might easily be something you can't - now - cope with. Portion control is as important as actual content here.

But nobody can actually tell you what amounts and what exact things, because we are all so different - not only likes and dislikes but also metabolism and things which nobody can guess. The only way of telling whether you are OK eating this or that - is to test your BG using a glucometer - a blood glucose meter. sadly they are not usually supplied by the NHS to anyone not also being prescribed 'hypoglycaemic agents' eg the main ones being insulin and sulphonureas - and you aren't. But - if you can possibly fund one yourself that's better than not having one at all.

Crikey - I think that's enough! Good luck with it all - and anything you want or need - ASK!
Click to expand...
 
hi trophy
Thankyou very much for your full and informative answer, I feel at the moment I have a lot to take in and work out.
My main area to get right for me has to be my diet, I have already started to change my intake of any food with very low sugars in them.
Thankyou again
Take care
Tony
 
Tgn said:
change my intake of any food with very low sugars
Click to expand...
Hi Tony, it's not just anything labeled with sugar it's carbohydrates in general....

Some carbs affect us more than others, that's why it's important to have a BG meter.... So you can learn what you can eat and what sends your BG rocketing (not all of us tolerate the same carbs in the same way, our disease is kinda strange in that way)
 
Martin's right. I tried fish & chips the other night for the first time since diagnosis. My BG went through the roof!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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