Been ignorant, confused and scared

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LadyGrey

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Type 2
Jan 2018 I was sitting at 36 on my Ha1bc, by July this was 54 and when they tested me the following week 56, by December 2018 my ha1bc was 97.
I wasn’t totally ignorant to begin with, but my diabetic nurse was cruel, nasty and didn’t listen and scared my 14 year old daughter and refused to refer me to a specialist. I hated metformin and with other medical issues this was impossible to stomach. Without taking metformin or altering diet I got my sugars ha1bc down to 56 and my fasting sugars at 6 Nov 2019 but even without changes they’ve crept back again and now under a specialist and put on Trajenta (linagliptin) 5mg for now.
Now having to test and record for specialist but even with not eating sugars my BS is high! I limit carbs to 100mg per day as per dietician and only ever exceed this by 15g and keep sugars as low as possible, rarely touching anything high. I love savoury, eat meat and loads of veggies I have one clove rock sweet at breakfast and before bed as I am in chemical menopause for another chronic illness and the medicine taste horrid in the throat. I’ve cut out high sugar fruit and even due to chronic pain, tried to move more, sleep more even with insomnia.. but it’s like nothing I do helps.
I do have suspects PCOS and an enlarged Ovary with cyst attached from ovary to bowel.. but Gynae say there is no way it’s interfering with blood sugar or ha1bc.
I have Hashimotos but apparently it will only increase blood sugars a little. But I am also a recurring anaemic but apparently that’s unlikely to cause an issue even though my blood isn’t shaped correctly or enough of it!!
I’m so confused and trying so hard but feel like I just keep getting looked at as if I’m insane or refusing to acknowledge something. But I am trying. I don’t eat pasta and found lentil pasta a good sub or chickpea pasta, I eat basmati rice approved by dietician and it doesn’t cause a spike nor do potatoes all approved my dietician as long as portion controlled and not over the 100g per day mark. I don’t drink milk with lactose and use real butter, I opt for natural products were possible.
Anyone anything to suggest ?
 
Is your consultant keeping an open mind about the possibility of Type 1 diabetes? (you can develop this as an adult, and it can be much slower in onset than when children develop it). I just mention this because of the Hashimotos being an autoimmune condition. We Type 1 (auto-immune) diabetics always get our thyroid levels checked, because you are more likely to develop other auto immune conditions, including Hashimoto's, if you already have one, so I presume it may work the other way round too.
 
No one has even mentioned that possibility. However, I did read I could have Type 1.5 with auto immune but to be honest never fully got through all the information. There is so much confusion. I even read that my ha1bc should not be used if my bloods are poor with iron/ferritin but none of my doctors here me. But all my illnesses all began 2017/2018 all around the same times, prior to this I was ok. Turned 30 but ended up feeling 90 but no investigations into why they all began at same time. Sadly.
 
Have you been tested for T1 diabetes?
You are very lucky not to get a BG spike from either rice or potatoes - they would send my BG to the sky!
But just because something is 'approved by a dietician' doesn't make it a good food for a T2 diabetic. Only the T2 diabetic (by testing very meal at first) can tell which foods are good, which are OK and which are to be avoided.
I can't eat even a raw carrot or a small apple, but others find they don't get a spike from one.

In the larger scheme of things, 100gms of carbs isn't particularly low. You have to get down to about 20-25 before nutritional Ketosis kicks in.
I had to go down to between 20 and 40gms per day in order to get my meal spikes below 2.0 mmol and my maximum BG levels to less than 8.0
But it was worth it since I'm now in remission with an HbA1c having slowly gone down as far as the current (Nov 2020) reading of 37.

Are you aware that it isn't just food/lifestyle which raises Blood Glucose?
Stress
Infection
Lack of Sleep
Medications such as Statins and Steroids
are a few.
 
LadyGrey said:
Jan 2018 I was sitting at 36 on my Ha1bc, by July this was 54 and when they tested me the following week 56, by December 2018 my ha1bc was 97.
I wasn’t totally ignorant to begin with, but my diabetic nurse was cruel, nasty and didn’t listen and scared my 14 year old daughter and refused to refer me to a specialist. I hated metformin and with other medical issues this was impossible to stomach. Without taking metformin or altering diet I got my sugars ha1bc down to 56 and my fasting sugars at 6 Nov 2019 but even without changes they’ve crept back again and now under a specialist and put on Trajenta (linagliptin) 5mg for now.
Now having to test and record for specialist but even with not eating sugars my BS is high! I limit carbs to 100mg per day as per dietician and only ever exceed this by 15g and keep sugars as low as possible, rarely touching anything high. I love savoury, eat meat and loads of veggies I have one clove rock sweet at breakfast and before bed as I am in chemical menopause for another chronic illness and the medicine taste horrid in the throat. I’ve cut out high sugar fruit and even due to chronic pain, tried to move more, sleep more even with insomnia.. but it’s like nothing I do helps.
I do have suspects PCOS and an enlarged Ovary with cyst attached from ovary to bowel.. but Gynae say there is no way it’s interfering with blood sugar or ha1bc.
I have Hashimotos but apparently it will only increase blood sugars a little. But I am also a recurring anaemic but apparently that’s unlikely to cause an issue even though my blood isn’t shaped correctly or enough of it!!
I’m so confused and trying so hard but feel like I just keep getting looked at as if I’m insane or refusing to acknowledge something. But I am trying. I don’t eat pasta and found lentil pasta a good sub or chickpea pasta, I eat basmati rice approved by dietician and it doesn’t cause a spike nor do potatoes all approved my dietician as long as portion controlled and not over the 100g per day mark. I don’t drink milk with lactose and use real butter, I opt for natural products were possible.
Anyone anything to suggest ?
Click to expand...
It has been shown that women with PCOS have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes so that could be influencing your blood glucose, also various haemoglobinopathies like anaemia can make HbA1C unreliable. You don't mention that you have a blood glucose monitor to test if you can tolerate some of the foods you are having, as everybody is different in their tolerance it would be worth checking rather than rely on the dietician's word as for a lot of people rice and potatoes would be a problem.
You certainly are struggling with a number of conditions which must be stressful and that can also affect your glucose levels.
It would be good if you could get some answers from you specialist.
 
Yes, a number of conditions all at once, severe anxiety and gynae issues. I have only been given a tester recently and only received strips and lancets today. Specialist wants me to test daily and get a picture of readings. I eat raw carrots regularly, so I will test after eating them as I never even thought of them as an issue. I can’t go towards the keto side of low carb as it messed with my GI and the consultant doesn’t feel it’s healthy for me. I balance all meals with carb protein and fats and don’t drink any fizzy drinks, rarely a diluted juice mainly tea and water. I’m even logging all my foods daily to be sure. But I am in pain every day with my other health issues, stress is massive issue and I’m awaiting a psychologist for childhood trauma, anxiety and such.
Sometimes it feels the more I do to try and help the worse it gets. Never been tested for Type 1 and has took me two years of asking for specialist to actually be referred to one or get a machine. I eat as many veg as I can, and love veg not really any I don’t like, I limit anything bad or deemed somewhat bad. Even if I eat from a take away I only eat the same thing no batter etc. I try to keep sugars below 10g per hundred as per the instruction from Desmond group or at a push under 15g per 100g. I am so confused and I know less carbs causes my burning to begin and sickness to happen, headaches and dizziness. That’s what I stick at 100g.
 
The symptoms you describe seen rather like 'carb flu' - which is usually the result of losing electrolytes and can be resolved by adding salt - just a pinch or so - and taking a multivitamin and mineral tablet a couple of times a week. It is a natural response to an alteration in carb intake and nothing to be concerned about as it shows that your metabolism is responding to the rather abrupt changes you have made.
If you find that you would like to see lower test results you could try reducing your intake of carbs by 5 or 10 gm a day and keeping it at that level for a couple of weeks or a month before reducing again if it needs it - sometimes 5 gm a day can do the trick - though of course for some 50 gm reduction is still not enough.
I usually feel very well eating low carb - though just at the moment I'm struggling. My food today has been a pork chop, a tomato and some orange jelly. It should be enough to keep me going until things improve.
 
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