Diagnosed on Monday but reality is only just hitting me

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Sheilagh1958

Sheilagh1958

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I was only diagnosed on Monday. I have managed to stay quite positive about it until now. Just sat watching telly tonight and the reality of it all has just hit me my life is never going to be the same again. :(o

Will I ever think about food the same again?

I have order a book to help understand it but won't arrive till next week.

Don't understand what Diabetes 2 is......................once you have got it have you always got it?

How will I found out which foods are bad for me?

Do most people require medication or is it just down to diet and exercise.

I have got an appointment next Friday with the nurse at my surgery what will happen at this appointment...................questions, questions......questions.

When I was at the doctors on Monday they took quite a few different blood test what will these samples be tested for.

Its all so daunting
 
Hi Sheilagh

First a big deep breath - you can;t eat a whole elephant in one go - so a little at a time. Getting a book is good and ask away on here - no question is too silly.

When I was diagnosed I was sent away to wait for a later appointment, and felt fobbed off by my GP was allowing a little time for things to sink in. This may be what the nurse is doing. I would suggest a little notebook and write all those questions that come to mind to take with you.

Slowly does it is the answer - I was diagnosed in June this year and slowly have learnt so much from the forum now - in fact some days I forget I have it!
 
Did you have many lots of symptoms or did it all come as a big shock?
 
I think a bit of both really - once i was told things started to make sense.
I hadn't been sleeping well, was always getting up in the night, and kept getting a corker headache. It also explained why I had felt so shattered all the time, even jsut after a nights sleep.

Since diet and exercise it isn't very often i feel too tired now,, and if I do, its generally because I have ate too much carb!
 
Sheleigh it hits us all at first its all a haze in your head, questions going around and around it is all so daunting to start with, i can only reccommend you get yourself some reading material i have gained loads of knowledge from here but also books, the best book is called the first year-type 2 diabetes by Gretchen Becker that is such a great book, if you have a look at amazon you can pick it up reasonbly cheap...
As for answering some of your questions until they find a cure im afraid once you are diagnosed you are diabetic for life, as for finding out what foods are good bad the best way is to do home testing with a meter that can then tell you what makes your blood sugars high and low....usually when your diagnosed they give you time on diet and exercise if they see good results then theres nothing stopping you staying that way theres people on here who have been d/e controlled for years, if like me you dont make enough progress then you will be put on medication usually pills then if that does not work maybe insulin is the only soloution...

When you see the doc next week mabe write down in a book a list of questions then you wont get all flustered.x
 
Hi Sheilagh, perfectly understandable to feel like this at this early stage, things will improve in time as you learn more about diabetes and how to manage it. Once diagnosed, you do have it for good (despite a lot of quackery on the internet about 'cures' or 'reversing' diabetes). However, it is possible to control it, and making sensible changes to diet and lifestyle are often all that is required. You've actually already got a head start on the majority of people being diagnosed because you've begun to research and try and understand it - your questions are all very good ones and I think that, although it seems daunting now, you will be surprised at how much you learn about the body and how it works, about food and its effects, and about the importance of staying active, both mentally and physically.

The additional test you have had will probably be for things like your cholesterol levels, kidney function tests and maybe a liver function test. As someone with diabetes you will be very well monitored, and ythis can mean that anything untoward will be spotted and treated much earlier than in someone without diabetes - so there is an upside to this (believe it or not!).
You will learn what foods your body can tolerate best - and you may be surprised that there is very little limitation on what you should eat - most of this is common sense, but there are helpful strategies like following GL (Glycaemic Load) diet principles. Medication will depend on your own individual needs - there is no 'failure' in needing it, some do and some don't. All Type 1s need insulin, but for Type 2 there is a large range of medications available or many manage by changes to diet and increasing activity. Type 2 diabetes is often due to reduced insulin sensitivity and this can be improved by exercising and not 'overloading' the body by eating refined or sugary foods.


Life will be different, but there is no reason why you shouldn't be much healthier and happier than you might otherwise have been - honestly! 🙂
 
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lucy123 said:
I think a bit of both really - once i was told things started to make sense.
I hadn't been sleeping well, was always getting up in the night, and kept getting a corker headache. It also explained why I had felt so shattered all the time, even jsut after a nights sleep.

Since diet and exercise it isn't very often i feel too tired now,, and if I do, its generally because I have ate too much carb!
Click to expand...

Same with me i now realise that I have had symptoms going back about 6 months (which is frightening in itself). First symptom was pains in my heals for a couple of weeks then other symptoms in the last 6 weeks has been thrush on and off and the need to drink more. Now worried what damage i may of done by not realising earlier
 
Thank you all so much for your replies. This forum is a god send it is going to be a lifeline for me.

I do believe that I will hopefully now become a health more active person,

I have ordered the book first year-type 2 diabetes by Gretchen Becker so will hopefully have a better understanding in the near future.

One more question do Type 2 have hypo's?
 
Sheilagh1958 said:
Thank you all so much for your replies. This forum is a god send it is going to be a lifeline for me.

I do believe that I will hopefully now become a health more active person,

I have ordered the book first year-type 2 diabetes by Gretchen Becker so will hopefully have a better understanding in the near future.

One more question do Type 2 have hypo's?
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Id say no but it is not impossible, there genrally more popular with certain pills your on..
You wont go far wrong with that book ive had it over a year now and still refer back to it constantly.
 
Shelia

You get used to it all, yes looking into a slightly different future than you envisaged last week, it's quite daunting thinking about fitting diabetic control into this... But it does and the better management you have, last weeks envisaged future can remain roughly the same, just with diabetes tagging along with you, yes there will be times when it feels you'll dragging it along with you kicking and screaming...

21 years ago I had the same daunting feelings I couldn't envisaged how I was going to fit it in and how would I see food etc.. All these years down the line, I can't remember what a none diabetic life was like... The life I lead now is so normal it's the none diabetics that are adnormal🙂 What eating a meal and not know what carb content is, that's wried really wried indeed..

In truth, when I hear that a cure is just around the corner, I'm filled with dread... As I'm so used to doing what I do, it's such a normal part of my life, I don't think I could cope now living a life without it, I be in a constant panic not knowing what my blood glucose was up to..
 
Sheilagh1958 said:
One more question do Type 2 have hypo's?
Click to expand...

Hello Sheilagh

Hypos are down to the medication rather than the condition so type 2s taking insulin are liable to to have hypos just as type 1's. The common oral medication that gives a significant hypo risk are Sulfonylureas (eg Glicazide). Most of the other types of oral meds don't have a significant hypo risk.
 
welcome to the forum ...I am so pleased you found us so quickly as i was a very lonely D for a year till i found this place x Moderation is the answer in my case and if you can get your team to let you have a testing meter you can pretty well work out the food to avoid ...personally i found out thro testing that all tho' i had a 'heathly' diet with lots of fruit and fruit juices... its one thing that makes my sugar go up up up :( so eat now in moderation ( i was a real fruit bat !).. try and cut out firstly all obvious refined sugar and switch from white bread, white rice (basmati is not so bad)... eat whole meal pasta ....whole meal wraps you will begin to get a picture ..good luck x
ps if you need chocolate go for a small amount of the darkest you can buy and savour the taste ...if you like peanut butter buy the whole earth one ...it has no added sugar x
 
I don't think that I've mentioned this yet (apologies if I have or someone else has!).

When I was diagnosed, I was able to attend a course run by the NHS called Diabetes X-Pert. It's a six week thing for one afternoon a week and it gave me a really good start in understanding what diabetes is and how I could control it. It also gave me the chance to ask questions in a nice relaxed atmosphere (a bit like here really!).

It would be well worth trying to get on one near you if one is available (ask your GP or Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) about it).

Andy 🙂
 
am64 said:
welcome to the forum ...I am so pleased you found us so quickly as i was a very lonely D for a year till i found this place x Moderation is the answer in my case and if you can get your team to let you have a testing meter you can pretty well work out the food to avoid ...personally i found out thro testing that all tho' i had a 'heathly' diet with lots of fruit and fruit juices... its one thing that makes my sugar go up up up :( so eat now in moderation ( i was a real fruit bat !).. try and cut out firstly all obvious refined sugar and switch from white bread, white rice (basmati is not so bad)... eat whole meal pasta ....whole meal wraps you will begin to get a picture ..good luck x
ps if you need chocolate go for a small amount of the darkest you can buy and savour the taste ...if you like peanut butter buy the whole earth one ...it has no added sugar x
Click to expand...


AM64 how did you know that Chocolate and Peanut Butter are my favourites 🙂. Going to try and avoid these for the next few month and introduce them when I get myself in a better place
 
Andy HB said:
I don't think that I've mentioned this yet (apologies if I have or someone else has!).

When I was diagnosed, I was able to attend a course run by the NHS called Diabetes X-Pert. It's a six week thing for one afternoon a week and it gave me a really good start in understanding what diabetes is and how I could control it. It also gave me the chance to ask questions in a nice relaxed atmosphere (a bit like here really!).

It would be well worth trying to get on one near you if one is available (ask your GP or Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) about it).

Andy 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks Andy I will make some enquiries. So glad I discovered this site so soon after being diagnosed its great just to be able to ask questions and know that people just like you are there to answer them
 
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