Diagnosed T2 one week ago

[Tinx]

Hello everyone

I am 63 and was diagnosed with diabetes a week ago. I’m guessing it’s Type 2 as nobody has said differently. Apparently the blood test flagged it up and a urine test for protein and ketones confirmed it. All I know is that I’d had months of an exceptionally dry mouth, plus other very uncomfortable symptoms. If I hadn’t reminded the GP that there was a family history of diabetes then I wonder if it would have been checked. The diabetes nurse rang and said my hba1c was 89 (which means diddly squat to me as I don’t know what it should be) and I was given a prescription for Metformin and some test strips to use after meals to check sugar levels. The first test I did showed a level of 55.5> and currently it’s come down to around 8.3 and 2.8 with the odd 1.1. I was having 1000 mg Metformin and have now started taking 2000 mg Metformin per day.

I know diabetes is serious and my brother had it, developed heart disease and died young. There are children in the family with Type 2 also. So I’ve been given a jolt! I’d already been working at losing weight but the side effects of the Metformin is making this hard as I keep feeling ravenous - especially after meals - and nauseous plus I’ve an ongoing headache. I guess this will wear off and I’ll get used to it.

I’ve had a little advice from other T2s regarding what I can and can’t eat and I’ve been cutting out sugar but I don’t know much else. I had a look at some recipes here but some seem to be very loaded with sugar so I’m confused as to whether I should or shouldn’t have it.

Sorry for going on but I feel like I’m wandering round in the dark with this. There aren’t any of the courses running apart from virtually and I’m waiting to hear. I wouldn’t mind knowing if I should limit just sugar or all carbs and by how much.

 

[Drummer]

Hello @Catlady. My Hba1c was 91 at diagnosis.
I had been eating a high carb low fat diet, to reduce cholesterol, but it was not working, so I returned to an Atkins type way of eating, 50 gm of carbs a day and that soon got things back to normal.
I was so very ill taking the tablets prescribed back at this time of year in 2016, and after realising that my mind was affected I stopped them - I did the Christmas shopping twice and could not remember so many things - I now realise.
At the first retest I was no longer diabetic and back to normal at 6 months, so I have declined any further medication for diabetes.
Basically, the 'safe' foods are meat, seafood, eggs, cheese, and full fat dairy.
I add foods which are 10 percent carbs or less, so salads, stir fries, casseroles and stews, I make curries - not with premade sauces, and I serve them on chopped steamed cauliflower.
I make cauliflower cheese with cauliflower, cheese, more cheese, and various herbs and spices.
There is no need to go hungry, just keep on eating protein and fat - eventually there is just not one thing more you could possibly eat and then the time between meals begins to lengthen.
These days I eat every 12 hours, sometimes I eat very little, but it seems fine.
The recipes on the site are not controlled by the forum, so we recommend testing blood glucose after meals and adjusting the carbohydrates according to the results.

 

[janw]

Hi and welcome
Just to add that f you are looking for good meals to cook, you could google keto recipes, they are low carb, and you will be quite surprised at what you can eat! There are alternatives to the high carbs - cauliflower rice instead of normal rice, courgetti instead of spaghetti, different types of baking from cakes to breads to pancakes....it's a whole new world out there to try whilst being healthier and losing any excess weight if needed. Please cut the carbs slowly to avoid feeling a bit under the weather and/or getting blurry vision - change the food or lower the portion size, bit by bit. 🙂

 

[Docb]

Hi @Catlady and welcome to the forum. A HbA1c of 89 is heading up into what I call the red zone, where some serious attention should be paid to getting it down. Without that, the risks of developing complications in the long term come into play, and those complications you could well do without. If you read around the forum you will find lots of members (including me) who with a bit of understanding and a bit of effort have come down to below diagnosis from those levels. You need to work out a plan which will suit you and we can help with that.

First off, I have a question. I don't understand the blood glucose readings you have given. Were these from a meter?

 

[Lucyr]

What are you you using to get these readings and have you been shown how to use it properly? No blood glucose meter would be capable of reading 55.5 and I’m not sure any could read as low as 1.1.

 

[Rocky dog]

Hello catlady good to hear from you. You have been given some very good advice in the other threads. When I first found out I was diabetic I knew I had to change my eating habits, I loved junk food. These days I only eat lean meat and fish with a good helping of vegetables. I cook all my meals, even though my wife is a chef. This is a good time to practice some new recipes but always check your blood sugar levels. Let me know your first new recipe. Regards John

 

[Windy]

Morning @Catlady Sorry to hear about your diagnosis of T2, it didn't come as a complete shock to me when I was diagnosed in October, but still a bit of a shock.
I'll try and explain what the numbers mean (hopefully someone else can correct me if I've got it wrong).
HbA1c is the number that the doctor would have used to diagnose you. It's a value which shows what your glucose levels were like for the last 3 months. So mine was 80mmol/mol, and for a non-diabetic person, it would be less than 47, and you'd be prediabetic if you were 42 or above.
There's a different reading that you can take yourself with a blood glucose monitor, by finger pricking (or I think, urinating on a test strip?). This gives you a reading in mmol/L, so a non-diabetic person's normal fasting level would be between 4 and 7, and if they ate a big cake, it might be a bit higher than that.
I've also gone for a low carb diet, so mostly excluded: bread, breakfast cereals, potatoes, biscuits, crisps, cakes, parnips, crackers etc. and replaced them with low carb alternatives like cauliflower mash, corgette spaghetti, or food like omelette, curry and roasted cauliflower/cauliflower rice and home made soup.
NHS guidance is to eat from the "eatwell guide" which has 1/3 of it's plate is carbs. However, this sends my blood glucose levels way upwards, so I'm aiming for a medium to low carb diet to keep my BS levels as low and steady as possible. I'm also hoping that I can lose weight, as I'm aware that me gaining weight has brought on my diabetes, and losing weight will help to control it better.
Best wishes, Sarah

 

[Leadinglights]

Hopefully the effects of the metformin will pass before too long, it is usual to build the dose up a bit more slowly than you have been told to help your body adjust.
As others have said making some adjustment to your diet will also be needed as the metformin doesn't act directly on food but enables your body to use the insulin it is producing more effectively to metabolise the glucose produced by the carbohydrates you eat. Reducing those in your diet to a level that you can tolerate will go a long way to bringing down your HbA1C.

 

[Felinia]

Hello and welcome Catlady
Excellent advice from Windy and others. We all felt pretty devastated when first diagnosed but have learned a new way of living.
I suggest you educate yourself by working through the Learning Zone (orange tab above) one module a day so you can take it all in. If Metformin does not settle down, I suggest you ask for the slow release version, which is kinder on the inner workings. The best way to take them is in the middle of a meal so they are surrounded by food in your tummy.
My next suggestion is to keep a food diary alongside your glucose monitoring, so you can see what foods spike your glucose level. There are free apps online and others. I use NutraCheck which is £7.99 a month, less than a cup of cafe coffee a week. It was the first thing I did on diagnosis.
The foods to cut down on are all carbs, not just sugar, and others have mentioned looking for alternatives. Everyone is different so it is trial and error what suits you best. I experimented between 50gm and 130gm a day, settling on 90gm. Some are very sensitive so go much lower, but it is suggested to be below 130gm.
I don't know how active you are, but exercise is also important. I went from nothing to 3 x Aquafit classes a week and that has worked wonders for my wellbeing and waistline! But even a short walk each day will help. My 80+ year old neighbour goes out for a cycle a couple of times a week, and an 80+ year old friend will do 25 lengths of her local pool twice a week as well. Age is no barrier and water supports all those creaking joints.
Now you are in the system you will be referred for annual eye and foot testing, plus regular blood tests including cholesterol, liver and kidney functions and your HbA1c. You will also have your weight and blood pressure checked. But with things as they are at present, it may take time, so best to help yourself as much as possible.
My forum name also refers cats, and I'm known locally as Catwoman! Best wishes

 

[Tinx]

Hi @Catlady and welcome to the forum. A HbA1c of 89 is heading up into what I call the red zone, where some serious attention should be paid to getting it down. Without that, the risks of developing complications in the long term come into play, and those complications you could well do without. If you read around the forum you will find lots of members (including me) who with a bit of understanding and a bit of effort have come down to below diagnosis from those levels. You need to work out a plan which will suit you and we can help with that.

First off, I have a question. I don't understand the blood glucose readings you have given. Were these from a meter?

Thank you for the reply Docb.

The test strips were to test the sugar in urine 2 hours after eating to see if there was too much sugar in the meal. Sorry the picture isn’t very clear but they measure Glucose mmol/L.

 

[Tinx]

What are you you using to get these readings and have you been shown how to use it properly? No blood glucose meter would be capable of reading 55.5 and I’m not sure any could read as low as 1.1.

Hi Lucy, I’ve posted a picture of what was prescribed. I don’t have a meter.
Thank you

 

[Tinx]

Hello catlady good to hear from you. You have been given some very good advice in the other threads. When I first found out I was diabetic I knew I had to change my eating habits, I loved junk food. These days I only eat lean meat and fish with a good helping of vegetables. I cook all my meals, even though my wife is a chef. This is a good time to practice some new recipes but always check your blood sugar levels. Let me know your first new recipe. Regards John

Thank you John. I’ll start experimenting once this awful nausea passes. I haven’t actually posted in any other threads as I’ve only just joined here but give me time.…. ;D

 

[grovesy]

Where in the world are you?
When people here refer to test strips , they mean the ones that test blood, not urine ones.

 

[Leadinglights]

Where in the world are you?
When people here refer to test strips , they mean the ones that test blood, not urine ones.

When I did a MYDESMOND face to face course several years ago they handed out a pot of urine test strips to everybody and told people to check using those, needless to say I bought a blood glucose monitor.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

When I did a MYDESMOND face to face course several years ago they handed out a pot of urine test strips to everybody and told people to check using those, needless to say I bought a blood glucose monitor.

How odd. I wonder if (for T2 who don't qualify for blood testing) there's evidence that urine testing is helpful?

 

[Leadinglights]

How odd. I wonder if (for T2 who don't qualify for blood testing) there's evidence that urine testing is helpful?

I suppose it is useful as an initial test if people present with symptoms of diabetes and would indicate pretty high blood glucose levels if glucose was also present in a urine sample. If not present, it would not exclude diabetes especially if there were symptoms evident.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I suppose it is useful as an initial test if people present with symptoms of diabetes and would indicate pretty high blood glucose levels if glucose was also present in a urine sample. If not present, it would not exclude diabetes especially if there were symptoms evident.

Yes, as a one-off test it makes sense: sugar in the urine is a bad sign.

I'm less sure about continued use, but maybe it's useful then as it could show when you're going really too high even if it doesn't really help when you're a bit too high. I presume the DESMOND people will have looked at the evidence and decided that it is (or was) worthwhile.

 

[Docb]

Thank you for the reply Docb.

The test strips were to test the sugar in urine 2 hours after eating to see if there was too much sugar in the meal. Sorry the picture isn’t very clear but they measure Glucose mmol/L.
View attachment 19442

Ah, thought it might be something like that.

They are something rarely mentioned on the forum because as a general thing, nobody uses them! This lack of general experience makes it hard to make sensible comments on the number you have found. In any case, as far as I know, they tell you how much sugar is in your urine, not in your bloodstream and again from my limited knowledge you will get glucose in your urine when the glucose level on your blood is much higher than desirable and the kidneys have started start to work overtime to try and get rid of it. I have no real idea if you can relate the two but I doubt you can.

When most of us talk about glucose readings we are talking about glucose in the blood. This is obtained by pricking your finger with a lancet and transferring a drop of blood onto a test strip which has been inserted into a reader. This gives you a direct reading of blood glucose and is far, far better when it comes to checking the effect of food stuffs on blood glucose as well as giving you a general idea about whether your blood glucose is high. So, with an HbA1c of 89 you would expect to see readings on a blood glucose meter in the teens; highish teens after you have eaten and lowish teens a couple of hours after. Thats where mine were. These days they are in the range 5 to 10 and mostly nearer 5 than 10 and my HbA1c is around 40.

Did you get the test strips from your GP? If so you might try and talk him/her into giving you a proper test meter. They are not obliged to, but some see the sense in prescribing one.

Takes time to get a proper perspective on things and I hope that helps with getting your head round the numbers and what they mean. Take it a step at a time and just keep on asking questions.

 

[Tinx]

Morning @Catlady Sorry to hear about your diagnosis of T2, it didn't come as a complete shock to me when I was diagnosed in October, but still a bit of a shock.
I'll try and explain what the numbers mean (hopefully someone else can correct me if I've got it wrong).
HbA1c is the number that the doctor would have used to diagnose you. It's a value which shows what your glucose levels were like for the last 3 months. So mine was 80mmol/mol, and for a non-diabetic person, it would be less than 47, and you'd be prediabetic if you were 42 or above.
There's a different reading that you can take yourself with a blood glucose monitor, by finger pricking (or I think, urinating on a test strip?). This gives you a reading in mmol/L, so a non-diabetic person's normal fasting level would be between 4 and 7, and if they ate a big cake, it might be a bit higher than that.
I've also gone for a low carb diet, so mostly excluded: bread, breakfast cereals, potatoes, biscuits, crisps, cakes, parnips, crackers etc. and replaced them with low carb alternatives like cauliflower mash, corgette spaghetti, or food like omelette, curry and roasted cauliflower/cauliflower rice and home made soup.
NHS guidance is to eat from the "eatwell guide" which has 1/3 of it's plate is carbs. However, this sends my blood glucose levels way upwards, so I'm aiming for a medium to low carb diet to keep my BS levels as low and steady as possible. I'm also hoping that I can lose weight, as I'm aware that me gaining weight has brought on my diabetes, and losing weight will help to control it better.
Best wishes, Sarah

Thank you, Sarah.

It is the urine test strips I’m using (picture posted) but not for fasting as nurse said to use them two hours after eating. I’m also working on the weight loss as I was doing before diagnosis so I think I wasn’t expecting to find I am diabetic.

Have you done the course? Was it helpful?

 

[Tinx]

Where in the world are you?
When people here refer to test strips , they mean the ones that test blood, not urine ones.

I’m in the UK and these are strips to test sugar in the urine as prescribed by the diabetes nurse.