Diagnosed this summer - Follow up bloods to be done end Sept

[RFS]

Hello
I presented to my docs in the middle of a busy tennis season (I am a tennis writer and so am away for huge portions of the year at the beck and call of media facilities.,.rarely healthy!) and also after a sudden bereavement.
My symptoms were excessive thirst and up two-hourly at its worst going to the loo in the night, pins and needles in my right hand and a sudden and excessive weight loss from almost 12st to down to 10st 8 in a matter of months.

The bloods came back with high fasting blood glucose (18.5)
hbA1c 111 (12.3%)
High cholesterol (6.6)
High blood pressure.

I invested in a Freestyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitor and watched with morbid fascination as those bowls of Bran flakes caused me to spike up in the teens! Because everything was high it was incredibly overwhelming... so my cousin suggested I try and fix one thing and let everything else stabilsise so I started changing from the high GI foods to the medium and lower ones.

I started in Metformin immiediate release, but moving up to two and three tablets a day caused the usual issues people have, so I pleaded with the doctor to put me on slow release, which he did but it can jam me solid, which can be troublesome. He reluctantly signed a certificate for me to have the Libre and spare sensors in my laptop bag as I was criss-crossing the US, indicating that now I was on metformin I didn't need to monitor my BG (what?!!!!) and talking about still more tablets. Just no. Surely the object is to take ownership and responsibility for making lifestyle changes to manage the condition?

Anyway... my next bloods are at the end of September and my BG is down from 17mmol to around 6-8 in a day. I take Metformin SR morning and night, I still have carbs and have just reduced portions, and exercise when I am home, and just have to accept that I can't control that when I head to Singapore and to cover the World Tour finals in the next couple of months.

My weight has stabilized so is now the platform for more gradual loss... I can still do to lose a few pounds but not as swiftly as it came down before. I can't be doing with people shoving LCHF or 16:8 at me. Neither are remotely manageable options when you work away as often as I do, or work the hours I do at a tournament, so regretfully I largely ignore those suggestions, and I drive another relative mad as he swears by walking every day (he is retired and can go for a mid morning walk with no issues) whereas I prefer to work with my physio as I have no cartilage left in my knees so my exercise is in the form of specific rehab at the gym (Cross trainer, curve treadmill, spin bike and swimming with a pull buoy for increased cardio).

I hope that with the BG apparently coming down according to the scanner, it will have brought down the cholesterol so we can do away with the prospect of statins, and that just leaves my BP which has largely come down from high to pre-high but is tantalizing close to normal...

My story in a nutshell!

 

[New-journey]

Thanks for sharing your story and welcome to the forum. You are doing incredibly well and getting great numbers now. I, though am type one, understand the challenges of working hard and being away, it is rather difficult! I wish you even more success in managing everything.

 

[Northerner]

Hi RFS, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis You sound as though you have made excellent progress though (in spite of the 'advice' being pushed at you, and the non-advice from your GP about not needing to test! How long had you experienced the symptoms for prior to your diagnosis? Something you may wish to bear in mind is the possibility that you may not be Type 2, but potentially a form of Type 1 known sometimes as LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adulthood). I only mention this because of your rapid weight loss and high fasting level and HbA1c at diagnosis. It's important that, even though you may be managing currently on the diet and medication you are on, if things continue to deteriorate then you need to ensure that you get a correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Many people have been misdiagnosed as Type 2 purely due to their age i.e. not children or teens - some healthcare professionals have the mistaken belief that if you are over 40 it must be Type 2. Just a consideration to bear in mind 🙂

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to help! 🙂

 

[RFS]

Hi RFS, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis You sound as though you have made excellent progress though (in spite of the 'advice' being pushed at you, and the non-advice from your GP about not needing to test! How long had you experienced the symptoms for prior to your diagnosis? Something you may wish to bear in mind is the possibility that you may not be Type 2, but potentially a form of Type 1 known sometimes as LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adulthood). I only mention this because of your rapid weight loss and high fasting level and HbA1c at diagnosis. It's important that, even though you may be managing currently on the diet and medication you are on, if things continue to deteriorate then you need to ensure that you get a correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Many people have been misdiagnosed as Type 2 purely due to their age i.e. not children or teens - some healthcare professionals have the mistaken belief that if you are over 40 it must be Type 2. Just a consideration to bear in mind 🙂

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to help! 🙂

Hi and thank you for the welcome - I specifically asked the Dr at the time of diagnosis whether I was/could be Type 1 because both my parents were diabetic - my father was on insulin, my mother on metformin. As luck would have it a Dr friend of mine was staying at my house during Wimbledon and the day after was the earliest I could come in to get the results (I think I had my bloods done after I got back from Roland Garros and before the start of the grass court season where I was away for the month). She agreed that the figures were high but that it was not likely to be T1... yet. But said the same - if it deteriorated still further then it would be a cause for concern.

I had joined MyFitnessPal and had lost weight well with calorie counting and then got my apparent dream job in sports writing, but the hours (sport is 24/7, 365) and the stress of working for a tennis site where the boss was a complete bell-end meant I stopped training altogther so obvs the weight went back up. Add to that the stress of my mother first having a stroke, then wanting to go to a residential home as she couldn't look after herself anymore, then another stroke, a broken hip, and eventually a diagnosis of dementia, most of 2015 was spent in high stress. I quit my job and developed my own sports site, sold a flat I was renting and paid off my mortgage so that I didn't have to work while I sorted mum out, and we got her into a great place. Then 6 days after I came back from the Aus Open, she died suddenly, so all my good intentions of heading to the gym more pretty much went out the window!

So I wasn't totally surprised that my blood pressure was high and I suspected I was probably pre-diabetic, so the diagnosis was a bit of a shock! Then again I had my bloods done in the middle of the period when I am away the most.
Stuttgart, 6 days home, Madrid & Rome back to back, 5 days at home, 1 week at the French Open, 2 weeks at home, 2 weeks away for Birmingham and Eastbourne and then home for Wimbledon but there from 8am to close to midnight most days.

Europe is THE WORST for media facilities and feeding and food available so... I am dreading that swing next year. But thankfully my weight loss has been the more gradual couple of pounds or so a week and I have really enjoyed being able to get back into the swing of the gym. I have to carve 2-3 hours (I even cycled to the gym the other day. GOD I used to do that ALL THE TIME when I was a kid!)...

 

[RFS]

Sorry my symptoms started in April in Stuttgart with the raging thirst about half way through the tournament. Shortly after came the needing the loo like every two hours. The pins and needles started in Madrid and I think I noticed I had dropped below 11st for the first time maybe before Stuttgart and then when I went for my initial appointment I had dropped to 10st 7ish... and that was the red flag to him to order up all the bloods.

 

[Northerner]

Sorry my symptoms started in April in Stuttgart with the raging thirst about half way through the tournament. Shortly after came the needing the loo like every two hours. The pins and needles started in Madrid and I think I noticed I had dropped below 11st for the first time maybe before Stuttgart and then when I went for my initial appointment I had dropped to 10st 7ish... and that was the red flag to him to order up all the bloods.

That's quite a short timeframe for such rapid weightloss and onset of symptoms. I'd also add that stress is thought to be factor in type 1, and you had been through a very stressful period. I also had a stressful year prior to diagnosis, with rapid weightloss. The thing that tipped it over the edge for me was that I contracted a virus which overwhelmed my pancreas and I ended up in A&E Still, you are aware of the possibility so can be on your guard 🙂

 

[RFS]

That's quite a short timeframe for such rapid weightloss and onset of symptoms. I'd also add that stress is thought to be factor in type 1, and you had been through a very stressful period. I also had a stressful year prior to diagnosis, with rapid weightloss. The thing that tipped it over the edge for me was that I contracted a virus which overwhelmed my pancreas and I ended up in A&E Still, you are aware of the possibility so can be on your guard 🙂

Exactly... I am a big believer (although perhaps not always practised in the past!) of forewarned is forearmed, and I am not afraid to admit here that after losing a lot of weight in 2012, and then adjusting to sports reporting, I got lazy. It is all too easy for me to get out of bed and spend hours updating the website... and then before you know it, it's dinny-time!

So now I freelance on a sports-desk when I am at home to bring in pennies (literally!) and sadly now mum's probate is finalised (this weekend as it happens) I can (a) stop running away from it as I did this year - again I freely admit I applied for loads more tournaments to avoid being home, not sleeping, reliving that damn 1am call to tell me she died) and (b) I now work until I can guarantee the biddies in Aqua-Zumba are out of the pool and that I can get into the spin studio to recreate the Couch-to-5K sessions I currently am building up to on a Curve treadmill (not motorised so you have to power it yourself... challenging.)

Obviously, the Libre just provides me with estimates, and can be as much as 2Mmol/L out from a finger prick... but even allowing for that drift, I was scanning at 15-17 to begin with... I am now down to probably 6-8 on average. Even if that is equating o 8-10 with the drift between blood and interstitial fluid.. that is better than the 17(19) I was scanning in July.

At this stage, I take any move DOWNWARD as a positive direction. But we will obviously know more when the follow-up bloods come in. I will adjust my sig and then... plan some more!

 

[Ditto]

Hello RFS, welcome to the forum 🙂

 

[Wirrallass]

A warm welcome to our elite supportive forum RFS ~ sorry that you've been dx {diagnosed} Wth respect you seem to want to go it alone but please still bear in mind the good advice @Northerner has given you. We will give you as much support and guidance that you need so do please stay in touch and update us as to your progress.
From a fellow Type2, dx April 2016
Diet control and exercise only

 

[RFS]

A warm welcome to our elite supportive forum RFS ~ sorry that you've been dx {diagnosed} Wth respect you seem to want to go it alone but please still bear in mind the good advice @Northerner has given you. We will give you as much support and guidance that you need so do please stay in touch and update us as to your progress.
From a fellow Type2, dx April 2016
Diet control and exercise only

Thank you for the welcome. I really don't feel I have dismissed anything that Northerner has said - in fact quite the opposite. I was made aware of the possibility of T1 instead of a misdiagnosed T2 when I first got the Libre, but on asking my Dr friend, she still maintained that if the second bloods 3 months on were as bad, or worse, and my weight dropped anymore, to then ask for the specific T1 test.

I only had the first set done in June/July of this year. The GP felt I had probably been diabetic for a while - just the stress of mum dying pulled it right to the fore. Since then everything has settled down so... as I said above, we will know more in October, ironically before I will blip again with 10 days in Singapore and then for the World Tour Finals with about a couple of months before the whole circus starts again in Australia.

Happy to update you with my progress when I have it, but when all said and done the only person who can make the changes necessary to deal with my condition and how I manage it with my job, is me. So getting to grips with how I dealt with that was the single most important thing. I personally feel I have done the best I can with that since diagnosis. Honestly... not sure what further support and guidance you feel I needed?

I certainly don't mean to be combative... so apologies to both you and Northerner if I have somehow misunderstood your messages.

 

[Northerner]

Nope - no worries 🙂

 

[Ljc]

Hi RFS, welcome. Don’t worry we won’t keep on at you about LCHFor any other type of diet for that matter. Though you will see us mention what diet we follow ourselves. Obviously if you ask for dietary advise will will give it.
You do what works for You .

I am glad that you are aware of the possibility you may not have T2. Ive seen far too many people being treated for far too long as T2 just because they were adult and or fat.

I absolutely adore my Libre , it’s improved my control no end. Personally if someone wanted to take it off me there’d be blood and it wouldn’t be
mine

 

[RFS]

I am glad that you are aware of the possibility you may not have T2. Ive seen far too many people being treated for far too long as T2 just because they were adult and or fat.

I absolutely adore my Libre , it’s improved my control no end. Personally if someone wanted to take it off me there’d be blood and it wouldn’t be
mine

LOL my cousin's husband suggested it to me and I got so miffed when I went to get the GP to sign a certificate I found so I could get around the US with two sensors in my laptop bag, he was all 'I have put you on Metformin slow release - you don't need that anymore - away with your technology'... uh huh, with respect doc, no. I think he thought I had it on loan, and not bought it and the sensors myself!

I guess they are used to seeing a lot of people who get their diagnosis, quite literally just take whatever tablets are given to them and that's the end of that!

In terms of diet - at home I am fine. It's when I am away the issues start. You can't guarantee when you can eat especially if you have put in for player interviews. Media centres differ wildly. So in Singapore, they supply fairly good food, free but it will be westernised quite heavily for international media and so while there is a lot of fish and chicken, there is also a lot of rice and noodles. They do have veg though and if it is the same caterers then that is manageable but in the early part of the tournament, the first match is 5pm so the working day will be 3pm to about 3am if it is anything like last year. In London the food was great last year, plenty of options including soup for lunch and decent options of food. In Singapore I am staying with friends so I can get supplies in for breakfast at the very least. London... it is hotel breakfasts but I found in the US a week of sausage/bacon and eggs was ok (better than pancake stacks!).

I am staying with friends again so I will go find a supermarket for greek yoghurt and honey and will take some crispy oat hearts and protein bars out with me like I did in the US, which were life-savers.

For me finally admitting my own complacency (admittedly with the good intentions of getting my mother sorted over the past two years until she passed away this year) was a big step. It was all too easy to get caught up in reinventing myself again and thinking that was more important. Of course, now I face yet another period of reinvention after the probate was finalised this weekend. As sad as it has been, it is time to move on and pick my life, and my business back up again. This... is a new challenge to all of that but at the last tournament in Cincy, my friends were all so interested in what the Libre was and I had one player look quizzically at the sensor peeking out from my t-shirt sleeve and as what it was and how it worked.