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Given warning yesterday

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Tirnanog

Tirnanog

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I saw the Dr yesterday and I am on the cusp of becoming a diabetic my blood glucose reading was 43 Inhave to get it down by the end of April.
 
A good start would be to tot up the amount of carbohydrate you eat each day, as for most type twos it is an inability to deal with the sugar and starch in their diet.
 
Hello @Tirnanog, welcome to the forum.
You are only just in the pre-diabetic range, so hopefully you won't need to change things very much to keep your doctor happy.
Have you been given any advice on what to do?
Usually it is a combination of changes to what you eat, and if you can some increase in the amount of exercise that you do that will help as well.

If you have a look at useful-links-for-people-new-to-diabetes there is some information on ways to approach this.
Please have a look around the forum and ask about whatever you would like to know more about. There are many years of experience on the forum.
 
hi and welcome @Tirnanog. You sound like i was last year, I did extremely well initially just cutting out all obvious sugars. Both my Dr and I were very encouraged and was given a further 6 months to see if i could improve things further with diet. I was doing ok until Xmas arrived and 2 weeks on eating what i wasn't suppose to pushed me back into that diabetic bracket. But she realises i acknowledge this mistake and again im on a 3 month trial. I have made further cuts to carb (I only eat veg that goes above the ground, as I feel they are less in carbs than the others) I keep all carbs such as pasta, bread rice etc (regardless of white or brown) to a minimum, and i have reduce my portion size (now eating off a side plate - this sound drastic but side plates these days are the same size as a main dinner plate back in the day). Hopefully with these tweaks im hoping for a good result, fingers crossed. You will see many and varied topics on here, all of which im sure you will find informative and interesting, We are glad you joined, and if you have any questions, just post them up and someone will be along to give you nuggets of wisdom. Good luck
 
Thank you all for your encouragement. In 2014 my BG was 52 and I got my BG down to 3.6mmol and it stayed there. I am nearly 80 and disabled I cannot walk far and in 2019 my husband died after a six week illness. I suppose I just thought why bother hence this weeks news which did not surprise me. ( I really don’t understand these figures and I am more comfortable with %)

Tirnanog
 
Tirnanog said:
Thank you all for your encouragement. In 2014 my BG was 52 and I got my BG down to 3.6mmol and it stayed there. I am nearly 80 and disabled I cannot walk far and in 2019 my husband died after a six week illness. I suppose I just thought why bother hence this weeks news which did not surprise me. ( I really don’t understand these figures and I am more comfortable with %)

Tirnanog
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum @Tirnanog

So sorry to hear about your husband. My wife died in 2018 after an illness lasting 6 months, so you have my heartfelt sympathies and understanding.

The 3.6 mmol/L figure is just a spot check ‘moment in time’ and slightly below what one would normally expect in a person without diabetes, but it is likely that your body released some stored glucose, or your BG reading rose after you next ate. People’s blood glucose concentrations rise and fall during the day, the most significant factors affecting BG being food eaten (carbohydrate or sugars in particular) and level of activity.

The 52 you mention is the new international standard way of expressing ‘HbA1c’ which is a measure of how much glucose has stuck to red blood cells over the last 120 days, and a proxy for average blood glucose values.

48 is something of a threshold value, so at 52mmol/mol you are only a little over. In the old (%) way of reporting 52 is equivalent to 7%

Hope you find useful support and friendship among our lively and caring community.
 
Mike - Thank you so much I am now on a low carb diet so hopefully my BG will come down but as this is the second incident I must stay on a diabetic diet for life and for my safety. I am learning a lot just reading through all the messages and all the kindness has helped a great deal - I felt very much alone yesterday and missing my husband.
Tirnanog
 
Hello again @Tirnanog
Good to hear that you found the forum helpful at such a difficult time for you.
I hope that you find low carb dieting enjoyable, and there are plenty of ideas on what to eat if you have a browse around the forum
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/forums/food-carb-queries-recipes. Is a good place to look.
I hope that eventually following the diet will help you feel better as well, it certainly does for me.
 
Hi again @Tirnanog you are doing brilliantly, its a lot to take in for anyone. And dont forget this forum isnt just about diabetes, maybe i will see you over on the Entertainments, jokes, quizzes... board, doing the 'song title' thread? 😉
 
Thank you all just one more question. Dr wants to check HbA1c end of April then yearly, which means I have no clue as to what is going on. Because I am not Fully type 2 diabetic I have no means of knowing what my blood glucose is doing. Please advice
Many thanks to you all - like many of you I am struggling to find a good diabetic yogurt!!!!
 
Maybe those of you like me who are pre- diabetic have found a more accurate way and can advice me
Thanks again
Tirnanog
 
Hello @Tiranog

A glucose monitor is a way to find this out, by testing before and 2 hours after eating. (The aim is to have a rise of 2 or less) Also if you can keep a tally of the total number of carbs eaten in a day, your morning reading will guide you on working out how you are progressing overall.

One of the most affordable meters is the SD Gluco Navii which has test strips at around £8 for 50
There is more information on these links:
https://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
how to do a figure prick test
 
As for yoghurt I tend to go for Yeo Valley Greek (style) plain. Full fat.
 
Hi again @Tirnanog - I am in absolutely the same position, although my initial HbA1c level was 51 the Dr 'said' i was diabetic, but because i have not been put on 'the register' e.g. have to go attend any courses or given instruction to see a diabetic nurse, no medication etc, I have been left to my own devises, pretty much since last April. I was re-tested after 3 months and levels went down to 47, same course of action but given extended 6 months. Again left on my own. Of course Xmas came and i got sloppy (thinking that slice of Mississippi mud pie and those chocolates, mince pies, as well as all the over eating one does at this time wont be 'too' bad? - I was wrong, it had a detrimental effect and pushed me back up to the threshold and at 48 technically, i suppose im 'diabetic' again (i will always be so, i realise this now) - Again the Dr realised it was a stupid mistake i made and gave me a further 3 months (im due a re-test in April) BUT i have had to do it all myself, I joined here, read what others suggested/did and adopted at lot of the things ive read on here for myself along with a dose of common sense and of course a renewed determination. Heres what I do ..... I try to eat a light breakfast, usually 1 toast, with either tin sardine, mackerel, or peanut butter, marmite, or cream cheese sometimes i have porridge, (3 dry tbs) with soy/almond milk, occasionaly i have weetabix (2 bisc)..... Lunch is often extremely low carb (i say its not totally carb free because veg has an element of carbs to them) so a salad which consists of leaves, a dollop of coleslaw, maybe some olives and olive oil, cucumber, spring onion and some form of protein such as cottage cheese, fish or chicken,ham. If i get peckish before dinner i keep boiled eggs in the fridge for this and sugar free jelly (ramekin size). Dinner is very varied meat,fish etc dishes (all home cooked) and i have one potato or 5 chips. Anything with rice or noodle is not bigger than a ladle full (I used to have 3 !!) my dinners are packed with veg (which grows above ground, less carbs to my mind than the below ground varieties) Midnight munchies consist of celery stick with cream cheese, maybe 3 small crackers loaded with pate, cottage cheese,handful mixed unsalted nuts and seeds. Ive lost over half a stone in 3 weeks and feel good. But im still in the dark, i dont know if im doing the right thing for me. I bit the bullet and got myself a home testing kit, it arrived today and i took my 1ft fasting reading (5.2) after 1 br toast and tinned mackerel it rose after 1 hr to 7.1 and after 2 hours 7.8, im hoping this is its peak!!! Im off to have my lunch now and will do my experiments for the next 2-3 weeks to see what is suiting me and what isnt. I know foodstuffs suit one person and not another, its the 'individual' nature of the beast that make diabetes difficult to handle at first, I would say a monitor is a must. I do so wish you will please let us know how you are getting on. I well sign off from this sonnet now LOL thanks for listening. 🙄
 
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I can’t believe how kind everyone has been in replying to me. My first episode with pre- D was in 2014 and I got down to 3.6 on my own in 6 mths. No help from Dr at all Except he told me I had metabolic syndrome. I eventually had a heart attack and double bypass surgery the wires ate my sternum away and I was in hospital for 6 mths. I came out having had plastic surgery to close my chest by a and muscle flap. I can not be resuscitated now 12 mths later my husband died with cancer in 6 weeks. I have been on a fast learning curve taking over the finances etc and now I have to learn how to cope with this and I will. I am disabled and housebound but have good friends. I tried a bereavement web site but no help at all that is why I am surprised by your response. Toucan Colin and tee G I will follow up what you have recommended
Thank you all
Tirnanog
 
aww you have been through the mill havent you, well you are an inspiration, you have coped with so much, I too have had some awful tragedies in my recent past, it was the reason for my initial visit to the Dr, and i NEVER expected to be told i was diabetic!! But i try to look forward. Hard, but we have to. Im glad you have some people around you to assist. All the best and let us know how its going.
 
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