Grateful for advice

[Anne14]

Hello

I was hoping to get some advice as it’s proving impossible to get an appointment with my doctor so i hoped to seek some guidance while i sit on hold on the phone.

I work for a public health company and i’m surrounded by health coaches all day. One of my new colleagues was learning how to use a glucose monitor and i offered to be the guinea pig to help her learn. I hadn’t eaten my breakfast yet and the reading came out at 6.8. I was to embarrassed to tell my colleagues and haven’t been able to get a doctors appointment yet as our area have huge capacity issues.

I do get mocked for how much i visit the toilet but equally i do drink more water than most people. I’m half a stone overweight and i have been a bit more tired lately but i’d our that down to exercising more (january resolution)

I was hoping to get some guidance on where a reading of 6.8 puts me? I know i need to make changes but truth be told i’ve been doing incredibly well for over a month now so hopefully i’ve already engrained some better habits.

Any thoughts / guidance would be gratefull received. xx

Ps.....although i work in public health i’m on the marketing side of things hence my poor knowledge and too embrassed to ask someone at work.

 

[Ralph-YK]

A reading of 6.8 isn't much of anything, particularly a one off of reading.
Might be worth taking a few readings though (before eating), at the same time of day; over several days. Just to see what your usual level is.

 

[Jodee]

for the HbA1C range image below may help.
Not to be confused with the finger prick test though.

One finger prick test may not be enough to indicate the true situation. When you get your appointment with your GP ask for the HbA1c test that will indicate an overall picture of your blood glucose levels during past 2-3 months. Frequent urination is a symptom of high blood glucose, so is tiredness. Mention these things to your doctor.

(For comparison I drink about 3 litres+ water each day but I am not urinating excessively)

 

[Northerner]

Hello

I was hoping to get some advice as it’s proving impossible to get an appointment with my doctor so i hoped to seek some guidance while i sit on hold on the phone.

I work for a public health company and i’m surrounded by health coaches all day. One of my new colleagues was learning how to use a glucose monitor and i offered to be the guinea pig to help her learn. I hadn’t eaten my breakfast yet and the reading came out at 6.8. I was to embarrassed to tell my colleagues and haven’t been able to get a doctors appointment yet as our area have huge capacity issues.

I do get mocked for how much i visit the toilet but equally i do drink more water than most people. I’m half a stone overweight and i have been a bit more tired lately but i’d our that down to exercising more (january resolution)

I was hoping to get some guidance on where a reading of 6.8 puts me? I know i need to make changes but truth be told i’ve been doing incredibly well for over a month now so hopefully i’ve already engrained some better habits.

Any thoughts / guidance would be gratefull received. xx

Ps.....although i work in public health i’m on the marketing side of things hence my poor knowledge and too embrassed to ask someone at work.

Hi Anne, welcome to the forum 🙂 As @Ralph-YK suggests, 6.8 is nothing to worry about particularly and it's difficult to deduce anything in the context of a single reading. A reading of 7.0 or above is perhaps where there might be a cause for concern - I believe you need two fasting levels of 7.0 or above, and possibly a Glucose Tolerance Test (done by a nurse/GP) for a diagnosis of diabetes to be reached. Your 6.8 is close though, and the symptoms you describe do suggest you may be at risk. Although you say you visit the toilet a lot due to drinking more, the actual 'drinking more' is a symptom! Before I was diagnosed I was drinking 40 pints of milk a week, although I suspect I was a lot further along than you are! 😱 🙂 Tiredness also is a 'tick'. The thing is that many of the symptoms of diabetes feed into each other and you find yourself explaining one away in the context of another i.e. thirst/peeing a lot, tiredness/exercising more. I think it would be worthwhile getting tested - your practice nurse ought to be able to do this if it's hard to get a doctor's appointment, plus a lot of pharmacies will now test you, so that is worth a try 🙂

Whatever the outcome, try not to worry! It's not a reason to feel embarrassed or ashamed - anyone can get diabetes, it's not always related to poor diet or lack of activity as usually represented in the media, and very rarely can it be said to be anyone's 'fault', unless they wilfully ignore the warning signs - there is also a strong genetic influence, so if you have any close family members with diabetes it does increase the chances.

The other thing to say is that, whether you get a diagnosis, or are even just given a 'pre-diabetes' diagnosis, it doesn't have to negatively impact your life or cause you any future problems. It just needs the right knowledge and some planning and commitment, and if you make the right adaptations then you will probably end up feeling healthier than many of your colleagues (true!) 🙂

For a little background, I would suggest reading Maggie Davey's letter, which will give you a good overview of what diabetes is all about and the type of things you would need to do 🙂

Please let us know how you get on, or if you have any other questions or concerns - nothing is considered 'silly', and we will be very happy to help 🙂

 

[Eddy Edson]

Hello

I was hoping to get some advice as it’s proving impossible to get an appointment with my doctor so i hoped to seek some guidance while i sit on hold on the phone.

I work for a public health company and i’m surrounded by health coaches all day. One of my new colleagues was learning how to use a glucose monitor and i offered to be the guinea pig to help her learn. I hadn’t eaten my breakfast yet and the reading came out at 6.8. I was to embarrassed to tell my colleagues and haven’t been able to get a doctors appointment yet as our area have huge capacity issues.

I do get mocked for how much i visit the toilet but equally i do drink more water than most people. I’m half a stone overweight and i have been a bit more tired lately but i’d our that down to exercising more (january resolution)

I was hoping to get some guidance on where a reading of 6.8 puts me? I know i need to make changes but truth be told i’ve been doing incredibly well for over a month now so hopefully i’ve already engrained some better habits.

Any thoughts / guidance would be gratefull received. xx

Ps.....although i work in public health i’m on the marketing side of things hence my poor knowledge and too embrassed to ask someone at work.

As Ralph says, can't really say much from an isolated read. Generally, if you were fasting (ie no food or drink except for water for ~8 hours) then 6.8 would be consistent with "pre diabetes" (<= 5.5 for "normal", > 7 for "diabetic") but it's an iffy kind of metric I think, and you would want to see that confirmed over a few different days. And most important, get an HbA1c test for a real diagnosis.

If you are "pre diabetic" it's not *that* big a deal - sod all excess complication risk and ample opportunity to tweak things back to "normal" - work out what you need to do about carbs etc. It's certainly not inevitable that you would progress to full-blown diabetes.

Anyway, good luck! And go see a doctor whenever you can.

 

[Anne14]

Hello all,

Thanks very much for your replies, they really helped put my mind at rest. I’ve been able to get an appointment for next week thankfully and in the meantime i’ll have a read of maggie davey’s letter and keep trying to ‘be good’ and kick that last half a stone i need to get my bmi to a better place.

Thanks all. Appreciate it

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello all,

Thanks very much for your replies, they really helped put my mind at rest. I’ve been able to get an appointment for next week thankfully and in the meantime i’ll have a read of maggie davey’s letter and keep trying to ‘be good’ and kick that last half a stone i need to get my bmi to a better place.

Thanks all. Appreciate it

That’s great to hear Anne. Hopefully a simple HbA1c will provide the information you need to work out what’s up, and in the meantime you’ve had some good suggestions as to steps you can take in the meantime to reduce your diabetes risk if it’s in the horizon.