Hello Everyone, newbie here!

[LucyLoo]

It is not always what you eat it is sometimes how much of what you eat of it .We can all be different how various foods affect our blood sugars. Some on here can tolerate porridge and for others it causes spikes.
I have found having been over 12 years Diabetic, you have to find what works for you and what you can stick too long term.

That's really the reason why I wanted to be able to monitor myself, so that I can look at my food diary and see what causes highs and alter my diet to suit what keeps my sugars steady. I will look into the kits to buy myself 🙂

 

[LucyLoo]

Just had a look and if they are using the percentage version, 16% would be 151 mmol and 11 would be 96 mmol. So its going in the right direction.

Brill, thanks again stitch 🙂

 

[LucyLoo]

Hi Lucyloo I am recently diagnosed too, only last month in fact. I have found that a low carb diet is working well. Get yourself the Codefree meter pack from Amazon cost £12.99 and you can start testing yourself at home easily. If you test a couple of hours after a meal you can tell if what you have eaten has had a bad effect or not on your blood sugar.

It definitely seems to be working for me too, I have lost a lot of weight already and in myself, I feel so much better than I did before......I didn't realise how sluggish I actually felt before until now when I feel loads better after just a few quite small changes 😎

 

[Northerner]

It definitely seems to be working for me too, I have lost a lot of weight already and in myself, I feel so much better than I did before......I didn't realise how sluggish I actually felt before until now when I feel loads better after just a few quite small changes 😎

It really can be quite startling the improvements you feel - I think you get so used to feeling under par that it comes as a real contrast 🙂 Long may it continue! 🙂

 

[Martin Canty]

I think I will take my information from here rather than the docs

Hi LucyLoo, welcome to the forum....

It does appear to be a repeating theme re the standard of advice, however, as you learn about this disease you will be able to ask better questions to your healthcare team (and with any luck get better responses)... Be your own advocate.

There is an awful lot to take in, so take it slow & ask the forum for clarification and advice. We will freely give it without bias or judgement. One of the first things to note is that you may become depressed at not being able to handle it all, this is common, again ask; we will help.

First thing to do is cut the carbs (by carbs it's all forms of carbohydrate, not just sugars) & test regularly (HbA1c is a 3 month average, finger prick test is a spot check), without the spot checks it's difficult to see how you are managing the disease day by day, meal by meal.

Best of luck

 

[Alan.tnh]

Hi Lucyloo, (great name) welcome, Your already getting great advice here, but if I can just re-enforce the test-review-adjust method of looking after yourself. you will be amazed how quickly you can get control of things. It has made a huge difference to me in 3 months. Good luck with all. Al

 

[LucyLoo]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and already great advice 🙂

Can I start by asking where is the best place to get a home monitor from? I'm on a very tight budget at the moment (I don't want to go into detail here but the financial situation at the moment is pretty diabolical) so when I say tight budget, I really do mean tight. So whilst I know that £15 - £20 for a machine and strips doesn't seem much, to me at the moment that's the amount I need to feed myself for a week.....so it's a choice between that or food. Oh and that isn't a sob story (it's a whole other story and it's not for here 😳).....and I'm not looking for any sympathy.....I'm just being honest and trying to be realistic

 

[Alan.tnh]

Hi Again lucyloo, have you really tried to explain to your dr that a bg monitor would help you make important decisions regarding your health and wellbeing, and that you are serious about taking control of your situation. If so, and they saying no, its such a hard place to be, but you cannot leave yourself without food.
I would try dr again first.
Hope this helps, Al

 

[grovesy]

The machine on Amazon is the cheapest around I am afraid.

 

[LucyLoo]

I will ask at the doctors again when I am next due to see them but will keep looking around in the meantime, I hadn't looked at amazon so I will head over there now and see what I can find!