Hello Everyone

[Bonus]

Hello everyone

I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in September of last year after a short stay in hospital where I was very ill... I don’t feel I know very much about diabetes and don’t feel I’m getting very much support from either my GP or diabetic nurse...

I’m going to the UK Diabetic open day in Dunfermline on Tuesday where I’m sure I’ll get a lot more information... feel lucky this event has come up, just on my door step.

I found out about this group through requesting the “100 things I wish I’d known about living with diabetes” book from Diabetes UK...so I’m hoping I could find out some things on diabetes through reading the forum and asking some questions.


Cheers
Brian

 

[grovesy]

Welcome.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Brian, welcome to the forum 🙂 I hope you come back from the open day feeling much better informed! 🙂 The stuff given out by healthcare professionals can be really patchy - occasionally very good, but often non-existent or very poor.

Are you on any medication for your diabetes? How have things been going for you? I would recommend having a read of Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter - these might help you to understand things a bit better, and maybe prompt some questions for the people on Tuesday. I'd also recommend getting a copy of Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker, which has helped a lot of our members get to grips with things 🙂

Please let us know how things go on Tuesday - feedback about what you thought about the event is always helpful - and do please let us know if you have any questions 🙂

 

[Bonus]

Hi Northerner, I’m taking 320mg of Gliclazide and 100mg of Sitagliptin per day... I only started taking Sitagliptin at end of February this year..because I had trouble keeping my blood glucose readings below 12..first of me knowing about this was when my GP phoned me back in December that my readings weren’t that good when I had had a blood sample taken on 4/12/15....it took until 24th February 2016 before I got an appointment to see a diabetic nurse who prescribed sitagliptin...since then my readings have came down substantially, and not been above 10 since, and lowest 4.1..... that’s nearly 12 weeks before being prescribed some tablets that have been found to be very helpful for me... I do think that’s a bit long, and not very good support... It’s evident to me my GP doesn’t know much about diabetes or prescribing the medicine for it anyway and wants to delegate this to a specialist nurse... All I’ve had in terms of information is a few leaflets when leaving the hospital and being told not to drink sugary drinks, and eat chocolate etc... I had the eye screening test and they found problems with my eyes and I’ve had a course of laser eye treatment... but that’s about it... I’ve tried to make explaining my health brief, but the truth is I could go on for a fortnight as I’m falling to bits lol

Thanks for giving me some recommended books..I’ll look into them, as I say, I’m looking forward to meeting other diabetics on Tuesday experiencing the same and finding out more information.. 🙂

 

[Northerner]

That is pretty poor I'm afraid it's often the case that GPs have even less knowledge than their nurse, and the nurse her/himself might have only had a short training course. For a condition that is so commonplace you would think that they would all be really switched on to it, but sadly not. Sorry to hear about the problems with your eyes, I hope that with the new medication things will start to get better for you from now on 🙂

 

[Stitch147]

Hi Brian and welcome to the forum. This place is great for help and advice.

 

[Amigo]

Welcome Brian and glad to have you join us. It sounds like your medical support has been quite inadequate so I hope the attendance at the Diabetic Open Day on Tuesday really helps you.

You'll get there with a little help from your friends...and you'll find lots of friendly advice on here.

Amigo 🙂

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome from a fellow T2 who's 17 months in.

 

[Bonus]

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome 🙂