Hello from a Type 2 newbie

[SunnyTikka]

Hello everyone. I was diagnosed about six months ago after being pre-diabetic for about a year. I'm afraid I haven't really taken it seriously, because I felt fine! However, the last new weeks I have felt as if I have no energy and feel generally unwell. I was put onto Sukkarto slow release 500mg twice a day. Then after a month my doctor increased it to 1000 twice a day. I couldn't physically swallow the huge tablets so I asked them to change to 4 x 500 ones.
Since then it's all gone haywire. I have stomach pain, top of my stomach/under my ribcage. So I have gone down to 2 x 500 per day (halved the dose) and I can tolerate that. I have trouble remembering to take them which I know sounds ridiculous! But I have brain fog from other conditions and take thyroid meds, and three blood pressure meds.
I wasn't given a blood testing machine, should I have?
I am also needing dietary advice - I have had low fat and low salt and low sugar for many years. But I am lost over low sugar. I can't have sweetners/saccharin as I am allergic to it. So I have about 4 coffees a day with just the tip of a spoon of sugar. I know I have to stop that.
Thanks for having me and I am going to read all of the forum now!

 

[Leadinglights]

Hello everyone. I was diagnosed about six months ago after being pre-diabetic for about a year. I'm afraid I haven't really taken it seriously, because I felt fine! However, the last new weeks I have felt as if I have no energy and feel generally unwell. I was put onto Sukkarto slow release 500mg twice a day. Then after a month my doctor increased it to 1000 twice a day. I couldn't physically swallow the huge tablets so I asked them to change to 4 x 500 ones.
Since then it's all gone haywire. I have stomach pain, top of my stomach/under my ribcage. So I have gone down to 2 x 500 per day (halved the dose) and I can tolerate that. I have trouble remembering to take them which I know sounds ridiculous! But I have brain fog from other conditions and take thyroid meds, and three blood pressure meds.
I wasn't given a blood testing machine, should I have?
I am also needing dietary advice - I have had low fat and low salt and low sugar for many years. But I am lost over low sugar. I can't have sweetners/saccharin as I am allergic to it. So I have about 4 coffees a day with just the tip of a spoon of sugar. I know I have to stop that.
Thanks for having me and I am going to read all of the forum now!

Sorry you are having trouble with the metformin, some people do. One thing you can't do with slow release is to break them in half as that stops then being slow release. One thing it could be is that when the concentration on the tablets was changed they were a different brand and the coating or additives (bulking agents) are what may be upsetting you as from what you say you are allergic to a number of things. The product leaflet should say what other ingredients are in the pills so you could check if there is anything different.
It would not be usual for you to be prescribed a monitor if you are only on metformin, some people who do are lucky, so many people self fund.
As far as diet is concerned many find a low carbohydrate approach successful, you say low sugar but it is not just sugar but all carbohydrates convert to glucose so that is what you need to consider, fats and proteins do not. Have a look at this link for some good explanation and some menu plans which you may find suitable for your tastes. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
It is a low carb approach which is suggested as being no more than 130g carbs not just sugar per day it is not NO carbs so in the scheme of things the tip of a spoon of sugar is not a lot but still best to re-educate your taste not to have.

 

[SunnyTikka]

Thanks so much for your reply. I am going to buy a monitor, I did the same with a blood pressure one. I've looked at the site you mentioned and I have downloaded their app so let's see how we go from there. It's a challenge in the household at meal times since there are two omnivores, one vegan (due to severe lactose intolerance) and two vegetarians. Hopefully I will find something that suits everyone in their recipes!

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks so much for your reply. I am going to buy a monitor, I did the same with a blood pressure one. I've looked at the site you mentioned and I have downloaded their app so let's see how we go from there. It's a challenge in the household at meal times since there are two omnivores, one vegan (due to severe lactose intolerance) and two vegetarians. Hopefully I will find something that suits everyone in their recipes!

There are a few monitors which people find satisfactory that can be bought on line, cheaper than the pharmacy. The GlucoNavii, TEE2 and Contour Blue are ones with the cheaper test strips. You do not need to pay VAT.
It is more useful to have a good testing regime rather than random testing.
People test in the morning to keep a track on progress day to day, week to week etc but also before eating and after 2 hours to test if they have tolerated their meal OK, an increase of no more than 2-3mmol/l or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l after 2 hours are the aim, if more than that the meal is too carb heavy. the aim is 4-7 before meals and fasting/morning.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @SunnyTikka

Would something like a phone reminder work as a prompt to take your tabs? Or can they be taken at the same time as some of your other meds to group them all together a bit?

Some people find those weekly pill organisers helpful as you can see if the tabs are still there. I confess I write the days of the week on my packet inners so I can check if I’ve had today’s one.

Hope you find the BG meter helpful. It can be a really direct way of examining how you are reacting to your existing menu, and tweaking from there. In some ways to begin with the numbers themselves can almost be less informative than the differences between ‘before meal’ and ‘2hrs after the first bite’. Lots of T2s on the forum seem to aim for a ‘meal rise’ of 2-3mmol/L and reduce portion sizes of starchy carbs where they are seeing bigger differences.

 

[Drummer]

@SunnyTikka If the amount of sugar you are using in drinks is low, it is not going to be much benefit to stop it - go for easy targets like high carbohydrate veges, grain and fruits, don't limit nutritious essential foods such as protein and fat, and if you limit processed foods you might be low on salt - which can result in horrible cramps, particularly overnight.
A monitor will probably be very useful in indicating what you can eat, as keeping blood glucose low with diet alone is a good trick - I was so ill taking tablets and so I stopped, but found I did not need them to me at the top end of normal, which seems to be good enough.