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Hello I am New hear.

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Babz

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hello I am New hear. After being conned into giving blood tests and was not told what they were for,and was also told that they would be checked again 2 weeks later I was told by letter before the second set of bloods were done that i was pre Diabetic and it was the senior Nurse who wrote the letter and did not talk to the GP back in November 2019. I was heavily pressured by the GP Practice to go on a pre Diabetic course. I have many long term conditions and this so called prediabetic condition just adds more mental stress to my already bad situation. I tried to get answers from the GP but they were very avasive like poloticians they never answer the question. In April on my last GP appointment i asked her an updated result of the Prediabetic situation as i had just had the same bloods taken as November. And she refused saying we only check them every 6 months. What can i do. My life is bad enough as it is
 
Welcome to the forum @Babz

Sorry to hear you have been feeling pressured and conned. It’s important to have as positive a relationship with your GP, nurse and surgery as you can, and it feels like you may need to have a conversation with them to let them know how you have been feeling. I am sure they wouldn’t want you to feel this way.

’Prediabetes’ is just a shorthand way of saying ‘at risk of developing diabetes’ or ‘your metabolism is struggling a bit’.

I think you could treat this as a very helpful prompt to make some sustainable changes now, that will help your body cope better with food, and prevent you tipping over into full-blown diabetes. Progression to diabetes is not inevitable, and if you make changes now, you could dodge this potential diagnosis.

Im not sure what the course you mention would consist of, but we have had several members join on your position who have been able to make changes to their diet that have really turned things around and have put them back in the ‘normal’ range.

In general ‘prediabetes’ means that you are eating more carbohydrate than your metabolism can cope with. You may be carrying extra weight, including weight around the middle, and ‘visceral fat’ around the organs - all of which impairs your ability to use insulin efficiently. So reducing carbohydrate in your diet is a simple and very positive change you can make. How much you need to reduce it is very individual, and the best way to know for sure is to get hold of a BG meter so that you can check before and after meals.

To start with, keeping a food diary can be very helpful. Be ruthlessly honest. Take a look at what you *actually* eat, rather than to what you think you eat. Total up the amount of carbohydrate. Not just sugar, but all carbohydrates (it all turns to glucose in the bloodstream).

Swap your snacks (if you eat any). Experiment with halving carb portions, adding more protein, leafy veg and good fats to help keep you feeling full.

And let us know how you are getting on 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum @Babz

Sorry to hear about the difficulties that you have had. I would not worry that it is the nurses that are contacting you about the possibility of Diabetes rather than the GP. In many Practices it is the nurses that provide virtually all the help and care. I certainly would not discuss my Diabetes with my GO as he knows a lot less than the nurses about it.

In many ways the identification of ‘prediabetes’ can be helpful as it is an early warning sign that Diabetes is on its way if nothing changes. If you are being offered a course that could be very helpful and I know that a number of people on here have managed to prevent their diabetes developing when caught early. They have made changes to their diet in the amounts of carbohydrates that they were eating and so have taken the pressure off their body to deal with so much glucose in their blood.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Thank you to everyone who replied I have been running a food Diary for near on 10 years and from where i started to now is very very different I do have a higher protein v carbs diet i also have a step/ excersize diary as well, but i am plagued with problems I have diverituclar Disease of all the Colon with frequent bouts of Diverticulitis Nasty. I have a B12 condition and have jabs every 10 weeks now The problems in between the jabs are many Nerve Damage, In Neck,Fingers, Feet and arms as well as being severely irratble on top of that i have nerve damage in the Gums on the left side of my upper mouth as well as having Scleritis of the Eyes and arthritis in many areas of my body including my Jaw. I have just recovered from 5 UTI's in a row. My Hormones are an issue now they are not as they should be which probably why i cannot loose weight So you might now see why i am feeling it difficult to cope with NO support from my Gp Practice. Because of Covid 19 i have had 4 refferals put on the back burner for the forseable future . I am sorry this might seem like a rant but it is really that bad i am 65 and some days i do not have the will to carry on. What i need from the medical people is the Truth, Because there were many people started the diabetes course with the same figures with no explanation at all out of 21 people there is only 7 people doing it now. The course is c**p. I have made lots of changes to my food Diary. I want new results to see where i am heading otherwise there is no point. Thank You to everyone Babs
 
Hello and welcome to the forum @Babz 🙂
 
Hi @Babz, no need to apologise for the ”rant” sometimes that helps and even if not it does give some context. Given everything you have to consider it is understandable you are cheesed off! It certainly would be helpful for you to see what your levels are like now and see how you are doing, its very hard to know what to stick at if you have no idea if it is helping, have they been able to give you an idea of whether you will have to wait long for another test?
 
Hi Lucy DUk. Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately not I have asked and it was not forthcoming that is why i smell a rat. My GP practice is riddled with problems. The management is very very poorThey wont even discuss with me how they got the reults from my blood tests.They are bordering on the lines of legal action because of some of the problems i have ended up with in the last 8 years. Neglect, Medical Abuse, and so forth. So now i do not know where to get help. Any Ideas. Barbara
 
Hi Lucy DUk. Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately not I have asked and it was not forthcoming that is why i smell a rat. My GP practice is riddled with problems. The management is very very poorThey wont even discuss with me how they got the reults from my blood tests.They are bordering on the lines of legal action because of some of the problems i have ended up with in the last 8 years. Neglect, Medical Abuse, and so forth. So now i do not know where to get help. Any Ideas. Barbara
I can certainly see why you might be put off wanting to ask, though if like like you say things are a bit disorganised then they may well need the prompting. In terms of where to get help, your local PALS office can liaise with you and them to try and resolve any issues that exist, you can find your local office via the link below;
Or if there are any other practices in a reasonable distance for you then perhaps a change of GP is an option?
 
Hi Babz, Welcome to the forum.

You mention eating more Protein vs Carbs than you used to, do you still eat wheat? I have read quite a lot of research that wheat may be a factor which makes Diverticulitis, IBS and Chron's disease worse and can even be causing low level ill health in people who think they are basically healthy. so Low Carb would seem a good dietary option for you.

Personally I found that going back to a more traditional (great grandparents) type of eating was good for my T2D and also made me drop 23lbs without any calorie cutting, or extra exercise. So I would encourage you not to fear natural dietary fat in such things as Meat, Fish, Olives, Nuts, Eggs and Cheese. It is Carbs that make us more hungry, spike our Blood Glucose and increase our Insulin - which then stores any excess of then as body fat. So it is carbs that make us fat rather than dietary fat.
 
Hi Everyone have not been on here for a while.After a lot of rangling with my GP and a refferal to the endocrinogist for lots of reasons and i sent a very stern letter to the Complaints department regarding my last appointment. Because ihad discovered that both the GP and the hospital had not followed NHS guidlines and my health has suffered. Anyway after the telephone appointment i was asked to get a blood test andthe results were not surprising. But one bonus came out of it is i am now out of the type 2 prediabetic range which is now 41 and the only thing i have not made many changes but i ams eating wholemeal bread instead of white bread it is great news Thank you for your support and i will still come on the forum. Barbara
 
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