Hello, new here ....

[Calf00]

Hi everyone

It’s good to be here with you all.

I’m 6 months in as a newbie Type 2 diabetic. I’ve lost 2 stone since October. I’ve been on Metformin, Slow Release Metformin &, since Christmas Eve, Alogliptin. Since Alogliptin I’ve had awful Thrush on & off. I’m scheduled to meet with a Diabetic Nurse end March. This will be my second DN appointment. I’m told by my GP surgery and my DN that with Type 2 Diabetes nothing happens quickly & that everything happens in 3 month blocks ..... nothing sooner than that.
I test myself with Diastix & I’m currently testing at 1/2% glucose in my urine (as opposed to +2% glucose at Christmas). I feel AWFUL but I am told that nothing happens quickly with Type 2 & that since I’ve changed from Metformin, to slow release Metformin & then Alogliptin I have to wait these things out.

I’ve been on a First Steps half day course and am waiting for a 6 week Epert Diabetes class to become available.

Can you help me please with how many carbs a day I should be having (I’m currently nearly 60 and I am 5’2” and am 9 stone - I was 11 stone but I’ve recently lost a lot of weight). I’m so tired. I’m trying as best I can to eat well but I’m struggling without much support. The thrush is awful. GP keeps prescribing Canestan.

Thank you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Calf00

Was your weight loss intentional or did it just happen?

Diastix can give you a vague indication of what your BG was like several hours ago, but only that your levels are above the ‘renal threshold’ where the kidneys try to flush out excess glucose by making you wee more (generally around 10mmol/L)

So if you are still testing positive for glucose in urine, it seems likely that you are running in double figures a lot of the time - which probably explains why you are feeling grim.

It may well be more helpful to get hold of an affordable BG meter. One of the most affordable meters members here have found is from SD, and has been recently updated to the SD Gluco Navii which has test strips at around £8 for 50. Caresens also provide meters with fairly affordable strips (which is where the cost really lies).

What changes have you been making to your diet? While there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will be wanting to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

Using a BG meter before and after meals can allow you to adjust your menu to suit both your tastes and your BG. The tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to food are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which forms and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself, so without ‘eating to your meter’ you might end up denying yourself foods which you wou,d be fine with, or relying on foods which don’t suit your particular metabolism and gut biome at all!

Good luck and let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Tee G]

Hi and Welcome @Calf00. Sorry to hear you are suffering with thrush - nasty business isnt it. I know some medications & antibiotics can encourage it.... I remember years ago a bout of it got me and after repeated visits to the Dr - from creams, potions and pills - nothing helped and she said, in exasperation "there's nothing more i can give you... but advice = eat live greek yogurt, as much as you can stand. Make sure its live though. Make sure not to wear tight clothing, let the wind blow free"! .... I ate the yogurt and did as she told me... (and this was way before my diabetic days, i had to add a little melted chocolate to it, to make it more palatable for me I hate plain yogurt - and i still hate the stuff to this day!) - But it worked!.

 

[trophywench]

Live yoghurt is excellent as a treatment for thrush when applied to the affected part. Sounds revolting and it is - but it works. Take a sanitary tampon and dip it in said yoghurt or easier and less messy with Tampax cos you scoop the yoghurt up in the empty cardboard applicator, insert said applicator and insert tampon - to keep the yoghurt where it needs to be for a while.

Wash regularly with running water NO SOAP allowed. Clean towel every single wash.

 

[Calf00]

Welcome to the forum @Calf00

Was your weight loss intentional or did it just happen?

Diastix can give you a vague indication of what your BG was like several hours ago, but only that your levels are above the ‘renal threshold’ where the kidneys try to flush out excess glucose by making you wee more (generally around 10mmol/L)

So if you are still testing positive for glucose in urine, it seems likely that you are running in double figures a lot of the time - which probably explains why you are feeling grim.

It may well be more helpful to get hold of an affordable BG meter. One of the most affordable meters members here have found is from SD, and has been recently updated to the SD Gluco Navii which has test strips at around £8 for 50. Caresens also provide meters with fairly affordable strips (which is where the cost really lies).

What changes have you been making to your diet? While there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will be wanting to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

Using a BG meter before and after meals can allow you to adjust your menu to suit both your tastes and your BG. The tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to food are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which forms and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself, so without ‘eating to your meter’ you might end up denying yourself foods which you wou,d be fine with, or relying on foods which don’t suit your particular metabolism and gut biome at all!

Good luck and let us know how you get on 🙂

Hello, thank you so v much for your reply.

The weight loss started after I was prescribed metformin which gave me a very, very, delicate tummy! I was overweight at that time and so I also started making a conscious effort with my diet (portion size etcetera). I have cut out sweet treats etcetera too.

I‘ve just ordered the BG meter you’ve mentioned, thank you. Is it then pretty much a case of trial & error & testing myself before & after everything I eat please? What numbers should I ideally be aiming for on the BG meter?

Can you recommend any books/diets for meals please.

Last year when I was first diagnosed, over a 6 month period, I had two GP blood tests which were borderline-ish & gave readings of 48 & 52. I was prescribed metformin after the second blood test of 52. I was feeling dreadful at Christmas & had another blood test which came back as 84. I was then swopped over to Alogliptin. I’m due another blood test mid March.

Thanks v much

 

[Calf00]

Hi and Welcome @Calf00. Sorry to hear you are suffering with thrush - nasty business isnt it. I know some medications & antibiotics can encourage it.... I remember years ago a bout of it got me and after repeated visits to the Dr - from creams, potions and pills - nothing helped and she said, in exasperation "there's nothing more i can give you... but advice = eat live greek yogurt, as much as you can stand. Make sure its live though. Make sure not to wear tight clothing, let the wind blow free"! .... I ate the yogurt and did as she told me... (and this was way before my diabetic days, i had to add a little melted chocolate to it, to make it more palatable for me I hate plain yogurt - and i still hate the stuff to this day!) - But it worked!.

Hello,

Thanks so v much for your reply.

There’s no chance that there’s a non-dairy version that might work in place of Greek yoghurt is there please? I really struggle with milk.

Thank you

 

[Calf00]

Live yoghurt is excellent as a treatment for thrush when applied to the affected part. Sounds revolting and it is - but it works. Take a sanitary tampon and dip it in said yoghurt or easier and less messy with Tampax cos you scoop the yoghurt up in the empty cardboard applicator, insert said applicator and insert tampon - to keep the yoghurt where it needs to be for a while.

Wash regularly with running water NO SOAP allowed. Clean towel every single wash.

Hello, thanks so v much for your reply.

Great tips, I’ll definately try those out. Didn’t realise about the no soap rule.

Thank you

 

[Tee G]

p.s. Neutral 'soaps' are ok... something like Vagisil is made for the job. i found it wonderful stuff.

 

[trophywench]

Yeah - true about the Vagisil _ but most homes don't have that immediately to hand - whereas I'd think fresh running water is!

 

[Drummer]

The sugar which is making that thrush fungus so happy has to be coming from somewhere - I suggest that really cutting back on the foods which contain starches and sugars might be the way to go.
If you reduce your intake to a level at which you don't need to be peeing out glucose, maybe not needing the tablets which encourage that, as there would be a danger of going hypo - that might solve the problem. We don't need to have carbohydrate to survive, but fungii do.
In the meantime, lots of washing and applying anything which could form a barrier as first aid.

 

[Calf00]

Hi, and welcome
..
A book I found invaluable is Can I Eat That? by Jennifer Roberts.

When self-testing you should test on waking, before you eat or drink anything, and a good result would be between 4 and 7. The other test should be just before you eat and then two hours after the first bite. Your result should be less than 8.5 and no more than 2 or 3 above your pre-meal reading. If it exceeds these levels it points to something in your meal choice that pushed your levels up and you might want to give that a miss in future.

Martin

Thank you so v much Martin. Much appreciated.

 

[Lucylemonpip]

Also, to save on the towel washing, you could warm air dry ‘places’, with a hairdryer. A surgeon I used to work for, gave this advice to patients with haemorroid problems.

 

[Calf00]

Also, to save on the towel washing, you could warm air dry ‘places’, with a hairdryer. A surgeon I used to work for, gave this advice to patients with haemorroid problems.

Brilliant! Thank you so much ! jx

 

[grovesy]

I am on both Metformin Sl

Also, to save on the towel washing, you could warm air dry ‘places’, with a hairdryer. A surgeon I used to work for, gave this advice to patients with haemorroid problems.

I would be careful using hairdryer , I have seen reported people getting burns doing that.

 

[Toucan]

Can you recommend any books/diets for meals please.

Hello @Calf00
Welcome to the forum.
I hope all of the useful advice you have been given helps you find a solution to the thrush problem,

Regarding books, I have recently bought 'Carbs and Cals' which although it doesn't give recipes gives useful ideas of carb outs on a variety of meals. CARB & CALORIE COUNTER from Diabetes UK

As there isn't an EXPERT course available for you at present, maybe the 'Learning Zone' might be useful. https://learningzone.diabetes.org.uk/?_ga=2.47634799.939871080.1580716137-1371272940.1510673533, or there is TAB to follow it at the top of the forum site.

I hope you will keep posting and let us know how things are going. We will always try to answer any questions you may have,

 

[Calf00]

Hello @Calf00
Welcome to the forum.
I hope all of the useful advice you have been given helps you find a solution to the thrush problem,

Regarding books, I have recently bought 'Carbs and Cals' which although it doesn't give recipes gives useful ideas of carb outs on a variety of meals. CARB & CALORIE COUNTER from Diabetes UK

As there isn't an EXPERT course available for you at present, maybe the 'Learning Zone' might be useful. https://learningzone.diabetes.org.uk/?_ga=2.47634799.939871080.1580716137-1371272940.1510673533, or there is TAB to follow it at the top of the forum site.

I hope you will keep posting and let us know how things are going. We will always try to answer any questions you may have,

Thank you v much Toucan

The sugar which is making that thrush fungus so happy has to be coming from somewhere - I suggest that really cutting back on the foods which contain starches and sugars might be the way to go.
If you reduce your intake to a level at which you don't need to be peeing out glucose, maybe not needing the tablets which encourage that, as there would be a danger of going hypo - that might solve the problem. We don't need to have carbohydrate to survive, but fungii do.
In the meantime, lots of washing and applying anything which could form a barrier as first aid.

Thank you v much Drummer

 

[Calf00]

Hi, and welcome
..
A book I found invaluable is Can I Eat That? by Jennifer Roberts.

When self-testing you should test on waking, before you eat or drink anything, and a good result would be between 4 and 7. The other test should be just before you eat and then two hours after the first bite. Your result should be less than 8.5 and no more than 2 or 3 above your pre-meal reading. If it exceeds these levels it points to something in your meal choice that pushed your levels up and you might want to give that a miss in future.

Martin

Thank you v much Martin, I‘ve just received the book you suggested. I’m looking forward to reading it. I’ve also just worked out how to use my new BG monitor and I have taken my first reading (10.8). My monitor comes with 10 lancets and 10 testing strips. I can see where to order new testing strips on Amazon. Are the lancets fairly universal and the brand is not so important please?

Thanks v much

Jan

 

[Calf00]

T

I am on both Metformin Sl

I would be careful using hairdryer , I have seen reported people getting burns doing that.

Thank you v much

jan

 

[grovesy]

The Lancets are but not the test strips even the monitors made by the same company can be differnt from model to model.

 

[grovesy]

Hi, Jan
I have seen lancets for sale online that say they're a universal fit but I've only ever bought the ones specifically for my device. However, a box of 200 for my device always includes a lancing device (I have three now) so if that's normal you would always get a device that's for the lancets you've bought.

Enjoy the book.

Martin

I am talking from experience of having used different makes of lancets over the years, in same lancet. Have to say most lancets are relative cheap compared to strips.