Hello recently diagnosed

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laineybainey

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello
I have recently been diagnosed with diabetes 2, it is all a bit of a blur to be honest. I have been given tablets to take three times a day and told to alter my diet. But to be honest I don't know where to start! I love carbs so to alter my diet is going to be tough but I know it has got to be done for my own benefit.
 
Hi Lainey and welcome. Yes, it is hard at first, but it's worth persevering with it as you can make a big difference to your health if you do reduce the carbs. I don't suppose they gave you a meter and strips did they? If not, try asking for them, if the answer is no, you really should think about buying your own. The SD Codefree is a decent cheap meter whose strips don't cost the earth.

Here's some reading links to get you started: "Type 2 Diabetes; The First Year" which you can get from Amazon, Maggie Davy's Open Letter (PDF), and Jennifer's Blog. These all have useful advice and tips to help you take control.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have questions, there's always someone around who'll have an answer.
 
A warm welcome to the forum 🙂

It is so overwhelming at first but you will come round and start to take it all in!

Take each day slowly and try not to take to much in to quickly!

As for carbs.....every thing in moderation....no need to think omg I can't eat bread no more etc!!!.....it is all about how different foods effect your blood sugars....some foods effect some folk more than others, hence why testing your blood sugars will benefit you so much, then you can learn which foods make your blood sugar go high, and then make a diary of what you eat then you will no what foods make your blood sugars raise.

Keep posting and hope thing settle down for you! 🙂
 
Hi Laineybainey
It is all quite overwhelming at first, but it gets easier (promise!). I've had lots of support and help here so you're in the right place. Welcome and hello 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum laineybainey 🙂
 
Hi Lainey

Don't try to change everything all at once - take it slowly.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

When you walk uphill, if you take smaller steps, it's easier and because you don't completely run out of puff and everything else halfway up, when you do reach the summit, you are in a far better state to enjoy the view.

And this one is a small mountain - so take baby steps !
 
Welcome Lainey
I promise it gets easier...and if I can get my head around it...anyone can! You will be fine
 
Thank you

Hi

Thank you for your messages of support, so pleased I found this site, I am sure you will guide me through the next few months. I have been advised by the diabetes nurse not to buy a meter as there is nothing I can do about the reading! I am on three tablets a day. I feel really tired today, so not sure if that is because of the food I eaten or just a Friday feeling.
Anyway thanks for being so welcoming.🙂
 
The nurse is totally wrong Lainey and it annoys a lot of us intensely when we here yet another diabetic being fed that silly line. You can use the meter to learn how food and exercise affect you. Get yourself a meter, and a notebook or use Excel and try this:

  • Waking/Before Breakfast BG
  • 1, 2 and 3 hours after breakfast
  • Before Lunch BG
  • 1, 2 and 3 hours after lunch
  • Before Tea/Dinner BG
  • 1, 2 and 3 hours after dinner
  • Bedtime BG

It's a lot of testing and your fingers will hate you, but it will teach you how different foods affect your blood glucose levels and you can adjust your diet to include mostly foods that don't raise them too much. In time, you'll bring your HbA level down and then you can tell that nurse just how wrong she was. Believe me, it's well worth the effort and one way that you can take control of this complex disease.

And remember, carbs are as bad as straight sugar so limiting the amount of bread, pasta, spuds and rice in your diet will help bring down your HbA. Have a look in our "Food/carb queries + recipes" section for recipe ideas and threads on how different foods have affected our members.

Sorry, rant over, it just really irritates me when people are told to change their lifestyle and then refused the tools needed to do the job right.
 
Totally agree with everything Alison just said!
If it wasn't for my meter I would never ever have found out what I can eat and what I cant eat these past 6 months. The meter is a crucial part of kit. Also what works for one diabetic doesn't always work for another...so its very personal. It makes me shiver when I think about all the stuff I would have been eating thinking that it was fine and not affecting me..and the size of my portions! Please...get a meter 🙂
 
laineybainey said:
Hi

I have been advised by the diabetes nurse not to buy a meter as there is nothing I can do about the reading!
Click to expand...

That's simply outrageous. 😡 Of course there's something we T2s can do. We can tailor what we eat to what our meter teaches us: we all have different tolerances for carbs and it makes no sense just eating what we want and hoping more and more pills will overcome bad effects of high blood sugar levels. We are the ones who suffer the dire consequences for poor management of this 'condition'. If we don't test, how can we know what foods and in what quantities are safer for us as individuals?

My blood boils at these awful so-called professionals. How do they get away with it? I wouldn't let them near me these days... 😡

...Forgot to say welcome! :D
 
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I'm a going to make a comment about a certain clinical trial, authors Farmer et al ...... funnily enough if you make T2s test, it makes them depressed. That's what the Conclusion said, ergo it must be true. Right?

That's odd you say - all the T2s on here get tremendous benefit from testing apparently, there has to be something awry with that Trial surely?

Yes, there certainly was.

Not only were they told there was nothing they could do about high readings - if they knew a way, found out a way, worked out a way by themselves by a process of logic and their own intelligence - of reducing those readings - they were BANNED from applying them for the duration of the trial.

And Lo! - they became depressed.

O what a surprise......

And the Headlines all read 'Testing makes T2s depressed' and that's the message that is still being preached today by quite a lot of the NHS.

I hate this to this day, and if I found myself alone with Farmer and/or al - I would find a way of making THEM blooming depressed an' all.

Mind you I'd be in a long queue of people all wanting to do the same ........
 
meter

Hi
Thank you for your comments, I am going to buy a meter and testing strips. I will certainly look at the carb message board. I love my carbs :( so the thought of changing my diet is really daunting. I thought sugar was the enemy, so except for hidden sugars used sugar sparingly. It never occurred to me that carbs turned into sugar!!
Day one starts here.
 
I'm afraid they do Lainey. Our bodies turn carbs into glucose really quickly and, depending on how much fat is in the meal, the spike can hit any time between 1 and 3 hours after we eat. Hence the spread of testing after a meal.

Speaking personally, I have replaced much of the complex carb content of my meals and feel a lot better for it. It took some getting used to, but it's been worth the effort. I do still have some things, like wholegrain bread (most days), brown or wild rice (once a week or so) and occasionally pasta (maybe once a month). Spuds are the worst offender for me so I've cut them out almost entirely and use sweet potato, mixed carrot and swede, celeriac or cauliflower in their place. Sweet potato makes great crisps and chips, and mash, and roasties too. I find it has the same 'comfort food' effect as spuds did.

Today for instance, I've had home made yoghurt and berries for breakfast with a handful of mixed seeds chucked in. Lunch will be green veggie soup (peas, beans, leeks, onion, celery and cabbage in chicken stock) and a wholemeal roll with butter and I'm planning a Moroccan chicken/couscous salad for tea (hold the apricots).
 
Alison gosh i relate to the spike in spuds i used to get that to and i was always encouraged to eat jacket spuds when first diagnosed. I may have a small jacket once a month and i to dont get high rise in BM from sweet potato! I have never tried them as chips i will now, thank you very interesting
 
Spuds

Hi All

I love jacket potatoes, in fact I can eat two or three of these every week. Pasta is another favourite, at least twice weekly. I am in the process of booking an appointment with a dietician because the changes I have to make to my diet seems really difficult. On the plus side I love sweet potatoes so will have to make them my mash and chips!:D
 
Hello
I'm in the same boat Lainey and struggling to work out what I can and can't eat. Jsut started testing regime. Let me know how you get on - maybe we can support each other?
Jane
 
Hi Lainey,
welcome to this forum, you'll get all the help and support you need. As has already been said, you will be much better off with your own meter, it's the only way to see how different foods, never mind just the carbs, affect your BG. The astonishing thing is that you will find that what might send your BG through the roof, might not affect everyone else in exactly the same way. We really are all different.
I spent 17 years following GP and dietician advise and my diabetic condition just got worse and worse with more and more medication. I was always suspicious of their advice on carbs which was the traditional food pyramid, 50%+ calories must be carb type of thing, I was always being told to eat more. They never did tell me how to lose weight by eating more. Anyway, a little bit of blowing my own trumpet, by cutting out bread/pasta/rice/potatoes I stopped taking Gliclazide and Januvia, both drugs which help the pancreas produce more insulin and you have to consider that insulin controls fat storage amongst other things. Better still, I stopped taking Atorvastatin which had caused me much grief and heartache (lots of soul searching as there's plenty of CVD in the family). My most recent bloods after over 6 months without those meds were:- HbA1c 6.4, total cholesterol 5.4, both figures that will come down when I get back to swimming as much as I used to, 40 lengths (1km), 3 - 5 times a week.
In some ways I'm lucky because at 62 and almost being able to count my time left on this lovely planet on both hands (I'm aiming for at least another 25, LOL), the choices are much more clear cut. Change dietary habits and live longer, healthier of carry on following my old GP's advice and get more and more medicated.
Where would doctors and the pharmaceutical industry be if there was no illness? Bit OTT, sorry, LOL
You will get good advice here, there's people who live with diabetes, they will know best.
All the best
 
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