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Barney61

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi - I'm new to the forum . I'm 61 (until tomorrow) having been diagnosed with Type 2 at age 38.
Until recently I've been going along quite happily fingerpicking and adjusting meds accordingly.
My HBA1C results have always been ok and I've always been physically active. Recently however
I've started with Libre 2 and it's a whole new ball game. I fact I feel as if I've just been diagnosed.

My old Diabetes Nurse never really showed any concerns other than a little general advice to lose some
weight and not to drink so much. I'm old enough to remember when sugar was the enemy and in fact the original advice
was to follow a high carb diet!

My new Diabetes Nurse is a whole different kettle of fish and the insights provided by Libre View show my control really
isn't very good at all. I'm getting all sorts of spikes and I'm becoming frightened to eat or drink anything. To be honest I'm
feeling a little overwhelmed which is quite something after 24 years.
 
Barney61 said:
Hi - I'm new to the forum . I'm 61 (until tomorrow) having been diagnosed with Type 2 at age 38.
Until recently I've been going along quite happily fingerpicking and adjusting meds accordingly.
My HBA1C results have always been ok and I've always been physically active. Recently however
I've started with Libre 2 and it's a whole new ball game. I fact I feel as if I've just been diagnosed.

My old Diabetes Nurse never really showed any concerns other than a little general advice to lose some
weight and not to drink so much. I'm old enough to remember when sugar was the enemy and in fact the original advice
was to follow a high carb diet!

My new Diabetes Nurse is a whole different kettle of fish and the insights provided by Libre View show my control really
isn't very good at all. I'm getting all sorts of spikes and I'm becoming frightened to eat or drink anything. To be honest I'm
feeling a little overwhelmed which is quite something after 24 years.
Click to expand...
The eat carbs advice is now recognised as being outdated for Type 2 and is is good to heat your new nurse is more on message. That is the reason that this program was developed by a GP surgery to help their Type 2 patients as they realised the standard NHS Eat Well plate just wasn't working. You may find this link https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/ helpful to give you some ideas for reviewing your diet.
 
Hi @Barney61 and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear you've been overwhelmed with this new information, but glad you've reached out! It naturally takes some time to adjust to the new technology, and I hope your new nurse is helping with your management too. Have there been any certain foods you've found to spike your levels, which you were eating regularly while finger pricking?

Also happy birthday for tomorrow, hope you have a great day! :D
 
Hi Barney - ignorance can indeed sometimes be blissful however it sounds like you have decided to get a better handle on it, for which I applaud you - however, the 'trick' is not to let all this info overwhelm you. Such info is only ever of any use if it enables you and/or your clinician, make a difference to the treatment given for the medical condition. Straightforward explanation is the example of when we break a bone yet the arm/leg bit of the body affected doesn't openly show it, so they take Xrays to inform them what's needed - slap a quick plaster on, send em home and see em again in a week or two; or immobilise it right now then open it up and screw, do the jigsaw of bone bits then add a plate and some screws then plaster it, send em home and see em again in outpatients; or whatever. So - what does any of the info help you to do better or differently? Not what someone's told you that you should be able to see - I'm asking what you yourself have seen that you don't think you like so might need changing or would like to change if you could?
 
Thanks for all the responses. I'm sure I can get there. As trophywench says it's a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff regarding the info. Carbs and booze are my demons. I've managed to reduce my GMI (as per Libreview) from 66 to 59 over 10 days via a more judicious approach to both carbs and booze. Telephone appointment with Diabetes specialist tomorrow so I'll sort my questions out beforehand. I feel confident that the BP and weight will take care of themselves!
ps Thanks for the Birthday wishes - 62 is the new 40....
 
Barney61 said:
My new Diabetes Nurse is a whole different kettle of fish and the insights provided by Libre View show my control really
isn't very good at all. I'm getting all sorts of spikes and I'm becoming frightened to eat or drink anything. To be honest I'm
feeling a little overwhelmed which is quite something after 24 years
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum @Barney61

Yes I remember that feeling well when I started on sensors. In fact I also remember committing to writing down all the BG checks I took, but then found myself second-guessing between checks and making adjustments to my management (in my case with insulin or carbs). Ridiculously making adjustments based on NO information, rather than looking (in case I didn’t like the number I suppose?!)

In a sense at least having sensors meant that all the information was just there, and at least I could react to it (and perhaps opt for some different choices if I could see patterns)

Sorry to hear you’ve been getting scared to eat :( The sensor information isn’t showing whether foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it’s just information! Hopefully you can tweak portion-sizes of different sources of carbs (rather than trying to avoid them entirely) and find a moderate or low carb approach that smooths out some of those peaks?
 
Thanks for your response. It's good to know how others approach things. I've now had my follow up telephone meeting with the Diabetes Nurse. My results were what you might term sub optimal. Although my HBA1c was actually ok at 55 my kidney function has dropped alarmingly with my BP going in the opposite direction. The latter affecting the former - as I'm sure you know. The good news is that I'm facing things head on. As a result of a more judicious approach to booze and carbs I've reduced my GMI to 49 and achieved an average glucose figure of 7.8. I suppose the trick now is to remain vigilant and try to smooth things out.
 
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