Hi all

[Casey Derham]

Good morning to all. I’m a 69 year old male (still 21 in my head) and working full time because I love it.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes several years ago and I guess I have been quite blasé about it. Don’t get me wrong, I have tried to limit my sugar intake by substituting sweetners etc, plus my lovely wife does her best to prevent me eating ‘sweet stuff’, but apart from this, I have never really given my condition much thought.

A few months however, my GP told me that he was going to put me onto metformin, for no reason apparently other than he considered I had had diabetes long enough without any medicinal treatment. However and despite taking this drug, in the last couple of weeks, I have been rushing to the loo to wee a lot more frequently and even a thimble full makes my bladder feel it’s full to capacity. My ability to control it also not as good as previously. In the last few days, I have been experiencing tingling sensations in my hands and feet. My readings have all increased as well; whereas they have tended to be in the range of 6 to 9, my bedtime readings over the last few days have been in the range of 14 to 17 so something is going on.Thankfully, I have my annual foot review next week and I’m going to update the nurse and see where we go from there.

Thanks for having me on here and for reading what has turned out to be rather more than a brief introduction. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on my present situation, I would love to hear them.

 

[Docb]

Hi Casey. Have you been through the "has he got a dodgy prostrate process"? Gentlemen of certain years will know what that entails. If not, then maybe worth talking to your GP to make sure your peeing problems are not due to something other than diabetes. Been there, done that because of problems like you describe and now take medication which has worked wonders. My advice is not to let it get to a point where you find it difficult to pee at all - that, believe me, is a very unpleasant place to be!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome

Are you also suffering thirst and consequently drinking more as well as rushing to the toilet as that would tie in with your Blood Glucose levels suddenly going high. When BG levels reach a certain threshold, the kidneys are triggered into greater action in an attempt to flush the excess glucose out of your system in your urine. Unfortunately the sugar in your urine provides a great environment for bacteria to multiply so can also leave you prone to bladder/urinary infection which would cause your symptoms, but I would have expected thirst and frequent urination to occur before infection symptoms. Illness and infection can also cause raised BG levels, so it can become a vicious circle.

For your information it is not just sugar and sweet stuff which causes diabetics to have high BG levels, it is all carbohydrates, so that can be the obvious cakes and biscuits and sweets and sugar itself of course but also fruit and in particular fruit juice as well as starchy carbs like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and breakfast cereals even healthy options like porridge, so just cutting the sweet stuff out is often not enough and you need to reduce portion size and frequency of those other things in the diet as well. This is called low carbohydrate eating. Quite surprisingly, it is possible to have an enjoyable diet and not eat bread and pasta and rice and sweet stuff but that is the extreme and most people can get away with reduced portion size of those starchy carbs and there are low carb bread options in most supermarkets these days. Many of us here on the forum who eat low carb use cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potato or rice or couscous. It tastes great cooked and mashed with a dollop of cream cheese and a spoon of wholegrain mustard and goes well with sausages or as a topping for cottage pie. This forum has quite a lot of innovative ideas and tips involving low carb eating if your or your wife is interested.

Another possibility is that you are not a Type 2 diabetic but perhaps what is called LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults) or Type 1.5 which can initially exhibit like Type 2 but progresses towards a Type 1 situation where the pancreas starts to run dry of insulin. (Type 2 diabetics often produce too much insulin and become resistant to it, so this is kind of the opposite. This can happen slowly and steadily or in more sudden progressive steps. There is a specific test that can be done to establish how much insulin the pancreas is producing which would indicate if you are LADA, so that might be something to discuss with your GP or maybe the diabetes nurse at your practice as he/she might have more knowledge of such things than the doctor, or ask to be referred to a diabetic consultant.

I would recommend reducing your carbohydrate intake in the mean time. Maybe try a cooked breakfast instead of cereal/porridge for breakfast if that is what you normally have. Omelettes are great and you can vary the filling and try them with a salad instead of bread or toast.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello @Casey Derham

Welcome to the forum!

Glad you have found us. There’s a friendly, experienced bunch here with centuries of diabetes experience under our belts so feel free to ask any questions you have.

I am wondering how long those ‘several years’ are. Some people find their diabetes changes over time, and may need additional support other than just reducing sweet stuff. Others find they can do without meds for decades by carefully moderating their carbohydrate (not just sugar) intake.

Hope you appointment with your nurse is positive and gives you some practical information. Tingling may be a sign of nerve damage, but it sounds like your BG has been quite well managed so far. Certainly worth asking though!

Do you happen to know what your latest HbA1c result was?

 

[trophywench]

Frankly if you need prostate probs sorted - it's far less traumatic for any bloke to simply see the GP and request a PSA blood test LOL - freely available to gentlemen of a certain age and absolutely worth ruling that out - but OTOH much more likely to be too high BG as others have already mentioned and offered suggestions.

If you do turn out to have a prostate problem then at some stage someone medical WILL have to examine you physically but it's better to have the momentary discomfort of that and get proper medical treatment for it sooner rather than later, than just ignore it in blissful ignorance.

 

[Docb]

Yes TW, but the PSA test is no more than an indicator. A couple of points in the original post made me think of my experiences with prostrate problems and led me to ask whether Casey had been down that route.

For the benefit of any other gentlemen, the physical check done by your GP is not at all traumatic - the thought is far worse than the deed. They are rank amateurs when it comes to prostrate examination and all they are really doing is estimating.the size of the prostrate. Elevated PSA + bigger than normal prostrate earns you a trip to the urology clinic where you come across the professionals. Things get a bit more hectic there but it is worth the discomfort. At least I know that I have peeing problems due to a prostrate enlarged from ageing and nothing sinister is going on. That is well worth knowing.

 

[trophywench]

Well yeah - the trick is to get the PSA test as early as you can, then plot the progress of the result over the forthcoming years, SHOULD you be at risk for any reason including ethnicity.

Still kills a bloke every 45 minutes though - far higher than breast cancer and they now immunize schoolgirls against cervical - so it's vital to raise male awareness.