My HbA1c was 78. Working on getting a monitor as I want to know what works best for me and how the sitagliptin affects everything. Thanks for the welcome
Welcome to the forum
@Wolfmom
Sorry to hear that you have several conditions to juggle - sounds like you have a great attitude though, and good to hear that you have family support too.
Sitagliptin on its own isn’t usually thought to cause hypos (
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/sitagliptin/), though it can in combination with other meds. It is often the risk of hypos that GPs use as the reason to offer BG monitors, so you may meet a little resistance I’m afraid.
If you need to self fund your BG meter, the most affordable meters members here have found are the
SD Gluco Navii or the
Spirit Tee2 - which both have test strips at around £8 for 50
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself - and that’s where a BG meter can be so useful!
As a starting point, many new members find it can be really helpful to keep a brutally honest food diary for a week or two. Note down everything you eat and drink. It can be especially helpful to estimate the amount of carbohydrate in the meals and snacks to give you an idea of which foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu, and where you might be able to make some simple swaps or reductions.
Many people on the forum find that aiming for less than 130g in carbs per day is a helpful starting point, though some find they need to reduce a little further.
Good luck, and let us know how you get on
🙂
