Hi New and a little confused

[SDWC]

Hi All, I was diagnosed a few days ago, out of the blue. Thought I was having headaches and dizzyness due to a nasty head bump on Christmas Eve ...but nope turns out it was T2.
If I know what the HbA1C is correctly mine was a little high at 68.
I am struggling with knowing is how often I should do my bloods. At the moment, for the last 2 days I have been doing before bed and it's about 8.5. Should I check more often at first?
One big challenge is tomorrow we are off to a friends for dinner and we always just get a Chinese. Any ideas about what of anything I should have? Getting a bit paranoid about how much sugar is in food....what to eat is stressing me out a bit.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis but good that you have found the forum as it is a "Goldmine" of diabetes experiences from people who have been in your situation and shared the things which worked for them.

Firstly, I hate to burst your bubble but contrary to popular belief, diabetes is not just about "sugar" but all carbohydrates which are broken down by the digestive system into glucose and absorbed into the blood stream, where our bodies struggle to metabolize them efficiently. That means not just the obvious sweet stuff, but also starchy carbs like bread, pasta, rice, couscous, breakfast cereals, potatoes etc. Basically anything made from grains or sweet or starchy tubers/root veg. It also includes the "natural" sugars in fruit, so exotic fruits like bananas and mangoes and pineapple will also spike your levels and grapes are often referred to as little sugar bombs and that includes fresh, frozen or dried and don't think about fruit juice!
That said there are lots of nice things left to eat, and it is definitely easier if you aren't vegetarian as meals based on meat and fish and eggs and mushrooms and cheese are all very low carb. Most nuts are not too bad but portion control is important, particularly with the slightly higher carb ones like peanuts and cashews, but walnuts and hazelnuts and almonds and Brazils are all good. Fruit wise most of us restrict our daily portion to a few berries like rasps, blueberries, strawberries, blackcurrants or blackberries or a mixture of those. Veg which grows at ground level is pretty much all low carb, so cabbage, cauli, broccoli, celery, spinach and salad leaves etc are all good and a top tip is that they usually taste great cooked with a knob of butter or a spoon of cream cheese or a big dollop of creamy coleslaw with your salad, so include plenty of those in your diet.

As regards Chinese takeaway, I usually get Char Sui or Duck with Ginger and Spring Onion and have a portion of stir fried veg with it and maybe a couple of dessert spoons of fried rice from my partner's plate to soak up the juice.

With testing, we encourage a strategy of testing which gives you information on how your body responds to the food you eat. By following a regime of testing just before a meal and then 2 hours afterwards, the meter will show you the rise caused by that meal. If that increase was more than 3 whole mmols, then you ate too many carbs and should look to reduce the portion of carbs in that meal, when you next eat it. This may sound complicated, but if you keep a food diary and perhaps start with breakfast, which is a meal where many of us eat the same thing every day, then testing it and adjusting it so that your body copes with it can basically fix that meal in a matter of a few days, and then you can move on to focus on lunch which again is often similar most days. Keeping a food diary alog with your readings will enable you to see which foods cause your body the most BG upheaval and should probably be resigned to the rare treat category and which it tolerates better and in what portion size. For me, bread is my nemesis and it just isn't worth the aggravation, so I cut it out altogether and despite loving bread, I no longer miss it or crave it. Haven't had pasta since diagnosis and don't really miss it. I have spuds very occasionally. New potatoes are best. Jacket spud is a very small, very rare treat. I have celeriac chips and cauliflower mash instead of the normal potato variety and enjoy them just as much if not more. I also have sweet potato occasionally but that too has be be rationed. I do however have plenty of treats in my diet, they are just low carb treats. One of my favourite luxuries is that I have real double cream in my morning coffee. Cream is actually lower carb than milk.... Milk contains a natural sugar called lactose but it is water soluble so much less in the fatty cream. I always said that I would rather not drink coffee as drink it without sugar, but my morning coffee with cream is just a total indulgence. Nice cheeses feature pretty heavily in my diet and are occasionally accompanies by a small glass of red wine on an evening at bedtime or some olives and feta with a glass of Gin and slimline tonic and my guilty pleasure is pork scratchings.... a perfect mix of protein and fat with no carbs as long as your teeth will stand up to them..... and interestingly, my teeth have got stronger since I cut most of the carbs from my diet.

Anyway, I hope that gives you a little bit of guidance for your night out and in general. If there is anything you don't understand, just ask. It would also be helpful to know if you have been given any medication or if you are trying to tackling it through diet and exercise first? The type of medication you have been given can impact on the dietary changes you make, so I should probably have asked that first. An HbA1c of 68 puts you firmly into diabetes territory as the diagnostic level is 48 but some of us where well into 3 figures so, whilst you have some work to do to bring it down, it isn't a desperate starting point.

A

 

[SDWC]

That is really helpful. The advice from the Drs was eat brown rice and Pasta and baled pots.
Can cut down on most things but glad to hear gin and cheese is still.on the table. . I am not a big bread eater and don't really have milk so that is all good. Need to think about Carn alternatives.
I am on one Metformin twice a day to start then building up to 2 a day. It certainly affects my toilet habits but I am hoping that will settle down.
Thank you for the blood measuring advice that makes sense.
Been faffing around for a few days feeling sorry for myself need to get on this week

 

[andyp64]

Metformin side effects do quiet down after a short while but not for everyone (i.e. me!)
If you're still toilet-bound after a few weeks, I'd suggest speaking to your GP or diabetes nurse and they can give you alternatives. I've moved onto a different med and it's stopped the cramps and runs.
Good luck going forward.

 

[Kopiert]

Welcome for me also. Most of us remember the moment we were in your shoes. It is very confusing with often contradictory advice. I found these boards incredibly helpful (if not essential) as I began to come to grips with my diabetes.

Can I recommend that you look at this link it will take to the post at the top of this section and some great reading resources. The first post has a link to some very good articles and books specifically for T2s that will help you understand more.

Please ask more questions there is a wealth of experience and knowledge here for you to tap into.
Good Luck

Nick

 

[Felinia]

Hi and welcome
Excellent advice above, so I'll just chip in my Chinese go-to meals. I always get stir fry veggies with cashew nuts, and chicken or prawn chop suey instead of chow mein - no rice. I think items in black bean sauce is OK, and certainly ginger and spring onion. I used to love the sweet sticky sauces like sweet and sour, lemon, plum and mango, orange (sob, sob). Now I make my own Chinese at home, with a packet of stir fry veggies, soy sauce, 5 spice powder and chopped chicken/prawns. It's mainly veggies, I have a lot, and it fills me up nicely.

 

[Leadinglights]

Your nurse is following the NHS guidelines which sadly recommends more carbohydrates than many Type 2 people can tolerate and therefore they end up on more and more medications when their blood glucose levels don't improve.
It does require some motivation and dedication to make dietary changes but that is a very powerful tool in reducing blood glucose levels. @rebrascora took the words out of my mouth and has given you some very good advice.
Getting a monitor will give you the tool to manage your condition.
In expensive ones can be had on line, the consideration being the ongoing cost of the strips. The GlucoNavil and TEE2 are ones recommended as they have the cheapest strips. The kit comes with a few strips and lancets so you should buy extra at the same time, lancets can unofficially be reused but are quite cheap anyway. You do not need to pay VAT. Type 2 are unlikely to be prescribed a monitor and strips so self fund.

 

[Cherrelle DUK]

Hi SDWC, welcome to the forum.

It can be really overwhelming when you’re first diagnosed but we’re here to support you along the way.

I tend to go for meat and veg when I’m out but it’s what you do most of the time that counts.

Everyone is different but I prefer to test in the morning to establish a baseline then two hours after each meal.

You can find out more about testing on our main site https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/managing-your-diabetes/testing.

Please feel free to ask as many questions as possible and we’ll do our best to help.