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Hi - update

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K

kentish maid

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Diagnosed Sept 2017, type 2, saw diabetic nurse in October. Not over helpful, basically told me to have Weetabix for breakfast, only eat ‘baby’ bananas, and to stop walking around bare foot. Also told me to have a cholesterol test, which when I rang the surgery for the results was told was ok.

Went on a Derik course before Christmas, found it interesting. They seemed to think that all diabetics should be on statins.

Saw the nurse last month, having lost over a stone in weight and feeling quite positive. She asked why I wasn’t on statins. She thinks my cholesterol is too high, and I am to have another blood test in March. The Derik course gave me a Diabetes Records card and the nurse recorded HbA1c as being 48 in September, Total cholesterol as 6. BMI 27.

Have several other medical problems which are complicating matters – Underactive thyroid, high blood pressure, IBS and GURD. Am now anxious about the forthcoming cholesterol test, which of course is aggravating my digestive problems, feel like I am living under a cloud
 
Welcome K M. I have been diabetic for a few years & have heard lots of storeys about nurses in gps who think they know all about diabetes. Please be patient & well done for doing the Derik course & loosing some weight, very positive 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum a friendly place with helpful people.

I don't like wheetabix, so I have not looked at the carb content in them, generally highly processed foods like some breakfast cereals and white bread tend to release carbs very fast and cause rapid rises in are sugar levels.

Bananas are hit and miss with us, I used to be able to tolerate them as they turned from green to yellow, now I can't tolerate them at all, which is possible why the DN said only eat the baby ones. The riper they get the more fructose they release (sugar), one problem is we all respond to foods differently and how it reacts with us in raising our levels.

Most of us if not all on the forum believe in testing before and like 2 hours after meals, this way we can identify what food affects us and in what way. Being a type 2, unless you are on hypo causing meds GP's won't prescribe the test strips required, always worth asking though as the odd one will let you have test strips on prescription. Many on here who self fund testing use the SD code free meter as the strips are around £8 for a pot of 50, where as the bigger names in meters their strips can be £25 + for a pot of 50.

Your cholesterol levels are high or at least they are with my GP's as they like to see them under 4 for myself, which is probably why your DN asked if you were on statins,
 
Thank you Hobie and Pav.
Several people I have spoken to have mentioned they are surprised I am not testing, so maybe I should take your advice Pav and get a meter. In September the GP implied that by losing weight I could 'reverse' the diagnosis, but I am now starting to realise that it is here for good.
 
Welcome, Kentish Maid. As the others have said, a meter is invaluable in sorting out what foods you should be avoiding - I certainly can't eat bananas and both grapes and melon send my BG into the stratosphere! Gets easier to manage the diet as you get used to testing and adjusting. So far as statins are concerned, my total cholesterol was 6 when I was diagnosed last year and the GP immediately put me onto statins. I've always been dubious about them but in my general panic at the time I didn't query it and took them. Retest last month showed a total cholesterol level of 5 so I was really surprised to get a call from the GP to double my statin dose. The explanation was that because of the higher cardio vascular risk, we T2s have to try to achieve lower cholesterol levels than the general population, particularly the LDL element. My LDL dropped by 40% in the last six months but apparently it's still not low enough. Just started the higher dose but have some niggly doubts about taking them. Need to give it some thought.
 
Hello again, I forgot to say: recent research has shown that in some people T2 can be put into remission and some say even reversed so there's a chance you might be able to achieve that status in time.
 
I have reservations about statins Scottishlass, with the GP and nurse giving conflicting opinions I am not really reassured. I was surprised that they didn't do another HbA1C in January, I see you are having them every 3 months. It would have been nice to know if the weight loss had made any difference.
 
My total cholesterol is quite high, but when broken down, it is perfect. Total cholesterol means nothing. The most important marker is the Trigs. These are key to good heart health & the lower the better. Even the so-called 'bad' LDL comes in 2 different forms. These are dense (bad) & fluffy (good). Fat only has a small effect on our cholesterol levels as we produce our own cholesterol from our liver which can happen with a high carb, highly processed diet. I don't take statins, by the way.
 
Hi Mark, thank you: you've told me something I didn't know! I've got to have a liver function test later this month because of the increased statin dose so I shall ask for a breakdown of the numbers.
Kentish Maid, I'm on six month HbA1c tests now - think my GP was a bit concerned about my sky-high number when diagnosed! Talk about "ignorance is bliss", I had no idea how bad it was until I came onto here! So far as weight loss is concerned, general opinion is that it does lower insulin resistance and I have certainly lost the excess weight I was carrying - BMI down from 30+ to 23. I think if you look at the details given by forum users you will see a correlation between weight loss and lower HbA1c figures so I guess the medics are right on that one.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. Don't panic too much. Definitely ask for a breakdown of your cholesterol results. Also a hba1c of 48 is just at the start of the diabetes range (42-47 being pre- diabetic), so you've caught it early enough to put it back where it should be. I've never even had statins mentioned to me since diagnosis.
 
Hi Kentish Maid , I am also from Kent but a Maid of Kent instead!
I was also diagnosed in September with an HbA1c of 58, 41 in December and waiting for the next test in March.
My GP has said that if I get a level of 48 or below she will discharge me as I have proved I can control my symptoms by diet.
I use the code free monitor and test four times a day, morning before breakfast, two hours afterwards, just before our evening meal and two hours afterwards ( we don't eat lunch) My GP has said that if I can achieve an average of my four readings of under 7.7 mmol/l then I am on track for a reading of 42 mmol/molor under when I have my next three month test.
Most days I achieve that but not all so still work in progress!
 
Sorry that should read 51 in December
 
Oh dear real fumble fingers here 7.7 should correspond to 48mmol/mol not 42.
 
Stitch147 said:
Hi and welcome to the forum. Don't panic too much. Definitely ask for a breakdown of your cholesterol results. Also a hba1c of 48 is just at the start of the diabetes range (42-47 being pre- diabetic), so you've caught it early enough to put it back where it should be. I've never even had statins mentioned to me since diagnosis.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that is reassuring
 
JMyrtle said:
Hi Kentish Maid , I am also from Kent but a Maid of Kent instead!
I was also diagnosed in September with an HbA1c of 58, 41 in December and waiting for the next test in March.
My GP has said that if I get a level of 48 or below she will discharge me as I have proved I can control my symptoms by diet.
I use the code free monitor and test four times a day, morning before breakfast, two hours afterwards, just before our evening meal and two hours afterwards ( we don't eat lunch) My GP has said that if I can achieve an average of my four readings of under 7.7 mmol/l then I am on track for a reading of 42 mmol/molor under when I have my next three month test.
Most days I achieve that but not all so still work in progress!
Click to expand...
Tempted to change to your GP. Mine tested me last September and according to the DN my next HbA1c will be this October, which will be a year from my original appointment with her. Starting to think a monitor might be a good investment, then I may get a better idea of how I am coping. Hope you reach your goal
 
Hi Kentish Maid, any snow your side of the Medway, it rarely snows here at the "pointed end"
This might help a bit, GP said no cakes, biscuits, sweets, sugar or chocolate, that's a given but even though everyone is different testing came up with a few surprises.
No mention was made about carbohydrates so I blissfully carried on eating them.
Once I started testing I found two pieces of white toast and home made jam or marmalade tested at 14 two hours later yikes!, two pieces of wholemeal with jam or marmalade 11, one piece of wholemeal with an egg between 7 and eight.
In the evening half a potato or a tablespoon of rice not a problem, anything more not good.
Chips test high but 6 chips and an extra portion of vegetables such as tinned tomatoes no problem.
If desperation sets in in the evening quick portage that comes in a sachet, plain not fruit flavoured with half semi skimmed half water and a spoon of granular sweetener is OK but definitely not cornflakes!
As I say we are all different, I found all this out by making a note if I ate something different and then doing the two hour test to see the reaction.
Gets thru the test strips a bit and middle finger left hand is like a pin cushion but its the only way to find out what suits you.
 
JMyrtle said:
Hi Kentish Maid, any snow your side of the Medway, it rarely snows here at the "pointed end"
Click to expand...

We had snow overnight this side of the Medway - first time in a long while! Seems to be melting now though. Anyway, as you were 🙂
 
Naty said:
We had snow overnight this side of the Medway - first time in a long while! Seems to be melting now though. Anyway, as you were 🙂
Click to expand...
The snow was most inconvenient as I had to be up and out early to take the car for MOT and service :-(
 
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