Hiya from a new Type 2

[karloc]

Hi, Ive been diagnosed with Type 2 now for almost 6 hours.
And high blood pressure for about 2 weeks.
So just the start of my journey, got some meds, pointed at this site by the Doctor.
Not really sure what to do, where to start but I am sure it will come with time.

 

[CathyB]

Hi Karloc, welcome to the club no one wants to join 😉 It’s a bit of a mine field at the start but once you get your head around it you will see it’s not so bad 🙂 Not sure what you have been told so far but it’s not just sugar you need to cut, carbohydrates are the main problem, especially rice, pasta, potatoes and bread, our body uses these exactly the same way it would a slice of cake! Most of us here have chosen low carb high fat diet as a way to manage our blood sugar and weight. Be careful with fruit as that also has loads of natural sugar, especially the tropical fruits, grapes are little sugar balls!
Best advice I could give would be to first read as many back posts as you can, then ask any questions you might have

 

[SueEK]

Hello Karloc and welcome to our club. As Cathy suggests having a good look round is probably your best first step and then ask all you want, we are all happy to help you in any way we can. Just about everyone is either overwhelmed, panicked, emotional, confused, shocked, scared or all of these when first diagnosed. It’s something we don’t expect to happen and as you said we don’t know what to do. Carbs are the big thing to reduce as much as you possibly can, if you need to lose weight this will help a lot as will increasing your exercise if you can.
It is very early to go into much detail so I will leave it at that for the time being and look forward to seeing your posts when you are ready. Sue x

 

[Eddy Edson]

Hi, Ive been diagnosed with Type 2 now for almost 6 hours.
And high blood pressure for about 2 weeks.
So just the start of my journey, got some meds, pointed at this site by the Doctor.
Not really sure what to do, where to start but I am sure it will come with time.

6 hours and you're not an expert yet??

Kidding! It took me about 3 months from diagnosis until I had any kind of clue.

Anyway, take your time to learn and process info. Maybe over a couple of weeks get together a list of everything you want to ask and go over with yr doc/nurse. Don't launch into radical changes unprepared - you need to work out a strategy which will work for you over the long term. Everybody is different, and nobody on message boards etc is an expert in anything but their own diabetes, so what works for them may or may not be right for you.

Good luck!

 

[karloc]

Thank you for the welcome.
I have been reading lots and lots - so much information 🙂

My story (I think) is a bit different to most (obviously similarities at points)
I was actually relieved (i think) to get a diagnosis.
I have been 'unwell' for quite a long time and finally went to the doctor with a suspicion that it was diabetes.
I am overweight, not active enough and bad diet.

Got my blood results for doctor - HbA1c 86 mmol/mol
16 stone (5ft 9) - should be 10 stone according to BMI sites
I have been given Metformin 500mg, 1 a day first week, then 2 a day week 2, and 3 a day to week 3.

I would say that at least half (maybe more) of my carbs daily were from sugar (mmm love that stuff) many coffees, coke, fruit juice.
I have mostly 1 maybe 2 meals a day some times a few biscuits.
I know my diet was bad.

So changes I am starting to make are going to be massive - I know that.
I am not sure the best way of doing it but I have started with dropping sugar, my thinking is I need to add some carbs (low) to my diet throughout the day rather than big hits else I could hit 0 carbs which I think is bad.
I am getting periods of tiredness but I was having them before so tricky to know how its going 🙂

I have decided to get a blood glucose monitoring tester as I think I need to know what my levels are doing. Should arrive in a couple of days.
I have assumed that the Metformin should be per meal and the limit of 1 a day first week etc is about how I get along with that med and if that is the case jumping up to 3 meals a day might not be best. Plus as I need to loose lots of weight I am hoping that keeping my current few meals with dropping sugar and reducing carbs in those meals will help weight loss.

Seeing diabetes nurse in a week or so on my own for now.

One bit of useful information I found is the part fibre plays, it confused me that you need more fibre but its a carb. But I found somewhere that we can't digest fibre so when looking at the amount of carbs in a food, you deduct the fibre figure from the carbs figure to get the digestible carbs figure. Hope this is correct 🙂

 

[Eddy Edson]

One bit of useful information I found is the part fibre plays, it confused me that you need more fibre but its a carb. But I found somewhere that we can't digest fibre so when looking at the amount of carbs in a food, you deduct the fibre figure from the carbs figure to get the digestible carbs figure. Hope this is correct

In the UK, food labels show "carbs" net of fibre and I think generally showing the amount of fibre is optional unless the vendor is making some kind of "high in fibre" claim. In the US, carbs include fibre and fibre is shown separately. Worth bearing in mind if you're looking at US sites for nutrient info.

I really don't like the UK way of doing things. For one thing, I want to know how much fibre I'm eating.

For another, some fibre actually does get converted into glucose. This is highly variable & depends on the type of fibre, the person, your gut microbes, phases of the moon etc etc, but it can have an impact. Eg: the American Diabetes Association carb-counting recommendations say include half the amount of fibre in your carb count if you're eating more than 5g (I think) in a meal.

Finally, calorie counts generally do the same thing: include half the amount of fibre for calorie purposes. So if you're micromanaging calories it's hard to do if fibre is missing from the food labelling.

 

[karloc]

Ok thanks, so some high fibre foods are just high carbs anyway.
I had a feeling that people would vary with how they deal with fibre.
I'm in the UK

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome from me too.

Biggest tip is to take Metformin with a significant meal, not just a snack and take it mid meal. It doesn't matter too much when you take it, morning and night is usually suggested but if you only have a light breakfast then lunch and evening is probably better. Only eating 2 meals a day is not a problem in itself and some of us find that is best once we embark on a low carb diet with just a small snack to tide us over in between . Most people get some digestive upset from Metformin in the early days/weeks, which is why introduction is slow, to allow the body to get used to it, but if you take it mid meal and you are still getting unacceptable side effects after a couple of weeks, ask for the slow release version.
Good luck getting your BG under control. It takes a bit of getting your head around but we have all been on that roller coaster journey.... I too was a sugar addict pre diagnosis and it feels good to be back in control of that although I may now have developed a blue cheese addiction!!

 

[karloc]

My blood glucose monitoring tester arrived early - yay
13.00 - 8.1 (very few carbs this morning)
13.30 - Light lunch (no metformin)
14.30 - 9.2
16.00 - 9.0
Not to bad I think 🙂

 

[ScottCourt]

Can I ask what tester you went for. I seem to be in a very similar situation. Thanks

 

[karloc]

The codefree one from amazon as recommended on here somewhere 🙂
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codefree-G...r_1_6?keywords=codefree&qid=1568322534&sr=8-6
As far as I can tell it works fine, only come with 10 strips so got some extra and some stabby things

 

[ScottCourt]

Thank you. Excuse my ignorance but you need a new stabby thing every time you test?

I’ve started on the Metformin once per day with the evening meal (2 days in) but then need to move up to 2 per day in a week.

 

[Eddy Edson]

Most people here seem to use the same stabby thing until it gets too blunt - so for several months. That’s what I do.

 

[SueEK]

I change my shabby thing every few days x

 

[karloc]

I thought that i would just get new stabby thing for each time as they were relatively inexpensive £7 for 300. I may change over time 🙂

 

[SueEK]

I thought that i would just get new stabby thing for each time as they were relatively inexpensive £7 for 300. I may change over time 🙂

I used to use a fresh one each time but I bruise whether it’s used once or a dozen times and tester only on the second lightest setting, obviously I’m a delicate little petal lol x

 

[karloc]

Morning reading 5.7 - My first reading in a good range, time to celebrate with some sugar - lol

 

[rebrascora]

Congrats on a great fasting reading! Looks like you are getting the hang of things very quickly. Well done!

I'm one of those that uses the same lancet (stabby thing) for months without any problem. I have very thick skin and need it on the top setting but I haven't noticed any problems with using it multiple times and the only time I change it is when it stops penetrating the skin on the top setting or I have to massage my finger a lot after pricking it to get blood as that is when your fingers get sore. I tend to use the same finger for a day and the next finger the following day. I sometimes test as often as 10 times a day and don't have any problems with sore fingers. I guess I am the opposite of @SueEK

 

[karloc]

Thank you, I am sure it will take time to properly get a handle on it, but trying to understand 🙂
3 hours after 5.7 jumped to 7.1 - little bit surprised after 2 white coffees (oh how i miss you sugar) and small tomato juice - learn learn learn 🙂
But starting to feel less tired which will help in increasing my activity.
Slight blurry vision issue this morning. But I have glasses and vision changing (focus distance) was an issue I had so I guess it will take a while to settle and I am overdue for new glasses anyway.
Reading / long distance lenses are ok but the Task-oriented lenses have changed since yesterday.

 

[rebrascora]

It is normal for BG to wander upwards once you get up and about in the morning. It is called the Dawn Phenomena (DP) and is caused by the liver releasing Glycogen into the blood stream supposedly to give you the energy to chase down and kill a woolly mammoth! If you are able to take a brisk walk, that may bring it down.
I also used to love sugar in my coffee and it had steadily crept up to the point that I just shook some in out of the sugar pot which would easily equate to 3 heaped teaspoons. I stopped drinking coffee when I was first diagnosed because I didn't want it without sugar. Now that my tastes have changed and I have broken my sugar addiction, I am back to drinking coffee but I have it with cream and milk instead of sugar and milk and I love it. It has taken a little bit of time to adjust, but the cream just seems to make it sweeter and smoother and it fits in with my Low Carb High Fat diet. I used to feel quite guilty about such luxuries as coffee with cream but then I remember that there are so many other things that I can no longer have, that many people take for granted and I accept that my morning coffee and cream just makes up for that. I decided that cream was preferable to eating lots of sweeteners which just feed your sweet tooth and make you continue to crave sweet things rather than re-educate your palette.
I still have days when my sight is better and other days when it is worse and I am 7 months down the line with my diabetes diagnosis. My distance sight is good but some days I need glasses to read the computer screen and food labels etc and other days I can manage without. I will say that my BG levels are still higher than normal most of the time (in the 8-10 range), so perhaps it will settle when I maintain better control. Getting your insulin and BG levels balanced is a tricky business!