I'm here! Sorry I'm early

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GazS

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Type 2
Hi. My name is Gary.
I was diagnosed with Type 2 last week (HbA1C 70) after months of struggling with Sciatic neuropathy. As a result of severe leg and back pain I could hardly walk (yet alone exercise) so my weight sky rocketed. This coupled with bad diet and nosey doctors (looking at my blood test results!! lol) gave me the news I thought I'd avoid for a few years longer.
My diet was altered during my sciatica in a bid to keep my 'stomach matter' (lol) flowing while on painkillers, then I decided to make a lifestyle change after discovering my hypertension had increased. As a result I hope I am now on the path to reverse the diagnosis.
This seems like a very friendly and handy community to which I hope I can interact with regularly.
See you in the forums! 🙂
 
Hi Garry and welcome.

Sounds like you are getting to grips with your diagnosis and making some positive changes already. If it helps, my dietary changes as a result of diagnosis changed a lot of other things for the better and I haven't had bad sciatica since diagnosis and change of diet.... no
more migraines which were a very severe and regular occurrence and joint pain in general is much improved, plus I have much better control over my disordered eating so all in all, there were lots of positives to come of it. I hope you will find similar benefits.

If you have any questions or need any advice or support just shout up and ask.

Good luck with your diabetes journey! I hope you find it makes you healthier as it has me.
 
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Hi @rebrascora Thank you.

Wow, that's amazing, I hope I glean the same benefits from my healthier lifestyle.

Perhaps you could shine some light on a query I posted in another section - I've copy and pasted below:

I have recently (20/07) been diagnosed T2. I have ordered a Blood Glucose Monitor to keep an eye on my levels. However, my NHS app indicates that if I am asymptomatic I should have another blood test in four weeks. As they have given me three months to see if I can beat this into remission, I wondered if it was normal to have a blood test every month or does it wait until the third month? My HbA1C was 70 a month ago and 63 last week but I am confident that my lifestyle change will make a good impact.

TIA 🙂
 
Because you were asymptomatic, they need a second confirmatory HbA1c above 47, to give you a formal diagnosis of diabetes..... just to make sure there was no mistake at the lab etc or it was a minor blip in your system. This is usually when people's HbA1c was just over the diabetes threshold in the high 40s or low 50s, but some clinicians follow the guidance for higher HbA1c results. If you were symptomatic, then one HbA1c above 47 gets you a diagnosis.

The HbA1c test itself, is sort of a measure of your average BG levels over the past 3 months so doing it more frequently than every 3 months is not particularly helpful. Basically the test measures the amount of glucose stuck to your red blood cells and they live about 3 months during which they attract glucose hence the 3 month average. Once your BG levels are under better management and stable and more in range, then HbA1c tests are usually annual of biannual, just to keep a check on things but in the early stages after diagnosis, it is not uncommon for them to be 3 monthly to determine if lifestyle changes and medication are appropriate and working.

Hope that answers your question...
 
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Thank you so much, that is brilliant; concise and understandable.

Although I think my 'diet/lifestyle' is sustainable overall, I am hoping that I can get to the point where I can reintroduce the odd treat as a reward at the weekend to make all this hard work worthwhile. I'd also like to avoid medication.

Thanks again 🙂
 
Hi Gary and welcome to the forum. It is indeed a very friendly and informative place to visit :D

Like yourself, I was diagnosed diabetic following a visit to the docs for something else (stomach issues). My GP was very thorough and I had blood tests taken as well as the other obvious tests. Long story short, I was also diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease as well as diabetes but the low carb approach to my diabetes is also controlling the stomach issues - double bonus!!

Being diagnosed diabetic didn't really come as a surprise. It was a shock but not a surprise. It has however been the kick up the backside I've needed to get my act together 😉

Don't worry about asking questions on here. You will find very knowledgeable people always willing to answer.
 
Hi Deb.
Indeed, the sciatica has been the kick up the bum I needed. Hopefully the lifestyle change will benefit my health in all sorts of ways. Good luck keeping your act together 😉
 
Yes, my gut/bowel health improved too on low carb. I do use a fibre supplement (chia seeds and psyllium husk) to replace the fibre that I am no longer getting from wholemeal bread and pasta and potatoes that I used to eat and I think that increased soluble fibre has also been beneficial in reducing cholesterol..... so lots of wins from the situation once i got my head around it.
 
So, having had the diagnosis for a few weeks now, I have settled into a controlled lifestyle change to try and achieve remission.

My diet is so far from how I used to eat but I don't feel at all cheated or hard done by. My wife and I have resumed our daily brisk walks of around 5 miles and my weight is steadily decreasing. I have been checking my blood sugar fairly regularly to see how spikes occur with certain (naughty) foods and my body seems to be reacting as you would expect i.e. up to about 7-7.2 after food and then dropping back to normal. Normal was 5.7 when I first got the monitor (Accu Chek Active) but has dropped now to 4.7, which I am happy with. The only blip was a week ago when we went out for a special meal and I couldn't resist having a dessert - treacle sponge with custard 😱 which elevated my sugar levels (7.2) from then (9pm) until I went to bed. However, it had returned to normal by morning.

The longer this seems to improve, the more it would seem that those HbA1C levels 70 (14th June) and 63 (18th July) were a blip due to being incapacitated by sciatic neuropathy, weight increase due to being unable to exercise and a bad diet.
I am hoping that by my next blood test (around end of September - start of October) my A1C will drop into the 30's.

Am I kidding myself or would my scenario be more common than you think? Thank you.
 
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From those readings I think you have every right to expect a good HbA1c result and almost certainly in the normal range unless something goes horribly wrong in the meantime. WELL DONE!!

As regards whether it is some blip due to being incapacitated by the sciatica, I don't think that would happen in a non-diabetic person.... ie not everyone who gets laid up, develops diabetes or has temporarily raised BG levels, just like not everyone who is overweight develops diabetes, so I would suggest there is some predisposition to diabetes, but that you are managing it very well at the moment. I am not saying that you won't be able to relax things a bit but if you put weight back on and become ,more sedentary again I would imagine it will re-emerge.
Those are just my non medically trained thoughts....
 
GazS said:
I am hoping that by my next blood test (around end of September - start of October) my A1C will drop into the 30's.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update @GazS

Well done on the progress you have made so far, and those results you are seeing around food look very encouraging.

Fingers crossed you see your hard work reflected in your A1c update next month 🙂
 
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