• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Interested to hear what help you got at first diagnosis

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
I was also told not to bother trying to lose weight and to just “shut up and take the medication”.
Good grief! What training in interpersonal skills do some medics get? None by the sounds of it! o_O :D😳
 
I was also told not to bother trying to lose weight and to just “shut up and take the medication”.
We have some rubbish Dr's out there giving that sort of advice makes me wonder why they took that career, you can have all the medical qualifications in the world but if you cant communicate it's not worth jack.
 
I was also told not to bother trying to lose weight and to just “shut up and take the medication”.
The dr who is the diabetes expert in the surgery, told me not to eat porridge for breakfast (fair enough)but to.have muesli instead. Also not to bother testing. I was too taken aback by it all and didnt ask any questions. Believe me, two years down the line, i won't put up with that anymore. I go armed with questions. Lucky Dr.
 
Diagnosed aged 4 1/2 (1965) by mother who took me to the Drs and said I was diabetic. Dr said rubbish over anxious parent go away, but if you must bring in a urine sample when you are passing.

Mum was a nurse so promptly handed it over then and there Dr came back with a look of shock on his face closed the surgery and took both mum and I to the hospital. Stopping to tell Dad on the way as he was on duty at the fire station.
According to mum he came and apologised to her at home afterwards. ( I bet that wouldn't happen these days)

Hospital Drs said it was unusual to have a child so young with diabetes and they had no experience here's a syringe and some insulin don't expect her to live many years.

Mum promptly set out to prove them wrong and almost 56years later I'm still alive and kicking 🙂
 
Diagnosed aged 4 1/2 (1965) by mother who took me to the Drs and said I was diabetic. Dr said rubbish over anxious parent go away, but if you must bring in a urine sample when you are passing.

Mum was a nurse so promptly handed it over then and there Dr came back with a look of shock on his face closed the surgery and took both mum and I to the hospital. Stopping to tell Dad on the way as he was on duty at the fire station.
According to mum he came and apologised to her at home afterwards. ( I bet that wouldn't happen these days)

Hospital Drs said it was unusual to have a child so young with diabetes and they had no experience here's a syringe and some insulin don't expect her to live many years.

Mum promptly set out to prove them wrong and almost 56years later I'm still alive and kicking 🙂
Thank god for mums she done good didn't she.
 
Not a diabetes story but I did once have a complete breakdown in the joyous moments of the onset of a major depression episode when a GP said “Have you thought about turning your life to Jesus?”

He’s no longer a GP.
 
Not a diabetes story but I did once have a complete breakdown in the joyous moments of the onset of a major depression episode when a GP said “Have you thought about turning your life to Jesus?”

He’s no longer a GP.
What is the matter with these GPs. I often wonder if they attend a core module at med school 'Being rude and dissmisive to patients' . Reading all these experiences, i am at a loss to understand why they behave like this.
 
Can you imagine how furious that 'advice' would have made ANY mother?

There were some right bitchy women who went into nursing in those days Sue - my poor 'big' sister had to have an eye operation and it wasn't till she was over 60 that she told me how nasty they'd been.
 
I wasnt offered much advice at all, but was referred to a Desmond course, which I wasn’t offered an appointment for till 7.5 months after diagnosis, luckily, I found this forum soon after and almost lived on this forum for about 2-3 months reading as much as I could take in.
I also read many books recommended here about LCHF diets .
I suspect that whatever advice was available then has beome much more sparse in the light of COVID 19 restrictions so this forum is more invaluable than ever, keep up the good work all.
& Merry Xmas to all...
 
Not a diabetes story but I did once have a complete breakdown in the joyous moments of the onset of a major depression episode when a GP said “Have you thought about turning your life to Jesus?”

He’s no longer a GP.
I turned to Jesus when a major depression/Anxiety raised it's ugly head early last year but Jesus didn't want to know, so turned to a great GP who I will only see now and Meds and that worked, don't know where Jesus was 😉
 
To be fair, J knew there was someone better qualified than him to help you at that time!
 

Interested to hear what help you got at first diagnosis​


Bugger all. :D
 
I was told over the phone and booked a gp appointment who then told me to book an appointment with the nurse. The nurse said o had type 2 and they gave me Metformin and some leaflets on healthy eating. I was a bit surprised by the diagnosis at 42 and no risk factors. Got thinner and thinner and on the advice of members here, bought a meter to find my bs going up and up. Asked about my Hbaic which was 11. Something. Metformin raised then put on glic by nurse who popped into a gp to sign the form. He asked for a urine sample to check ketone, i went back to work. Next morning g surgery rang asking for another urine sample. Dropped one off on way to work. Got a call mid.morning from gp asking me to leave work and go straight to A&E. Took 9 months, but finally got type 1 diagnosis, having lost 2.5 stone and feeling like the living dead.
 
Hey @stephknits - my GP sent me to hospital as an in-patient (No panic, tomorrow morning at 10am will be fine!) so at approx 1pm Nurse sashays in bearing kidney dish and says I do have diabetes and she's going to give me my first injection. Never felt a thing other than her fingertips on my leg and then she was swabbing it again, just about to give her a piece of my mind - get on with it woman! - but she'd finished. About 5 minutes after, a sort of internal fizzing feeling started in the soles of both my feet, and this gradually moved up my legs and the rest of me. That was seriously weird, was a bit scared to breathe while it was happening TBH.

When I considered it afterwards, it's amusing to imagine every cell in my body, opening their doors again one by one. Bloomin stiff doors with rusty hinges, quite probably creaked.
 
I was hospitalised early in November. A week. Not much fun. They did not monitor my food (in fact some of it was not suitable for diabetics). The consultant at the end of my stay said that I was type one diabetic but they were not sure as all the blood tests were not back and the ones that they did have were confusing.

I was given a blood test meter. And a pamflet. And that was it. I felt like a tiny grain of crushed star dust in an overwhelmingly huge bustling but mostly empty universe. Lost. Shocked. Alone. Insignificant.

I got home and the district nurse came over a couple of times after a few days. The GP set up my meds of metfotmin and insulin and then I was basically left on my own for a month. My initial home BG test results were all over the place, getting as high as 12 and as low as 4.2 (that was when I was advised to reduce my insulin and to, er, experiment).

I then had an eye test and a visit from the extensive care team.

And then.... Again... Nothing at all for a few weeks.

No advice on diet. No advice on insulin. No advice on injecting before meals. I was given a two minute talk on the tester at the hospital but the nurse had to rush away. All the people I have seen seem to be doing a tick box exercise and nothing changed as a result of anything I said or the concerns that I raised.

I had to work things out for myself and discovered this forum which I found very helpful and sympathetic. Everything that I said they took seriously and gave the best answers that they could. They said that what I had mentioned to them made no sense for a type 1 diabetic. They were as helpful and as reassuring as posible.

I was totally confused and shocked at the start of it all and just totally confused at the end 2 days ago where the doctor pronounced that my blood tests had come back (two months later) and I was not diabetic after all. He only told me after I had rung to ask to speak to him otherwise I might never have found out.

So yes, it seems that people can be left on their own to sort themselves out, perhaps thee NHS know that that is how they will have to cope for the rest of their lives. It is a steep learning curve too, let alone the shock and impact on their lives and families. You have to push to get the NHS to notice you and to get what you need, and, yes, they really are overworked and over busy, ignoring the virus impact on them and everyone else.

I am sure things could be done better. eg

More information right at the start about what you are dealing with
Someone you can contact easily about those inevitable early questions
Contact right at the start with a dietician or medical expert on what (for you personally) to eat and, if appropriate, how to dose insulin correctly.
Contact details of a local support group
A printed general list of good foods/bad foods from which you can chose
Local medical help availability at weekends
Be given an app or a link to an app that will help with meals and what they contain (carbs, calories etc) so you can plan your days meals sensibly and appropriately.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top