Just to introduce myself

[arnoldtrubshaw]

Hello, well it said I ought to post here and say hello so here I am. I've been a member of Diabetes UK for years but never tried the messageboard before.

I have Late Onset Type 2 Diabetes, which my father and grandmother got when they were around 50, I got it when I was 38 - which my GP says is most likely because I work shifts.

I was diagnosed in 2013, managed to control my blood glucose by diet and exercise for three or four years before my readings got worse and I had to wave the white flag and go on Metformin.

During the first phase of having Diabetes I was hopeful of reversing it - I did much more running and cycling, and lost a stone in weight. I wasn't overweight to start with, and although it did help, and I was pretty fit, but it didn't cure it - and actually my HBA1C results gradually deteriorated.

So my GP says that my Diabetes is most likely genetic, and it's unlikely that I'll be able to reverse it with an ultra-low-calorie diet like some people can.

An added complication is that I have Long Covid - I'm fairly high functioning as people with LC go, the trouble is that if I exercise too hard and cross an invisible line, I fall off a cliff energy-wise and am back to struggling to get up the stairs and getting out of breath tying my shoelaces and so on, and it can take months to recover every time I do that. If I led a sedentary life and drove everywhere and didn't exercise, I'd probably be fine - but unfortunately I kind of rely on exercise to keep on top of my weight, my blood glucose, and my mental health.

So I've found that if I do gentle exercise and don't let my heart rate go above 150, I seem to avoid provoking my LC. I don't like this much, I used to love racing and running as hard as I could, but it's much better than not being able to do it at all.

I was on Metformin and Gliclazide, but my weight was starting to creep up so last October my GP took my off the Gliclazide and put me on Canagliflozin and Metformin instead. Despite not doing much exercise - as I'd had a Long Covid energy crash at the end of October, and I was struggling for energy and also fearful of setting it off again by over-exercising - the weight fell off me. I lost a stone and 2 pounds in four months, and was lighter than when I'd been able to run marathons and do sub-20 minute 5k races.

Sadly although this was effective at reducing my body mass, it didn't improve my blood glucose levels much.

So now I'm back on Gliclazide as well as the Metformin and Canagliflozin and I don't know if it's got anything to do with the Gliclazide but my weight is creeping back up again, despite the fact I'm now doing a bit more exercise again. I've now put on four pounds since changing my medication.

That's me and my diabetic story, anyway. Hello everybody.

 

[s'nic]

Welcome to the forum

it's unlikely that I'll be able to reverse it with an ultra-low-calorie diet like some people can.

Many T2 folks here have found it's a low carb (not no-carb) diet that has helped their diabetes (carbs convert to glucose). Each persons carb tolerance varies but low carb is seen as under 130 carbs a day.

An added complication is that I have Long Covid - I'm fairly high functioning as people with LC go, the trouble is that if I exercise too hard and cross an invisible line, I fall off a cliff energy-wise and am back to struggling to get up the stairs and getting out of breath tying my shoelaces and so on, and it can take months to recover every time I do that.

I have the same thing, it's just nasty. I refer to it as breaking myself. I unavoidably had to do too much last march and broke myself, low energy, low stamina, not able to do much at all. I didn't start feeling like myself til we were near the end of summer.
I have an added complication that an ectopic heartbeat can also make me breathless. I wear a sports watch and keep an eye on my body stress / body battery. If stresses are too high, and body battery consistently lower than I want then I have to set time aside to rest, or take a lie down while watching some tv.

If you have a sports watch, is that any help to you in managing your energy levels?

 

[arnoldtrubshaw]

It's horrible isn't it? It's partly just not knowing how much activity will set it off - every time it's happened, I've felt fine during that activity that caused it and there's been no clue that I was overdoing things.

I've got the Visible Plus app (which costs me £15 a month) and wear a Polar heart rate monitor on my upper arm that's linked to the app on my phone, it helps me monitor what's going on and detected a mild case of tachycardia in January that otherwise might have led to me breaking myself again... however I'm not sure quite how useful it is for the expense, I think it might be more helpful for people with more severe LC than I've got, people who can't even get to the end of their road.

I do have a Garmin Fenix 5 sports watch which also takes my heart rate through the wrist sensor, and although I don't trust that as being accurate, the readings do seem fairly similar to the Polar HRM.

The Fenix 5 doesn't do Body Battery I think - my friend has a Fenix 7 and that does... I did think of a Fenix 7 as being too expensive (even secondhand, I'm a classic Late Adopter and get most of my tech secondhand, my Fenix 5 cost me £50) but maybe if I stopped paying £15 a month to Visible I could afford it.

I've generally been trying to avoid carbs (or limit the amount of them I eat) ever since diagnosis, and it does help a lot both in terms of actually getting energy from the food that I eat, and also in keeping my weight down or helping me lose it. Recently I tried wearing a Libre Freestyle 2 glucose monitor for a bit and it made me re-learn all the lessons I'd learned back in 2013 about what food and drink I should or shouldn't eat, and had gradually forgotten over time (or started ignoring a bit, once I was on Metformin). It was hard, when my GP said my Diabetes had degenerated to a point where I had to go on medication - but I was pretty much a full-time diabetic, spending most of my spare time exercising or cooking so I'd have suitable food to eat at work.

I find keeping carbs down isn't so bad until I have to leave the house and go and do things in the outside world... if I have to eat out, or buy lunch or tea from the Co-Op or the canteen at work, that's where it all starts to become much harder...

 

[s'nic]

Garmin have a pretty good reputation for accuracy on heart monitors as i understand it.
It was more than I wanted to pay at the time, but I picked up a garmin forerunner 45 plus when it was on sale, figured it would track steps so I could track activity - the stress readings were a shock tho - before I started on a beta blocker my stress readings were 80-90 while sleeping! This lead me to realise I can have some visibility of the quantity of ectopic beats I have even when I do not feel them as they clearly show as elevated body stress.
I doctor I spoke to recently said they also have a garmin, and they are a big fan of them.
I found this from 10 months ago "The fenix 5 series is not compatible with the body battery feature. Only fenix 6 series and up." It may be worth checking if any downloadable widgets may have been developed since then tho.

When eating in work or when out and about it may be possible to bring something from home to eat, but of course that may not work for you with timescales, facilities in work, etc etc

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

Sorry to hear that LC is restricting what you can do to manage your diabetes. Did your parents eventually end up on insulin? The reason I ask is that I wonder if perhaps you might be LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults.... a slow onset form of Type 1) rather than Type 2. Not that needing insulin makes you Type 1, but at the time your parents were diagnosed it is likely that Type 1 diabetes was considered a childhood condition and therefore they must be Type 2. Indeed many GPs are still under the misapprehension that Type 1 only exhibits in children and young adults, when there are many of us who developed it later in life. LADA often presents like Type 2 and can often be managed for months or even many years through lifestyle and Type 2 medication but gradually the remaining insulin producing beta cells get to a point where there are not enough of them left to deal with even a very reduced carb diet and you reach a tipping point where exogenous insulin is needed.
It sounds like you have been working really hard to manage or reverse your "Type 2" and that has not worked and you don't sound like you fit the typical Type 2 profile and the sudden loss of weight with increasing BG levels all suggest to me that LADA is a possibility. Just my thoughts....

 

[s'nic]

I can't tell if body battery would be as much of a game changer for you as it is for me, but here are three screenshots, the white line show body battery / available energy as perceived by the watch. The high stress one was while I slept in february this year, the other two are todays.
If you get the chance of a second hand one that tracks body battery you may find it useful.

 

[arnoldtrubshaw]

When eating in work or when out and about it may be possible to bring something from home to eat, but of course that may not work for you with timescales, facilities in work, etc etc

Yes... it's fine if I've had enough time to cook food in advance, which I do a lot of the time. It's mainly an issue if I've been busy and not had time to do that, or forget to take it out of the freezer the night before. The other issue is that we work 10-hour shifts, so for a lot of the time I need to take two meals to work with me.

 

[Leadinglights]

Yes... it's fine if I've had enough time to cook food in advance, which I do a lot of the time. It's mainly an issue if I've been busy and not had time to do that, or forget to take it out of the freezer the night before. The other issue is that we work 10-hour shifts, so for a lot of the time I need to take two meals to work with me.

Things to take to work can be salads with things like cooked meats, boiled eggs, cheese, tuna, coleslaw, you can add nuts and seeds to your salad. High protein yogurt is very filling.
If you have access to a microwave then home made soups or you could take in a food flask.

 

[arnoldtrubshaw]

Things to take to work can be salads with things like cooked meats, boiled eggs, cheese, tuna, coleslaw, you can add nuts and seeds to your salad. High protein yogurt is very filling.
If you have access to a microwave then home made soups or you could take in a food flask.

I've always found salads go limp and unappetising if taken to work. Am I doing it wrong somehow? Good tip about nuts and seeds, I should do that more.

I do have access to a microwave 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

I've always found salads go limp and unappetising if taken to work. Am I doing it wrong somehow? Good tip about nuts and seeds, I should do that more.

I do have access to a microwave 🙂

If you have a insulated bag which you can put one of those freezer packs and put your salad in a one of those clip boxes that would help. I used to take salad to work, well I say salad but my colleagues used to call it my weed salad as it had all sorts of leaves not just boring lettuce.
You could make extra portions of things like curry, chilli, stews which you can heat up in the microwave.

 

[arnoldtrubshaw]

You could make extra portions of things like curry, chilli, stews which you can heat up in the microwave.

I spend a lot of my days off doing that. The trouble is, I like cooking, and tend to take a bit too much time over it.

I'm definitely on board with all sorts of leaves - I find lettuce a bit boring as well. I'll have to try the insulated bag thing. It takes me about an hour to ride my bike to work and get changed, so I suspect that's probably why taking salad hasn't really worked for me yet. Do you think it's better to add the salad dressing (usually I just use balsamic vinegar and olive oil) at home first, or at work just before eating it?

 

[Leadinglights]

I spend a lot of my days off doing that. The trouble is, I like cooking, and tend to take a bit too much time over it.

I'm definitely on board with all sorts of leaves - I find lettuce a bit boring as well. I'll have to try the insulated bag thing. It takes me about an hour to ride my bike to work and get changed, so I suspect that's probably why taking salad hasn't really worked for me yet. Do you think it's better to add the salad dressing (usually I just use balsamic vinegar and olive oil) at home first, or at work just before eating it?

Definitely take separately and add just before you eat it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @arnoldtrubshaw

Thanks for sharing your story.

It sounds like you were a real fitness fanatic before Long Covid made you take things a little more easily.

Sorry to hear about your rising BG levels, and weight loss. As @rebrascora says, unintentional weight loss, and non-functioning oral meds in a person who had an atypical presentation do raise a few eyebrows on the forum. Some people can have a very slowly-emerging form of autoimmune diabetes that can behave quite like T2 to start with, until the ongoing beta-cell attack gradually reaches a tipping point. This can take several years in some cases.

If the oral meds continue to struggle, it might be worth bearing in mind as a possibility.

 

[Lucyr]

I have Late Onset Type 2 Diabetes, which my father and grandmother got when they were around 50, I got it when I was 38

Do you mean late onset type 2 here? 38 isn’t at all late onset for type 2. The onset of type 2 diabetes is most common in people aged 45–64.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Do you mean late onset type 2 here? 38 isn’t at all late onset for type 2. The onset of type 2 diabetes is most common in people aged 45–64.

It might mean that it is type 2 not type 1 which most people thought you only got as a child. Now folks are more aware you can get either type at any age. At one time type 2 was thought elderly diabetes hence late onset.

 

[Maz2]

I am sorry to hear about your problem. Welcome to the Forum.

With regard to exercise I recall Michael Moseley once saying it is not necessary to go mad with exercise just move a bit.

I have not had long Covid so no idea what you are going through. Could you perhaps take a short walk a couple of times a day maybe 5-10 minutes at a time. I did read that if you are watching TV, for example, if you just get up every 30 mins or so and walk into another room or just do a few stretches that is a good idea too.

Does something like Yoga appeal or chair exercises? It is all exercise.

If you drive could you park a couple of minutes away and walk the rest, slowly if you need to.