30 on a finger prick is very high - my 20 nearly threw the diabetic nurse into a tizzy. It is frustrating that the main thing you got from your GP (I'm assuming it was your GP) was pills and confusion. Wrote this in answer to another post and it may help to get you started.
First principles. Your GP should have put you on their diabetic register. This means you should have a check over by a diabetic nurse who should become your friend. Between you, you should work out a plan to get your blood glucose down. This will be a mix of meds and diet. You will need to work out a monitoring regime so you can check on progress.
Again first principles. Blood glucose comes from the carbohydrates you eat. More carbohydrate, more blood glucose and if your insulin production is not working at full tilt then the blood glucose can build up and you become diabetic. So when it comes to diet the objective is to reduce carbohydrates. Simple sugars are carbohydrates. Complex starches are also carbohydrates. All are turned into glucose and you need to take all into account. Cutting out carbs is a good idea but doing it without without thinking about it is not a good idea.
Again first principles. If you are overweight then loosing some weight is likely to be beneficial. The reason it is said is that it is fat in the pancreas that impairs its function and getting rid of that fat will get it working better. Some say you can reverse diabetes by doing this and probably for some you can. Anyway if you need to loose weight (a good idea if your BMI is in the obese or overweight category for reasons other than controlling diabetes), then working out a diet which targets weight loss by reducing carbs is an obvious way to go. You need to do it in a structured fashion - trying to dump all carbs overnight or just stopping taking sugar in your tea are not good enough. The first will make you feel rotten and the second will have no effect. Depends on how enlightened your GP surgery is but you might get to see a dietitian who can help. If you are not overweight then low carbs is good for your diabetes but you will need to up other things to keep your calories up - you do not want to become underweight.
More first principles. Medication. First thing to try is metformin which is said to help your insulin to work better. Works well for some, does not work at all for others. Can get up to a dose of 2000mg/day but many find the side effects of the higher doses make it unacceptable. If the metformin does not help then the next move is use pills that stimulate the panceas into making more insulin - gliclazide being a common one. Get this wrong with a low carb diet and then you can go hypo, so it is something that has to be done with care. If they don't help then its insulin but that is a long way down the line and should be resorted to when all else has failed.
Final first principles. Welcome to the club nobody wants to join. Diabetes is something that needs to be managed and can be managed successfully and the reality is that you have to be the manager. The DN I see told me that the most frustrating patients she sees are those who expect her to fix their problem without them doing anything, so be prepared to take control, decent medics will appreciate it. So don't panic, what looks confusing will slowly begin to make sense. You can then work out what will work best for you. A good start is to read some of the contributions on this forum.
