New Here... Probably Been Undiagnosed Diabetic for Years! ☹

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Ciryluk3g

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Hi I'm new here I went to my Doctors for an unrelated issue and upon further investigation it was discovered that I have diabetes and given my blood sugar results I have probably been a diabetic for several years... on Tuesday my doctor took a blood sugar reading it was 18.6... not good! I have been prescribed Metformin and have an appointment to see the diabetic nurse... the earliest appointment is 4 weeks from now... I have been told I will probably need more than just Metformin going forwards but one step at a time. If I hadn't gone to my Doctors for the other issue I probably would have been on my way to an early grave because I have had no obvious outward symptoms like excess urination or excessive thirst... I did have a fungal/bacterial infection in one of my big toes last year but it was an isolated issue I don't generally have issues with my feet...

I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything... I have purged my fridge and cupboards of all the unhealthy snacks and replaced with diabetic friendly ones. I have purchased an at home Glucose Monitor and my blood sugar levels have come down a bit since Tuesday but they are still very high! I have signed up to a local weight loss support thingy and can get a heavily subsidised membership to the local council run pool/leisure/gym facilities... £38 for 3 months the first drop in session next Tuesday and I've roped in a friend for mutual support!

Thanks for reading this far and I hope to gain as much support and knowledge as possible from this forum.

~☆Chez☆~
 
Hi and welcome.

Sounds like you have made a great start. Look forward to following your progress.
 
No surprise about how you feel about your diagnosis. We've all been there and got that T-shirt. Although your BG is high some of us were diagnosed with even higher levels but have still managed to turn things around through a combination of diet, being more active and (if needed) losing some weight, in some cases coming off medication altogether.

Sounds like you've made a good start with diet and exercise. Shame you're having to wait so long for your DN appointment but at least it gives you an opportunity to work on bringing down your BG a little more in the meantime, which might influence the choice of medication.
 
Ciryluk3g said:
Hi I'm new here I went to my Doctors for an unrelated issue and upon further investigation it was discovered that I have diabetes and given my blood sugar results I have probably been a diabetic for several years... on Tuesday my doctor took a blood sugar reading it was 18.6... not good! I have been prescribed Metformin and have an appointment to see the diabetic nurse... the earliest appointment is 4 weeks from now... I have been told I will probably need more than just Metformin going forwards but one step at a time. If I hadn't gone to my Doctors for the other issue I probably would have been on my way to an early grave because I have had no obvious outward symptoms like excess urination or excessive thirst... I did have a fungal/bacterial infection in one of my big toes last year but it was an isolated issue I don't generally have issues with my feet...

I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything... I have purged my fridge and cupboards of all the unhealthy snacks and replaced with diabetic friendly ones. I have purchased an at home Glucose Monitor and my blood sugar levels have come down a bit since Tuesday but they are still very high! I have signed up to a local weight loss support thingy and can get a heavily subsidised membership to the local council run pool/leisure/gym facilities... £38 for 3 months the first drop in session next Tuesday and I've roped in a friend for mutual support!

Thanks for reading this far and I hope to gain as much support and knowledge as possible from this forum.

~☆Chez☆~
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum, I hope you will find it helpful in finding a way forward. You certainly have taken on board your diagnosis so well done for that. One important thing to find out will be your HbA1C result which is used for diabenosis rather than a finger prick sample which is just a moment in time and therefore is influenced by many factors mostly what you have eaten. The HbA1C is in simple terms the average over the previous 3 months and a result over 47mmol/mol would be a diabetes diagnosis. Metformin is usually the first medication alongside dietary changes and exercise which is prescribed and in many cases that will be sufficient indeed many have found diet only can be successful.
Have a look at this link for some ideas for modifying your diet https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
There is good information and some meal plans.
Using you monitor to check out your meals is a good strategy, test before you eat and after 2 hours, you would be aiming at no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase after 2 hours. Eventually the aim is 4-7 fasting and before meals and no more than 8-8.5 mmol/l after 2 hours.
 
Leadinglights said:
Welcome to the forum, I hope you will find it helpful in finding a way forward. You certainly have taken on board your diagnosis so well done for that. One important thing to find out will be your HbA1C result which is used for diabenosis rather than a finger prick sample which is just a moment in time and therefore is influenced by many factors mostly what you have eaten. The HbA1C is in simple terms the average over the previous 3 months and a result over 47mmol/mol would be a diabetes diagnosis. Metformin is usually the first medication alongside dietary changes and exercise which is prescribed and in many cases that will be sufficient indeed many have found diet only can be successful.
Have a look at this link for some ideas for modifying your diet https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
There is good information and some meal plans.
Using you monitor to check out your meals is a good strategy, test before you eat and after 2 hours, you would be aiming at no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase after 2 hours. Eventually the aim is 4-7 fasting and before meals and no more than 8-8.5 mmol/l after 2 hours.
Click to expand...
My HbA1C test result was 96mmol/mol so unfortunately definitely a diabetes diagnosis... results of other blood tests they ran were not great either; mild Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Low Calcium in my bones, very low Vitamin D and ridiculously high cholesterol... I have been given also high strength Vitamin D tablets and they have a fasting blood test to complete re: cholesterol but given the results from the other blood tests I will probably be on meds for that too... lucky me!

Thanks for the information I was wondering whens the best time to test my blood and I will check out that link!
 
Ciryluk3g said:
My HbA1C test result was 96mmol/mol so unfortunately definitely a diabetes diagnosis... results of other blood tests they ran were not great either; mild Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Low Calcium in my bones, very low Vitamin D and ridiculously high cholesterol... I have been given also high strength Vitamin D tablets and they have a fasting blood test to complete re: cholesterol but given the results from the other blood tests I will probably be on meds for that too... lucky me!

Thanks for the information I was wondering whens the best time to test my blood and I will check out that link!
Click to expand...
People check their blood first thing in the morning to get an indication of progress day to day, week to week etc but in the early day test as suggested to find what meals are tolerated, if too high in carbohydrates then the 2 hour post meal reading will be greater than 2-3mmol/l. You should also test if you feel unwell.
Once you get an idea of what meals are tolerated then you would not need to test those again and only test when you have something new.
 
Ciryluk3g said:
Thanks for the information I was wondering whens the best time to test my blood and I will check out that link!
Click to expand...
Random testing won't tell you anything meaningful so is best avoided. Most of us follow a regime of testing on waking, without eating or drinking anything beforehand. This is a fasting test as you'll have been asleep for several hours. I've usually tested within 5 minutes of getting up.

The other is to test pre- and post-meal, as outlined by @Leadinglights
 
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Welcome to the forum @Ciryluk3g

Sorry to hear you’ve had a rather dramatic brush with diabetes - without any symptoms for forewarn you that something might be ‘up’.

Sounds like you’ve leapt into action and are keen to tackle it head-on though. Well done!

Hopefully the changes you’ve already made will gradually see your numbers improve over the coming weeks, and the results from your BG meter can help you to fine-tune your menu based on your unique metabolism, gut biome, and genetic make-up 🙂
 
Thanks everyone well from my limited experience testing my BG levels my bread seems to be ok (but I will be cutting down my bread consumption)... but Bananas... I ate one last night after my evening meal and my BG was still high'ish (for me) this morning so no more Bananas for me ☹... I have 3 left which I shall chop in half and put in the freezer and eat whenever I am craving some Ice Cream *sigh* My BG have come down alot vs what it was on the day of my diagnosis but it's still sitting around 11.0 mmol/l which is not ideal but atleast it's not in the dangerous category (as per the little chart with my BG monitor) now I'm trying to get my BG down into the "Borderline" category as per my chart... it's nearly there... I was 1000mg of Metformin to start and told to start with 500mg for a week until side effects subside... I didn't get any side effects so I made the executive decision to increase my dose early... I am still not *touch wood* experiencing any side effects so I hope I see some more improvement to my BG over the coming weeks.... I have ordered some books too "The 8 week Blood Sugar Diet" and some Diabetic recipe books and a Diabetic journal thing so I can start properly logging all of my meals, BG readings, exercise and anything else I want to add.

I am making salt and chilli squid with vegetables fried rice this evening.... and will cry if I can no longer eat rice! Although I do have some nifty ways of jazzing up cauliflower rice so it might not be so bad!
 
Ciryluk3g said:
told to start with 500mg for a week until side effects subside... I didn't get any side effects so I made the executive decision to increase my dose early...
Click to expand...

Some people don’t seem to be troubled with side effects from Metformin at all. Others have them briefly, but find they subside in time, or settle if the dose is increased gradually. There are an unfortunate few who get very dramatic side effects that don’t seem to recede - but thankfully there are many other classes of meds for T2 that can be tried instead 🙂
 
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