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SpookyGirl

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Type 2
Hi I was initially diagnosed with a 7.1% HbA1c back in May 2023. Got myself back to pre-diabetes level in a few weeks and was doing extremely well.
I have enlarged fatty liver, enlarged spleen, gallstones, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis and very overweight. I have, however lost around 3 stones since my first diagnosis.

April this year I got pneumonia. The prescribing nurse refused me antibiotics despite being unable to sleep due to the coughing and noise when trying to sleep. I do not like her as she gatekeep antibiotics and I have had several conditions get worse because of her, including my first ever UTI where I was bleeding and she told me to just drink water.
I also was so breathless I could only just make it to the toilet and back. The nurse gave me Salbutimol and a daily 40mg dose of steroids. In less than 48hrs I was blue lighted to hospital with blood pressure in the 200's/100's range and blood glucose at 24.5mmol/L. This took 24hrs to drop.
Fast forward to the last few weeks. HbA1c is 8.5% (69.5). D/nurse gave me a BG monitor to measure on waking, before and after evening meal and before bed.
I am getting readings all over the place and none lower than 11 mmol/L. I do not want to be on meds.

I have an incredibly stressful life at the moment, compounded by my senior dog needing to be taken in the garden up to 4 times every night so he doesn't wee in the house. Sometimes I am out with him up to 40 minutes in the early hours, so my sleep is getting very disturbed. Yes I have a partner, no he won't get up as he is a sole trader in a very physical job and we rely on him for a roof over our heads. Also the dog, who has heart issues, has terrible seperation anxiety from me so I am pretty housebound. I also have quite bad mobility issues.

If you have made it this far, thank you. I am very scared and would love some support.
 
Hello there @SpookyGirl and may I be the first to welcome you to the forum. You have clearly been through such a lot since your diagnosis and it's indeed a miracle you've made it this far. I do hope and pray your luck continues to improve and you continue to get better.
 
stephenS50 said:
Hello there @SpookyGirl and may I be the first to welcome you to the forum. You have clearly been through such a lot since your diagnosis and it's indeed a miracle you've made it this far. I do hope and pray your luck continues to improve and you continue to get better.
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Thank you for the warm welcome. Sorry for such a long intro but I needed to write it out and it was rather cathartic.
 
Hi @SpookyGirl and welcome to the forum.

That is truly a lot you're having to deal with! Firstly - good job on that weight loss. With all of that going on, I can see how mobility can become a real struggle so please know that you've achieved a lot. It's difficult when you're not taken seriously by medical professionals - I heard someone call it a 'postcode lottery' and sadly sometimes that's really the case. It's not always possible to change who looks after you, but perhaps that's a possibility to look into? Often we have to be our own advocates and fight for ourselves just as hard as we would 'fight' for a friend, making sure we're listened to and heard.
I was also wondering about your senior pup. Sometimes on Facebook marketplace or other sites people give away strollers (there's special ones for dogs), specifically for folk to be able to take their older or injured dogs for a walk. It would be you doing the walking though and your dog enjoying the scents and the view. Perhaps that could help you to get out of the house, spend time with your pup and also get you moving again?
 
SpookyGirl said:
Fast forward to the last few weeks. HbA1c is 8.5% (69.5). D/nurse gave me a BG monitor to measure on waking, before and after evening meal and before bed.
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Sorry to hear about everything you have been going through @SpookyGirl - glad you have found us, and were able to ‘offload’ it. That’s one of the things the forum is great at - being a place to braindump among people who ‘get it’.

Good you’ve been given a BG meter too. Checking levels before and 2hrs after a meal can be a very direct way of observing how your body is responding to different portion-sizes and sources of carbohydrate. In a sense to begin with the numbers themselves could be seen as mattering less than the differences between the before and after. You’d expect to see higher levels after the meal, but the trick is to keep these ‘meal rises’ down to 2-3mmol/L or less.

So a pair of readings 9-11 might both be above the ideal range, but the difference being only a rise of 2mmol/L suggests that the body coped well with the meal.

Whereas 6-11, even though one of the numbers was ‘good’ (hint there are no good or bad numbers, only information) would have been a rise of 5mmol/L which suggests a smaller portion of carbohydrates, or swapping to a different type of carbs might help.

There are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you have probably cut out already, but you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.

So keeping the portion sizes down to a level your body can cope with can be really important.
 
Hello everyone. Sorry for the extremely late reply.
With regards the dog, despite his heart issues he can out walk me

So, I have been doing finger pricks on waking and before and after dinner. They started in the mid to high teens but are averaging between 9 and 10 mmol/L now. Even got an 8.6 one day! There is a pattern though. The majority of the after food readings are less than 2 mmol/L higher than before, despite still being high. A friend of mine who is type 1 and the D/N both agree my pancreas is producing enough insulin but my fatty liver is kicking out extra glucose and still keeping my overall readings high.

D/N prescribed Metformin. I have not yet started it as I have 2 concerts to go to next week. Due to my other disabilities I suffer huge anxiety and even though they prescribed the SR metformin, I am panicing about having upset tummy whilst out of the house.

I have lost 3kg since I started testing. I have cut out all sweet thins; cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate, am on low gi barley, rye and wheat bread with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. However, despite this, the numbers are not falling quickly.

I had my covid and flu jabs today and feeling a bit meh
 
SpookyGirl said:
I have lost 3kg since I started testing. I have cut out all sweet thins; cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate, am on low gi barley, rye and wheat bread with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. However, despite this, the numbers are not falling quickly.

I had my covid and flu jabs today and feeling a bit meh
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I doubt that your numbers will fall any lower if you are eating such a high carb food as bread.
 
Drummer said:
I doubt that your numbers will fall any lower if you are eating such a high carb food as bread.
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Hi Drummer,

Still high on the days I am not eating any bread, so not sure it is completely the case. Not eating it every day in the hope to understand what is happening. I had a before meal reading of 10.1 mmol/L yesterday. Food was air fried with minimal oil, chicken breast and veg, comprising of sprouts, kale, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. 2 hrs after eating 17.5 mmol/L. I can only assume it is the fatty liver causing an issue???
 
SpookyGirl said:
Hi Drummer,

Still high on the days I am not eating any bread, so not sure it is completely the case. Not eating it every day in the hope to understand what is happening. I had a before meal reading of 10.1 mmol/L yesterday. Food was air fried with minimal oil, chicken breast and veg, comprising of sprouts, kale, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. 2 hrs after eating 17.5 mmol/L. I can only assume it is the fatty liver causing an issue???
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That does seem an extraordinary large increase for so few carbs, are you sure there was nothing on your fingers when you tested.
I should keep a comprehensive food diary of what you are having and your blood glucose readings so at the very least you can compare with what you get when you start the metformin. But that is only supposed to make a 2mmol/l difference in readings.

Don't forget it does take a while for the body to settle into a new regime.
 
I'm sorry, I didn't see your initial post so I'm a little late in saying hello. But, welcome to the forum.

Diabetes is frustrating and sometimes the professionals who are supposed to help us can be frustrating too (sometimes because, as is the way of humans, they can also be amazing).

I'm newish myself so don't have much wisdom around your numbers. I also have a fatty liver - and I definitely see 'Foot on the Floor' syndrome because of it. My first reading of the morning is always a bit of a spike as my poor liver does what it's supposed to do - kick-start my day - but does it badly!

I do know (from this forum) that there are many things which can affect our blood glucose. Food and exercise are the ones we all recognise but I didn't realise how much my sleep affected mine (or rather sleep disruption). You mention having broken nights and I wondered if they form part of the picture too?
 
It does seem a it of a chicken and egg situation in that high blood glucose is a contributory factor of fatty liver and fatty liver increases blood glucose.
It is also possible the steroids didn't help as they are renowned for increasing blood glucose but at least what is a suitable dietary regime for managing to reduce your blood glucose should be compatible with one for fatty liver perhaps with the exception of low fat or normal fat.
 
SpookyGirl said:
Hi Drummer,

Still high on the days I am not eating any bread, so not sure it is completely the case. Not eating it every day in the hope to understand what is happening. I had a before meal reading of 10.1 mmol/L yesterday. Food was air fried with minimal oil, chicken breast and veg, comprising of sprouts, kale, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. 2 hrs after eating 17.5 mmol/L. I can only assume it is the fatty liver causing an issue???
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Are you trying to do low fat? Fat intake does not impact blood glucose levels as far as I can tell.
A fatty liver is down to carbs - pate de foie gras is produced by force feeding the birds with corn, not fat.
We need protein and fat in our diet to survive.
I only eat foods which are less than 11% carbs, and try to keep my after eating blood glucose under 8mmol/l - these days it is usually under 7 as that keeps my HbA1c just at the top of normal. My liver was enlarged and hard at diagnosis - I could not bend down to low shelves or to clean the bottom of the fridge. After a few months low carb my waist had shrunk by 12 inches.
I do need to keep to low carb foods, I think - having emptied out the stores created by so many years of being pushed to eat 'healthy' carb heavy foods my metabolism will never return to what is regarded as normal, and I suspect that high carb foods would result in long periods of high blood glucose. I am, however, a very ordinary type 2 and react very positively to a low carb diet. I avoid grain potatoes legumes - all spiked my blood glucose.
 
Leadinglights said:
That does seem an extraordinary large increase for so few carbs, are you sure there was nothing on your fingers when you tested.
I should keep a comprehensive food diary of what you are having and your blood glucose readings so at the very least you can compare with what you get when you start the metformin. But that is only supposed to make a 2mmol/l difference in readings.

Don't forget it does take a while for the body to settle into a new regime.
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Yes I am keeping a food diary. Some of the figures are more alarming to me. But as you mention about the body adjusting, you may well be right.
I don't know the truth as I am no expert but my D/N said Metformin will suppress the glucose release from the liver, so I am hoping once I start that, I start to see better figures. Thank you for your advice
 
SpookyGirl said:
Yes I am keeping a food diary. Some of the figures are more alarming to me. But as you mention about the body adjusting, you may well be right.
I don't know the truth as I am no expert but my D/N said Metformin will suppress the glucose release from the liver, so I am hoping once I start that, I start to see better figures. Thank you for your advice
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It also helps the body use the insulin it produces more effectively so hopefully you will see a difference.
Do look at the Freshwell link for some meal ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
 
BobbleHat said:
I'm sorry, I didn't see your initial post so I'm a little late in saying hello. But, welcome to the forum.

Diabetes is frustrating and sometimes the professionals who are supposed to help us can be frustrating too (sometimes because, as is the way of humans, they can also be amazing).

I'm newish myself so don't have much wisdom around your numbers. I also have a fatty liver - and I definitely see 'Foot on the Floor' syndrome because of it. My first reading of the morning is always a bit of a spike as my poor liver does what it's supposed to do - kick-start my day - but does it badly!

I do know (from this forum) that there are many things which can affect our blood glucose. Food and exercise are the ones we all recognise but I didn't realise how much my sleep affected mine (or rather sleep disruption). You mention having broken nights and I wondered if they form part of the picture too?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the welcome.

I am led to believe disturbed sleep can create blood glucose issues. Obviously my dog is going nowhere, so I have to keep up with everything else to work on my numbers.
It's great to find others with similar conditions and makes you feel less alone. Thank you for your advice.
 
Leadinglights said:
It does seem a it of a chicken and egg situation in that high blood glucose is a contributory factor of fatty liver and fatty liver increases blood glucose.
It is also possible the steroids didn't help as they are renowned for increasing blood glucose but at least what is a suitable dietary regime for managing to reduce your blood glucose should be compatible with one for fatty liver perhaps with the exception of low fat or normal fat.
Click to expand...
Yes you are right and as I am at the beginning of this journey I have lots to learn.

I also have concerns as to what the steroids did. I have read that because I had dipped into T2 previously, the prescribing nurse should have been extremely careful about prescribing such a high dose.
 
Drummer said:
Are you trying to do low fat? Fat intake does not impact blood glucose levels as far as I can tell.
A fatty liver is down to carbs - pate de foie gras is produced by force feeding the birds with corn, not fat.
We need protein and fat in our diet to survive.
I only eat foods which are less than 11% carbs, and try to keep my after eating blood glucose under 8mmol/l - these days it is usually under 7 as that keeps my HbA1c just at the top of normal. My liver was enlarged and hard at diagnosis - I could not bend down to low shelves or to clean the bottom of the fridge. After a few months low carb my waist had shrunk by 12 inches.
I do need to keep to low carb foods, I think - having emptied out the stores created by so many years of being pushed to eat 'healthy' carb heavy foods my metabolism will never return to what is regarded as normal, and I suspect that high carb foods would result in long periods of high blood glucose. I am, however, a very ordinary type 2 and react very positively to a low carb diet. I avoid grain potatoes legumes - all spiked my blood glucose.
Click to expand...
I am not doing low fat but I am not adding extra fat.
I suppose my figures might correlate more to how my liver and spleen are reactive. I am sure it's going to be a learning curve and may be the numbers may take sometime to figure themselves out.

You seem to have had quite a journey and done extremely well with your weight loss. Thank you for your advice.
 
Bit of an update. Just had a phone consult with D/N to discuss results and my starting Metformin a week on Monday. She is happy with this.

She is also happy with my readings as it shows a slow move in the right direction and the pre and post prandial tests are, despite higher readings and part from 1 or 2, are in line with my body producing good insulin. They are mostly less than 1 mmol/L difference. She is fully in the belief that the higher figures are produced by the glucose being released from the liver.

So, the Metformin should regulate this and along with diet and exercise, it is hoped, in time I will be in remission.
 
SpookyGirl said:
2 hrs after eating 17.5 mmol/L. I can only assume it is the fatty liver causing an issue???
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Are you still on the steroids @SpookyGirl

They could certainly be contributing to your raised BGs.

Hopefully your levels will continue to gently drift downwards - but those do seem to be quite significant rises from a pretty low-carb meal, so it looks like something else is going on. Hopefully all will become clear in time. Keep on keeping on in the mean time 😉
 
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