New to forum-slowly killing myself.

[Blue Pete]

Hi, I've been diagnosed as T2 for five years. Started off doing the right things, but for the last 3 years I've pretended I'm not diabetic. Eating the wrong things and drinking too much (mostly red wine). Consequently, my bs levels have become ridiculously high. I saw my GP on Thursday, and my HbA1c was 99, having been 102 three months ago, when I first went to see her, as I was feeling lousy.
Back then she put me on slow release gliclazide alongside my metformin 500mg x 4. Little changed with my bs levels, so she increased dose to the max 120mg per day.
On Thursday she put me on sitagliptin too. I know what I should and shouldn't be eating and drinking, but at the moment I'm pretty fed up and finding it difficult to motivate myself.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Blue Pete, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear this Diabetes can be especially cruel when we lose motivation, because the high sugars caused by not taking care just make you more tired, lethargic and unmotivated 😡 However, oyu've clearly shown that you do want to do something about it by recognising the problem and, I suspect, feeling totally fed up with feeling like you do, so you certainly have the incentive. My recommendation would be to take things one step at a time. It can be pretty overwhelming if you start thinking you have to put everything right all at once, so pick small things each day where you are making a different choice that will help you get better control. It's worth starting a food diary so you can identify the extent of any problems in your diet and where you can more easily see places where you can improve things 🙂

What about exercise? This can really help, even if it's just a half hour brisk walk after eating, as it helps to make you more insulin-sensitive, helping your body to cope better with the glucose entering your system - the effects also last long after the exercise too, so it can have a cumulative effect.

Do you test your blood glucose levels at all? This can be a real aid to identifying things you don't tolerate well so you can reduce or cut them out of your diet. Tolerances vary from person to person, so it's important to discover what yours are 🙂

Let us know if you have any questions and we will be very happy to help. Don't feel you should know everything, we all learn new things every day about ways to cope with this complex and often confusing condition 🙂

 

[Stitch147]

Hi Blue Pete and welcome to the forum. Hopefully you'll be able to get yourself back on the right track. People on here are always helpful and offer great advice if you need it, everyone is here to help in whatever way we can.

 

[Blue Pete]

Hi Blue Pete, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear this Diabetes can be especially cruel when we lose motivation, because the high sugars caused by not taking care just make you more tired, lethargic and unmotivated 😡 However, oyu've clearly shown that you do want to do something about it by recognising the problem and, I suspect, feeling totally fed up with feeling like you do, so you certainly have the incentive. My recommendation would be to take things one step at a time. It can be pretty overwhelming if you start thinking you have to put everything right all at once, so pick small things each day where you are making a different choice that will help you get better control. It's worth starting a food diary so you can identify the extent of any problems in your diet and where you can more easily see places where you can improve things 🙂

What about exercise? This can really help, even if it's just a half hour brisk walk after eating, as it helps to make you more insulin-sensitive, helping your body to cope better with the glucose entering your system - the effects also last long after the exercise too, so it can have a cumulative effect.

Do you test your blood glucose levels at all? This can be a real aid to identifying things you don't tolerate well so you can reduce or cut them out of your diet. Tolerances vary from person to person, so it's important to discover what yours are 🙂

Let us know if you have any questions and we will be very happy to help. Don't feel you should know everything, we all learn new things every day about ways to cope with this complex and often confusing condition 🙂

 

[Blue Pete]

Hi Northerner and stitch 147, and thanks for your replies.
I'm going to start a food diary. I have been testing my blood more frequently recently. E.g. this morning I was 11·4 , I had bran flakes and a banana for breakfast, had my medication, then took my dog for a one hour walk and was 20·2 when I got home.
I'm puzzled.

 

[Stitch147]

I found a food diary works well for me.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Northerner and stitch 147, and thanks for your replies.
I'm going to start a food diary. I have been testing my blood more frequently recently. E.g. this morning I was 11·4 , I had bran flakes and a banana for breakfast, had my medication, then took my dog for a one hour walk and was 20·2 when I got home.
I'm puzzled.

I'd reconsider your breakfast, it's quite a lot of carbs at a time of day when many people find they are more insulin-resistant than later on in the day. How about trying some scrambled eggs or an omelette instead? I think you'll see a big difference straight away 🙂 Have a read of Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S it's a good guide to how you can use your meter to help you check your tolerances for things: 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Well Pete - both the bran flakes and the banana were packed with carbohydrate. Check the back of the cereal box - there's always 'Nutritional Info' on them. (Unfortunately in little writing lol)

It doesn't really matter how much of the carbohydrate is 'sugar' - it's ALL the carb that increases or Blood Glucose, not ONLY the sugar.

To give you an example, for me, Type 1 so none of my own insulin, only what I jab into myself. If my BG was 5 (ie typical non-diabetic level) before I ate that breakfast and did not have any insulin for it, there are 20g carbs in the flakes (and that's assuming a fairly modest, 30g portion) and a further 25 to 30g carbs approx in the banana, let's call it 25g so a total of 45g of carbs - that would increase my blood glucose by 13.5, so my BG after eating would be 18.5. Most Type 2s would see a larger increase. You probably did too - but partially walked it off, partially took care of it with this morning's tablets.

However that isn't all the story - because 11.4 before you ate isn't good. But where do you begin to start tackling it? - how high was it last night, very last thing before you got into bed? (ie will you have been too high all night long, or did it suddenly rise this morning? There will be different ways of trying to tackle the two different answers!) And was the pre-brekkie reading immediately you raised your head from the pillow, or some time later?

 

[robert@fm]

Been there, done that — more than once. 😱🙄 Fortunately this is a great forum, and there has been some good advice in this thread already. 🙂

 

[grovesy]

I have found by having bacon or egg for breakfast with a Warburton/ Kingsmill thin my control is better,and I don't get mid morning munchies.

 

[Blue Pete]

Well Pete - both the bran flakes and the banana were packed with carbohydrate. Check the back of the cereal box - there's always 'Nutritional Info' on them. (Unfortunately in little writing lol)

It doesn't really matter how much of the carbohydrate is 'sugar' - it's ALL the carb that increases or Blood Glucose, not ONLY the sugar.

To give you an example, for me, Type 1 so none of my own insulin, only what I jab into myself. If my BG was 5 (ie typical non-diabetic level) before I ate that breakfast and did not have any insulin for it, there are 20g carbs in the flakes (and that's assuming a fairly modest, 30g portion) and a further 25 to 30g carbs approx in the banana, let's call it 25g so a total of 45g of carbs - that would increase my blood glucose by 13.5, so my BG after eating would be 18.5. Most Type 2s would see a larger increase. You probably did too - but partially walked it off, partially took care of it with this morning's tablets.

However that isn't all the story - because 11.4 before you ate isn't good. But where do you begin to start tackling it? - how high was it last night, very last thing before you got into bed? (ie will you have been too high all night long, or did it suddenly rise this morning? There will be different ways of trying to tackle the two different answers!) And was the pre-brekkie reading immediately you raised your head from the pillow, or some time later?

 

[Blue Pete]

Thanks for your reply and help Trophywench, it was very interesting, especially regarding breakfast. I'm starting a food intake diary, to include bg levels before and 2 hours after. Also I think I need to start testing before I go to bed and as soon as I get up. I was 9.8 first thing this morning, which I suspect is the lowest for a long time, however I didn't drink my usual few glasses of red wine last night. I've been reading about LCHF, and decided that I'm going to give it a go, as from now.
Thanks again!

 

[Northerner]

Thanks for your reply and help Trophywench, it was very interesting, especially regarding breakfast. I'm starting a food intake diary, to include bg levels before and 2 hours after. Also I think I need to start testing before I go to bed and as soon as I get up. I was 9.8 first thing this morning, which I suspect is the lowest for a long time, however I didn't drink my usual few glasses of red wine last night. I've been reading about LCHF, and decided that I'm going to give it a go, as from now.
Thanks again!

Hi Pete, if you do decide to go LCHF then make sure you test regularly in case your medication needs reducing 🙂 Good luck - let us know how you get on, or if you have any questions 🙂

 

[Blue Pete]

I have found by having bacon or egg for breakfast with a Warburton/ Kingsmill thin my control is better,and I don't get mid morning munchies.

 

[Blue Pete]

Thanks!

 

[Blue Pete]

Thanks!

Hi Pete, if you do decide to go LCHF then make sure you test regularly in case your medication needs reducing 🙂 Good luck - let us know how you get on, or if you have any questions 🙂