New to T2D

[CharlieMax]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

 

[Drummer]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

Well - that advice is a fat lot of use - For many type 2s reducing the carbs in the diet is the key - it isn't the sugar, nor is it fast food.
If you are an uncomplicated type 2, start off by making a list of the starches and sugars you eat and maybe send off for a blood testing meter and some test strips - I used a Spirit Healthcare tee 2 + in the first few months, after that I didn't really need it, so don't over order strips. You can get them free of VAT as you are a diagnosed diabetic.
A set of kitchen scales you can reset to zero is useful - the electronic kind I mean.
If you start off with the high carb foods - bread, potatoes, things made with grain, you can either eliminate or reduce them from a meal - try a 'normal' meal and test just before starting to eat and 2 hours later. Decide what change you want to make and do the same test - if you experiment for a little while you might well find where you could make changes to you blood glucose day on day.
I have a notebook with the carb count - grams of carb per 100 gm of the foodstuff, of things which are quite low, and I used to have some shopping lists of things to buy to make the menu variable - I still rarely buy mushrooms and tomatoes in the same trip to the shops.
The Metformin and Atorvastatin I was prescribed at diagnosis made me so ill, so me (being me) just tossed them in the bin as it was Christmas and I got a professional quality carpet cleaner as a present. Oh well - I did need it, I suppose.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

Welcome to the forum, not an uncommon experience to be just handed a prescription with no backup information but you will find lots of help and advice here. Usually metformin is started on a low dose building up over a few weeks to the full dose and the issues you had are quite common for some people. Taking the medication mid meal can help with that.
As far as diet is concerned it is a bit more than just cut out the sweet stuff and fish and chips.
Have a look at this link for good information for a low carb approach which many find successful, it is based on the suggested no more than 130g carbs not just sugar per day. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
Also you may find the book or app Carbs and Cals helpful as it gives carb values of a whole range of different portion sizes of foods. Both what you eat and portion control is important.
Keeping a food diary of everything you eat and drink with an estimate of the carbs will help you see where savings can be made and how far you are from the 130g per day.
One tool to help is certainly a blood glucose monitor which can be bought on line (cheaper than the pharmacy usually), ones with the cheaper test strips are the GlucoNavii, TEE2 or Contour Blue. It enables you to keep a check on your progress day to day, week to week and to test your tolerance to the amount of carbs in your meals by testing before you eat and after 2 hours where you are aiming at no more than 2-3mmol/l increase. As levels come down your aim in 4-7mmol/l before meals and fasting /morning and no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal.
You should also have a repeat HbA1C after 3 months to check the measures you are taking are being effective and also foot and eye retinal screening at some point soon.
Please come back and ask questions but do not panic and make a plan to move forward with making some changes to your diet and getting more exercise if you can.

 

[JimmyBlue]

Hi @CharlieMax and welcome to the forums. The post by @Leadinglights is good guidance but it annoys me that some surgeries can be so poor at dealing with this and others are really good. My diabetes nurse who I met after my second blood test was fantastic and answered all the questions on my list (something worth thinking about for your next appointment - read the forums and write down the questions you would like them to answer). That gave me the confidence to make some more material changes to my life such as the move to the 130g carbs/day regime. I have really seen some big benefits from that, but it is not necessarily the right approach for everyone.
My advice would be to try and set up a second appointment with the diabetes nurse or doctor and take in a list of questions that you want answered. That will hopefully help you get the support you need from them as well as providing more information that you need.

 

[silver minion]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

Hi @CharlieMax and welcome to the forum. I must say I find your experience at your GP surgery shocking. No wonder you feel gutted and cast adrift. My original diagnosis was advised by my doctor over the telephone only because she wanted me to collect a prescription that afternoon. I already had a follow-up appointment booked in a few days. My doctor prescribed slow release metformin which was slowly increased so my body could adjust to the side effects and the same later when prescribed gliclazide. The practice nurse who has additional diabetes training has seen me regularly since, including for my foot check. She recommended this site for more information and I found the forum from the main site. The forum has been tremendously helpful, both in terms of information and support from people who have collectively decades of experience of living with diabetes. I have no further advice to add to the comprehensive posts already. Just know that you can post any questions, comments successes and frustrations. There is very little that someone hasn't come across before.

 

[BobbleHat]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

Welcome to the forum.

I knew I was diabetic because my hba1c popped up on the NHS app with a comment saying 'indicates diabetes mellitus' (plus, I take hba1c bloods sometimes so I knew what the number meant even without the tag). I then got a phone call from the surgery asking me to come in for a repeat blood test. The person on the other end of the phone managed not to say the word diabetes at all during that call! (I presume it was a receptionist who would be allowed to relay a diagnosis over the phone).

I'm a midwife, I take blood on an almost daily basis and the one thing I say repeatedly to the women on my caseload is that if I publish their blood results, it means they're normal (and I write a little note on their maternity app to that effect). I tell them they will never find out an abnormal result via their maternity app because I would ring them, or see them, and speak to them first. They would know what was abnormal, what the recommended plan would be, and they'd have had an opportunity to ask me any questions they night have. Only then would I hit the publish button on their maternity notes.

It seems to me a very basic standard of care to have a human share a diagnosis of this nature and to have a robust way of giving the recipient time to understand and ask questions. I'm sorry that you (and I) didn't get that.

This forum definitely fills in those gaps. It shouldn't need to but I am very grateful for the wealth of expertise that lives in my phone! I hope that you, likewise, feel like the forum helps you feel more secure about what your diagnosis means.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @CharlieMax

Sorry to hear about the way your diabetes diagnosis was communicated to you 🙂

But glad you have found the help and support of the forum. Diabetes can be fickle and highly individual, and while you may soon pick up some general themes and approaches that are common, each of those is on a spectrum, and for any one approach we have members for whom that strategy isn’t effective, and they need to approach their diabetes management from a different angle.

But one of the great things about the forum is being able to see that everyone is different, and that if Option A isn’t working for you (or simply doesn’t appeal!) there is almost always an Option B, or C… or…

To add to the knowledge you’ve already picked up, and the links that have been suggested above, you might want to register for an account with the Learning Zone (the orange tab in the main menu) which is packed full information you can work through at your own pace. Additionally, for a more personal take, you might like Maggie Davey’s Letter to the Newly Diagnosed which is one woman’s take on her diagnosis, and the things she wishes she’d been told from the start.

Good luck, and keep asking questions on the forum too 🙂

 

[JOV]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with T2D with a Hba1c of 99. Commenced on 2g Metformin which has had to be decreased to 1500mg recently due to cramps and persistent diahorea. My GP surgery nurse did my bloods and basically told me not eat “sweet stuff and fish suppers” and sent me on my way. I feel cast adrift with no information or education and have no idea what is safe to eat or not. I am totally gutted at my diagnosis. Should I buy a BG monitor device for use to guide me?

I use a BCM and do a morning test to create a weekly average to see if my numbers are falling I also did some paired readings to see if I drop back down to around 8 Mmol/l 2 hour after eating.

Over 8 weeks my weekly morning average dropped from 8.1 to 5.8 - so progress - my next A1c will be the real test but I like to see the numbers.

I also got a trial of a Libre 2+ Continuous BCM - primarily to see what spikes my levels and to see other data. They are great but not sure I need to spend 100 pounds a month as a T2 who is only on Metformin.

I was advised to keep some carbs in my diet so went for Shredded Wheat for breakfast - bu=gs spike up to over 12
yet a Tuna Sandwich on seeded wholemeal only high 8s.

So I have cut out shredded wheat now due to the massive spike - although it did drop quick.