• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

New to the group, hello all..

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Welcome to the forum Steve, from a fellow T2.
Post any questions, advice or experiences you have. Add to any threads.
How long have you been diagnosed? How are you managing? It's 6 years in December for me.
 
Hi Ralph, have been diabetic 14 years, plus other medical conditions, taken as a whole a right pain in the posterior.
 
It is indeed an irritation but it is manageable.
Welcome to the forum @Steve Hurtley

Join in when you want.
 
Well - I'd say a right flippin nuisance, but not actually painful Ralph! 🙂

If a person - eg @Steve Hurtley - is having trouble controlling their blood glucose, then that's what we'll try to help them with.
 
Dear trophywench, love the name🙂 yes having major problems with blood glucose levels also Hba1c through the roof..
 
Hi Steve and welcome from me too.

14 years of living with diabetes is a reasonably long time. Have you had good control up until now or have your levels always been high? What, if any, medication are you on and what was your most recent HbA1c result?
Have you made any modifications to your diet? I think there is probably a lot more knowledge about dietary control of Type 2 diabetes since you were diagnosed, so that might be something to explore... ie cutting back on all carbs not just sugar and perhaps increasing your fat intake.
If you have had good control up until now and nothing has changed other than your levels suddenly going through the roof, it may be that you are no longer able to produce enough insulin to cover your needs. This may be because you have been misdiagnosed and could be LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults.... a slow onset Type 1 diabetes sometimes referred to as Type 1.5) or because the insulin producing parts of your pancreas have eventually stopped working due to over use... particularly if you have been eating carb rich foods whilst suffering from insulin resistance... kind of a progression of Type 2. Unfortunately these conditions will often both require additional insulin to be injected to bring BG levels down and manage them at normal levels.

More information about the sort of foods you are eating on a daily basis, any medication, your BMI and your HbA1c results might help point in one direction or another. Are you under a consultant or just the nurse at your GP practice?
 
Hi Rebrascora, good to talk to someone, my last Hba1c was around 79 but dropping, glucose control hit and miss, diagnosed Heart failure two weeks before diabetes. List of medication follows

Spirolactone 25mg
Asprin 75mg
Simvastatin 40mg
Bisoprolol 10mg
Dapagliflozin 10mg
Fluoxetine 20 my
Metformin 1000 mg twice a day
Ramipril 5mg
Omeprazole 20 my
Semaglutide 1mg injectable

Hope this gives you an idea .

Thanks for taking the time to reply.. Steve..
 
Spirolactone! The minty one.
 
Hi @Steve Hurtley and welcome to the forum from me. That's a right old mix of pills and seems to me to justify your calling it a right old pain in the whatsit.

When it comes to trying to get your blood glucose under control, the first question to ask is whether you are you self monitoring your blood glucose? If you are, then that is one place where our collective experience can help. By looking at what we have eaten and looking at the blood glucose increase it has caused directly, many of us have got our blood glucose under control.
 
Docb said:
Hi @Steve Hurtley and welcome to the forum from me. That's a right old mix of pills and seems to me to justify your calling it a right old pain in the whatsit.

When it comes to trying to get your blood glucose under control, the first question to ask is whether you are you self monitoring your blood glucose? If you are, then that is one place where our collective experience can help. By looking at what we have eaten and looking at the blood glucose increase it has caused directly, many of us have got our blood glucose under control.
Click to expand...

Thanks docb, I'm open to suggestions to try and get me under control, I have tried to do what I thought was the right thing but to no avail, I had just about given up,
 
Hi docb, not monitoring at the moment , last Hba1c was 79 this is 10 down from the previous one, I am taking a raft of herbal on top of prescribed. To see if they help.
 
Thanks for providing us with that info. I see 3 medications there for diabetes. Have you been on them all for a while or are some new additions. Just wondering if your recently improved HbA1c reflects some new medication or change in lifestyle or diet.
The problem with diabetes is that food is such an integral part of life that maintaining constant control of diet is very difficult particularly when you are already 14 years down the line with it and hopefully many more to come so it is important to find a way of eating which improves your Blood Glucose levels but is also enjoyable. Many of us find a Low Carb, Higher Fat (LCHF) way of eating fits the bill in those respects but also stops food cravings or the urge to snack, banishes hunger and helps with weight loss. We use a BG meter to test before and then 2 hours after eating to see what effect our food has on our levels and use that information to adjust portion size or avoid foods which cause our BG levels too many problems. Eating more fat helps us to enjoy the food we eat and keeps us feeling full and provides slow release energy. Yes it is the opposite of most NHS healthy eating advice but many of us feel better than we have in many years following this way of eating and are fitter and healthier and many of us even find that our cholesterol levels have reduced without medication. I start my day with a coffee made with real double cream and quite often end it with a chunk of nice cheese and a small glass of red and it is hard to feel badly done to or deprived on a diet which allows this. I don't eat bread, pasta, rice etc and just a few potatoes or sweet potatoes occasionally. I have a square of dark 70%+ chocolate with a spoonful of peanut butter every so often as a treat. Diet consists mostly of meat (usually fatty cuts), eggs and fish with lots of green veg or salad or Mediterranean veg like courgettes and peppers and aubergines and tomatoes and onions and garlic and olives and cheese and nuts and avocado. Green veg like cabbage/kale/spinach/leeks are usually cooked in butter to make them taste yummy. Cauliflower is a staple as it can be used as a potato, rice or couscous substitute being much lower carb than potatoes or rice and surprisingly tastes as good or even better than potatoes when mashed with a good dollop of cream cheese and a teaspoon of mustard.
Anyway, some of these things may not be to your taste but hopefully gives you an idea of a way forward with your diet.
If you want to post what you usually eat and drink on an average day we can perhaps pinpoint problem areas with your diet and make suggestions for more BG friendly alternatives and you may even find you enjoy those more.

I was a sugar addict and carb monster pre diagnosis so I know that if I can change my diet so radically, anyone can. What I find mind blowing is that a year down the line with this I enjoy my food just as much if not more than before but I am no longer tempted by the carb rich foods that I used to love and my partner eats many of them in front of me, so it is not like I am not exposed to temptation. I no longer suffer cravings or even feel hungry although I often only have 1 or 2 meals a day and I am steadily losing weight. I am by no means the only person to find this way of eating works for them, but we are all different so it is important to find what works best for you and using your BG meter to test how you respond to foods will help you to figure that out.
 
Just popping in to say Hi and Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Over the nearly 20 years I have had to re-evaluate what and how much of what I eat many times. Things have had to be adjusted to get some semblance of control.
 
The injectable since about February others a lot longer. I'm going out to buy a new glucose blood monitor tomorrow 27/10/2020. Haven't been testing due to being a wimp regarding needles. Just in case you question my weekly injectable my partner loves to stab me..

Iam also on an experimental cholesterol level tablet as well. So I'm between a rock and a hard place. Bit like limbo..
 
@Steve Hurtley I’m not in a position to advise other that to say keep using this site. I was diagnosed 18 months ago but since joining I have learnt more from the real experts - those with diabetes. I will just pass on my experience with Metformin, I ended up in hospital for investigations as to the almost constant diarrhoea, it was caused by Metformin. Between your rock and the hard place is a cushion called Diabetes UK. Good luck
 
Annemarie said:
@Steve Hurtley I’m not in a position to advise other that to say keep using this site. I was diagnosed 18 months ago but since joining I have learnt more from the real experts - those with diabetes. I will just pass on my experience with Metformin, I ended up in hospital for investigations as to the almost constant diarrhoea, it was caused by Metformin. Between your rock and the hard place is a cushion called Diabetes UK. Good luck
Click to expand...

Hi AnneMarie, thanks for sharing your experience, I too have had that same problem but no one said it could be the metfor min.? How did they resolve it.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top