Newbie - Diagnosed 6 days ago

[everydayupsanddowns]

My plan is to pre and post test for a good while to try and work that out. Just tested two hours after breakfast and I'm at 16.4.

Welcome to the forum @Mark_1979

Sounds like you are off to a great start, and have a really good grasp of some practical approaches for the future.

As others have said, the numbers matter less at this stage than the differences between them. If you can keep your meal rises down to 2-3mmol/L you should see your overall levels come down gradually. This is better, because very rapid and sudden changes to blood glucose levels are harder on the fine blood vessels, and changing things more gently will give your body time to adapt.

Try not to be disheartened about your diagnosis, many people on the forum look back later and recognise that their diagnosis became a catalyst which finally prompted them to make positive changes towards a healthier and more active life. Weirdly, a diagnosis with diabetes can lead to you feeling healthier than you have in years, and with the benefit of regular checks so that and potential problems can be spotted and addressed much more quickly.

 

[Mark_1979]

Thought I would give a quick update 11 days into being diabetic. I've been tracking my food every day, and logging blood glucose before and after meals. I'm making good progress. Fasting blood glucose has come down from 13.5-14.2 to 10.7-11.5, and I have had some readings in the low 8s, high 7s later on in the day. Still a really long way to go but I am happy with the start.

Diet-wise, I've gone pretty low carb. Eating a lot of eggs in the mornings, and a fair bit of chicken, smoked salmon, turkey burgers etc later in the day. I haven't been feeling too hungry either - whether this is a factor of the metformin, or just due to my motivation I'm not sure.

I've lost around 3lbs so far, but it is nice not to feel bloated by all the carbs I was eating before. I'm going for a brisk walk every day after my daughter goes to bed (tracking through Strava), and am up to around 3 miles each day now.

I may not get on top of this with diet and exercise alone - my father was a diabetic and he ended up on insulin, as has my uncle. Neither were/are particularly overweight. But I am determined to give it my best shot possible.

Thanks for all your responses and support thus far - I'm getting a lot out of this forum.

Mark

 

[Ditto]

Never say never. Go as low carb as you feel comfortable with, bet you could reverse it and surprise yourself. 🙂

What's a lot of eggs? Don't do what I used to do and have half a dozen at a time! No wonder I am doomed. Sheer piggery. It's all about portion control. See I'm great at giving advice. Just can't do it myself. Luv reading about others' success however, so well done.

 

[Mark_1979]

Never say never. Go as low carb as you feel comfortable with, bet you could reverse it and surprise yourself. 🙂

What's a lot of eggs? Don't do what I used to do and have half a dozen at a time! No wonder I am doomed. Sheer piggery. It's all about portion control. See I'm great at giving advice. Just can't do it myself. Luv reading about others' success however, so well done.

I would have 3 eggs scrambled as an example.

 

[ianf0ster]

3 eggs isn't a lot. I was eating 14 eggs a week for months on end when I first started Low Carbing.

 

[Mark_1979]

Fasting bloods were 8.0 this morning. Really pleased with how it is coming down.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Great progress @Mark_1979 !

Thanks for keeping us updated. Onward and downward!

 

[Mark_1979]

Fasting blood glucose levels coming down nicely. I'm quite pleased given that it has only been 2 and a half weeks. I've lost just over half a stone as well which is great. The GP was concerned about my blood pressure and cholesterol as well, but BP has come down from 145/95 to 126/86 and they are going to hold off putting me on medication for either for now. Symptom-wise I haven't had much other than poor eyesight in the evenings (this may be down to straining during the day). Definitely have more energy, and I'm feeling more on an even keel. Still get a heck of a long way to go, but it's good to keep an eye on progress.

 

[Toucan]

Really impressive results @Mark_1979, thanks for sharing them.

 

[adrian1der]

Hi Mark,

I'm fairly new to the forum and I was only diagnosed as type 2 back in May. My Hba1c was 103 on diagnosis as well. Last month I had my Hba1c retested and it was down to 43. I know everyone is different but it's just to give you hope that it is possible to reduce your Hba1c results 🙂

You have made really good changes already with your diet and exercise! Keep up the great work 🙂

Thanks Kerry. That is really inspirational. I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago so great to hear of your progress.

 

[KerryC]

Thanks Kerry. That is really inspirational. I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago so great to hear of your progress.

Aww thank you, your so kind! 🙂 I hope you have a great success too! I've found this forum so helpful and I'm happy to help if I can in anyway 🙂 good luck on your journey

 

[Mark_1979]

So I'm now 6 weeks into my diabetes journey. It's hard to believe as a reasonably well-educated person that I was so ignorant in terms of what I was doing to my body. I've learnt so much in the last 6 weeks, not least from this forum. I'm now up to 2000mg of Metformin per day (two tablets each in the morning and evening)

I have been enrolled on the Oviva diabetes support programme. Given the current climate this is being run completely through an app - I upload pictures of my meals and I have a dietitian coach who comments on them. I can also log BG readings and weight in the app, and message back and forth with my coach. We had one 30 minute phone consultation where she seemed very happy with my progress to date. Otherwise I have had no contact with health services since my initial chat with the diabetes nurse. To be honest I am ok with this as I feel there is much better advice here and online in general that that proffered by the GP. Next week I have by Diabetic Eye Screening appointment - hoping I haven't done too much damage to my eyes!

I work in Business Intelligence for the NHS so obviously the first thing I did after I was diagnosed was to start logging things on a spreadsheet. I wear a Fitbit so am tracking things like heartrate, sleep and steps, and track my food intake on MyFitnessPal. I had already started losing weight before being diagnosed - last November I was 140kg, or just over 22 stone. This morning I am down to 119.7kg or 18 stone 12. This is the lowest weight I have been since I got married in 2015, so feel like it is a good start. My fasting BG is gradually coming down (I've added a rolling 7 day average line to the below to smooth out the odd anomalous result.


I'm also tracking my readings before each meal. It's quite satisfying seeing the number of readings that are coming down into the target range, and really quite motivational to track results.


The other really cool thing to see has been the impact on my resting heart rate.



For anyone that is new and struggling, I hope it is useful to see how quickly you can improve things. I am aware that some of the BG control will be down to the medication, but am feeling super proud with the strides that I have made in about 6 weeks. I am still testing a lot, probably excessively so, but it's helpful for me to see the impact that various meals have on my BG. We even went out for a Sunday roast last week - it was pretty odd asking for a roast without roast potatoes or yorkshire pudding! I try to avoid snacking at all but I do make sure I have 3 good meals a day (today as an example was yoghurt with mixed seeds for breakfast, tuna mayo and cheese with salad for lunch, and dinner will be rump steak with celeriac chips and broccoli). If I get super hungry I might have a handful of macadamia nuts, or sometimes in the evening I make a chocolate mousse with double cream, cream cheese, raw cacao powder, and powdered erythritol. My wife is being super supportive and has adapted her diet so that she is doing the same (she does occasionally sneak a packet of crisps or a bit of toast when I am not around.

Apologies for the long post - obviously I'm not delighted that I have ended up with diabetes, but I'm really pleased with how it is going in tackling the challenge.

All the best,

Mark

 

[Kirsty79]

I'm in Buckinghamshire

Hi Mark, I'm also newly diagnosed type 2.

 

[rebrascora]

Congratulations Mark on your fantastic progress and thanks for posting as I am sure it will be inspirational for others. You have every right to be proud of your achievements. I am sure your next HbA1c result will reflect your graph results and hopefully you will be able to start reducing your Metformin as the next step.

 

[Mark_1979]

Thought I would give everyone an update as I just got my 2nd HbA1c result. It has been a long, hard battle at times, but I feel like I am winning it. I'm still on 2000mg of Metformin a day, so I want to speak to the doctor about whether there is any opportunity to reduce that. But I have come down from a HbA1c of 103 to 43 in 3 months - I'm absolutely delighted!

 

[Christy]

That is fantastic! You must be so pleased and relieved!! Keep up the good work.

 

[Ditto]

Well done. 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Well done! Great result! Keep at it!

You should be able to start reducing your Metformin dose with that HbA1c result. Doc might be reluctant but be prepared to negotiate maybe 3 months on half that dose and then see what your next test shows. Most health care professionals have little understanding of how powerful a change of diet really is and therefore place more emphasis on the medication when in fact it often has relatively little impact in comparison.
Good luck with continued success.

 

[trophywench]

Not sure which type of metformin you're on, but if it happens to be in 500mg tablets, probably likely to suggest you reduce gradually and there's no harm in doing that anyway, even if you're on 1000mg ones by taking one of them and one 500mg. Can't see why he wouldn't agree on the face of that!