Newbie Type 2 !

[MissDaisy]

Hi @Miss Daisy just wanted to say welcome to the forum. I can see you're already getting lots of advice about your diet. I hope its all useful and that you are able to get to the bottom of your other health problems too.

Thank You for the welcome - yes Barbara is helping very much & I appreciate it @rebrascora

I hope to find loads of info here

 

[MissDaisy]

You could try just half a slice of toast with the beans and see what it does to your BG levels, testing before and 2 hours after and have plenty of real butter on the half slice of toast and/or have some scrambled egg or cheese with it to bulk it out and fill you up. Fat and protein is the key to eating low carb. Don't be frightened of it.
Eggs are almost equal portions of fat and protein with no carbs so a great food for us diabetics and sardines are a good choice... again all protein and fat.

The idea is to make small changes, so whilst I am tempted to say ditch the beans and bread as they are both carb rich foods, you need to bring things down slowly, so half a slice of bread with the beans is a good first step. The egg or cheese don't add any carbs so you can take them or leave them but if you end up feeling hungry later and wanting to snack then it is not beneficial, even if you resist, because it just makes the changes harder to stick to. I am all for making things easy and enjoyable. If you do need to snack, a low carb option like I listed in a post above is best.

Thank You You seem to (from your signature) have gone from diagnosed Type 2 to Type 1. How can I be sure that I am Type 2 as they didn’t do the blood test until now? Do many Type 2 then find out they are Type 1 or is this uncommon? Sorry to be so nosey LOL hope you don’t mind me asking

All the best

MissDaisy

 

[grovesy]

Hi

Today I’ve had no sugar/low salt baked beans on brown bread at lunch and evening meal chicken, salad with 2 new potatoes - and done 30 mins exercise 10 warm up exercise and 20mins walking exercises. BG was 15.1 after lunch and after exercise 14.3. Only drink water & tea with no sugar.

I think I need to get a food diary and start meticulously writing everything down! It sounds like I need to really change diet and GP suggested low GI however you guys mention it’s not the answer for all.

They’ve just upped my metformin from 3 to 4 a day, I don’t know how long before it starts to make a real difference?

Many Thanks again Miss Daisy

For a number of years low GI worked for me. Though over the years I have had to reassess and adjust what works for me. Sometimes it is not always what you eat it can be the portion size.
I have also found I have to eat what works for me and can maintain most of the time.

 

[rebrascora]

Not at all nosey. It is really important to ask questions and understand things. Quite a lot of Type 1s get misdiagnosed as Type 2s because many Health Care Professionals believe that Type 1 only exhibits in children and young adults but there are plenty of us who developed it later in life.
I was a sugar addict and also ate a lot of bread and potatoes and (baked beans) pre diagnosis but was not excessively overweight as I have an active lifestyle. I was assumed Type 2 due to my age and self confessed unhealthy diet although there was always a question mark because I had sudden onset symptoms and rapid weight loss and my HbA1c the previous year had been normal which all point to Type 1.
I am actually quite pleased that I came into my diagnosis this way as I learned to eat low/very low carb and I feel this helped me to break my sugar addiction and find a healthier approach to food.
Interestingly I have not had a single migraine since I changed my diet and I can even have a glass or two of red wine (my main trigger) now without a problem. I was getting severe (vomiting and sometimes passing out) migraines almost once a month pre diagnosis. I was also struggling with joint pain to the point I was worried that a knee replacement was becoming necessary and again that stopped when I changed my diet. I get the odd twinge but not the everyday pain and inflammation that I had.... I have horses, so this was a big concern for me.

I was like most people in thinking it was just sugar that I needed to cut out, so when I started weeing for England day and night and drinking water like a drowning woman I cut out the sugar and sweets for a couple of weeks but I was still up 4-5x a night for pit stops. After 2 weeks I was knackered and contacted my GP who had blood tests done and my HbA1c came back as dangerously high 112. I started on Metformin and increased the dose and added Gliclazide and then I found this forum and started cutting my carbs as a result of the advice here until I eventually gave up on my morning porridge, which was my last carb rich food, and got my BG into single figures. Unfortunately a second HbA1c showed my reading had gone up instead of down and I was started on insulin.... caused a few tears as I felt that I had failed! Thankfully I was referred to a consultant who had been informed of my situation throughout this and he eventually sanctioned tests which confirmed I was Type 1.

I could now eat a "normal" diet and just inject as much insulin as I need to cover it but that comes with it's own issues and I know that there is a risk that I will go back to my old ways of eating too many carbs/sugar addiction and perhaps migraines and joint pain, so I have stuck with my new Low Carb regime but introduced more fat into my diet and what amazes me is how little food I now need and how I can go all day and not feel hungry as a result of eating more fat. I start my day with a coffee made with double cream and every morning I sit and really relish that coffee! It tastes divine and how can I possible feel badly done to when I start the day on such a wonderful treat! ... this is the woman who would rather not drink coffee as drink it without sugar and I didn't spoon it in, I tipped it in!

Anyway, enough about me. The reason I asked about your weight was because sudden weight loss is one of the main differences between Type 1 and Type 2. High blood glucose in either type of diabetes can cause Tiredness, Thirst and frequent trips to the Toilet but becoming Thinner ie unexplained or easy weight loss, is usually the red flag for Type 1. It is described as the 4 Ts.

 

[silentsquirrel]

I seem to remember that BM stands for the ?German firm that made the first test strips. So the B isn't for blood! I can't remember the name, but think @trophywench or another senior (in terms of D experience) member will know. Strange that the term BMs persists among medics.

 

[grovesy]

I seem to remember that BM stands for the ?German firm that made the first test strips. So the B isn't for blood! I can't remember the name, but think @trophywench or another senior (in terms of D experience) member will know. Strange that the term BMs persists among medics.

It has been handed down as the term over the years and stuck.

 

[rebrascora]

By the way, the lack of weight loss doesn't totally rule out you being something other than Type 2.... it is possible that you are LADA Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, which is a slow onset form of Type 1 often referred to as Type 1.5 and there are some rarer types like MODY which I don't know much about, but at the moment reducing your carb intake in the best that you can do to improve things until more tests can be done.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I can't remember the name, but think @trophywench or another senior (in terms of D experience) member will know.

Wikipedia says it's Boehringer Mannheim (now part of Roche).

 

[silentsquirrel]

Wikipedia says it's Boehringer Mannheim (now part of Roche).

Thanks, Bruce!

 

[rebrascora]

Wikipedia says it's Boehringer Mannheim (now part of Roche).

Interesting and pleased the mystery has been solved (and I am enlightened) but I am still going to giggle a bit to myself when I see people talking about BMs 'cos giggling is good for the soul!

 

[SB2015]

Hi

How do you update profile to hide personal details and/or add signature please?

Thanks in advance 🙂

If you click on your name at the top when you are logged in it gives you the option of changing your signature and other details.

Come back if there are any difficulties wi5h this.

 

[trophywench]

Why the term 'BM' ? Because Boehringer (the pharmaceutical company in Germany) from their division situated in the location of Mannheim, so that branch of the co is always referred to as Boehringer Mannheim - were the first people to produce an easily available fingerprick blood glucose testing machine, so the testing strips themselves can also be called BM sticks. It has nowt whatever to do with the words 'blood' or 'meter'.

The 'proper' name for such a machine is 'glucometer' anyway.

Bet you all wish you'd never asked!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I know some people refer to BG readings as BMs (not entirely sure what actual word the M stands for)

I seem to remember that BM stands for the ?German firm that made the first test strips. So the B isn't for blood! I can't remember the name, but think @trophywench or another senior (in terms of D experience) member will know. Strange that the term BMs persists among medics.

Diabetes history lesson: BMs are BM Sticks, blood glucose strips made by Boehringer Mannheim, where you applied a hefty blood sample, waited 1 minute, wiped off the excess blood, waited one more minute... then attempted to match the two-coloured squares on the strip with a colour chart printed on the side of the pot.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I think I need to get a food diary and start meticulously writing everything down! It sounds like I need to really change diet and GP suggested low GI however you guys mention it’s not the answer for all.

A food diary is an excellent idea @MissDaisy 🙂

Many members find that an excellent way of beginning to assess and adjust their menu - particularly if you can pair it with ‘before and after’ BG readings. Take a BG reading just before and then 2hours after the first bite, to observe the ‘meal rise’. The numbers themselves dont’t matter so much to begin with, so don‘t worry if they are higher than you’d like. It’s more important to get the rises as small as you can. Ideally only 2-3mmol/L different. That way your general BG levels will come down gradually in time.

Oh... and to tag a member in your posts, simply type an @ sign and follow it with their username, the system will then turn that into a link to their profile, and send them a notification 🙂

 

[MissDaisy]

A food diary is an excellent idea @MissDaisy 🙂

Many members find that an excellent way of beginning to assess and adjust their menu - particularly if you can pair it with ‘before and after’ BG readings. Take a BG reading just before and then 2hours after the first bite, to observe the ‘meal rise’. The numbers themselves dont’t matter so much to begin with, so don‘t worry if they are higher than you’d like. It’s more important to get the rises as small as you can. Ideally only 2-3mmol/L different. That way your general BG levels will come down gradually in time.

Oh... and to tag a member in your posts, simply type an @ sign and follow it with their username, the system will then turn that into a link to their profile, and send them a notification 🙂

Thank You so much for your reply & encouragement - BG 12.8 before eating this morning so I’ll see what it’s like after a little porridge

 

[MissDaisy]

By the way, the lack of weight loss doesn't totally rule out you being something other than Type 2.... it is possible that you are LADA Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, which is a slow onset form of Type 1 often referred to as Type 1.5 and there are some rarer types like MODY which I don't know much about, but at the moment reducing your carb intake in the best that you can do to improve things until more tests can be done.

Morning Barbara,

Thank you for both replies about this and about Diabetes 1.5 - as I may have autoimmune conditions it could be a possibility to keep in mind.

I forgot to mention since starting the Metformin I have had some weight loss, enough to notice my trousers to be baggy around the waist! I assumed however this was due to the fact I eat less, move more and my body is getting vitamins/energy in the correct way now sugars are down. Or is this reason not usually the case?

Could it be possible I have Type 1 with no family history and as the BG reading a are so uncontrolled despite 4 Metformin a day?

I hope your having a lovely morning & sleep well - I certainly did.

I look forward to your reply

Sending all the best MissDaisy

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Could it be possible I have Type 1 with no family history and as the BG reading a are so uncontrolled despite 4 Metformin a day?

Yes it’s certainly possible - and T1 can develop at any stage of life, not just in childhood.

Already having other autoimmune conditions does increase risk of developing T1 I believe.

Weight loss can be a symptom of T1 - it is one of the 4Ts (toilet, tired, thirsty, thinner), so it is certainly worth keeping an open mind. See how your BG responds if you have a few ‘low carb‘ days.

There are no hard and fast rules for what constitures low carb, for some people it will be less than 100g during the day, for others less than 50g!

 

[MissDaisy]

Yes it’s certainly possible - and T1 can develop at any stage of life, not just in childhood.

Already having other autoimmune conditions does increase risk of developing T1 I believe.

Weight loss can be a symptom of T1 - it is one of the 4Ts (toilet, tired, thirsty, thinner), so it is certainly worth keeping an open mind. See how your BG responds if you have a few ‘low carb‘ days.

There are no hard and fast rules for what constitures low carb, for some people it will be less than 100g during the day, for others less than 50g!

Hi Mike,

Ah that’s what 4Ts mean, well thirsty, a little thinner (since Metformin started only tho), always tired & fatigue with Fibro (first they said I had ME as well but I think it was a combination of Fibro & Diabetes looking back now) and not noticed extra toilet trips.

I’m planning to speak to DR on Monday about my HbA1c result.

Thanks again MissDaisy

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

and not noticed extra toilet trips.

Toilet trips are associated with the additional thirst. Once your BG rises above the ‘renal threshold’ (approx 10mmol/L) your body tries to flush out the extra glucose by excreting it in urine. Which leads to increased urination... which leads to increased thirst...

In the middle ages diabetes was known as ‘the p*ssing evil’ 😱

 

[rebrascora]

Metformin can help with weight loss as an appetite suppressant and together with the diet and increased activity you have been following since Nov, it may just be that, but yes it is possible that you are Type 1... or LADA ...both amount to the same thing, but LADA has a more gentle onset.
As Mike says, if you take your carbs right down and still get high readings, that would make it significantly more likely and if you keep a food diary with your readings then your Health Care Professionals will be able to see that you have more than done your bit.... Unfortunately your doctor may not know that Type 1 can exhibit in adulthood and probably will not have heard of LADA, so it can sometimes be tricky treading a fine line without telling them their job. I had a rather dodgy phone conversation with my GP in which I ended up saying something like, the people here on the forum thought I should be on insulin and as you can imagine that went down like a lead balloon! Try to get referred to a specialist. Of course outpatient appointments are not happening at the moment but hopefully that will improve soon.
Your GP may start you on Gliclazide as well as the Metformin to see if that will work. That was the next stage for me before they eventually prescribed insulin.