Newbie with a question

[mjball]

Hi
Have been diagnosed with T2 in the last couple of months.
Have been put on metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.
I was told that I don't have to test my blood sugar when I asked the question.
I have been told I should be testing so that I know what foods spike my sugar as everyone is different.
Would like advice on what others are doing in this situation.

 

[notmez]

hi, i was diagnosed only a few weeks ago, I'm still working my way up to the same dose of metformin as you.

based on what others have told me and my own experience many (drs nurses nhs staff) seems to be quite reluctant to provide/suggest/ or agree that regular testing is required for type 2. everyone else i've spoken to says testing is important in the early days to get a handle on what the food you eat does to you and then you can reduce testing until you have new or different food.

one of the doctors I spoke to was the same (no need to test daily and defo no need to test each meal) but by the time my conversation with the specialist nurse had ended at my first appointment she had agreed to give me a monitor on prescription for a short period while I work out how the food I'm eating impacts me and told me to test a couple of times a day. (I plan on testing multiple times including each meal until I'm comfortable with it)

I'm not sure if part of it was persuasion or because the conversation went back to food very often but they agreed to give me a monitor and show me how to use it at my next visit, but, it sounds like I'll need to get my own and test strips after the "short period" ends if I want to continue monitoring myself.

for the moment until i get a monitor I'm just reducing my carbs intake and eating healthier meals in order to loose some weight slowly. I'm avoiding too much junk snacking and if i do snack I'm going for something healthier (for me) than i would normally go for. (normal snack is a sandwich+crisps and a chocolate). i haven't stopped eating junk food i've just reduced it a lot. EDIT : find out what is healthy for you because some healthy food is not great if you are diabetic. example i have cut out "healthy" fruit juice because its nearly all sugar.

in all honesty most of what i am doing during meal times is portion control.

im also trying to go out for a walk at least once but twice a day if i can. i started with a short 10 min walk and now im going anywhere from 15-40mins depending on how much time i have between meetings and how the weather looks.

Post your HbA1c values if you know them and someone who knows far more than me will probably chime in with more info.

there are some really useful things to read in the pinned post. i would highly recommend looking through those links because for me they were super helpful and reduced my stress levels.

 

[Barrowman]

Just to add to this, I was diagnosed around 13/14 weeks ago and I was provided with a blood test monitor and told I should test twice a day (on waking and before bed). It seems clear from other posts on the forum that different areas or different doctors have their own rules/opinions on this.

 

[Drummer]

Show you how to use the meter? Are they having a laugh?
The meters come with instructions on how to set them up and the proper way to use them - like most things these days, and it isn't exactly a complex process.

 

[notmez]

Show you how to use the meter? Are they having a laugh?
The meters come with instructions on how to set them up and the proper way to use them - like most things these days, and it isn't exactly a complex process.

Yeah I know it's not exactly hard but I'm not going to complain as long as I get a meter. If they want to spend a few minutes at the next appointment making sure I use it correctly before they give me a prescription for one I'm not going to say no.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi
Have been diagnosed with T2 in the last couple of months.
Have been put on metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.
I was told that I don't have to test my blood sugar when I asked the question.
I have been told I should be testing so that I know what foods spike my sugar as everyone is different.
Would like advice on what others are doing in this situation.

Sorry to hear you’ve had some conflicting advice already @mjball

I guess it’s because both bits of advice would be fine for different people.

Some people don’t want to check their own levels. They find checking BG burdensome, painful, and they find it difficult to interpret the results. They would much rather just follow the advice they have been given, and rely on occasional HbA1c checks to monitor their progress.

However others (including many members here) find checking their own levels to be quite liberating, and empowering. By checking immediately before eating, and again 2hrs later, they can check their own individual response to different foods, meals, and portion sizes of different sources of carbs. Aiming for a ‘meal rise’ of 2-3mmol/L or less as a benchmark of choices that suit their metabolisms well.

Checking doesn’t suit everyone, but for some people it can be a very powerful strategy, and help people understand the age old question “can I eat that”, and importantly, ”how much of that can I eat?” 🙂

 

[mjball]

Hi
My HbA1c was 48 mmol/mol
Everyone I have spoken to that has diabetes t2 has told me I should be testing especially at night in case my sugar is low.
Have got in touch with the surgery and they still tell me don't need to test even after I have put my point cross I am not prepared for them to use me as a guinea pig to see if what they want to do works its my health and when I don't do as they tell me they will moan at me. Also when they tell me I'm overweight and need to lose some which is a bit much when the doctor telling you is probably carrying 2 stone more than me. Diet wise you are told one thing and then you get conflicting info which contradicts what they have told you.
Thats that off my chest so sorry for the thoughts that were I my head at the time off writing this.
Thank you for the replies I have received for my original message.
All replies and advice is appreciated.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi
My HbA1c was 48 mmol/mol
Everyone I have spoken to that has diabetes t2 has told me I should be testing especially at night in case my sugar is low.
Have got in touch with the surgery and they still tell me don't need to test even after I have put my point cross I am not prepared for them to use me as a guinea pig to see if what they want to do works its my health and when I don't do as they tell me they will moan at me. Also when they tell me I'm overweight and need to lose some which is a bit much when the doctor telling you is probably carrying 2 stone more than me. Diet wise you are told one thing and then you get conflicting info which contradicts what they have told you.
Thats that off my chest so sorry for the thoughts that were I my head at the time off writing this.
Thank you for the replies I have received for my original message.
All replies and advice is appreciated.

At 48mmol/mol you are just on the first rung of the diabetes ladder and with some dietary changes you should be in a good position to bring it down and keep it there if the dietary regime is one you enjoy as it will be sustainable. I assume at 48mmol/mol you haven't been put on any medication and are being 'allowed' to address your blood glucose level by some lifestyle changes. Some modest changes may be all that is needed.
The testing you do has to be for a purpose and give you information on which to act upon.
Many test in the morning to monitor daily or weekly progress as if you make the changes you should see improvement in those levels over the weeks.
People also test to find out if their meals are tolerated as if the increase in blood glucose following your meal is kept to a low level then overall level will improve. Many test before they eat and after 2 hours aiming at an increase of no more than 2-3mmol/l, if it is more than that then the meal is too carbohydrate heavy for your body to tolerate and you would need to reduce the carbohydrate component of the meal. As your levels come down then no more than 8-8.5 mmol/l 2 hours post meal is a good place to be and 4-7mmol/l before meals or fasting/ morning level.
Unless you are on medication which could produce low blood glucose that is fairly unlikely to be an issue.
That is when people might test at night.
But everybody will have a testing regime which suits them and that may change as time passes since diagnosis.

Have a look at this link as it may clarify things for you. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
It is a low carb approach which many have found successful at reducing blood glucose and losing weight

 

[mjball]

At 48mmol/mol you are just on the first rung of the diabetes ladder and with some dietary changes you should be in a good position to bring it down and keep it there if the dietary regime is one you enjoy as it will be sustainable. I assume at 48mmol/mol you haven't been put on any medication and are being 'allowed' to address your blood glucose level by some lifestyle changes. Some modest changes may be all that is needed.
The testing you do has to be for a purpose and give you information on which to act upon.
Many test in the morning to monitor daily or weekly progress as if you make the changes you should see improvement in those levels over the weeks.
People also test to find out if their meals are tolerated as if the increase in blood glucose following your meal is kept to a low level then overall level will improve. Many test before they eat and after 2 hours aiming at an increase of no more than 2-3mmol/l, if it is more than that then the meal is too carbohydrate heavy for your body to tolerate and you would need to reduce the carbohydrate component of the meal. As your levels come down then no more than 8-8.5 mmol/l 2 hours post meal is a good place to be and 4-7mmol/l before meals or fasting/ morning level.
Unless you are on medication which could produce low blood glucose that is fairly unlikely to be an issue.
That is when people might test at night.
But everybody will have a testing regime which suits them and that may change as time passes since diagnosis.

Have a look at this link as it may clarify things for you. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
It is a low carb approach which many have found successful at reducing blood glucose and losing weight

Hi
I am on Metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.

 

[rebrascora]

Just to add to this, I was diagnosed around 13/14 weeks ago and I was provided with a blood test monitor and told I should test twice a day (on waking and before bed). It seems clear from other posts on the forum that different areas or different doctors have their own rules/opinions on this.

This is I believe because you are taking a medication which can drop your levels too low (ie Gliclazide or insulin) and therefore a meter is provided to keep you safe.
People who are Type 2 and not on these medications will not generally be supplied with a meter and test strips. Sometimes they will give you a meter as they get them free from the reps but not prescribe test strips for it and the test strips are where the manufacturer makes their money and the NHS incurs expense of course.

@notmez Do be aware that you may not get test strips on prescription and the test strips for the meter you are given may be significantly more expensive than those self funded by many people on this forum, so it can be cheaper to buy your own BG meter kit than fork out for the test strips for the meter you are given. This has happened to a few people and they end up paying nearly double for each pot of test strips than the ones recommended by forum members who self fund ..... Just wanting to make you aware of potential pitfalls.
Each test kit usually comes with a pot of 10 test strips... and 10 lancets, and you will probably spoil some of those doing your first solo tests because it takes a while to get the hang of testing.... so 10 test strips probably won't last you 2 days if you are testing before and after each meal, so do clarify that extra test strips are going to be prescribed on repeat prescription otherwise the meter is pretty much a waste of a resource or will cost you more money than it need to in the long run. Just to be clear, test strips are not universal, so each manufacturer makes specific test strips for their meter and charges accordingly. Some test strips can be 3x the price of others. ie Gluco Navii used to be about the cheapest at £8 for a pot of 50 but some high end meters, the strips cost £25 per pot of 50. About £15-20 is common, so the Gluco Navii meter or the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 are the two recommended here for economy and reliability. There are other cheap meters with cheap test strips which people have tried and not found reliable, but those 2 seem to provide the best of both worlds in that respect.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi
I am on Metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.

You obviously have a GP who believes in reaching for the prescription pad without giving the opportunity to adjust your diet.. Even so Metformin is not regarded as a medication that would cause low blood glucose.

 

[notmez]

be aware that you may not get test strips on prescription and the test strips for the meter you are given may be significantly more expensive than those self funded by many people on this forum,

Thank you, I've been poking around the site for the last few days and comparing prices on boots and other pharmacy's and the prices have been coming up as £20 for 50 which will get expensive fast.

I'm not sure how long the prescription will be for but it sounded like I'll also get strips on prescription but only for a limited time.

I'll be asking about pricing and strips when I get there next week, if they will only give me strips for 1 month it'll be a waste of money and unless its one with easily available strips at a reasonable price I'll try and ask what other meters or alternatives I can have.

Thanks for the reminder as id completely forgotten to add that to my list of questions to ask about.

 

[Sharron1]

Hi
Have been diagnosed with T2 in the last couple of months.
Have been put on metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.
I was told that I don't have to test my blood sugar when I asked the question.
I have been told I should be testing so that I know what foods spike my sugar as everyone is different.
Would like advice on what others are doing in

Hi
Have been diagnosed with T2 in the last couple of months.
Have been put on metformin 2000mg a day 1000mg morning and 1000mg evening.
I was told that I don't have to test my blood sugar when I asked the question.
I have been told I should be testing so that I know what foods spike my sugar as everyone is different.
Would like advice on what others are doing in this situation.

All I can say is regular testing when first diagnosed is the only way to find out what foods work. I was told by my GP not to bother with testing I chose to ignore that advice as it made no sense.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thank you, I've been poking around the site for the last few days and comparing prices on boots and other pharmacy's and the prices have been coming up as £20 for 50 which will get expensive fast.

I'm not sure how long the prescription will be for but it sounded like I'll also get strips on prescription but only for a limited time.

I'll be asking about pricing and strips when I get there next week, if they will only give me strips for 1 month it'll be a waste of money and unless its one with easily available strips at a reasonable price I'll try and ask what other meters or alternatives I can have.

Thanks for the reminder as id completely forgotten to add that to my list of questions to ask about.

It is worth shopping around for monitors and test strips as the prices have increased recently. The GlucoNavii or TEE 2 were monitors available on- line which one could confidently say had the cheapest strips but I did notice the price of those had gone up but they were still better than those from the pharmacy. The thing to consider is the cost of the strips rather than the monitor as that is a one off cost and you would easily recoup the cost of the monitor in short order.

 

[mjball]

All I can say is regular testing when first diagnosed is the only way to find out what foods work. I was told by my GP not to bother with testing I chose to ignore that advice as it made no sense.

I have ignored it as well and do test have managed to get tests trips at a reduced price at the minute?
Have just checked out the meters that were mentioned earlier in this post I looks like the Gluconavii is the cheaper option for self funding on the test strips under £10 for 50.

 

[trophywench]

I'm still shocked at the idea that a snack consists of a sandwich plus crisps followed by something choc is a snack. For both me and my husband, it = lunch, except without the chocolate. He likes eg cake with our afternoon cup of tea - sometimes I join him and sometimes not - but being Type 1, I need to inject extra insulin for the cake/scone/biscuit so it largely depends on whether I can actually be bothered to test and jab. I'm certainly not fading away - and neither is OH for whom diabetes has never been on the cards so far, though he has COPD and has a AAA so despite steroids for chest infections every winter, from which he's quite a lot overweight which we both worry about.

 

[notmez]

I'm still shocked at the idea that a snack consists of a sandwich plus crisps followed by something choc is a snack.

I used to be a heavy eater. Early tiny breakfast, lunch at 12 was always a massive something full of veg. Around 4 I'd have my snacks. Dinner would be around 7/8 and would be smaller than lunch. This was pre 2020 when I was really active

All the meals were small except lunch but I ate a lot. Being vegetarian and lactose incompatible meant my sandwiches were just full of salad. 2 slices of buttered bread stuffed full of leaves and salad often more salad than bread so not too bad for me

I haven't been doing that since 2020 but the activities also stopped ... I guess Its all eventually caught up to me.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thank you, I've been poking around the site for the last few days and comparing prices on boots and other pharmacy's and the prices have been coming up as £20 for 50 which will get expensive fast.

The gluco navii and spirit tee2 are both well regarded as reliable and relatively affordable on the forum 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi
My HbA1c was 48 mmol/mol
Everyone I have spoken to that has diabetes t2 has told me I should be testing especially at night in case my sugar is low.
Have got in touch with the surgery and they still tell me don't need to test even after I have put my point cross I am not prepared for them to use me as a guinea pig to see if what they want to do works its my health and when I don't do as they tell me they will moan at me. Also when they tell me I'm overweight and need to lose some which is a bit much when the doctor telling you is probably carrying 2 stone more than me. Diet wise you are told one thing and then you get conflicting info which contradicts what they have told you.
Thats that off my chest so sorry for the thoughts that were I my head at the time off writing this.
Thank you for the replies I have received for my original message.
All replies and advice is appreciated.

Feel free to vent and let off steam! We all know how frustrating diabetes (and healthcare appointments) can be!

Hope you get on well with your meter - let us know how it goes!

 

[Gwynn]

Tee2+ test strips £8.64 for 50 on Amazon