Newly diagnosed and scared

[jonesevan1983]

Hi all,

Newly diagnosed today and a bit frightened. Nurse told me my Hba1c level is 68 - not sure how high that is diabetes wise (type 2 fyi).

I'm 5'9 and 18 stone and got south asian origins - and fully recognise that lifestyle choices have caused this, so can't really complain...but doesn't mean I'm not scared.

Worried about losing my sight, or limbs or worse.

I'm cutting out bad carbs and replacing white rice / white pasta with the brown version and/or veg etc.

Need to take metformin pills (starting on 1 a day for a week moving up to 4 a day) and also statins (one a day).

Not really sure what I'm asking, except maybe how high is 68 on the scale - I'm clueless.

Need to work out what I can have for brekkie before work, and take to have for lunch etc. I'm honestly hopeless when it comes to this.

 

[Kaylz]

48 is where you they give a diabetic diagnosis

are you going to be testing your blood sugars? that's the only way to tell if you can tolerate certain foods, so while you want to swap what you see as "bad" carbs for good ones we often find that the so called "good" carbs aren't tolerated either as all carbs turn to glucose in the body, generally advice is to cut down on all starchy carbs so bread, potatoes, pasta/rice etc
xx

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome
68 is higher than you would like but not dangerously high in the short term, although those levels can cause damage long term so it is important to take action. I was 112 at diagnosis and others were higher still if that helps to put it into perspective a bit. You are looking to get it below 48 which is the point at which diabetes is diagnosed and better still get it below 42 and into the "normal" range (42-47 being what is referred to as pre diabetic). With the help of the Metformin and some dietary changes as described above you should be able to get it down below 48 in a few months and if you are able to sustain a low carb diet (which can actually be quite enjoyable) maintain it there possibly without use of medication.... Top tip with Metformin is to take it mid meal with a substantial amount of food as it can upset your digestive system in quite antisocial ways!

Self testing is a useful way to see how you are doing day to day and find out which foods you are best avoiding and which or how much of certain carbohydrates you can get away with. Sugar and sweet stuff is what everyone associates with diabetes but starchy carbs like bread pasta and rice and potatoes can be equally bad if not worse, even the so called healthy brown versions. Blood Glucose test meters are not expensive to buy (approx. £15) but the on going cost of test strips can hit the finances so it makes sense to buy a meter which has the cheapest test strips and the SD Codefree is recommended here because it has some of the cheapest test strips at £8 for a pot of 50. It can be purchased on Amazon I believe if you are interested.

 

[Pine Marten]

Hi @jonesevan1983, welcome to the forum.

Good advice already given so I won't repeat it. If you want to get a meter the link to the Codefree is here, and Home Health take off the VAT if you click the 'diabetic' option : https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/ and we use the mmol/L in the UK.

Don't panic 🙂 your level of 68 isn't that bad (I was around 108 as I recall) and with some food and lifestyle tweaks you should be able to maintain a good level. For breakfast forget the cereal as you can have a permutation of eggs/bacon/good quality sausages/mushrooms/salads... If you have a read around the recipe threads you'll get a good idea of what people here go for. Come back and let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Drummer]

The first thing to point out is that diabetes is not due to lifestyle - you either can deal with carbohydrate or you can't.
Yes, altering lifestyle can help, but basically is is down to what you eat.
The second thing is, unfortunately, changing to brown carbs isn't going to make much difference - at least for me it didn't - perhaps it delayed the effects, but they were still the same, or possibly they were even longer lasting with the brown version.
This seems very difficult for some people to accept - I still have people make brown carbs specially for me because I can eat them - well - no I can't. They even get cross with me about it.
Carbs are not good or bad - they are just the things we can't cope with in our diet.
Do you have any dietary restrictions on what you eat? You should get some good suggestions for foods for breakfast and lunch from the forum, but I just thought I'd check first.

 

[Kursal]

Hello,

I'm new to this as well. I went into hospital with an abscess and when they did the blood tests for that, they told me I was diabetic. I was told today by HbA1c 111 but I'm not worried because now I know I can start to do something about it.

I'm going to be on metformin as well.

I've already cut down what I eat (I need to lose weight as well anyway) but I will likely be doing the wrong thing, which is why I'm on the forums.

Good luck with everything. I think you'll be fine in the long-run 🙂

 

[trophywench]

… plus your S. Asian origins make you more prone to getting Type 2 diabetes anyway even if you hadn't ever made any lifestyle choices that also may have encouraged your diagnosis - however diabetes won't kill you unless you continue to make the wrong choices.

Ironically your ethnic heritage makes you far less likely to get prostate cancer whereas were you Afro Caribbean, you'd be 4 x more likely to get that than the average white man.

I know which I'd opt for given the choice!

 

[CathyB]

Hi and welcome, the others have said it all really so ill just say hello