Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

[CLARE291079...]

hi all was just diagnosed just 2 days ago. Its all a bit overwhelming. Just wanting to know what to expect. Also just wanting to speak to others in the same position as myself

 

[CathyB]

Welcome Clare, to the club no one wants to be in it is a bit of a head rattler to suddenly find your diet needs an overhaul for life, but believe me, it’s not s bad as you think 🙂
I’m not clever enough to give you the right links to pages but others will be along to do that for you soon. Everyone here are really friendly and there is a wealth of experience to share and learn from. It would be great to hear a little more about you, how did your diagnosis come about? What are your blood glucose readings? What advice have you been given so far? Are you testing your own blood?
It’s not just sugar that we need to cut out but carbohydrates too as they will push our blood sugar levels up, especially pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and starchy veg (if it grows below ground, avoid it). I do eat Burgen bread which is a soy and linseed low carb available in most supermarkets, great for toast or a sandwich.
The best advice I can give you now is to read as much as you can on here, ask any questions that pop in your mind

 

[CLARE291079...]

I was only released from hospital yesterday. My last blood glucose was 24.2. They didn't really give me any advice, just said that the diabetic nurse would be in touch and if I feel worse eg: if I cant hold anything down to come back down. ps: they gave me metformin and Empagliflozin. I'm not testing my blood. Thank you for the advice CathyB I appreciate it.

 

[Brando77]

Hallo Clare, scarey stuff, mine was 22+. Read up here, get a tester and you will manage it. It's not so bad, just needs a bit more thought and action to your day to day living. Good luck 🙂

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome to the forum Clare from a fellow T2.
Your BG, was that a HbAc1 test (blood taken from the arm), or a finger prick?

 

[Jakki098]

Hi Clare and welcome! Still very new to me too, but once you get a tester, get into the habit initially of testing the level of glucose in your blood before a meal or snack and 90 mins to 2 hrs after every meal you very quickly realise what is good for you and what's not. My glucose level was above 33 at first, but I'm much more settled after just two and a half weeks of being diagnosed and not peaking or dipping anywhere near as bad. My average now is 8.4 in a morning to 10.5 after eating something that's not so good for me now. I've changed my diet found hocus lower carb bread, switched breakfasts to granola or muesli topped with yoghurt and fresh berries, a handful of almonds when needing a snack is great for me and lowers the glucose level even more, oh and fuel protein breakfast drinks are great tasting, give me a chocolate hit with no problems and no sugar spikes either. Look upon it as an exciting challenge to find new things to eat, things you didn't realise were there or have never tried before! Once you set yourself to a positive outlook it all stops being so scary and starts becoming a fun personal challenge. Everybody's body works and processes foods differently, so in the first year, while it's still a steep learning curve, I highly recommend testing your blood regularly even while out. I can still go into Costa and have a flat white with skimmed milk and sweetener or a cold drink, but often take a healthy fruit snack or almonds with me. If challenged - which I haven't been I would simply suggest they stock low carb diabetic snacks and foods, as there's more of us than they think and if be happy to purchase from them.

I can also recommend as it was to me, a few days ago a book called
"The first year type 2 diabetes, an essential guide for the newly diagnosed" by Gretchen Becker. It's available as kindle or paperback. It's a great read!! Very helpful.
Also
"Carbs and Cal's pocket counter" by Chris Cheyette. Very handy and helpful book you can carry anywhere.

Remember, what ever the worry, large or small we're all here to help! You're not on your own and that's a great feeling!

 

[Martin9]

Hi I was just diagnosed in May of this year so I'm fairly new to this carry on as well but by listening to the group members and adopting a low carb , higher fat diet (LCHF) I've managed to get my waking blood glucose levels to within "normal " levels whereas I had been sometimes in double figures before adopting the diet.

For meters there are 2 generally recommended on this group, they are the Codefree meter and the Tee2 meter this is due to the relatively cheap testing strips as some test strips are very expensive.
The Tee 2 meter is free, and test strips are £7.75 per 50, the Codefree is around £12.70 and test strips are £7.69 per 50, please ensure when ordering to declare you are diabetic to avoid paying VAT on top of purchase price.

One quick peice of advice to get you started is watch out for breakfast cereals many are high carbs and counter intuitively you may well be better of with the like of grilled bacon & egg or an omelette. As has been said above, limit your intake of both the simple sugars found in cakes, sweets, chocolate etc but also the starchy carbs like bread, potato, rice, wheat products like pasta, pastry as the body readily converts these into sugars, if you do have them reduce the quantity and select the wholewheat, wholemeal or brown version of them.
Ask any questions you have on the forum there is always someone here who has the answer...!

 

[CathyB]

....the only other thing I would add is to be careful with fruit, especially grapes (or little sugar balls) as the are high risk. Some of us can tolerate a few berries but sadly I can’t, my bg spikes with jus 5 little raspberries 😳
I had to cut fruit out completely the start but now I can have the odd apple, better than nothing eh 🙄

 

[Jakki098]

Just discovered... Grapes and raspberries same for me sigh.... It's a sad, sad day when you're a fruitaholic like me.... Hmmm... Get myself sorted and as stable as poss for a good while then try with one grape at a time. 🙂

 

[CathyB]

Just discovered... Grapes and raspberries same for me sigh.... It's a sad, sad day when you're a fruitaholic like me.... Hmmm... Get myself sorted and as stable as poss for a good while then try with one grape at a time. 🙂

My compromise is usin a little sugar free caramel syrup in my Greek yoghurt, i do miss my fruit but this works for me 🙄

 

[Ralph-YK]

....the only other thing I would add is to be careful with fruit, especially grapes (or little sugar balls) as the are high risk.

I believe a couple of grapes could be ok for a lot of people. Of course no has 2 grapes. They have 2 pounds of grapes.

 

[CLARE291079...]

Welcome to the forum Clare from a fellow T2.
Your BG, was that a HbAc1 test (blood taken from the arm), or a finger prick?

 

[CLARE291079...]

Finger prick

 

[CLARE291079...]

Hi Clare and welcome! Still very new to me too, but once you get a tester, get into the habit initially of testing the level of glucose in your blood before a meal or snack and 90 mins to 2 hrs after every meal you very quickly realise what is good for you and what's not. My glucose level was above 33 at first, but I'm much more settled after just two and a half weeks of being diagnosed and not peaking or dipping anywhere near as bad. My average now is 8.4 in a morning to 10.5 after eating something that's not so good for me now. I've changed my diet found hocus lower carb bread, switched breakfasts to granola or muesli topped with yoghurt and fresh berries, a handful of almonds when needing a snack is great for me and lowers the glucose level even more, oh and fuel protein breakfast drinks are great tasting, give me a chocolate hit with no problems and no sugar spikes either. Look upon it as an exciting challenge to find new things to eat, things you didn't realise were there or have never tried before! Once you set yourself to a positive outlook it all stops being so scary and starts becoming a fun personal challenge. Everybody's body works and processes foods differently, so in the first year, while it's still a steep learning curve, I highly recommend testing your blood regularly even while out. I can still go into Costa and have a flat white with skimmed milk and sweetener or a cold drink, but often take a healthy fruit snack or almonds with me. If challenged - which I haven't been I would simply suggest they stock low carb diabetic snacks and foods, as there's more of us than they think and if be happy to purchase from them.

I can also recommend as it was to me, a few days ago a book called
"The first year type 2 diabetes, an essential guide for the newly diagnosed" by Gretchen Becker. It's available as kindle or paperback. It's a great read!! Very helpful.
Also
"Carbs and Cal's pocket counter" by Chris Cheyette. Very handy and helpful book you can carry anywhere.

Remember, what ever the worry, large or small we're all here to help! You're not on your own and that's a great feeling!

 

[CLARE291079...]

Thank you for the advice i will take it on board but ive the added complication of having ulcerative colitis which resulted in me having a stoma so ive to be even more careful of what i eat and drink and now being diabetic has made it even harder.

 

[Jakki098]

Clare, you're not on your own!! It's certainly not the most social of diseases (U/C) tell me about it. I suffer badly too with colitis, just not ulcerated atm. This is why changing my GP this week was for me, essential. To give me a drug that causes severe diarrhoea in some people is risky enough, but he denied the hospital's MRI and CT scans plus colonoscopy when they clearly found my large intestine severely infected, prescribed peppermint pills which my hospital consultant said DO NOT TAKE! As it would make the inflammation much worse, and now he says Met does not cause gastric problems and there is no such thing as a slow release version of the drug.
I've been practically living in the loo and the pain is agonising, so I really get where you're coming from. Flare ups will always happen regardless, there's little we can do to prevent them, but when it happens I go right back to basics. Sweet potatoes baked, soluble fibre only, no veg with an outer soft shell, inc pulses, items from the brassica family, no nuts, seeds Inc mushrooms but it also Inc!udes berries as their seeds can also irritate! Makes life really difficult at times, but it CAN be done. Don't punish yourself by restricting foods you love and remember carbs are still needed and allowed!! Just be careful how much. Try high protein low carb supplement drinks available - atm still, on prescription

 

[Linda Sharrett]

Thank you for the advice i will take it on board but ive the added complication of having ulcerative colitis which resulted in me having a stoma so ive to be even more careful of what i eat and drink and now being diabetic has made it even harder.

I too have a Stoma, mine is Ileostomy so my food is quickly "in the Bag" my Colon is now redundant. The food limitations are vast & I am suffering trying to find a good healthy diet. The one I was given in hospital after my Stoma operation has caused me to have Type 2 . How are you finding it now Clare ?

 

[CLARE291079...]

Welcome Clare, to the club no one wants to be in it is a bit of a head rattler to suddenly find your diet needs an overhaul for life, but believe me, it’s not s bad as you think 🙂
I’m not clever enough to give you the right links to pages but others will be along to do that for you soon. Everyone here are really friendly and there is a wealth of experience to share and learn from. It would be great to hear a little more about you, how did your diagnosis come about? What are your blood glucose readings? What advice have you been given so far? Are you testing your own blood?
It’s not just sugar that we need to cut out but carbohydrates too as they will push our blood sugar levels up, especially pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and starchy veg (if it grows below ground, avoid it). I do eat Burgen bread which is a soy and linseed low carb available in most supermarkets, great for toast or a sandwich.
The best advice I can give you now is to read as much as you can on here, ask any questions that pop in your mind

Thanks for the info but since this posting. Doctors think I've type 1.

 

[CLARE291079...]

Welcome Clare, to the club no one wants to be in it is a bit of a head rattler to suddenly find your diet needs an overhaul for life, but believe me, it’s not s bad as you think 🙂
I’m not clever enough to give you the right links to pages but others will be along to do that for you soon. Everyone here are really friendly and there is a wealth of experience to share and learn from. It would be great to hear a little more about you, how did your diagnosis come about? What are your blood glucose readings? What advice have you been given so far? Are you testing your own blood?
It’s not just sugar that we need to cut out but carbohydrates too as they will push our blood sugar levels up, especially pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and starchy veg (if it grows below ground, avoid it). I do eat Burgen bread which is a soy and linseed low carb available in most supermarkets, great for toast or a sandwich.
The best advice I can give you now is to read as much as you can on here, ask any questions that pop in your mind

My diagnosis came out of nowhere. I went to my gp because I was constantly tired and no energy. GO took my sugars and they were over 25 and i was sent straight to hospital and kept in overnight then sent home with metformin but a few days I was back in i had developed DKA and was in for 4 days. Even though I presented with symptoms of type 2. Doctors said it was more than likely type 1 but they would have to do an antibody test to see. Ps: I got sent home with a blood glucose monitor, Lantus and slow release metformin. Ps: as of today my levels have been 7.1mmol 6.3mmol and 6.0mmol

 

[CLARE291079...]

I too have a Stoma, mine is Ileostomy so my food is quickly "in the Bag" my Colon is now redundant. The food limitations are vast & I am suffering trying to find a good healthy diet. The one I was given in hospital after my Stoma operation has caused me to have Type 2 . How are you finding it now Clare ?

Im the same the food restrictions are crazy. Can hardly eat anything. There are foods that I can have that are ok with my colitis but not diabetic friendly and vice versa.