newly diagnosed

[smartie]

so thankful that I have found a place to talk.!
I received a phone call from my GP who told me the results of a blood test I had for Gout several months ago showed up that i had Diabetes type 2 and high cholesterol, This adds to a diagnosis of lymphadema which was missed for several years by my gp,- he told me- lose some weight and you will be able to manage it in fact the diabetes will probably go. Oh and make an appointment in October for a blood test and to see the diabetic nurse. I have since rung to speak to the diabetic nurse and was told no, you need to finish the 'mydesmond' course first.(I found that by googling courses for diabetes). don't get me wrong, I like my gp- he's been great on other stuff BUT this almost beggars belief...I he to pinch myself to remind myself I have these diagnoses. (Oh and I am still waiting for a biopsy result from the hosspital which was also done three months ago)
Just this week i have managed to turn my eating around to healthy eating and low sugar and low carbs- but its hard to do when I don't fully undesrtand the whys and wherefores of what is going on.

 

[42istheanswer]

Hi!

Have you looked at the Learning Zone on the main website? There's lots of whys and wherefores explained in the modules there. And any specific questions we are always happy to try and help!

 

[zuludog]

Hello Smartie, and welcome to the forum!

The diagnosis of diabetes can be both confusing and a shock, but there is a lot of advice & encouragement on here

Have a look at the sections Diabetes - The Basics, and Living With Diabetes on the Home Page of Diabetes UK
The Learning Zone - the red tab at the top of this page
Previous Threads and Posts, especially in the Newbies & Food & Carbs sections, and in Weight Loss if you need to

After you've read what you can manage, come back to us with any questions, and remember that nothing is too simple or silly, ask away!

Besides cutting out carbs & sugars many people take a diagnosis as the motivation to change a few things, like doing more exercise, cutting out processed & junk food, fags & a lot of booze, eating more veg, and all the rest of the healthy stuff you hear about

As you do this, besides controlling your sugar levels you may well find that you lose weight, lower your cholesterol, and generally feel brighter & livelier

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @smartie

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, and the slightly befuddled way some of it was handled.

As has been suggested the Learning Zone is a terrific resource, and is packed full of information. Members here also frequently recommend Maggie Davey’s Letter to the Newly Diagnosed and Gretchen Becker’s book T2 Diabetes, the first year, which are two personal accounts of people coming to terms with their diagnosis.

Plus do keep asking questions here too. We have literally centuries of lived diabetes experience on the forum, and no question you have will be thought of as too obvious, trivial, or ‘silly’.

Let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

Usually, you have to have a referral for the MyDesmond course so at least they have done that. Is it face to face or the on-line format? if on- line then you can go through the basics quite quickly, but they then only release the Bonus modules every week. How do they know that you have completed it? It is useful but does promote rather more carbohydrates than many people can tolerate as it is following the standard NHS Eat Well Plate.
You may also find this link useful as there is good explanation and some suggestions for modifying your diet. It is a low carb approach which many have found successful for weight loss and reducing blood glucose. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
I would press your GP for your results in particular your HbA1C as that will indicate how far you are into the diabetic zone, anything over 47mmol/mol will give you a diabetes diagnosis and indicate how much work you need to do.

 

[smartie]

thank you so much for all your replies - this has relieved me so much of my anxieties around my diagnosis. I am sure there will be lots of questions-thankyou so much for your warm welcomes and assurances.

 

[zuludog]

Hello again SMARTIE ...... "the whys and wherefores of what's going on"
Here is a brief biology lesson, not enough to turn you into a full time biochemist, but just enough to help

The simplest sugar is glucose, and glucose molecules can be joined up to form more complex sugars, and if enough of them are joined up they form starch; sugars & starches are called carbohydrates; often shortened to carbs

When we eat carbs they are broken down in the digestive system back into glucose, which passes through the gut wall into the blood stream to be carried around the body and into the cells for further use

The transfer of glucose into the cells is carried out by the hormone insulin, which is produced by the pancreas, and also passes into the bloodstream
Some people do not produce enough insulin, so the glucose cannot get into the cells, instead it builds up in the blood
And it is this accumulation of glucose that causes the problems we call diabetes

We can control this accumulation by taking tablets which tweaks the pancreas into making more insulin, or adding more insulin into the bloodstream by injection
But the best way to reduce the level of glucose in the blood is to not eat it in the first place

So a diet for diabetes restricts the amount of carbs consumed, and it is important to understand that this means starchy foods like bread, spuds, rice & pasta as well as the obviously sweet things like biscuits, cake, sweets, and fizzy drinks

For most people this will be quite a change from their usual meals, and confusing - what on earth can I eat!?
Well, it is difficult at first, but you do get used to it, and as the current saying goes, it becomes the hew normal.
Perhaps the best thing at first is to follow meal plans & recipes from DUK, then gradually introduce your own ideas, but checking all the time how this affects your blood sugar levels
Exercise helps too; Owt's better than Nowt! ...... and if it gets you outside and meeting people, so much the better.

Nothing in the body acts in isolation, everything affects everything else, so as your sugar level is controlled you should see improvements to your blood pressure, cholesterol level, weight, and so on

There are things that are not so easy to measure with numbers
Many people with diabetes have a sort of depression, anxiety, or uneasiness that they can't quite pin down, and this is much reduced or goes away as your blood sugar gets back to normal
Other things improve - vague and not so vague aches & pains, like arthritis, frozen shoulder, itching, rashes, tiredness, and so on
Sounds too good to be true, but things do get better, honest.
Some changes/improvements happen fairly quickly, in a couple of weeks or so, others might take longer, but stick at it!

 

[cameron]

Hello @smartie, welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about your diagnoses, though it's great to hear you're already making some positive steps with your diet.

You've already been given some helpful resources, so I hope you begin to feel more confident living with diabetes soon. It is a managable condition, and things will make sense eventually. In the meantime, please feel free to ask any questions. There are no silly questions here! 🙂

 

[42istheanswer]

To add to Zuludog's explanation - most people with type 2 (at least at the beginning of the condition) still produce good quantities of insulin, but it isn't working well (the body stops responding to it properly - called insulin resistance). That's why some of the medications work in different ways, and why often people with type 2 diabetes will reduce carbohydrate intake - having less glucose coming into the body to deal with can mean that the reduced insulin response is less of an issue.

Some people with type 2 have managed to reduce insulin resistance by losing weight (DiRECT and ReTUNE studies - percentage needed varying by whether obese or ok weight to start with) but not everyone who has lost the weight has also reduced the insulin resistance and so far no one has come up with a way to predict who that will work for.

 

[smartie]

thankyou so much for the information offered in a person to person way..like we are chatting..it is very helpful to reeive it like this.I took my bloods last night and got a 6.1. I am thinking this is good - all I have done is no bread and no potatoes; no crisps or sweet things- thing is because i don't yet know my starting point for my bloods i can't tell if this is good or not...will jsut have to try to get through to the surgery I think. thankyou again for your helpfulness...it is really appreciated.

 

[42istheanswer]

6.1 on fingerprick is definitely a good result, regardless of what your original HbA1c is.

 

[smartie]

I took my blood yesterday last thing before i went to bed and haveing not eaten for 2 hours and got a measuremnt of 7.9, i also took it first thing this morning before I had eaten and it was 9.1- how can blood sugar rise through the night when you haven't eaten anything? hope thi isn't too dumb a question

 

[Bruce Stephens]

how can blood sugar rise through the night when you haven't eaten anything?

Might be digestion of things you ate earlier, but also (more significantly) the liver releases glucose pretty continuously. (In people without diabetes that'll be controlled by release of insulin.)

 

[smartie]

Might be digestion of things you ate earlier, but also (more significantly) the liver releases glucose pretty continuously. (In people without diabetes that'll be controlled by release of insulin.)

thank you- i need to do some more reading I think

 

[rebrascora]

Glucose is the fuel for our bodies and we get it from two different sources, the food we eat and our liver, which I think of as a back up battery.... we are a bit like hybrid cars. When we are not eating ie fasting during the night etc, the back up battery, keeps our vital organs ticking over with fuel. This is not a steady flow of power but is regulated to provide less in the very depths of our sleep and ramp up a bit as we wake up and start the day. This morning increase is known as Dawn Phenomenon or "Foot on the Floor" syndrome and is believed to hark back to prehistoric times when we needed energy to go out and hunt or gather our first meal of the day. Unfortunately, it is not helpful for those of us with diabetes who don't need all that glucose just to go downstairs and open the fridge and cupboards to get breakfast ..... but by all means feel free to go out and burn it off trying to hunt down a woolly mammoth for breakfast 🙄 All people experience this, probably most animals too, and with a healthy functional insulin producing pancreas it isn't a problem because those people just store that glucose for later use, but for us it sits there in our blood making levels higher. It is important to note that eating something usually switches off this feature of the liver, so the longer you go without breakfast the longer your liver will churn out glucose into your blood stream. Food hitting the stomach also usually stimulates insulin production which will help to bring high levels down This insulin production is I believe referred to as first phase insulin release. The liver and pancrease should also be communicating with each other to deal with what the liver has been churning out (I think this is second phase insulin release) but often with diabetes, a build up of fat in these organs prevents them communicating effectively so the pancreas doesn't get the message to trickle out more insulin to deal with the liver supply of glucose and so BG levels rise overnight. I believe this is where the Newcastle diet/Fast 800 comes into it's own as a very low calorie diet burns off that visceral fat in and around those organs and enables them to communicate more effectively and as a result return to balancing BG levels more easily, unless there has been some long term damage.

Anyway, apologies for the very simplified and probably not totally accurate biology lesson 🙄, but hopefully it explains a bit about why you are seeing the results you are in the morning particularly and what might help mitigate it over the longer term. Many of us find that taking our fasting reading before we set foot out of bed will yield a slightly less disappointing result than half an hour later when we have been up and got washed and dressed and sitting down with a coffee, so that might be something to experiment with, to see how much your levels rise in that space of time. Mine could shoot up as much as 4 or 5 mmols in half an hour! 😱

 

[smartie]

Glucose is the fuel for our bodies and we get it from two different sources, the food we eat and our liver, which I think of as a back up battery.... we are a bit like hybrid cars. When we are not eating ie fasting during the night etc, the back up battery, keeps our vital organs ticking over with fuel. This is not a steady flow of power but is regulated to provide less in the very depths of our sleep and ramp up a bit as we wake up and start the day. This morning increase is known as Dawn Phenomenon or "Foot on the Floor" syndrome and is believed to hark back to prehistoric times when we needed energy to go out and hunt or gather our first meal of the day. Unfortunately, it is not helpful for those of us with diabetes who don't need all that glucose just to go downstairs and open the fridge and cupboards to get breakfast ..... but by all means feel free to go out and burn it off trying to hunt down a woolly mammoth for breakfast 🙄 All people experience this, probably most animals too, and with a healthy functional insulin producing pancreas it isn't a problem because those people just store that glucose for later use, but for us it sits there in our blood making levels higher. It is important to note that eating something usually switches off this feature of the liver, so the longer you go without breakfast the longer your liver will churn out glucose into your blood stream. Food hitting the stomach also usually stimulates insulin production which will help to bring high levels down This insulin production is I believe referred to as first phase insulin release. The liver and pancrease should also be communicating with each other to deal with what the liver has been churning out (I think this is second phase insulin release) but often with diabetes, a build up of fat in these organs prevents them communicating effectively so the pancreas doesn't get the message to trickle out more insulin to deal with the liver supply of glucose and so BG levels rise overnight. I believe this is where the Newcastle diet/Fast 800 comes into it's own as a very low calorie diet burns off that visceral fat in and around those organs and enables them to communicate more effectively and as a result return to balancing BG levels more easily, unless there has been some long term damage.

Anyway, apologies for the very simplified and probably not totally accurate biology lesson 🙄, but hopefully it explains a bit about why you are seeing the results you are in the morning particularly and what might help mitigate it over the longer term. Many of us find that taking our fasting reading before we set foot out of bed will yield a slightly less disappointing result than half an hour later when we have been up and got washed and dressed and sitting down with a coffee, so that might be something to experiment with, to see how much your levels rise in that space of time. Mine could shoot up as much as 4 or 5 mmols in half an hour! 😱

thankyou Barbara, this makes a lot of sense. So I am hearing that take a reading after i have been up for a while in the morning, and it should actually be lower- would it be better to go for a walk at this time i am wondering?

 

[Leadinglights]

thankyou Barbara, this makes a lot of sense. So I am hearing that take a reading after i have been up for a while in the morning, and it should actually be lower- would it be better to go for a walk at this time i am wondering?

Many take their reading in bed before they get up and start pottering about as that is when your liver starts to release glucose so will tend to make your level higher.

 

[rebrascora]

We are all a bit different but your lowest reading on a morning will probably be when you first wake before you get out of bed. Te more active you are during the day, the more your body burns off glucose and also the less insulin resistant you become so levels will then become slightly lower as the day goes on although within that general trend there will be spikes from food but your pre meal readings would usually be lowest on an evening unless you ate something particularly carb rich at lunchtime or in the afternoon.
What I encourage people to do is to experiment on themselves to see how their body works.
If I were you, what I would do is test as soon as I wake up and then at whatever time you normally do your fasting test, so that you can see if your levels are rising as soon as you get up and by how much. I would do that for a couple of days or maybe 3 to get an idea of how consistent it is.... So if you currently do your fasting test just before you sit down to breakfast perhaps after you have got up and washed and dressed or whatever, then continue to do that but do an extra test for a few days before you get out of bed to see if you are having a "Foot on the Floor" effect and how much it is ie roughly how many mmols your levels rise in that time.
Then perhaps experiment with having your breakfast as soon as you get up rather than after getting washed and dressed for a few days and see if you get better mid morning results (2 hours after breakfast) than if you have breakfast after getting washed and dressed. Then experiment with testing as soon as you wake and then going out for a walk for a few days. Walking can only be beneficial, but when you walk might have an impact, so walking after breakfast may well work better than before, so that is something else to try. Gradually you will build up a picture of how your body works and what strategy works best for you. Same with food choices. Test before a meal and then 2 hours later and if your levels spike too much, adjust that meal to have slightly less carbs and more of something else like fibre, protein and fat next time and test again.
It is always wise to repeat an experiment at least twice before you draw any conclusions from the results because there are a lot of other things which can impact BG levels, so you are looking for similar patterns rather than precise results.