Newly Diagnosed

[GemLouJoy.92]

Hey!

So a few weeks ago I went to the drs as I had a painful lump on my arm! Turns out it was a boil and needed antibiotics. Anyway while I was there he noticed I few weeks previously I’d been in about increased urination (at the time this was put down to a side effect of one of my medications!). He said with these two things he’d like to send me for a blood test to check for diabetes, that it probably wasn’t but best to check! So I had the HbA1C test done, and a few days later got a letter saying this was abnormal and they wanted to do a random blood glucose test before I saw the dr. On Wednesday I finally saw the dr again and he tells me I have diabetes, I’m assuming type 2 as he’s given me metformin for it! Other than this he didn’t really tell me much and I dont see the nurse until the end of June who apparently will tell me more?

I’m 25, but my dad is type 2 and I have PCOS which I believe increases the risk.

I guess I was just looking for advice! I feel pretty overwhelmed and don’t know what i should be doing other than taking the medication! Do I need to test my blood sugars daily or is this just type 1? I tested before bed and I was 16.9.

Honestly any advice would be great!

 

[Ljc]

Hi @GemLouJoy.92 Welcome to the club that no one wants to join and to our friendly forum.
It’s perfectly natural to feel overwhelmed, give yourself time for the shock to wear off. Try not to panic , you see, Diabetes is a condition that with the right info , a bit of work and a change in diet , can be well managed, whatever type you turn out to be.

You have come to the right place for a wealth of information and support
So ask all the questions you need to about Diabetes and we’ll do our best to help.

The end of June is a long time to wait to see the practice nurse and imo not good enough .

It’s carbohydrates our bodies can’t handle to well. Cut down a bit on potatoes esp mashed, rice, pasta, bread esp white and things made with flour esp white, fruit juice Though considered healthy it’s oacke full of fruit sugar. we also have to be careful with fruit, berries are often well tolerated, bear in mind that grapes are not berries but are little sugar bombs.
I know this sound horrible , but we do get to eat good tasty meals, honest !

Till you find good substitutes fill up on veg that grows above ground.
Many here buy Burgen linseed and Soya bread, some are fine with wholemeal others buy a high protein bread .
New potatoes are better than mashed just have less of them.


We here recommend testing to find out how the various carbohydrates affect us as we are all very different in this respect, sadly however unless we’re on medications that can cause hypo’s (low blood glucose) Metformin doesn’t normally cause them, then it’s unlikey you’ll be provided with a glucose meter and test strips .

You will find these threads and blogs helpful
what-did-you-eat-yesterday
Take you time with this next thread as their is a lot of info there . For future reference you’ll find it at the top of the newbies forum.
useful-links-for-people-new-to-diabetes
I suggest you start with
Jennifer’s advise.
Test review adjust by Alan S
If you need to provide your own testing strips , you might find testing on a budget , also by Alan S helpful.
Their is a link to a book their that you may want to buy called
Type 2 Diabetes the first year, by Gretchen Becker, she has T2 herself and goes through month by month her first year in learning about and controlling her diabetes.
Their is an awful lot more in this thread, as I said earlier Just take your time ok.
You will also find a link to the SD Codefree meter , it has the cheapest testing strips we know of, £8 for 50 where ones you buy in the chemist start at £15.
We use the mmol/l measurement in the uk, your a,so entitled to claim VAT relief, which makes them a little cheaper.

As your now on medications for diabetes your are entitled d to free prescriptions, has your gp filled out the exemption form and send it off, if not get onto gp sbout it

 

[CathyB]

Welcome GemLouJoy. Luckily has said it all so I will just add that you can get things under control by making a few changes, don’t expect things to happen overnight, one of the best things I read on here is that it’s a marathon not a sprint....so pace yourself slowly, read as much as you can and take time to digest it. Ask anything you like, there are no stupid questions, we get it