Overwhelmed newbie

[Ali H]

Welcome, its ok to be overwhelmed its a massive thing, however as you'll find here life goes on, we all do different things and do moan and rant from time to time. but hey join in as questions, read old posts. we are all still learning. Wish you well on your journey Al

Thank you

 

[Alan.tnh]

If your only med is metformin you don't have to worry about hypo or driving. BG testing and reviewing is the best way to understand how what foods affect you. We are all different, Porridge is a good example some find it great others take a bg spike. Test review and keep a food diary is what's helped me get to grips with it

 

[Ali H]

If your only med is metformin you don't have to worry about hypo or driving. BG testing and reviewing is the best way to understand how what foods affect you. We are all different, Porridge is a good example some find it great others take a bg spike. Test review and keep a food diary is what's helped me get to grips with it

So should I be testing myself and if so how often? and what do I use?

 

[Robin]

So should I be testing myself and if so how often? and what do I use?

Have a look at the sticky thread at the top of the Newbies section, and scroll down to the bit for Type 2s, there's links to info on testing, e.g. how to ask your doctor for a test meter and strips, and what to buy if your doctor won't prescribe one ( many won't to type 2s on Metformin only, mainly on cost grounds. Plus links like 'test, review, adjust' which helps you make sense of the readings you get. see how you get on, and shout if there's anything else you want to know.

 

[Alan.tnh]

You will need to see your GP and request a meter, what I do is Pre brekky the again 2 hours after if the readings are less that 2 apart I see this as an ok food and continue to eat it, the next time I eat it I test 1 hour after and again the same thing. once im happy I wont always test for the same food, I do the same with lunch and dinner, I also keep a food diary on " my fitness pal" its great and easy to look back on. I keep all my BG reading on a spreadsheet and can easily see how I react to what foods. Sounds like its a bit intense but it becomes second nature, Hope this helps. Al

 

[trophywench]

Hiya

Can I suggest that first thing tomorrow morning you ring and ask your pharmacist whether it's safe to take your anti-inflammatories with the Metformin? If not - then you need a very urgent appointment with a GP - NOT the nurse.

 

[Ljc]

You have my sympathy. The only advise I was given at first was, cut out sugar, I wasn't even referred to the Diabetic nurse (DN) at the practice, so I hav a good idea how you must feeling .

I agree do ask the pharmacist or GP, NOT the nurse about taking your Anti inflammatory and metformin .

As your on diabetic medication you're now entitled to free prescriptions
So if your not entitled to free prescriptions due to your age you need to .
ensure that the necessary form has been filled in

Some GP practices do not allow BG testing meters for people on Metformin, which in my opinion is very short sighted , I believe is important for us to know how we're doing, whether we're on medication or not.

Pre diagnosis I didn't have any symptoms that I knew about ,so it was a shock when I had a urine sample tested for a UTI to be told I had sugar in my urine.

I do hope you're starting to feel a bit calmer now.

 

[Lynn Davies]

Hi and welcome Ali

Its your choice if you test or not. For me I found it invaluable to find out how my BG was doing and if the changes I made to my diet was working in my favour. I too think it very short sighted of the medical profession to deny testing kits to type 2's. How are you supposed to know what is happening if you cannot test. 3 months is a long time to be getting it wrong in!

I bought the SDcodefree testing kit from Amazon for my own use. I find it keeps me on the straight and narrow as well. If I am not testing my blood then it wont be a problem if I have not eaten 'clean' as I wont know! 🙄

 

[Northerner]

Yes of course. I'm 49 and went to the docs thinking there was a problem with my thyroid as I'm completely exhausted all the time and feel dizzy and depressed and keep falling asleep. I was stunned to be diagnosed with diabetes as I always thought that raging thirst was the main symptom and I don't have that. My HBA1c is 75. I also have high cholesterol of 7.7 so I have been told to cut out all sugar and dairy apart from semi skimmed milk.
I'm on metformin, 1 a day for a week, rising to 2 a day. I haven't seen my doctor, just the practice nurse who told me to come back to be retested in 3 months. That's it. No other information. On reading the leaflet in with the tablets I see I should avoid anti inflammatories. I have severe back pain and a dodgy knee and take a high dose of anti inflammatories every day so I'm amazed that I wasn't even told this.
I'm feeling like I've been thrown in the deep end with my hands and feet tied together. I've got no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. Should I be measuring blood sugar? What's blood glucose? Is it the same? Am I likely to get a hypo and should I be driving?
I'm clueless and a little panicky.

Hi Ali H, welcome to the forum 🙂 That is very poor on behalf of your surgery, to give you so little information and support This is unfortunately often the case and makes me fume! 😡 What tablets have you been given. is it metformin?

I would recommend reading Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter to start with, and get yourself a copy of Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker. With these you will probably already know more about diabetes and how to tackle it than your practice nurse! 🙂 Start a food diary and record the amount of carbohydrate in everything you eat and drink - tedious, but it will really help you to identify elements of your diet where things might be improved in order to help with your blood sugar levels. Have a look into the GL Diet (The GL Diet for Dummies is a good introduction) as this describes how to select food and combine it so that it has a slow, steady impact on your levels. It doesn't sound like your surgery are likely to offer you a meter and test strips, but these are really the best (if not only) tool you can use to understnad how different foods affect you, what you tolerate well, and what you should reduce or ditch. Read Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S to understand what I mean by this and how to use the tools efficiently. If you have to buy your own meter and strips the cheapest option we have come across is the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50 and is used by many of our members. Other brands cxan charge between £25-£30 for a tub of 50 strips 😱

Please let us know if you have any questions and we will do our best to help! 🙂

 

[Ali H]

Hi Ali H, welcome to the forum 🙂 That is very poor on behalf of your surgery, to give you so little information and support This is unfortunately often the case and makes me fume! 😡 What tablets have you been given. is it metformin?

I would recommend reading Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter to start with, and get yourself a copy of Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker. With these you will probably already know more about diabetes and how to tackle it than your practice nurse! 🙂 Start a food diary and record the amount of carbohydrate in everything you eat and drink - tedious, but it will really help you to identify elements of your diet where things might be improved in order to help with your blood sugar levels. Have a look into the GL Diet (The GL Diet for Dummies is a good introduction) as this describes how to select food and combine it so that it has a slow, steady impact on your levels. It doesn't sound like your surgery are likely to offer you a meter and test strips, but these are really the best (if not only) tool you can use to understnad how different foods affect you, what you tolerate well, and what you should reduce or ditch. Read Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S to understand what I mean by this and how to use the tools efficiently. If you have to buy your own meter and strips the cheapest option we have come across is the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50 and is used by many of our members. Other brands cxan charge between £25-£30 for a tub of 50 strips 😱

Please let us know if you have any questions and we will do our best to help! 🙂

Thank you for all the info, I can see I have a lot of reading to do! I'm so glad I've discovered this forum, everyone seems so nice and the information and support I've had so far is brilliant. 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Thank you for all the info, I can see I have a lot of reading to do! I'm so glad I've discovered this forum, everyone seems so nice and the information and support I've had so far is brilliant. 🙂

Take your time to absorb it Ali, there is no desperate rush - more of a marathon than a sprint, so take it step by step! 😉

 

[Superheavy]

Hi Ali,

I'm only a couple of weeks after my own Type 2 diagnosis, and I found the first weekend (Easter weekend - no chocolate eggs for me!) a bit of a blur, with just so much to take on board and to read. I dropped immediately on to a low sugar/carb diet to try and make a dent in it. I was given a meter and told I had to test twice a day, and also put on Metformin. It is overwhelming, and I totally agree with you that the first few steps are just about understanding where your situation is and what you're going to do about it. Everyone will react differently, but I'm currently in the trying lots of new foods (or at least foods I've not eaten for quite some time!) and seeing what does and doesn't have an impact on my blood sugars.

You'll be fine, just keep asking questions, and try to put together your own plan for what you're going to do.

 

[Mark Parrott]

I discovered lots of new tasty recipes since going low carb. There are some great websites out there. Don't miss the carbs at all.

 

[Ali H]

Hi Ali,

I'm only a couple of weeks after my own Type 2 diagnosis, and I found the first weekend (Easter weekend - no chocolate eggs for me!) a bit of a blur, with just so much to take on board and to read. I dropped immediately on to a low sugar/carb diet to try and make a dent in it. I was given a meter and told I had to test twice a day, and also put on Metformin. It is overwhelming, and I totally agree with you that the first few steps are just about understanding where your situation is and what you're going to do about it. Everyone will react differently, but I'm currently in the trying lots of new foods (or at least foods I've not eaten for quite some time!) and seeing what does and doesn't have an impact on my blood sugars.

You'll be fine, just keep asking questions, and try to put together your own plan for what you're going to do.

Thank you, I haven't been told to check anything at the moment so I've made a docs appointment for tomorrow to try and get some of these strips everyone keeps talking about. I've been struggling with food, not so much with a main meal but breakfast lunch and snacks I'm fairly clueless what to have as I'm dairy free aswell due to high cholesterol. I'm not hungry half the time and have lost the inclination to make myself anything, I don't really know why that is, it's like a mental block.
It's great to have the forum here to be able to chat and ask questions 🙂

 

[Ali H]

I discovered lots of new tasty recipes since going low carb. There are some great websites out there. Don't miss the carbs at all.

That's brilliant, I love cooking usually - I've lost interest at the moment but hopefully it'll come back. So I'll be looking for new recipes to try. At the moment I'm fairly clueless about what I can and can't have apart from the obvious. I'm still trying to get my head around it all! 🙂

 

[Ali H]

Hiya

Can I suggest that first thing tomorrow morning you ring and ask your pharmacist whether it's safe to take your anti-inflammatories with the Metformin? If not - then you need a very urgent appointment with a GP - NOT the nurse.

 

[Ali H]

I have an appointment with my GP this morning so I'll be taking a list of questions with me. I haven't been taking my anti inflammatories just in case. 🙂

 

[Ali H]

You have my sympathy. The only advise I was given at first was, cut out sugar, I wasn't even referred to the Diabetic nurse (DN) at the practice, so I hav a good idea how you must feeling .

I agree do ask the pharmacist or GP, NOT the nurse about taking your Anti inflammatory and metformin .

As your on diabetic medication you're now entitled to free prescriptions
So if your not entitled to free prescriptions due to your age you need to .
ensure that the necessary form has been filled in

Some GP practices do not allow BG testing meters for people on Metformin, which in my opinion is very short sighted , I believe is important for us to know how we're doing, whether we're on medication or not.

Pre diagnosis I didn't have any symptoms that I knew about ,so it was a shock when I had a urine sample tested for a UTI to be told I had sugar in my urine.

I do hope you're starting to feel a bit calmer now.

Thank you, I'm feeling much calmer but seem to have lost my appetite and lost all interest in cooking etc. Hopefully this is just temporary

 

[Ljc]

Your still in shock, you will come through it , honest.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Sorry to only just be saying hello but HELLO, I am very pleased to meet you. Loss of appetite and loss of interest are quite common with the condition. It is usually just a temporary phase. Can I suggest that if you are only testing twice a day then not testing at the same time every day might be a good idea so that over a period of a couple of weeks you start to get some kind of overall picture of what your blood sugars are doing throughout the course of a full day. Most meters now hold a database of recordings and managements software is available to allow you to plug the meter into a laptop from which you can permanently record your results. You can then plonk these on your doctors lap and ask for something more than the lip service he or she appears to be giving you. It is a lifelong condition that needs respect and management. With these you hope to avoid complications that affect diabetics mid to long term. You will pick information up as you go along and after a while it kind of becomes second nature. Good luck with your appointment.


Best regards,
Geoff