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MickyG

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Hi everyone,
I'm new to all of this. I'm a 55 year old female. Did my own random blood sugars on a friend's device and they were 12. oh if only that was the highest! Monitored them for a few days and had some at 17. saw Advanced Nurse Practitioner and my urine was full of glucose and high normal ketones. hba1c test done and result was 80! further test being done to check I'm not type one as I'm told I'm not 'typical' as my BMI is 29.
Have appointment with diabetes nurse on Friday.
I've had a trial Libre fitted (I'm lucky as I work in a health environment) Watching my blood sugar shoot through the roof up to nearly 17 after a light, healthy meal (Rye bagel, cottage cheese, carrot, sugar snap peas and small apple). I went to gym straight after too.
I am terrified to eat. I'm terrified I have pancreatic cancer, no symptoms but I googled worse case.
I'm in total shock, one panic attack after the other. I had no idea. things I thought were menopause related may not have been. Two hours since I ate and my blood sugars are still 15.4. Fell a bit but rising again now.
I don't know which way to turn, I'm so scared.
 
Your healthy lunch was fairly high carb.
All carbohydrates convert to sugar/ glucose.
The rye bagel may have had 60-80 grams of carbs.
At the low of 60 grams that equals 12 teaspoons of sugar.
The apple would give you another 3 teaspoons.
You should have no more than 2 teaspoons of sugar in your blood at any one time. Any more and your pancreas will try and get rid of it.
I see your bmi is 29. The pancreas is good at stuffing excess sugar in your fat cells.
At the high end of your healthy lunch, you had over a hundred grams of carbs.
That’s 20 teaspoons of sugar.
That’s why your libre is showing your high blood sugars.

It can mostly be all reversible by lowering carb intake.

Deep breath and try and relax. I’ve had anxiety and know it’s not easy, but it can be done. And in a fairly short space of time.

These two U.K. doctors set up this web site. It’s great to learn about food and carbs.

lowcarbfreshwell.com

Freshwell Low Carb Project - Home

lowcarbfreshwell.com lowcarbfreshwell.com
 
MickyG said:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to all of this. I'm a 55 year old female. Did my own random blood sugars on a friend's device and they were 12. oh if only that was the highest! Monitored them for a few days and had some at 17. saw Advanced Nurse Practitioner and my urine was full of glucose and high normal ketones. hba1c test done and result was 80! further test being done to check I'm not type one as I'm told I'm not 'typical' as my BMI is 29.
Have appointment with diabetes nurse on Friday.
I've had a trial Libre fitted (I'm lucky as I work in a health environment) Watching my blood sugar shoot through the roof up to nearly 17 after a light, healthy meal (Rye bagel, cottage cheese, carrot, sugar snap peas and small apple). I went to gym straight after too.
I am terrified to eat. I'm terrified I have pancreatic cancer, no symptoms but I googled worse case.
I'm in total shock, one panic attack after the other. I had no idea. things I thought were menopause related may not have been. Two hours since I ate and my blood sugars are still 15.4. Fell a bit but rising again now.
I don't know which way to turn, I'm so scared.
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You are told that what you ate is healthy - I had the same thing for almost 50 years - for someone unable to cope with that amount of carbohydrate, it is the exact opposite.
Amongst the things which are unlikely to spike blood glucose are meat, fish, eggs and cheese also full fat yoghurt. Cream in coffee and on sugar free jelly with berries is a dessert frequently enjoyed on a low carb diet.
For a plain ordinary type 2 like me, simply reducing the amount of carbs made me feel so much better, and in a matter of weeks I was no longer in the HbA1c diabetes range, at 6 months I was at the top end of normal. Not everyone is so lucky, in that they might need to remember to take tablets or injections, but they also get normal numbers.
 
A diabetes diagnosis can be scary ( i just lay on the sofa for about a week testing my blood sugars every 30 min or so cos i was scared) i am glad you have a libre so you know you arent too low, though that will only happen with insulin or some meds.
Have they given you any medication whilst they see if type 1 or 2?
What you need to do will very much depend on your diagnosis.
Its unlikely its pancratic cancer but i know the prospect worried me too! The tests will help give you certainty. When do you expect the results?
Best not exercise with blood sugars over 15 by the way.
Have you been advised about ketones?

It does get easier, honest!
 
MickyG said:
Thank you so much for this. I need to look at my carbs I think
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It’s scary when you first get a diagnosis, particularly if it’s not a clear cut one. If you turn out to be Type 1, (as I did, when I was diagnosed at the age of 51) no amount of lowering your carbs will have any effect, and you will need insulin. This isn’t as scary as it sounds, I felt so much better when I was started on insulin, and hadn’t realised how horrible I'd been feeling, that I welcomed getting to grips with it. You should be given plenty of help to learn about it, should this be the case.
 
The Freshwell approach would be an excellent way to address your high blood glucose if you turn out to be Type 2 but until you wait for the results of the extra tests which can take some time to come back, I assume they will be a c-peptide and GAD antibodies as they will distinguish between Type 2 and Type 1 then it would be worth a look at the link anyway to give you a idea for lower carb meals which may help at the moment.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is a useful resource as well as some of the other apps people use.
 
My hba1c was 83 and my BMI was just over 28, but there no mention of not being 'typical'.

I was prescribed 1000mg metformin and told to cut carbs and lose weight.

I did both and hba1c came down to 36…
 
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harbottle said:
My hba1c was 83 and my BMI was over 28, but there no mention of not being 'typical'.
Click to expand...
Mine was 114 and my BMI was 29.6 and the nurse was puzzled because I wasn't a typical T2 (her words), presumably because the people to whom she usually has to break the news of a T2 diagnosis are obese.
 
I believe research has shown that the risk of T2 diabetes actually increases when BMI > 27 for men and > 25 for women.
It's higher risk when obese, but the risk rises by just being overweight.
 
Thank you for your advice and support. May I ask what your high blood sugars were before you gained control?
 
MickyG said:
Thank you for your advice and support. May I ask what your high blood sugars were before you gained control?
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You will probably get a different answer from each person, there is no one particular level. People will start with something just at the diagnostic level of 48mmol/mol up to 3 figures so well over 100mmol/mol, I think I have seen as high as 140 here but could be even more.
 
MickyG said:
Thank you so much for this. I need to look at my carbs I think
Click to expand...
Yes, it can help a lot. Upon diagnosis my HBA1c was very high (quite a bit higher than yours) and can well empathise with the feeling of panic. Anyway to cut a long story short I cut carbs and eventually got my BG under control. At first the difference it made was seen within days but it took several months to get back to "normal" levels.
 
Leadinglights said:
You will probably get a different answer from each person, there is no one particular level. People will start with something just at the diagnostic level of 48mmol/mol up to 3 figures so well over 100mmol/mol, I think I have seen as high as 140 here but could be even more.
Click to expand...
Mine was 124 with my finger prick blood tests at 24 when I was diagnosed.
 
Looking back at my old records, I can see that a fasting reading was 6.3 (Evening, long after tea) and then post breakfast/morning readings ranged from 6.8 to 9.1 (I remember the 9.1, that was some brown bread! I haven't had brown since then!)

My hba1c was 83.

As others have said, cutting carbs should help bring the levels down.

I stopped doing readings for 3 months and then started again just before my next hba1c. Results were always between 4-7 apart from an experiment with some oats, which saw a peak of around 8.
 
Welcome to the forum @MickyG

Sorry to hear about your diabetes, and the uncertainty over your diagnosis.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before you get some sort of confirmation around your diabetes type and you can be started on insulin if you are T1 or LADA. Any idea when the results might be back?

Have you got a means of keeping an eye on your ketones? You can get a pot of urine ketone strips for about £5 from most high street chemists
 
Update. Went to see GP this morning as too scared to wait for diabetes nurse on Friday. Had porridge for breakfast at advice of my boss, a practice nurse and my sugars went up to 23! Felt unwell, not sure if panic or symptoms. Saw GP who was amazing and consulted with another who is a diabetes specialist. Gave me Glicazide for today and metformin starting Friday ( so if I gave side effects ill know what from) Salad for lunch ie zero carbs - should've just listened to you guys - and sugars as low as 6.6 which us nothing short of a miracle atm.
 
MickyG said:
Update. Went to see GP this morning as too scared to wait for diabetes nurse on Friday. Had porridge for breakfast at advice of my boss, a practice nurse and my sugars went up to 23! Felt unwell, not sure if panic or symptoms. Saw GP who was amazing and consulted with another who is a diabetes specialist. Gave me Glicazide for today and metformin starting Friday ( so if I gave side effects ill know what from) Salad for lunch ie zero carbs - should've just listened to you guys - and sugars as low as 6.6 which us nothing short of a miracle atm.
Click to expand...

Why did you boss tell you have porridge?
 
Porridge is one of those foods that many people sends their blood glucose rocketing up but others find it is OK si very much a thing that is very personal, as are quiet a lot of high carb foods.
Full fat Greek yoghurt, berries with maybe a scattering of low sugar granola or nuts and seeds or eggs in any form but with minimal if any bread are some of the things people find good breakfast options.
Gliclazide will encourage your pancreas to produce more insulin if it is able so watch out for too low blood glucose if you have no carbs.
 
MickyG said:
Update. Went to see GP this morning as too scared to wait for diabetes nurse on Friday. Had porridge for breakfast at advice of my boss, a practice nurse and my sugars went up to 23! Felt unwell, not sure if panic or symptoms. Saw GP who was amazing and consulted with another who is a diabetes specialist. Gave me Glicazide for today and metformin starting Friday ( so if I gave side effects ill know what from) Salad for lunch ie zero carbs - should've just listened to you guys - and sugars as low as 6.6 which us nothing short of a miracle atm.
Click to expand...
The salad would not have been zero carbs, but it will have been an almost universal choice for low carb (unlike the porridge 🙄 ) but that result is really hopeful - maybe indicative of good outcomes before very long, but there will be people pushing those healthy carbs, sure as eggs.
 
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