Struggling

[Jumpingjack]

Recently diagnosed type 2, using a CGS. But finding glucose management not working. I eat two meals a day and try to follow a low carb diet. but it seems that anything I put in my mouth results in a spike. If I exercise the benefit only lasts a short time.

 

[grovesy]

What is a CGS?

 

[Jumpingjack]

CGS is continuous glucose monitor like the freestyle libre 2

 

[Pumper_Sue]

What is a CGS?

OP means CGM it's just a typo 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Recently diagnosed type 2, using a CGS. But finding glucose management not working. I eat two meals a day and try to follow a low carb diet. but it seems that anything I put in my mouth results in a spike. If I exercise the benefit only lasts a short time.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came to be diagnosed? Were you symptomatic or did it get picked up via a routine blood test or some other means.

Are you on any medication for your diabetes?

Do you know what your HbA1c result was at diagnosis?

What sort of readings are you getting on your CGM? Can you post a screen shot of a typical day's graph, so that we can see what is going on?
Can you give us an example of your low carb meals? People have different ideas of what low carb means, so that can cause confusion, which is why a description of the meals you are eating helps particularly in conjunction will seeing a graph of your levels.

 

[Jumpingjack]

I was diagnosed in November last year; HbA1c 56. No symptoms but have high blood pressure so was picked up via blood tests for that. I’m not on medication. I’m trying to follow a low carb diet. For example yesterday I had breakfast at 1130am of Fast 800 shake with black coffee. Tea time I had a bolognese ( steak mince with tomatoes and onion and herbs) with leaks, broccoli and carrots steamed. And a handful of almond nuts as pudding.

 

[rebrascora]

Thanks for that extra info and the graph.

Have you double checked any of those levels against a finger prick to see how accurately Libre is reading for you. It is interesting that you have a significant rise about 6am which looks to follow a dip and I am wondering if you may have been lying on your sensor in your sleep and got a bit of a compression low and then rebound, or it may be an extremely strong Dawn Phenomenon which your own insulin production is not dealing with. It might be worth having something to eat as soon as you get up. Something like an egg or a piece of meat or cheese or some nuts can sometimes just nudge the pancreas awake and stop the liver from releasing so much glucose..... The liver pumps out glucose in the morning to give us energy to start the day and in prehistoric times, this glucose release would give us the energy we needed to go out and hunt or gather our first meal of the day, but walking into the kitchen and opening a cupboard or fridge uses very little of it. As soon as we eat, the liver should switch off this function, so eating something straight away when we wake up can reduce the morning spike. After that your levels look pretty table albeit a bit higher than you would like which is why I wonder if you have checked the readings Libre is giving you against a Blood Glucose reading from a finger prick.
For me Libre generally reads about 1 mmol lower than a finger prick, but we are all different and Libre might be reading high for you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear you feel like things aren’t working for you, despite having tried to make some fairly significant changes

Have you got anyone in your close family with diabetes?

Are you due a follow-up HbA1c in the near future?

An HbA1c at 56 is fairly near the low end (48 being the diagnostic dividing line), so often only fairly modest changes to eating habits are rewarded with positive changes to BG outcomes.

Certainly worth persevering, but also be open to the possibility thst you may have a different type of diabetes - some of which can emerge slowly and resemble T2 early on, but will ultimately need different treatment.

 

[Leadinglights]

It may be worth comparing the level you are getting on your Libre with some finger prick testing. Check with a fingerprick before you eat and then after 2 hours for both your meals and see what the increase is and what your 2 hour post meal reading is.
I wonder if you are suffering from info glut as many people who are just into the diabetic zone would not feel it worth the expense of a CGM and prefer to spend the money on good quality low carb foods and rely on the finger pricks to make good food choices.

 

[Jumpingjack]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came to be diagnosed? Were you symptomatic or did it get picked up via a routine blood test or some other means.

Are you on any medication for your diabetes?

Do you know what your HbA1c result was at diagnosis?

What sort of readings are you getting on your CGM? Can you post a screen shot of a typical day's graph, so that we can see what is going on?
Can you give us an example of your low carb meals? People have different ideas of what low carb means, so that can cause confusion, which is why a description of the meals you are eating helps particularly in conjunction will seeing a graph of your levels.

Yes I have checked a finger prick test with the libre results and only 0.4 out of sync.