T2 Diagnosis (in December!!)

[JellyBeany]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie to diabetes and to the forums. I was diagnosed with T2 last week and my head is all over the place. I'm here to soak up all the info and try and see how everyone else copes with their diagnosis x

 

[Drummer]

Hello and welcome.
You might find that there is a lot of information you need to discount, even if it seems to come from trustworthy sources - I was cheerfully informed that a baked potato with baked beans was a good choice for lunch at one of my diabetes 'education' sessions - carbs with more carbs - like that is going to work.....
The good news is that there are foods which we can eat, meat seafood eggs cheese - and there are vegetables which many of use can cope with, and even the lower carb fruits, which most can manage small servings of - with cream!! I drink coffee with cream a couple of times a day, and don't need to take pills - hardly need to test my blood glucose these days as sticking to low carbs means normal numbers, though I do count myself lucky to have them.

 

[Bronco Billy]

Hi JellyBeany, welcome to the forum. I’ll let others with more experience of type 2 give you more specific advice, but have a read of Maggie Davey's letter. A lot of newly diagnosed type 2s have found it helpful. Feel free to ask anything you want and remember, no question is too silly.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Jelly and welcome.

It is very overwhelming to begin with but it gets easier as you go on.

Would you like to share more info about your diagnosis....
For instance:-
How you came to be diagnosed?
Your HbA1c result which is the test which tells the doctor that you are diabetic... less than 42 is normal, 42-47 is pre-diabetic and 48+ is diabetic. This number gives us an idea of where you are on the diabetic scale ie just over the line with a reading in the 50s or dangerously high in the 3 digit range.
What medication if any or dietary advice you have been given?

Many of us here follow a low carb diet which involves not just dramatically reducing our sugar consumption by cutting out cakes biscuits and sweets as well as sugar itself but also eating less (or no) bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals etc. That may sound very restrictive but it can be an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around it.

Many members of the forum who are type 2 also invest in a blood glucose meter so that they can monitor their own Blood Glucose (BG) levels and figure out which foods cause them to spike the most. They are inexpensive to buy (approx £15) and can empower you to take control of your diabetes. Buying one which has the cheapest test strips makes financial sense as it is the on going cost of test strips which tots up over the months and for that reason we recommend the SD Codefree Blood Glucose Meter (available from Amazon) on this forum as the test strips are £8 for a pot of 50 compared to £15-20+ for some other makes.

Anyway, have a look around and make yourself at home and feel free to ask anything you don't understand.

 

[CathyB]

Hi and welcome

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome to the forum JellyBeany, from a fellow T2 who was also diagnosed in December, 5 years ago.