To test or not to test

[dado]

I was wondering whether it’s worth me purchasing a blood glucose monitor as my surgery is not suggested me to do anything like that. I was diagnosed back in July. I’ve had my three months blood test yesterday no results yet. I don’t know what state my blood glucose is in ?

 

[gail2]

I was wondering whether it’s worth me purchasing a blood glucose monitor as my surgery is not suggested me to do anything like that. I was diagnosed back in July. I’ve had my three months blood test yesterday no results yet. I don’t know what state my blood glucose is in ?

knowledge is power arm yourself get a meter from your gps or DSN if you have one

 

[rebrascora]

I would wait for your test results. You might find that what you have been doing is working and you can just carry on doing the same. If it hasn't worked, then certainly consider investing in a NG meter.
HbA1c results are normally back in a couple of days, so hopefully you won't have too long to wait.

 

[Dishevelled]

More knowledge is (almost) always good. As @rebrascora says though, wait for your result before doing anything just yet.

Once you know your result you could try the free 2 week Libre trial offered by Abbott Labs. Once you see the effect that certain foods have on your BG levels you might want to then buy a monitor for yourself.

 

[rebrascora]

Personally, I would discourage anyone from getting a Libre unless they also have a BG meter because there are too many times when Libre can cause anxiety if people don't have a BG meter to double check some of the erroneous readings it can give. Don't get me wrong, they are a great bit of kit if you understand how they work and their quirks and limitations but I think it is important to be able to finger prick first and foremost before using one so that you can verify some of the info they give. We have had people eating carbs through the night because the low alarm went off and worrying that they were hypoing, when it was almost certainly just compression lows and with no way to check, people can very easily get anxious about going to sleep or start eating more carbs at night to prevent possible lows whilst they sleep when that will make their diabetes management worse.

 

[Burylancs]

I was wondering whether it’s worth me purchasing a blood glucose monitor as my surgery is not suggested me to do anything like that. I was diagnosed back in July. I’ve had my three months blood test yesterday no results yet. I don’t know what state my blood glucose is in ?

Very important for new Type 2s to have a meter and do smbg. Denying them to new T2s is a false economy from the NHS. Besides which your Doc is expecting you to drive down the motorway with a blindfold on.
Testing will allow you to discover how each of the carbs affect you and, importantly, what portion size of them you can tolerate. 'Test,test,test' and 'Eat to your meter' are the two slogans for new T2s. But you have to USE the results to moderate your diet and regime. After a couple of months you can reduce the testing to two or three a day. But you've walked into a national scandal - newbie T2s being told they don't need to test. The NHS will be reluctant to fund a meter and test strips in order to save a few quid. But you can find a meter and test strips fairly cheaply in any pharmac, such as the Tee2 system
An aussie member of this group published a sensible guide called 'Test, Review, Adjust' which should be still on the resource page.

 

[Drummer]

Way back now I suggested that not testing is like driving a car with no working speedometer and just relying on the speeding tickets to let you know that you are exceeding the limits - it seems to have chimed with a fair few people.
Without testing I would never have known how low I needed to stay to get a normal-ish HbA1c, or that I get more than the listed amount of carbs out of peas and beans, and that my gut just sees 'resistant starch' as a challenge not to be ignored.
It also let me see that once I got to 8mmol/l after meals, that the same meals were producing lower and lower results as time passed. I took that as an indication that my metabolism was swinging back into line after being unbalanced by the excess glucose for a long time.

 

[beating_my_betes]

Whether it's good to test depends. Fasting blood glucose and random testing can be worthwhile to detect trends. But deending on the narrative you believe, meal testing can be useless and even harmful.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Whether it's good to test depends. Fasting blood glucose and random testing can be worthwhile to detect trends. But deending on the narrative you believe, meal testing can be useless and even harmful.

It is true that some members of the forum prefer not to check their own levels, but over the years I’d say that those are in a significant minority of folks who arrive here looking for help and support.

The studies by Farmer et al which seem (to me) to underpin the ‘don’t check your BG’ advice that many receive, had a protocol and structure which was based around adherence to the prescribed diet sheet. Participants checked their levels while trying their best with the menu and saw a succession of out-of-range numbers. The monitoring they did was depressing, painful, inconvenient, and told them they were failing.

Their results were no different to those who tried to adhere to the diet sheet without self-monitoring.

But

That’s quite different to how most people here use their results. They don’t stick to a supplied menu sheet (some find by self-monitoring that the diet they have been given doesn’t work for them at all!), but they use their results to adjust and personally tailor their menu to their own tolerances and preferences to sources and portion-sizes of carbohydrates. Particularly with pairs of checks before-and-after meals. Which gives a more detailed (and actionable) picture than occasional random checks.

So I guess it depends on each person’s preferences, approach, and how hands-on they want to be in building up a database of meals that their body is happy with. 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Farmer et al were jointly responsible for holding the NHS treatment path for Type 2 diabetes at a complete standstill with nobody in the NHS allowed to challenge anything about it for the best part of 20 years. The lowest of the low.

 

[pjgtech]

I was wondering whether it’s worth me purchasing a blood glucose monitor as my surgery is not suggested me to do anything like that. I was diagnosed back in July. I’ve had my three months blood test yesterday no results yet. I don’t know what state my blood glucose is in ?

They are relatively cheap, although most only come with a few test strips/lancets, so you will need to buy more, usually £10-£20 for 50-100 or so. IMHO, they are so cheap and easy to use that its well worth having.
And as others have said, knowledge is power, its nice to know what your BG levels are.
NB: Bear in mind these monitors are not 100% accurate, and not the same as H1bAc three monthly test, but close enough for general monitoring for most T2D's.

 

[beating_my_betes]

It is true that some members of the forum prefer not to check their own levels, but over the years I’d say that those are in a significant minority of folks who arrive here looking for help and support.

The studies by Farmer et al which seem (to me) to underpin the ‘don’t check your BG’ advice that many receive, had a protocol and structure which was based around adherence to the prescribed diet sheet. Participants checked their levels while trying their best with the menu and saw a succession of out-of-range numbers. The monitoring they did was depressing, painful, inconvenient, and told them they were failing.

Their results were no different to those who tried to adhere to the diet sheet without self-monitoring.

But

That’s quite different to how most people here use their results. They don’t stick to a supplied menu sheet (some find by self-monitoring that the diet they have been given doesn’t work for them at all!), but they use their results to adjust and personally tailor their menu to their own tolerances and preferences to sources and portion-sizes of carbohydrates. Particularly with pairs of checks before-and-after meals. Which gives a more detailed (and actionable) picture than occasional random checks.

So I guess it depends on each person’s preferences, approach, and how hands-on they want to be in building up a database of meals that their body is happy with. 🙂

Thanks!

I think much of what you've written would fall under the umbrella of "depending on the narrative(s) you believe".

Happy to expand on my thoughts if you're interested.

 

[Sharron1]

I was wondering whether it’s worth me purchasing a blood glucose monitor as my surgery is not suggested me to do anything like that. I was diagnosed back in July. I’ve had my three months blood test yesterday no results yet. I don’t know what state my blood glucose is in ?

One word reply. Yes

 

[Proud to be erratic]

Definitely yes in my opinion.

Don't get "terrified " or "starstruck" or in any way overwhelmed if your early results look dreadful or fantastic. Let the initial moderately random numbers become usable information with time. Keep a log of results against meal content, level of activity AND time of day. Then you get into a good place for drawing conclusions from your accumulating data.

Don't be concerned if 2 seemingly identical days produce different results. Diabetes is sometimes unhelpfully quirky. If the trained experts or longtime users knew why this occurs or even how to just stop this from occurring (without knowing why) we'd all be routinely doing whatever is necessary. But we don't know and we absorb quirky days as just quirky days!