What do I do now?

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lotus77

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Hello All,

Newbie type 2 here. Well I was told quite ruffly and matter of fact way that I was diagnosed as type 2. They said it was confirmed from my last blood test. Would have been nice to be told they were concerned at the GP surgery.

I don't have the joys of my first appt until July 25th. I am now in a kind of limbo where I am angry and everyone wants to help but I have no parameters to work with. I have fussy eaters in my family and looking at the info so far, my life looks like chicken and salad for the next 30 years. Did anyone else feel a complete failure or useless?
Any suggestions on things to do or apps to get?
 
Welcome @lotus77 🙂 Do you know what your HbA1C was (the blood test that diagnosed you)? That will give you an idea of how many changes you might need to make. Are you overweight? If so, losing weight will help as will exercise, even things like regular walking or swimming.

What’s your diet like? If you can write down an average day’s food for you, you should see places where you can tweak your diet to help. This will usually be by reducing carbs and increasing green veg.
 
I am very overweight and highly stressed. I wasn't given my readings. I don't eat consistently and at the minute it is processed carbs. I made a conscious effort not to add sugar to coffee and it was a win. I am also good at not hydrating so that is on my 2 habits to change as a start. Reducing stress is not an option at present but it will be a big changing point for the summer.
 
There are lots of things you can eat not just chicken and salad although that is a good option
One positive thing is that your appointment is not until July so they must think that your HbA1C is not so desperately high that you need immediate medication. That is not to say that you can't start to make some changes to your diet in the meanwhile. Good to not have the sugar in your drinks but you do need to think about other carbohydrates and reduce those.
Have a look at this link and you will see there are lots of meals and foods that you can still have that are filling and tasty. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
If you can find out what your HbA1C is, the actual number not just high then you will know how much work you need to do, it will be a number over 47mmol/mol, how much over will indicate how far into the diabetic zone you are.
 
Thank you. I was told to look at the Diabetes UK website and that was a good place to start. I will ring the GP in the morning to get a level.
I was already thinking lots of points ahead with blood glucose readers etc but I am reassured that they are not pushing for an appt.
 
Anyway, as well as Freshwell, here is Dr David Unwin, a trail blazing GP with a successful nuts and bolts approach to turning T2D round, explaining it all to an audience of GPs last year in this conference presentation; and here is his simple diet sheet to get you started. You could be halfway there when you meet your GP.

Good luck!
 
peggy said:
Can't comment on the diabetic side of things as I'm a newbie pre diabetic but if you log onto NHS app and create your account you should be able to access your results and get your HBAC1 reading.
Click to expand...
As prediabetic that link should also be useful to you to get you started with some changes to knock it on it's head.
 
Thanks for the app info. I was 54 mmol/Molly and this test took me down to 51 mmol/mol. So getting down below 47 shouldn't be difficult??? I can make the changes and should be able to impact the figures by July by 1 point hopefully.
 
lotus77 said:
Thanks for the app info. I was 54 mmol/Molly and this test took me down to 51 mmol/mol. So getting down below 47 shouldn't be difficult??? I can make the changes and should be able to impact the figures by July by 1 point hopefully.
Click to expand...
You should hopefully be offered another HbA1C test 3 months after the first one as otherwise it may not show the full impact of your changes as that test covers the previous 3 months of blood glucose levels.
You should be able to reduce your level by reducing your carb intake.
I followed the principals in the link I posted and reduced mine from 50mmol/mol to 42 in 3 months.
 
lotus77 said:
Hello All,

Newbie type 2 here. Well I was told quite ruffly and matter of fact way that I was diagnosed as type 2. They said it was confirmed from my last blood test. Would have been nice to be told they were concerned at the GP surgery.

I don't have the joys of my first appt until July 25th. I am now in a kind of limbo where I am angry and everyone wants to help but I have no parameters to work with. I have fussy eaters in my family and looking at the info so far, my life looks like chicken and salad for the next 30 years. Did anyone else feel a complete failure or useless?
Any suggestions on things to do or apps to get?
Click to expand...
Hi all,
After a long time, I have woken up and smelt the coffee ! Being possibly the worst diabetic in history I found my HBA1C @ 90
I was put on insulin straightaway. The doctor said ‘watch out for possible weight gain’ That was it for me and proceeded to lose 3 stone in 6 months. Taken off insulin and reverted to tablets. Next phase was getting the DEXCOM ONE continuous glucose monitor which literally was a game changer as I could see the effects of what I was eating. Last HBA1C was 42. Next test predicted around 35 Watch this space !
 
FoggyPhil999 said:
Hi all,
After a long time, I have woken up and smelt the coffee ! Being possibly the worst diabetic in history I found my HBA1C @ 90
I was put on insulin straightaway. The doctor said ‘watch out for possible weight gain’ That was it for me and proceeded to lose 3 stone in 6 months. Taken off insulin and reverted to tablets. Next phase was getting the DEXCOM ONE continuous glucose monitor which literally was a game changer as I could see the effects of what I was eating. Last HBA1C was 42. Next test predicted around 35 Watch this space !
Click to expand...
You star well done you and thanks for sharing that with me. I bet you feel pretty darn good after all thst effort. I have something to aim for.
 
Hello @Lotus 77, I am not T2 and so not particularly focused on changes you might consider making to help you regaining reduced HbA1c. But I do know DON'T make immediate and dramatic changes.

By all means make some changes, but allow your body to adjust steadily. Reducing your current elevated HbA1c is your main goal, but if done too dramatically it can cause your eyesight to change because the elevated BG will have changed the salinity in your eyes and your eyes have gradually managed that change and your brain accommodated the changed optical distortion. A rapid subsequent restoration of a lower (better) BG can lead to blurred vision. At least that eyesight restoration can be achieved without necessarily creating longer term damage, but that is not necessarily true for fine nerve endings at your extremities. So change needs to be gentle and steady.

The other thing is that any changes need to be sustainable in the longer term. Diets rarely work in the longer term. Lifestyle changes can and invariably do work. Moving away from high carb foods such as sweet deserts, bread, pasta, potatoes and rice needs you to convince yourself you can do that and simultaneously find low carb alternatives that are not a punishment. There are lots of alternatives suggested in the suggestions already made. You need to buy into those and get enjoyment from those alternatives or seek out other alternatives. If you can't sustain your new lifestyle you are likely to slide back to where you are today. I don't want to be pessimistic - just realistic. Your diabetes needs solutions that you can make work. Good luck.
 
lotus77 said:
You star well done you and thanks for sharing that with me. I bet you feel pretty darn good after all thst effort. I have something to aim for.
Click to expand...
As it is a case of reducing your glucose/sugar levels, I focused on drastically reducing the amount of carbs in my food. Before, after work I would thing nothing of having 2 Greggs sausage rolls and a large latte ! That’s all gone now as I have realised what it was doing to me. Now, I eat well, but selective with what I eat. Weight is well down due to reduced carbs and has stayed the same for months. Must be doing it right now. Good luck with your journey, I know you will succeed. This forum is loaded with friends that can offer advice and support.
 
lotus77 said:
Thanks for the app info. I was 54 mmol/Molly and this test took me down to 51 mmol/mol. So getting down below 47 shouldn't be difficult??? I can make the changes and should be able to impact the figures by July by 1 point hopefully.
Click to expand...
You are by no means high in the diabetes numbers, so I'd advise looking at where your carbs are coming from and trying out various strategies to reduce them.
I am really rather sensitive to carbs but I stopped doing low fat and did not buy things considered low fat. I avoid seed oils and eat the natural fats which are associated with the low carb foods I rely on.
There are lots of low carb veges, salad, fruits, so I made a list of those under 11% and bought those - it seems to have worked. I used cauliflower, swede, courgette and celeriac to replace starchy veges and eat curry with chopped cauliflower, mashed swede instead of potato for bubble and squeak, and so on.
 
lotus77 said:
Hello All,

Newbie type 2 here. Well I was told quite ruffly and matter of fact way that I was diagnosed as type 2. They said it was confirmed from my last blood test. Would have been nice to be told they were concerned at the GP surgery.

I don't have the joys of my first appt until July 25th. I am now in a kind of limbo where I am angry and everyone wants to help but I have no parameters to work with. I have fussy eaters in my family and looking at the info so far, my life looks like chicken and salad for the next 30 years. Did anyone else feel a complete failure or useless?
Any suggestions on things to do or apps to get?
Click to expand...
Hello Lotus77, I’m quite recently diagnosed type 2 (early April) - you mentioned apps. I’m using Nutracheck which was free for a few weeks but I’ve since paid about £24 for the year - but I think it’s worth it. You configure which nutrients you want to show - I have calories and carbs. You pop in everything you eat (involves a bit of weighing - get digital scales if you don’t already have them) and it counts up your carbs for you so you can check you are coming in below the 130g per day but also without creeping too high on the calories. It also reads barcodes so you can input anything commercial immediately.
I am eating more of: yoghurt, houmous, eggs, nuts and of course vegetables and salad.
I’ve decided personally not to do finger pricking at the moment - many on here find it useful but I thought I would rather just count up my totals for the day and not get hung up on individual food items - but that decision is quite individual.
Almost 2 months later and I am a stone lighter and not too hungry! No idea yet what effect it is having on my blood glucose but hopefully can only be an improvement - will find out end of July.
Good luck and hopefully you can get going with some dietary changes.
 
lotus77 said:
Hello All,

Newbie type 2 here. Well I was told quite ruffly and matter of fact way that I was diagnosed as type 2. They said it was confirmed from my last blood test. Would have been nice to be told they were concerned at the GP surgery.

I don't have the joys of my first appt until July 25th. I am now in a kind of limbo where I am angry and everyone wants to help but I have no parameters to work with. I have fussy eaters in my family and looking at the info so far, my life looks like chicken and salad for the next 30 years. Did anyone else feel a complete failure or useless?
Any suggestions on things to do or apps to get?
Click to expand...
Maybe I need to let it go but I was really annoyed about the dismissive way I was informed and even more annoyed when they ignored my questions. This seems to be a theme with a few on the forum. Sure they are under pressure I was told at a later stage the most patients don’t seem bothered and are “ remarkably ignorant about their health “ .
I’m lucky to have a GP that has known me for years I talked to her about my concerns which were escalated.
I’m going to enlarge on this on my original newbie post.
 
Drummer said:
You are by no means high in the diabetes numbers, so I'd advise looking at where your carbs are coming from and trying out various strategies to reduce them.
I am really rather sensitive to carbs but I stopped doing low fat and did not buy things considered low fat. I avoid seed oils and eat the natural fats which are associated with the low carb foods I rely on.
There are lots of low carb veges, salad, fruits, so I made a list of those under 11% and bought those - it seems to have worked. I used cauliflower, swede, courgette and celeriac to replace starchy veges and eat curry with chopped cauliflower, mashed swede instead of potato for bubble and squeak, and so on.
Click to expand...
I’m glad I found this particular post @Drummer I was 53mmol at the original diagnosis. I really need to update my story.
 
peggy said:
Can't comment on the diabetic side of things as I'm a newbie pre diabetic but if you log onto NHS app and create your account you should be able to access your results and get your HBAC1 reading.
Click to expand...
The NHS App is very impressive. Remarkably detailed once you get the hang of navigation.
 

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