My journey into BG Monitoring.

[NoCrbs4Me]

I've just fished out my blood paperwork again ...
This one here ... http://i.imgur.com/u3tAh8t.jpg ... where my numbers are massively high wasn't a fasting test. Should it have been?

I thought you had a fasting blood glucose of 13.4 mmol/L at one point?

 

[Zombiedude]

I thought you had a fasting blood glucose of 13.4 mmol/L at one point?

Yeah, just saw it.
Ignore me ... I had a himbo moment.

 

[Bluetit1802]

What did you have for those meals you posted your results for?

 

[AndBreathe]

It does seem a bit odd to me, too. Some folk get their numbers down to normal in a few months, but a couple of days?

If I recall accurately, @Andrew Colvin was right down in days.

 

[Zombiedude]

What did you have for those meals you posted your results for?

Breakfast was 2 rashers of bacon and two poached eggs.

Lunch was a small homemade burger, 2 rashers of bacon, a few tomatoes, a little cheese, some cucumber slices and a lettuce leaf.

No snacks inbetween, just water and a couple of coffees.

 

[jack412]

Ok, no problem. Just wondered.

I'll probably do the three months and just have another blood test then to see what is going on.

that's dated 2/9, when did you find out and how long have you not eaten carbs for, if you have been in a panic and haven't eaten in a couple of weeks?
I don't really know, except that your next A1c is going to be 5.5% maybe 5%

 

[Bluetit1802]

Breakfast was 2 rashers of bacon and two poached eggs.

Lunch was a small homemade burger, 2 rashers of bacon, a few tomatoes, a little cheese, some cucumber slices and a lettuce leaf.

No snacks inbetween, just water and a couple of coffees.

Well that explains why you had no spikes, but your fasting and pre-meals are a mystery to me. Maybe @Andrew Colvin will call in and add his views. Thanks @AndBreathe I didn't know that.

 

[Zombiedude]

that's dated 2/9, when did you find out and how long have you not eaten carbs for, if you have been in a panic and haven't eaten in a couple of weeks?
I don't really know, except that your next A1c is going to be 5.5% maybe 5%

On the 29th August I was told, "You've got Type 2. You need to lose weight and eat properly."
I was told to make an appointment with a nurse and told to exercise, stop sugary things and that was about it until a diet was laid out for me. I stopped fizzy drinks/juices right away but, due to some misinformation, I failed to realise carbs were a massive issue.
Until the 2nd when I had my HbA1c done. I was chatting with the nurse, who made me an appointment for 2nd October, and she informed me she was off on maternity leave soon but that I would be seeing someone else until she came back. She just said, "You've been told about carbs, right?" I said, "No". She told me to cut back on them.
I was going away that week and so, stupidly, thought the metaformin would handle carbs for me. (I was an idiot and thought it was magic fix).
When I came back on the 8th Sept, I started researching it all, and so cut down my carbs to well below 100 a day.
Since finding this place on Wednesday 17th, I have cut them to below 50 a day on the LCHF diet.

Sorry for the long winded explanation!

 

[jack412]

On the 29th August I was told, "You've got Type 2. You need to lose weight and eat properly."
I was told to make an appointment with a nurse and told to exercise, stop sugary things and that was about it until a diet was laid out for me. I stopped fizzy drinks/juices right away but, due to some misinformation, I failed to realise carbs were a massive issue.
Until the 2nd when I had my HbA1c done. I was chatting with the nurse, who made me an appointment for 2nd October, and she informed me she was off on maternity leave soon but that I would be seeing someone else until she came back. She just said, "You've been told about carbs, right?" I said, "No". She told me to cut back on them.
I was going away that week and so, stupidly, thought the metaformin would handle carbs for me. (I was an idiot and thought it was magic fix).
When I came back on the 8th Sept, I started researching it all, and so cut down my carbs to well below 100 a day.
Since finding this place on Wednesday 17th, I have cut them to below 50 a day on the LCHF diet.

Sorry for the long winded explanation!

full info is good, so 100g or less for 14 days, and metformin from early sept about 3weeks
what a massive turn around

 

[Zombiedude]

Have you only had one HbA1c test?
Have you had a glucose tolerance test?
Were you taking any supplements or anything in the weeks before diagnosis?
I'm just wondering whether something else caused your HbA1c to be falsely high, maybe causing an incorrect diagnosis.
I think you should try and find out whether there is something else that caused this high HbA1c.
Were your sodium levels a little low too?

Yeah, just the one HbA1c so far.
No GTT as of yet. Don't know if one is planned. I may attempt one myself but I would need to research and feel totally comfortable that I knew what I was doing first.
No supplements, no illness or anything.
I'd started bike riding a little more and lifting some weights, but otherwise nothing much changed from everyday life that I can think of.
The only other significant change is that I was a massive stresshead.
I mean, flipping out over everything.
I had my blood pressure taken and it was 152/92. I started meditating, drinking green tea with Matcha and doing Tai Chi.
3 days later it was 121/81.
Then it was 119/79 to 120/66 and my last one a few days ago was 119/66 ... all since 27th August 2014.
But, that is it!

 

[Zombiedude]

Weird!
I think you should go back and ask for a GTT
Good luck and I wish you well

Thank you, I think I may well do.

Also, did my evening BG levels, before dinner was 6.2, 2 hours later was 5.6 ... I have to enter all these into a spreadsheet!!

I had 2 slices of pork, some crackling, broccoli, cauliflower, french beans, peas (surprisingly high in carbs!!), a little gravy and a teaspoon of mint sauce.

My carbs for the day has been 30.

 

[Zombiedude]

I think you have to with blood sugar readings like these.

Keep eating well in the meantime though.

But you definitely need a GTT

Yeah, I think whatever the outcome, this has been a wake up call.
Diabetic or not, I will stick with a good eating plan and take better care of myself.

I think I'll call the doc tomorrow, book an appointment, show them my BG results and ask for the GTT.
I'd rather know sooner than later.

 

[mo53]

That sounds like a good plan

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

Or you could just try a high carb meal typical of your diet before you went LCHF and see what happens.

 

[andcol]

Hi

Well done in turning your numbers around in such a short time. As stated above I managed to get fasting down from 9.4 to 5 in a month (may be quicker but I wasn't testing then). Note that even though it "was back to normal" and my HbA1c at 3 months from diagnosis was in the normal range I still had larger swings in levels than I do now. Things for me are just much better than they were (eg ate lots of liquorice this weekend and managed to rise to a massive 6.5 - finished all of my turkish delight).

I did mine by reducing my calories to about 800 (effective) and reducing carbs to around 60g to 90g. I did this for 2 months and then added more carbs to increase my calories as well as more fat (in the form of nuts). I now have about 250g carbs per day and not always low GI stuff (like mash potatoes, white rice with my chinese yesterday, etc - I have found nothing that "breaks me" at the moment - fingers crossed).

Be careful with a GTT when you are on such low carbs as you will not tolerate a rapid increase very efficiently and I would argue that it will prove nothing whilst you are on medication.

Have you lost a lot of fat around your waist; mine has gone from 46" under my belly to 32" now and is hollow when I lie down. It seems to be this waist measurement that fell the fasted on my rapid weight loss/exercise programme (you can read my early days journey in the first link in my signature). I am wondering if you are following a similar process. I am pretty sure @paulins also saw the same as me but she has continued the weight lose whereas I slowed it down to a trickle by increasing the carbs.

If you are losing lots of weight you may find that you and the doctor meeds to review the metfarting. I was off it within the month although if my body hadnt reacted so negatively to it I would likely still be on it as it seems to be the HCPs default position when diagnosed with high numbers like you and I had.

Hope this diatribe has been of help

 

[andcol]

Just read your reply whilst I was replying. Before you do a high carb meal make sure you build your self up to it over a week to not overload your pancreas and be ready for numbers in the 10s as this will be normal within the hour whilst you are building your carbs. However, I would refrain from doing this until you have had your numbers low for at least 2 months and managed to lose about 15% of your original body mass. Thirteen percent was a real improvement point for me in BG and BP with less variance and liver dumps that never took me over 5.6 My lows also stopped being so low before the liver dump. I think this is where my liver and pancreas started "communicating" correctly again. I also think my pancreas managed my digestive enzymes better as the massive rises after eating carbs stopped and they became more spread over time - slower, controlled digestion.

 

[Zombiedude]

Hi

Well done in turning your numbers around in such a short time. As stated above I managed to get fasting down from 9.4 to 5 in a month (may be quicker but I wasn't testing then). Note that even though it "was back to normal" and my HbA1c at 3 months from diagnosis was in the normal range I still had larger swings in levels than I do now. Things for me are just much better than they were (eg ate lots of liquorice this weekend and managed to rise to a massive 6.5 - finished all of my turkish delight).

I did mine by reducing my calories to about 800 (effective) and reducing carbs to around 60g to 90g. I did this for 2 months and then added more carbs to increase my calories as well as more fat (in the form of nuts). I now have about 250g carbs per day and not always low GI stuff (like mash potatoes, white rice with my chinese yesterday, etc - I have found nothing that "breaks me" at the moment - fingers crossed).

Be careful with a GTT when you are on such low carbs as you will not tolerate a rapid increase very efficiently and I would argue that it will prove nothing whilst you are on medication.

Have you lost a lot of fat around your waist; mine has gone from 46" under my belly to 32" now and is hollow when I lie down. It seems to be this waist measurement that fell the fasted on my rapid weight loss/exercise programme (you can read my early days journey in the first link in my signature). I am wondering if you are following a similar process. I am pretty sure @paulins also saw the same as me but she has continued the weight lose whereas I slowed it down to a trickle by increasing the carbs.

If you are losing lots of weight you may find that you and the doctor meeds to review the metfarting. I was off it within the month although if my body hadnt reacted so negatively to it I would likely still be on it as it seems to be the HCPs default position when diagnosed with high numbers like you and I had.

Hope this diatribe has been of help

That's pretty amazing!
I'm not following yours totally.
I mean my calorie intake today and yesterday were 1800. But considering I was probably eating around 2500+ for so long it has made a difference.
I lost 2 1/2 stone in a year by cutting out snacks, sugar, crisps etc (although I was a fizzy/juice drink addict until 3 weeks or so ago!).
My carb intake today was 30.
My usual calorie count is around 1200 - 1400 but I want to get it lower to shift some more weight.
I haven't weighed myself since the 17th Sept when they told me I was 266lbs (not the 303 I was last year).

I think, after all the good advice, I will go a few more days of monitoring my BG and then go to docs with some figures and see what they say.
I will, of course, let you all know what they say and seek your advice.
I already made it known that, while they have the medical know how, I am seeking advice from other diabetics. They actually congratulated me on doing so and said it was a good move.

Like I say, I am still learning what is going on with my body and I am sure I will have it figured out, at least to some extent, in time.
Whatever the outcome I am going to be looking after myself more and eating better from now on.

Also, Metfartin? LOL Yeah, found that one out! Luckily it has settled down now.

 

[andcol]

The metfartin was courtousy of @Andy12345 IIRC and is such a great name for it.

300 to 266 is about 12% of your original weight down so you could be seeing your personal fat threshold so fingers crossed

 

[Andy12345]

lol i take no credit, someone else said it, i just copied it

 

[Spiker]

I would expect the Hba1c and T2 diabetes diagnosis are unfortunately accurate, so while it's worth a re-test at some point, let's not set expectations for a major miracle.

However I will say it looks like Zombiedude has pulled off a minor miracle with a very rapid turnaround to normal BGs via a fully committed LCHF diet change. Not everyone has the motivation or discipline to do what he has done, but I do wish that all diabetics were given this *information* at diagnosis, so they could have the option and decide for themselves.