confused (should my dr. have done more)

[donbuzzin]

I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes today, my Dr. told me to follow a low fat and low sugar diet and gave me a printout of do's and don'ts and told me to come back for the next blood test in 3 months, if I'm not controlling it well = then she will put me on medication.
I expected a little more from her than that, should she have done more?
Should I be referred to the diabetes clinic or does that happen further down the line.
I have very little info and feel that I have had a huge bombshell dropped on me with very limited help and advice.
Any advice from you would be a great help.

 

[sugarless sue]

Welcome to the forum. Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different .

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

 

[donbuzzin]

Thanks Sue there is more info in your post than the Dr. gave me. She didn't mention anything about testing myself or being referred to the right people that can help me, when your told you have this the first thing you want is answers my Dr. told me I had diabetes as a matter of fact.
I felt as though she should have given me more time and help, am I being ridiculous in thinking this. Being told your diabetic is like a huge kick in the teeth and she sent me on my way with a two page printout. Should I buy a monitor that checks your blood, or do I wait three months until my next blood test.

 

[bufferz]

if you can afford one, go buy one from any pharmacy, i got my latest one from asda (Accuchek Compact Plus GT) for about a fiver. Of course you could wait till next week and ask your GP for one.

 

[Ardbeg]

Hi donbuzzin,

Welcome.

You will learn more on this forum than anywhere else...........believe me, I've trawled the internet for weeks on end when I was first diagnosed at the beginning of this year.

If you like books then two I can throroughly recommend are:

1. First year type 2 diabetes - by Gretchen Becker

2. Diabetes for Dummies - 2nd (UK) edition

My advice to anyone just diagnosed is this; DON'T blindly put your trust in ANY doctor or diabetic nurse. Be responsible for your own actions and if you don't agree with what the medical team recommend, then challenge it.

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi donbuzzin,
Welcome to the forum.

You have been given some very good advice here already and I would follow through with it straight away. By the time you go back in three month's time you could well be in control and will amaze your Dr.

I think the medics forget that the initial diagnosis is a great shock to the recipient. Some take a softly, softly approach but, as you have found out, it can be delivered with very little thought as to your feelings. Most of us do not have any real knowledge of the condition and need more explanations at the beginning. There are education days but we do not get them soon enough in my opinion. It is probably all down to cost and waiting lists.

We have all been where you are now and it seems very scary to begin with. This is a condition that requires self management and so we have to get to grips with it a.s.a.p.

Any questions you need to ask then please do. Look forward to your postings.

Catherine.

 

[nilemthakrar]

Hi donbuzzin
Welcome
I am 18 and was diagnosed with T2 3 years ago. I wish I discovered this forum as soon as I was diagnosed then maybe I would have been on diet control and not on insulin 4 times a day. I thought the diebetic specialists know what's best for me. I was only 15 and they did say they don't have many children with T2, and only know more about T1 in children and I think this is why I was put on the insulin. If I had come on this forum then,maybe things would have been different. At present I am very depressed and don't go out or meet any friends. I have just shut myself away from the whole world. I just sit there crying all the time. Mum has seen the GP who has referred me for counselling, but I am still waiting for the appointment to come through.
You have come to the right place and everybody is sooo great.
I only came to this forum about a month ago.
Just take advise from all our friends here and you will be fine.
When I first came on this forum (T2 section) I got prompt reply and it made me feel a little better.

 

[vic griff]

he/she should of gave u a little info pack on what to eat what not to eat an cabrohydrates and things like that.so ye she should of gave u a little more info

 

[donbuzzin]

Hi, Thankyou all so much for your posts. I have spent the whole day reading as much as I could from the internet, there is so much info it is unbelievable. I had so many questions to ask and a lot of those have been answered just by reading, I forgot to save this site so it took me a while to find the forum I had joined, each time I clicked on a different site I found more interesting info. I have now saved this as your advice has been brilliant.
I have spoken to my Mum and have decided to go and see my practice nurse armed with as much info as I can and hopefully get as much help as I can to help control the diabetes, I have also read that it is very important to look after your feet and I have very poor circulation in both feet so I will also get them checked out.
You have all given such great help and advice it has been a real eye opener, don't under estimate how much you are helping other people like myself, I feel so much better about things now and feel that I can achieve the goal of controlling the diabetes with diet alone I just have to be a little more organised. This is because you all took the time to post me a reply, keep up the good work you are all invaluable.

 

[spinningwoman]

I think there are two kinds of people in the world; the kind that when something like this happens just want the doctor to make it magically go away and the kind that want to find out as much as possible so that they can be in control and almost make a hobby of it. My husband, who has been diagnosed as borderline type 2 is definitely the first sort, and I'm definitely the second!

Unfortunately, the doctors seem to think we are all the first sort, so they don't want to tell us anything complicated or give us options about different diets or ask us to do anything like pricking our own fingers because they assume that we wouldn't do it anyway and wouldn't want to have to make any decisions for ourselves.

My husband's reaction to finding out that there were different opinions about diets etc was to say 'Oh, what's the point then, how can you tell what is right?' Whereas it was a huge relief to me to know that I could just get a monitor and check to see what different foods actually did and not be dependent on guesswork.

It sounds like you are the second type too, so go for it and get testing and don't let the doctor's lack of info put you off - you are in a really good position that if you can control things by self-monitoring and diet the doctor can hardly tell you not to do it. And to be honest, since the standard advice doesn't help a lot of people, she has actually done you a favour by being unhelpful, since it has forced you to find out for yourself. If she had given you a lot of specific guidance, you might never have found out that there are different views and alternatives.

 

[cocacola]

Most of us do not have any real knowledge of the condition and need more explanations at the beginning. There are education days but we do not get them soon enough in my opinion. It is probably all down to cost and waiting lists.
Catherine.

I have been on a diabetes education day. I made a comment at the course, that it is a shame that we aren't invited on the course till we are actually diagnosed diabetic. It would be much better if we were given the info we need when diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
Again down to the cost. But who is paying now? Us and the NHS :twisted:

 

[Synonym]

And to be honest, since the standard advice doesn't help a lot of people, she has actually done you a favour by being unhelpful, since it has forced you to find out for yourself. If she had given you a lot of specific guidance, you might never have found out that there are different views and alternatives.

Hello donbuzzin

As spinningwoman has said your doctor has done you a favour in a funny sort of way, as did my own doctor. :roll:

 

[donbuzzin]

Hi,
Yes I absolutely agree now that my Dr. did me a favour as I wouldn't have started poking around for any more info. I had an appointment with the practice nurse on Monday & she was fantastic. She answered all of my questions and is sending me to some kind of group meeting thing, she has also referred me for retinal screening and to see a chiropodist I have weekly appointments with her for the next 4 weeks to go over my blood glucose levels & I now feel very confident that the support is there. My appointment lasted for 40 minutes, I would never get that sort of time with a Dr. and she was very thorough checking anything & everything I felt like I'd had a full m.o.t. by the time she had finished. I would reccommend the nurse over the Dr. any day. Thankyou for all you replies they have certainly helped me & probably lot's of other members too, keep up the good work.