Newbie

[flashh0]

Hi all,

I have been lurking on here for a while but have finally decided to join.

I have type 2 diabetes and until today was taking 2 X 500mg metformin twice a day. Am feeling quite low today as been for my annual review and found out my Hba1c test came back as 89 or 10.2%, although I am not really shocked by this as I thought it had been creeping up recently.

Even more worrying is I have tried out my new glucose monitor and it said 13.2 even though I have had nothing since I ate last night(over14hrs ago) :shock:

I have now been put on the extended release metformin (as I do forget to take sometimes and have some side effects) also they wanted me to start taking gliclazide but have agreed to delay starting to take this to see if I can improve my diet and control taking pills better.

The main reason for this is I am a LGV driver so do not want to start down the route of taking meds that can lead to hypos not least at the present time.

I do have one question at the moment though, Is it possible to still get the 'shakes ' and feel like you have low blood sugar even when your count is high like mine is? I quite often feel this way but when I check my bg it is actually high.

I have recently start a healthy eating diet by cutting out any processed oils and having more epa oils and eating home made vegtable soups so my in take of carbs should drop.

On a good note my doctor agreed I no longer need a statin as my count is only 2 (even before taking statin it was 4.5)

Regards
Andy

 

[Grazer]

Hi Flasho, not sure about the shakes: some people say that if they've been very high, even a drop to "normal" levels can make them feel shaky. Your HbA1C of 10.2% means that your overall AVERAGE blood glucose has been about 16 - that's very high. So your peaks after eating must be even higher. Rather than relying on a healthy diet reducing your carbs a bit, I suggest you need to be more pro-active in actually working out how many carbs you eat in a day if you want to avoid other meds - and I understand why you want to as a HGV driver. You need to do carb counting. Work out what every meal consists of, including ALL snacks - remember for example that even fruit has a lot of carbs. I'd suggest you aim for about 150 grams a day to start; that's about 50% of the guideline amount for a non-diabetic male. Look at the nutrition info on everything you buy to see the amount of carbs. If it's fresh food, you can look at it on the internet. just google "Carb content of....." and put the food type in. Keep testing, and see what that does. You can then adjust the amount of carbs up or down accordingly. Remember also to have GOODS carbs. Avoid all the starchy ones like white bread, pasta, rice, boiled, jacket and mashed potatos, and cut out all flour products like cake, pastry etc. There are loads of diet ideas on this forum, so it needn't be as bad as it sounds, but you need to make big changes with your sugar levels where they are if you want to keep off meds.
Good luck, and keep asking whatever questions you need to.
KEEP testing; two hours after meals. If your levels are above 8.5 (at MOST) 2 hours after eating, then you ate more starchy carbs than you should have.

 

[flashh0]

Hi,

Thanks for yor response,

Thats what I find most disappointing about this mornings review, I have been watching my carb intake for ages now although I dont actually count them. I try to avoid potatoes and pasta but I do eat rice occasionally. My only vice is apples which I do tend to 'enjoy too much'

Thanks for your advice I will try to work on the diet and I will post results

Andy

 

[xyzzy]

Welcome to the forum Andy.

Feeling low is natural you've made a good move today so congratulate yourself!

The good news. Starting with similar readings and HbA1 results as you around 7 weeks ago with the help of all the people on this forum I now get meter readings between 4.5 & 6.5 at the vast majority of times when I measure which is just before I eat and 2 hours after. I take the same amount of Metformin as you. At those meter levels I am nearly running at the level that 19 out of 20 non diabetics would achieve so I am very pleased with the result. I have lost loads of weight and a massive 4" of my waist.

The bad news. Its hard work but trust me it gets easier day by day and I feel so much happier and better 7 weeks down the line. I won't give you specific dietary advice but just point you at a reduction in carbohydrates as the key. Reducing to 60g / day did it for me and I am currently keeping roughly to that level. You may find you can eat more or less carbs than me as everyone is different. At the start don't worry too much where the carbs come from. If you find yourself eating loads of bacon, eggs and cheese that's fine imo as you can get to a better diet once you've got your levels under control.

You can work out how much carbs you are eating by looking at the small print on the side of packets. Include the total carbohydrate number not just the sugars as sugars are just one type of carbohydrate. Some web sites such as http://www.carbohydrate-counter.org/advsearch.php or http://fatsecret.com/ are useful if you can't find the carb count for something.

As a Type 2 who is only taking Metformin you do not need to worry about "too low" blood sugars and hypos . Metformin does not stimulate additional insulin production and amongst other things works passively by reducing the amount of glucose your liver releases into you blood stream. True hypo's are normally caused by levels dropping rapidly to less than 3 by insulin injection and as such is a very dangerous condition for a type 1 diabetic.

It is theoretically possible for a type 2 person to hypo if they are on drugs that stimulate insulin production and just as with any non diabetic person if your levels are low and then you do a load of exercise you can come over faint and feel shaky etc but this is not a hypo. At that point your body will be self correcting and your liver will dump glucose into your blood stream and you will recover just like any non diabetic person

Getting the shakes can be caused by having too high sugar levels in fact I use to get them until I changed diet and reduced my sugar levels down to a normal range. It is very easy in the first few days after resolving to make a life changing choice so use "Oh I must go eat that biscuit, sweet, sausage roll, cornish pasty, chinese takeaway, curry sauce and chips or whatever because my levels must be too low". It's no different to going "one ciggie wont hurt I'll give up again afterwards"

Good luck!