I think I was diagnosed in 2014, my vision had deteriorated very quickly, literally over a couple of days and initially I thought I had, had another stroke because the blurring of my vision was pretty much the same as that following the stroke.
Over the following few days I was getting up all through the night needing to pee and drink. Unaware I had diabetes I was drinking anything and everything, milk, fruit juice, soda and occasionally water. My voice had changed too, and it has continued to change every now and then, I have never been able to explain it. It is as if my vocal chords have been altered and it only tends to last a couple of days or so then goes, and of course it is always when my blood sugar is elevated.
Anyhow over the course of a couple of weeks the need to pee through the night and the uncontrollable thirst got worse, I had not noticed myself but I had started to lose weight even though I was eating as normal. I was with my daughter one day and she insisted I go with her to the hospital and get checked out.
I saw the tri-age nurse who did a blood test, “You must be feeling quite unwell your blood sugar is sky high” She had also said it was 960, which meant absolutely nothing to me but it got me seen by the Doctor pretty quick. So that was it, I was now diabetic.
I was given some advice on do’s and don’ts and prescribed Metformin 1 x twice a day after a while this was increased to 2 x twice a day and my blood sugar was coming down, but not as the nurse would have liked so I was prescribed Gliclazide at first ½ a tablet twice a day.
After my second or third long range blood test in 2015 my long range blood sugar was down to 48.
I was told I had done well to get such high numbers down so quick and there was a concern that I might get to low so the Gliclazide was taken away.
That’s where it all went pear shaped, my next long range blood was over 180. I was frustrated to put it mildly, I was put back on the Gliclazide which over the following few months was doubled to 2 a day and then again to 4 a day. I was also given Sitagliptin.
My last 2 long range blood tests have come back at 120 and 102. My past couple of visit’s the nurse has mentioned injecting, I am not keen.
I hope I can turn my frustration to determination.
August 1st 2017
Today I am starting the Newcastle diet, well as close as I can get to it since the food supplements used in the original study are not available in the UK without a prescription.
I plan on using Heinz soups and to also use the vegetables suggested in the Newcastle trial.
I may try some of the other meal supplements that are available but the nutritional values compared to Heinz soups do not seem greatly different. My one luxury will be black coffee in the mornings.
After dinner yesterday I took my last lot of diabetes medicine. I was taking 9 tablets a day just for my type 2 diabetes which consisted of 4 x 500mg Metformin, 4 x 80mg Gliclazide and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin.
On top of those I also take 75mg Clopidogrel and 40mg Simvastatin, I also take up to 8 x 50mg Tramadol when I need to for pain.
The Clopidogrel I was prescribed following a stroke in 2012 and the Statin I was prescribed a fair while before that for Cholesterol. I will continue to take both of these daily along with a multivitamin tablet. I have Centrum Advance 50+ food supplement multivitamin/multimineral tablets, (Complete from A to Zinc) I may change these if I find something better or more suitable.
I have lost 20 kilos over the past 2 years from 104 KG to 84 KG however this has not translated into low BG numbers. I am 6’3” 50 years old.
My last long range blood test was 102 my next one will be at the start of November.
My blood this morning after 12 hours fasting was 17.8
My blood at 3.30pm today was 13.4 just before my first meal which was Tomato Soup (134 calories), apparently no added sugar and reduced salt. I shall take readings and keep a note of my food intake on this thread as regularly as possible.
