New and Terrified

[bulkbiker]

I’m nearly in tears of happiness reading all these. Finally people who understand! Things have been going round and round in my head and I honestly thought I was cracking up. Feel so reassured now! Thank you so much X

You're home now... and welcome.

 

[niclourob]

I don't do anxious so please excuse me if I seem too blaze about it.
I have a failed thyroid. I take Thyroxine to cover that. Normally you stat off at a low dose so as not to shock your body - do not worry if you get a few slight palpitations as that is normal when getting the missing hormone replaced after a while being low.
I also have type two diabetes, I eat low carb and that seems to fix it.
I am now eating even lower carb than needed to fix the diabetes to try to lose more weight, or at least volume - down to under 40 gm of carb a day. It works for me - it was the doctors and nurses who demanded that I ate carbs whenever they found out that I wasn't.
The liver, if filled up with fat by trying to store all the sugar it finds in the blood, can expand and feel hard, even painful when pressed. I had that and it went away after a few months on low carb.
Don't worry about eating natural amounts of fat - it is what we were always meant to eat.

Thank you so much. You are all so lovely. So excited about this diet now.

 

[niclourob]

You're home now... and welcome.

Oh goodness you’ll set me off crying again. I’ll be asking lots of questions I’m sure and I look forward to getting to know you all better. I really cannot thank you enough.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I’m nearly in tears of happiness reading all these. Finally people who understand! Things have been going round and round in my head and I honestly thought I was cracking up. Feel so reassured now! Thank you so much X

Don't get caught up in spiral thinking, that just makes things worse. If you ever go around in circles, post questions and concerns here. We may not be doctors and we can't diagnose, but we've been where you are. And there's always someone with an answer.

 

[niclourob]

Don't get caught up in spiral thinking, that just makes things worse. If you ever go around in circles, post questions and concerns here. We may not be doctors and we can't diagnose, but we've been where you are. And there's always someone with an answer.

It must be fate that I found this page on the very day I thought I was going to crack up. Just ordered another book by Dr Fung on Intermittent Fasting too. I really can’t thank you enough for your help. You’re all amazing! XX

 

[Bluetit1802]

It’s the liver thing that really scaring me because she said the enzymes were raised by one point and I had to have another blood test in 12 weeks so I have absolutely convinced myself it’s liver cancer and now I’m panicking about every little twinge and think I can feel it swelling which is probably psychological

As others have said, liver enzymes do get raised when you have fat round the liver, and fat round the liver causes raised blood sugar levels. (The liver is very important in controlling blood sugar levels). Fatty livers and Type 2 diabetes go hand in hand. Get rid of the fatty liver and your blood sugar levels will drop like a stone and the enzymes will return to normal. Eating low carb and intermittent fasting, plus a bit of exercise such as walking will put all this right. There is no need to panic.

Get those print outs - you will be able to see what level these enzymes are and it will also show what they should be.

 

[SaskiaKC]

I went to my doc with extreme fatigue and pain in my liver area. I had non-alcoholic liver disease, which basically means my liver is jam-packed with fat. There is such a thing as metabolic syndrome. That's a bunch of things thrown in together, and most T2's have it: Fatty liver, high bloodpressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. While I googled causes of fatty lived disease I decided to cross causes off. My cat's a T3c diabetic so I borrowed his meter, because T2 is one of the possible causes... The floor opened up below my feet, my sugar was so high, and I immediately knew what it meant... That's how I found out about the T2: alone at home. My doc ordered an ultrasound for my liver, and when it came back abnormal, the specialist reviewing my case thought it wasn't just fat, he thougth I had cancer. I had an MRI and a CT scan before he finally found it was really all fat. Extremely densely packed, so it prsented as cancerous tissue, but it certainly wasn't. So... If your liver enzymes are off.... Odds are it's "just" fatty liver disease.

Guess what's good for NAFLD?

Low carb diets.

Can you please talk more about this (that I highlighted in red)? I would like to understand it. I don't want to hijack niclourob's thread, I just want to understand this. It seems to me that eating fat would exacerbate this problem, but apparently it doesn't, and that's what I want to understand. Honest question.

 

[SaskiaKC]

As others have said, liver enzymes do get raised when you have fat round the liver, and fat round the liver causes raised blood sugar levels. (The liver is very important in controlling blood sugar levels). Fatty livers and Type 2 diabetes go hand in hand. Get rid of the fatty liver and your blood sugar levels will drop like a stone and the enzymes will return to normal. Eating low carb and intermittent fasting, plus a bit of exercise such as walking will put all this right. There is no need to panic.

Get those print outs - you will be able to see what level these enzymes are and it will also show what they should be.

I'm not getting how fat round the liver can be helped by eating more fat. A doctor told me about 5 years ago that I had way too much fat (obviously by my size, I guess ) and after a blood test. He did not diagnose diabetes. That diagnosis came just 6 months ago, from another doctor, who didn't say anything about fat after blood work.

I'm confused. And even after 6 months of being T2, I'm still trying to learn all I can.

 

[HSSS]

Thank you so much. I’m so glad I found this thread because I felt like I was going mad. My cardiologist appointment isn’t until December too so they obviously can’t be too worried or I would’ve been in sooner. I’ll call the surgery and see what they say. It has just all come as such a shock and I know it’s my fault for being so overweight, eating so much rubbish and not going to the docs sooner but too late now. Just need to change now and in a way maybe this is a blessing in disguise because otherwise I would’ve stayed on the sofa getting fatter and fatter and iller and iller. Thanks again.

Stop right there. Blaming yourself will not help moving forward. And despite what the daily rags shout being overweight is by far not the only cause of diabetes. Having diabetes makes you overweight easily. Chicken and egg perhaps.

So take the wake up call on the chin and use it for motivation. Diabetes does not have to be a slow deterioration to a miserable life. Many have turned their whole health around by tackling this with low carb and reasonable exercise.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Can you please talk more about this (that I highlighted in red)? I would like to understand it. I don't want to hijack niclourob's thread, I just want to understand this. It seems to me that eating fat would exacerbate this problem, but apparently it doesn't, and that's what I want to understand. Honest question.

Fat which you eat isn't turned into body fat. Carbs turn to glucose once ingested, yes? When there's too much sugar in the bloodstream, the insulin will store it in fat cells. That is what makes you fat. The liver in particular can't seem to handle fructose (fruitsugars) too well, so they usually end up stored in the liver, rather than evenly spread out in the body.

I hope that makes a little sense. I have a migraine and a sinusinfection so I'm loopy on painkillers right now. But that's the short version. If it's too convoluted, check fatty liver on dietdoctor.com, they usually have video's explaining stuff better than I can. All in all... I lost over 50 pounds by upping fats and dropping carbs, my liver and kidney function have improved, cholesterol is down... It works.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I'm not getting how fat round the liver can be helped by eating more fat. A doctor told me about 5 years ago that I had way too much fat (obviously by my size, I guess ) and after a blood test. He did not diagnose diabetes. That diagnosis came just 6 months ago, from another doctor, who didn't say anything about fat after blood work.

I'm confused. And even after 6 months of being T2, I'm still trying to learn all I can.

Fat is not metabolised in the liver. This is a physiological fact. Glucose and fructose on the other hand pass directly to the liver where they are converted into fat and stored round the liver. Too many carbs, sugar and fruit, plus fructose that is contained in other foods, are the baddies. Dietary fat has nothing to do with it. Organ fat (internal fat that we can't see) and subcutaneous fat (under the skin that we can see) are completely different things.

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2013/08/09/the-most-unutterable-balls/

 

[SaskiaKC]

joKalsbeek and Bluetit1802, thank you both very much. Now it makes sense to me.

 

[SaskiaKC]

@JoKalsbeek, I hope you will feel much better very soon! Thank you again for answering my questions.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

@JoKalsbeek, I hope you will feel much better very soon! Thank you again for answering my questions.

Thank you, and my pleasure.

 

[rhubarb73]

Welcome aboard. You’ve had lots of great advice already so I’ll try not to repeat it all.
It’s very hard at first
Here is a link to a blog I wrote about my first 50 days. It may resonate with you:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/type-2-my-first-50-days.2190/
Given your anxiety it is worth remembering that even when things go quickly in the right direction (which they can and do) it can still be a bumpy road. I recommend keeping a few graphs of key measures - weight, bp, blood glucose
That way when a score goes the wrong way one day (it will happen - biology is not linear) you can focus on the big picture not the little setback.
This will rapidly become your favourite social media location.

 

[niclourob]

Welcome aboard. You’ve had lots of great advice already so I’ll try not to repeat it all.
It’s very hard at first
Here is a link to a blog I wrote about my first 50 days. It may resonate with you:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/type-2-my-first-50-days.2190/
Given your anxiety it is worth remembering that even when things go quickly in the right direction (which they can and do) it can still be a bumpy road. I recommend keeping a few graphs of key measures - weight, bp, blood glucose
That way when a score goes the wrong way one day (it will happen - biology is not linear) you can focus on the big picture not the little setback.
This will rapidly become your favourite social media location.

Oh my goodness your blog could be me writing it. Everything you said resonates so well. Thank you so much for replying. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done anything to change yet apart from giving up my tea consumption but all that changes on Monday. I am giving myself this last weekend to give myself a good kick up the behind then first thing Monday I’m low carb shopping, coming home and cooking. I’m also ashamed to say I don’t exercise at all, all that changes too. I’m going to start walking as far as I can and gradually extend it each day. I have had people say to me ‘start now not Monday’ and that’s true, I may be putting off the inevitable but if I don’t change I will still be in this chair getting fatter and fatter and more and more poorly. I need to think of this as a blooming big wake up call, I can change this before it gets worse. This week hasn’t been good, the local mental health team have been worse than useless, cancelling my appointment with 20 minutes to go and when I went to the rearranged one they had no record of me or the appointment. I have to go back on Tuesday now. Anyway, I am just so grateful to you for your message. You must be psychic because I was sitting here thinking ‘I can’t do it, I’m scared, it’s too hard’ and your message popped up.

 

[niclourob]

Welcome aboard. You’ve had lots of great advice already so I’ll try not to repeat it all.
It’s very hard at first
Here is a link to a blog I wrote about my first 50 days. It may resonate with you:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/type-2-my-first-50-days.2190/
Given your anxiety it is worth remembering that even when things go quickly in the right direction (which they can and do) it can still be a bumpy road. I recommend keeping a few graphs of key measures - weight, bp, blood glucose
That way when a score goes the wrong way one day (it will happen - biology is not linear) you can focus on the big picture not the little setback.
This will rapidly become your favourite social media location.

Oh my goodness your blog could be me writing it. Everything you said resonates so well. Thank you so much for replying. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done anything to change yet apart from giving up my tea consumption but all that changes on Monday. I am giving myself this last weekend to give myself a good kick up the behind then first thing Monday I’m low carb shopping, coming home and cooking. I’m also ashamed to say I don’t exercise at all, all that changes too. I’m going to start walking as far as I can and gradually extend it each day. I have had people say to me ‘start now not Monday’ and that’s true, I may be putting off the inevitable but if I don’t change I will still be in this chair getting fatter and fatter and more and more poorly. I need to think of this as a blooming big wake up call, I can change this before it gets worse. This week hasn’t been good, the local mental health team have been worse than useless, cancelling my appointment with 20 minutes to go and when I went to the rearranged one they had no record of me or the appointment. I have to go back on Tuesday now. Anyway, I am just so grateful to you for your message. You must be psychic because I was sitting here thinking ‘I can’t do it, I’m scared, it’s too hard’ and your message popped up. Thanks again.

 

[CherryAA]

It must be fate that I found this page on the very day I thought I was going to crack up. Just ordered another book by Dr Fung on Intermittent Fasting too. I really can’t thank you enough for your help. You’re all amazing! XX

take a look at my new post on a fasting experiment ( in a mo) it shows very graphically what happens when you fast !

 

[rhubarb73]

Oh my goodness your blog could be me writing it. Everything you said resonates so well. Thank you so much for replying. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done anything to change yet apart from giving up my tea consumption but all that changes on Monday. I am giving myself this last weekend to give myself a good kick up the behind then first thing Monday I’m low carb shopping, coming home and cooking. I’m also ashamed to say I don’t exercise at all, all that changes too. I’m going to start walking as far as I can and gradually extend it each day. I have had people say to me ‘start now not Monday’ and that’s true, I may be putting off the inevitable but if I don’t change I will still be in this chair getting fatter and fatter and more and more poorly. I need to think of this as a blooming big wake up call, I can change this before it gets worse. This week hasn’t been good, the local mental health team have been worse than useless, cancelling my appointment with 20 minutes to go and when I went to the rearranged one they had no record of me or the appointment. I have to go back on Tuesday now. Anyway, I am just so grateful to you for your message. You must be psychic because I was sitting here thinking ‘I can’t do it, I’m scared, it’s too hard’ and your message popped up. Thanks again.

Start Monday. Yes, the sooner the better but get your head straight so you are mentally prepared. Make a plan for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Then make one for the rest of week.
Take this in small chunks at first.
If it goes wrong, don’t beat yourself up, just start again with the first 3 day plan. You have an exciting week ahead!

 

[niclourob]

take a look at my new post on a fasting experiment ( in a mo) it shows very graphically what happens when you fast !

I just bought a book on fasting funnily enough. Was thinking of making the bone broth. I’ll have a look, thank you.