Hello everyone, thank goodness for this forum and website, that’s all I can say. Last Friday I found out by accident that I was diabetic after a bloodtest because I was convinced I was in menopause, I’m 50 next year. A letter for diabetic eye scans plopped through the door, I thought they must have confused me with another patient so queried it at the GP to be told “no, you’re definitely diabetic”. So I had a day of panic (and there were hulahoops because comfort eating carbs was my go-to self medication) and a huge amount of research. The first thing I discovered was that my ‘funky bloodsugar issues’ that I’ve had since my early 20’s had a name and I wasn’t imagining it – reactive hypoglycaemia. I followed the prevailing advice of the early 90’s that fat was bad and carbs were good, but then found that if I ate white bread, chocolate anything like that before the evening meal that my sugar would crash a couple of hours later and I would go hypo, which is horrible. I learned by trial and error about low G.I foods and I avoided going hypo as long as I stuck to wholegrains and didn’t indulge in office cake and biscuits and whatnot in the day. My blood sugar results were always around 4.5 on random tests, so diabetes hasn’t been on my radar at all, although my weight has been creeping up and up since I had kids and I haven’t been able to work out as much as I’d like. I’ve also noticed over the last few years that I crave chocolate and sweets, which I never used to, I’ve always been a crisps/chips kind of girl. So yes I’ve been indulging in those in the evenings more than I should lately, but not to a crazy degree.
What I failed to notice is that I could now go long periods of time and skip meals without feeling the dreaded hypo coming on. Not a surprise really, considering that I was depressed, anxious and unable to cope with anything, I was convinced that I would be told I needed HRT and all would be well.
Wrong!
My HbA1c was 52 and my cholesterol 6.1 (no surprise there, it runs in the family and it’s been at this level since they first tested me years ago). My BMI is around 32 but I do Zumba or spin classes 3 or 4 times a week if I can get to them. This year it’s been really patchy on the exercise front and high on the stress front, something big seems to go wrong every week and I haven’t been able to get into a routine properly. I use the exercise to raise my mood, so being hit and miss hasn’t helped that.
So, on Friday I found out I’m diabetic and I needed to do something about it, so from Saturday I radically changed my diet. Out went all the junk and the white stuff and I reduced my complex carbs intake as well, upping the fruit and veg and some fats too. I also started a food diary. On Sunday evening I felt the familiar sensation of a hypo coming on and headed it off with nuts and some raw veg and then had a low carb dinner. The next Morning I woke up with a hypo coming on and had to eat an apple before I could drive. A morning hypo has never happened before that I can remember from my reactive hypoglymaemia days. It’s now Thursday and I haven’t experienced any more hypos but I have stuck to my low carb diet (which had an ‘interesting’ effect on my bowels for a couple of days). The last few evenings I have had some sugar cravings though, it's like my body has worken up to the fact that we're missing the naughty yummy stuff.
What I noticed this morning when I woke up is that I felt perky. Perky! Nothing hurts, all the aches and pains have gone. Honestly, I’ve been so low and tearful for so long that I can’t remember when I last felt this good. And today my monitor arrived, I did my first BG test, mid-afternoon which came out at 6.
So, a few questions that I haven’t found answers to yet – firstly is it possible that I’ve really pushed my blood sugar down to near normal levels in less than a week and reversed some really debilitating symptoms that seem to be all hyper related?
Also, I’m a bit confused about what my monitor is monitoring, is that reading I took today 6 mmol/mol? Is it the same as the A1C test? I can’t work out if there are two different tests.
Is keto a safe thing to investigate with diabetes? Especially with my high cholesterol? I don’t know how fasting works if your blood sugar drops to hypo levels, I’ve always avoided things like the 5:2 diet because I know that’s where I’ll end up if I don’t eat regularly. I’ve read Jason Fung’s book and it’s terrifying, but I’ve heard conflicting theories about the liver being clogged with fat and now I’m thoroughly confused.
My GP wants me on Metformin, I’m just a bit concerned that I’m going to find myself in hypoville on a regular basis if I take it. I’ve decided to give it at least a week without to self test and work out my ‘don’t go there’ triggers and what does work for me. How much does metformin suppress the appetite? It does have its upsides from what I’ve read and provides protection for you heart.
Finally, I’m mourning the thought of fish and chips and the odd dinner out at Zizzi. Is it OK to cheat every now and then if your control is really good the rest of the time?
Sorry for the very long list of questions, but this is definitely the place to land when you get that devastating diagnosis, so thank you in advance for reading this long
What I failed to notice is that I could now go long periods of time and skip meals without feeling the dreaded hypo coming on. Not a surprise really, considering that I was depressed, anxious and unable to cope with anything, I was convinced that I would be told I needed HRT and all would be well.
Wrong!
My HbA1c was 52 and my cholesterol 6.1 (no surprise there, it runs in the family and it’s been at this level since they first tested me years ago). My BMI is around 32 but I do Zumba or spin classes 3 or 4 times a week if I can get to them. This year it’s been really patchy on the exercise front and high on the stress front, something big seems to go wrong every week and I haven’t been able to get into a routine properly. I use the exercise to raise my mood, so being hit and miss hasn’t helped that.
So, on Friday I found out I’m diabetic and I needed to do something about it, so from Saturday I radically changed my diet. Out went all the junk and the white stuff and I reduced my complex carbs intake as well, upping the fruit and veg and some fats too. I also started a food diary. On Sunday evening I felt the familiar sensation of a hypo coming on and headed it off with nuts and some raw veg and then had a low carb dinner. The next Morning I woke up with a hypo coming on and had to eat an apple before I could drive. A morning hypo has never happened before that I can remember from my reactive hypoglymaemia days. It’s now Thursday and I haven’t experienced any more hypos but I have stuck to my low carb diet (which had an ‘interesting’ effect on my bowels for a couple of days). The last few evenings I have had some sugar cravings though, it's like my body has worken up to the fact that we're missing the naughty yummy stuff.
What I noticed this morning when I woke up is that I felt perky. Perky! Nothing hurts, all the aches and pains have gone. Honestly, I’ve been so low and tearful for so long that I can’t remember when I last felt this good. And today my monitor arrived, I did my first BG test, mid-afternoon which came out at 6.
So, a few questions that I haven’t found answers to yet – firstly is it possible that I’ve really pushed my blood sugar down to near normal levels in less than a week and reversed some really debilitating symptoms that seem to be all hyper related?
Also, I’m a bit confused about what my monitor is monitoring, is that reading I took today 6 mmol/mol? Is it the same as the A1C test? I can’t work out if there are two different tests.
Is keto a safe thing to investigate with diabetes? Especially with my high cholesterol? I don’t know how fasting works if your blood sugar drops to hypo levels, I’ve always avoided things like the 5:2 diet because I know that’s where I’ll end up if I don’t eat regularly. I’ve read Jason Fung’s book and it’s terrifying, but I’ve heard conflicting theories about the liver being clogged with fat and now I’m thoroughly confused.
My GP wants me on Metformin, I’m just a bit concerned that I’m going to find myself in hypoville on a regular basis if I take it. I’ve decided to give it at least a week without to self test and work out my ‘don’t go there’ triggers and what does work for me. How much does metformin suppress the appetite? It does have its upsides from what I’ve read and provides protection for you heart.
Finally, I’m mourning the thought of fish and chips and the odd dinner out at Zizzi. Is it OK to cheat every now and then if your control is really good the rest of the time?
Sorry for the very long list of questions, but this is definitely the place to land when you get that devastating diagnosis, so thank you in advance for reading this long