I've had a difficult year with 2 bereavements. I've not looked after myself very well dietary wise and avoided my diabetic reviews. At 47 I now have diabetic maculopathy and retinopathy. My optician said I could go blind at any time. I'm beside myself with worry. I cant get my BMs under 9. Tonight after a med baked potato and roaster veg my BM is 15.4. Synjardy isint helping nor is peri menspause. I'm trying to stick to 50 /75 g of carbs a day but I hadn't realised vegetables are cards to. Anyon else have a similar story?
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Eye sight results.
- Thread starter Lisa5
- Start Date
- Messages
- 1,409
- Location
- Suffolk UK
- Type of diabetes
- Don't have diabetes
- Treatment type
- I do not have diabetes
- Dislikes
- Intolerance, selfishness, rice pudding
Really sorry to hear this. I fully appreciate your anxiety since I was told something similar in 1979. I still read and drive. It might help if you could give a little more information on treatment and diet. Are you Type 1 or 2? There are many on here who can offer stunning advice, but I think more info would be useful. My success was due to very tight control from 1979 onwards, but it took a while for things to settle down. I had laser treatment on both eyes from 1979 to 1983. I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your reply. I'm type 2 for 17 yrs. My bms ate about 8.8 to 15 at times 20. I'm on Synjardy 12.5/ 850 metformin. My first has been really poor for the past year smd I haven't checked my bms. I now habe started checking then 8.8 this morning 3 ryvitas eitn peanut butter only increased my bm to 9.1 which is unreal. I got this breakfast idea from here. I've had the worst year but re focusing.
- Messages
- 1,409
- Location
- Suffolk UK
- Type of diabetes
- Don't have diabetes
- Treatment type
- I do not have diabetes
- Dislikes
- Intolerance, selfishness, rice pudding
You are heading the right direction by the sounds of it. Have a look at this, it's the best advice from another Type 2:
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
timothyclark1970
Member
- Messages
- 6
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
Wow this is such a struggle this disease. I want to first say how sorry I am that you are having such problems in life. I too have had a really rough time since starting on this journey in 1997. (I am in Canada so my measurements are slightly confusing for some) I have after many attempts found a way to overcome the roller coaster of diabetes. I am going to tell you something that I have not told anyone else. I was afraid of dying so young but that was not even enough to bring me to a realization that I had to find a way to overcome my health challenge. One day the woman that I love came to me and told me she was going to go for major surgery to help her combat her weight problem. I just dreaded the idea that anything could happen to her as a result of not being able to change our future and give us a fighting chance at success. You see my brother had flown off to Mexico about 2 years ago to have this exact surgery bypassing all the psychological and pre-surgery steps to just pay outright. It was not an easy thing to see him with major complications and he is still not well as a result. So it was like a wake up call and a switch in my mind flipped and I realized I had to make a change. I agreed with my wife if we could start on Labour Day to do this together and we could see some good results before her appointment in mid November would she agree to not do the weight loss surgery. She agreed and we made the following agreement. We would only eat when we were hungry. We would eat Fresh non-processed foods that were minimally processed and no flour, sugar, rice, grains, bread, or any other baked goods that used flour. We would eat Salad, Vegetables like cauliflower, Broccoli, cabbage, Turnip and lean meat like chicken and fish. We also agreed that red meat was ok occasionally. We would eat nuts and seeds and berries and strictly limit our consumption of fruit. We could not have fruit juice and we had to rely on water and tea for me as we both never enjoyed coffee. We were not calling this "KETO" as we did not want to add high fat options and we did not think it was going to be easy but to be honest I was determined to do this for both of our futures. We just had our first grandchild and I am 52 years old. We made this agreement and also agreed that we would only weigh ourselves on Labour Day and then once in two weeks time. Other than that weight was not our goal. We would only do weights at the doctors office when he was doing our checkup. We felt horrible for the first two weeks but honestly I did not cheat at all. One of the other rules we agreed to was that we can have one meal once every 14 days if we had been faithful to our agreement with anything we wanted. After two weeks I honestly was shocked to find that I was feeling so much better and had lots of energy. Keep in mind that my weight on weigh in was 427 pounds a number I have never shared with anyone and one I can barely believe as I never saw myself as that heavy. I took a needle after every single thing I ate which I had to calculate for 1 unit per 3 carbs. I took a nightly needle and a weekly needle and I was tired of the constant ups and downs of blood sugar. I had so many lows I had turned to Continuous Glucose Monitoring and it was costing us a fortune. I had an advantage and that is I had years of calculating carbs so I could take the right fast acting dose of insulin. Also I was a good cook who had worked in restaurants in the past. I was however facing side effects of erratic blood glucose levels including deteriorating eyesight, Tingling and pain in my feet, Sleep apnea, debilitating back pain and major memory issues from a brain bleed back in 2015. I was counting down how much time I might have left to live and wondering what the purpose of life was. I eat a lot less just because I am not hungry as much. After 2 weeks I was actually able to discontinue my injections and most of my drugs that I take in pill form. I remain on Blood Pressure meds and the odd pill for pain but at the beginning of my second month on this lifestyle we joined the local pool and swim every other night. It was completely embarrassing to dress for the pool and walk out but I started slowly and have worked up to 35 minutes of vigorous swimming 3-4 times a week and it is hard, really hard but I am doing it. I just went to my Doctor for my checkup on Monday. My HBA1C was 6.6 that is down from 7.4 3 months ago. I lost 47 pounds total so far and I have not felt this well in a very long time. I am still at 380 pounds but I am able to live again and be positive and hope for a longer time to see my grandkids grow up a bit. I now know that the Canada's food guide that had been taught to me is not good enough for diabetics. It must be modified. I can't eat grains and flour and cereal and oatmeal and all kinds of carbs. I can't think about bread without my blood sugar spiking. I do however cook healthy and great tasting meals. And guess what. I don't need that treat every 14 days. In fact the only time I ate anything I should not have was thanksgiving when I had a very small serving of Stuffing with my turkey. That was my one and only time eating any carbs other than what I listed above. I know the road is hard. I have been there. I have had to become an expert on meal prep and planning and am now at a stage where my bad habits are gone and I only care about right now. I don't beat myself up for the past and I don't look past today. As a reward my wife and I have booked a wonderful cruise to England on the Queen Mary 2 in September of next year and I know this will be an exciting trip. Every time I see something that I used to eat I say to myself, I don't miss it and I just eat something that is really healthy for me and I feel the better for it. I sleep better and I exercise and I am happier. I also suffer from very large legs ankles and swollen feet and have not been able to wear proper shoes for many years. I am now sure that I will overcome even that. Please know that you are not alone. If you want ideas please check out YOUTUBE for recipe ideas and there are a lot that are related to keto that are also related to low carb food prep. I have found many that are wonderful. While I am not on a diet I am similar in my approach to KETO so some of the approaches to meals are the same. Good luck and just remember it is never impossible to start on a new path. Tim
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Resurgam
Master
- Messages
- 10,125
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
It seems that you have not had good advice on diet - but perhaps with a gradual reduction of the amount of carbohydrate in your diet - a rapid drop would be risky if you have damage to your eyes, you will see more normal numbers for blood glucose. Your meter will show you which meals are causing spikes, the probable culprit tonight was the potato. I have been having mashed swede as a substitute for potato and cook it in a pressure cooker, which shortens the cooking time considerably.
