Newly Diagnosed

[salty]

Hi All

I have just been diagnosed a week ago my blood sugar levels when i went into hopital were 33.3. They are now only a week on mid to high teens (this morning 17.7) Do i need to let the drugs kick in before i get concerned about the levels. I am taking metformin 500mg twice a day and gliclazide 80mg 1 in the morning and half a tablet in the evening (which seems odd) My levels since last friday have been between 10.4 and as high as 18.0 is this need for concern?? I feel fine and i'm eating healthy and having breakfast,lunch and dinner.Your opinions appreciated

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi salty and welcome to the forum.
Your levels do seem high. Perhaps you could tell us what advice you have been given as to a healthy diet for diabetics and if you have any other health issues.

Catherine.

 

[salty]

Hi salty and welcome to the forum.
Your levels do seem high. Perhaps you could tell us what advice you have been given as to a healthy diet for diabetics and if you have any other health issues.

Catherine.

Hi Catherine

Advice has been minimal really dietician said to eat starcy carbs like wholemeal bread, wholemeal breakfast cereals. Here is a run down of what I've been eating since friday.. hope you manage to stay awake....

Friday 26th Breakfast-rice crispies, Lunch- Cod fillet, chips,mushy peas (these were while still in hospital) Dinner- spaggetti Bolognaise(wholemeal Spagetti) fruit salad.

Saturday - Breakfast - Shreddies, Lunch - Sardines and egg salad, Dinner - Chicken Casserole
snacks - 2 not yet ripe banana's

Sunday - Breakfast - 3 wholemeal toast, Lunch - 2 ham,cheese & salad sandwiches, yogurt. Dinner - Cod in breadcrumbs, new potatoes & salad

snacks - Timeout chocolate finger, apple.

Monday 1st - breakfast - Shreddies, Lunch - 2 ham salad sandwiches(wholemeal bread), Dinner - Homemade Chicken/Vegetable curry( healthy), fruit salad

Tuesday 2nd - Breakfast - Cheerios, Lunch - 2 ham salad sandwiches, apple, small glass apple juice.

Catherine hope your still awake my BSL before lunch was 16.8. But i feel fine and fit. I am wondering if for a while now I have been living with high BSL...

 

[sugarless sue]

Welcome to the forum Salty, From your post I see you eat a lot of carbs, I will post the advice we give to newly diagnosed Type 2's and you can see if it helps at all. Please have a good read round the forum and ask us lots of questions.

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different .

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such a bread, potatoes, pasta and rice also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi salty and welcome to the forum.
Your levels do seem high. Perhaps you could tell us what advice you have been given as to a healthy diet for diabetics and if you have any other health issues.

Catherine.

Hi Catherine

Advice has been minimal really dietician said to eat starcy carbs like wholemeal bread, wholemeal breakfast cereals. Here is a run down of what I've been eating since friday.. hope you manage to stay awake....

Friday 26th Breakfast-rice crispies, Lunch- Cod fillet, chips,mushy peas (these were while still in hospital) Dinner- spaggetti Bolognaise(wholemeal Spagetti) fruit salad.

Saturday - Breakfast - Shreddies, Lunch - Sardines and egg salad, Dinner - Chicken Casserole
snacks - 2 not yet ripe banana's

Sunday - Breakfast - 3 wholemeal toast, Lunch - 2 ham,cheese & salad sandwiches, yogurt. Dinner - Cod in breadcrumbs, new potatoes & salad

snacks - Timeout chocolate finger, apple.

Monday 1st - breakfast - Shreddies, Lunch - 2 ham salad sandwiches(wholemeal bread), Dinner - Homemade Chicken/Vegetable curry( healthy), fruit salad

Tuesday 2nd - Breakfast - Cheerios, Lunch - 2 ham salad sandwiches, apple, small glass apple juice.

Catherine hope your still awake my BSL before lunch was 16.8. But i feel fine and fit. I am wondering if for a while now I have been living with high BSL...

Salty, all the things in red are high in carbohydrate. This does not mean that you can't eat them just that you will have to test to see if you CAN eat them !!! These will raise your blood sugar levels and cutting them out or just eating them in very small portions will help lower your blood sugars.

 

[salty]

Hi Sue

Thanks for highlighting my post pointing out the high carbs. Cant believe the dietician at the hospital didn't advise me better. i will need to research a lot more to find the best things for me. Should I consult my doctor about how high my levels are or is this mainly down to eating high carb foods.

If I for example have a pasta dish for dinner, should steer clear of wholemeal pasta or is pasta as a whole to high a carb? Also for dinner tomorrow we were going to have Jacket Poatoe and salad are the spuds to high a carb to have?

Chris.

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi salty,
We all have different reactions to carbohydrates and so it is difficult to advise an individual. If I was you then I would halve my portion size of your normal carb foods and test before meals and two hours afterwards. Keep a food diary and then you will see where the problem lies. You may find that some foods have to be cut out altogether, some you can eat smaller portions of and some make no difference to your blood sugars. It is all trial and error and a bit confusing at the beginning.
If you don't understand then please come back and ask, no question is considered silly as we all have to know what to do.

Catherine.

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi Salty,
The only way you are going to find the answers is to do a lot of initial testing. Test before a meal then two hours after to see what effect this meal has had on you. Keep a food diary and you will build up a list of foods that you can eat, some you need to avoid and some you can cut down the portions. If your reading two hours after a meal is much the same as before the meal then that food is ok. Be aware though that the fat content of a meal can slow down the absorption of carbs so sometimes you have to test three and four hours after eating ! Very confusing I know but you will get the hang of it.

Pasta of any kind is starchy carb, as is bread, Flour based products, potatoes and rice. Some people can tolerate them, some can't. This is why each individual has to find out for themselves what suits them.

It is best to concentrate on the carbs from fruit and vegetables rather than the 'empty' starches as you will get nutrients, vitamins etc from the fruit and veg. Fresh products are best.

If you can cut down on the carbs and your blood sugar levels go down then you may well be able to control your diabetes with diet only. If your levels do not drop then your may need medication to help with your levels.

 

[salty]

Sue / Catherine

Thanks for your advice, I am keeping a food diary and a tab on my testing (well the kids are it's their job now) was just concerned that when I woke this morning I tested 17.1 then before lunch 16.8 i think it was.

I'll just keep going and see whats suits. Its a pain as i'm on a diet too trying to shed some pounds

thanks for your thoughts

Chris

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi Chris,
You may find that as you have been running high numbers for a while when they start to drop you may not feel too well. This will pass as it is a false hypo and shows some of the usual symptoms of true hypoglycemia. The trouble with diabetes is that it has to be self managed. Wish we could just take a pill and carry on as before diagnosis. :roll:

Take care,
Catherine.

 

[beverleyp]

Hi Chris - Understand your concern, I've been there too as my sugar levels were very high when I was initially diagnosed...but I didn't panic...just accepted the situation and adjusted my diet, though no-one is perfect! However, what I want to stress is that I exercise daily - I just got into the habit of it - by jogging 3 miles 5 days a week. I am convinced it is the exercise in particular that is keeping my levels at around 5. Give it a go Chris (and everyone else), choose your form of exercise, make it vigorous and build up to 30 mins a day. You'll thank me for it and you'll be lovely and slim too into the bargain, if you are not already. Also, it is possible that I can get away with 'sinning' more these days, although don't quote me on it as I don't test myself regularly, but when I went for my annual test recently and 6 months ago level was 5 ish. (Have even got my husband to jog with me and he has lost his paunch!) Can anyone else confirm that exercise makes the difference??

 

[haggis1972]

hi there im newly diagnosed, about a month. I have cut out bread,rice,pasta,pastry,potatoes and started walking, aqua aerobics and jumping on trampoline, and in a short space of time feel so much better than i have done in ages, my blood pressure has gone from 145/118 to 126/84 last week hopefully even better tom when it gets checked.I have managed to loose a stone and i even managed to cycle 3 miles the other day.
My bs is coming down in the morning usually between 7.1 and 8.4. during the day between 5.3 and 7.4 which is an inprovement.
I find this site so helpful and all my information i have got off here, i am lucky because my doc has given me a meter and strips so am testing daily to see what food does to my bs.

 

[John aka Wallycorker]

Hi All

I have just been diagnosed a week ago my blood sugar levels when i went into hopital were 33.3. They are now only a week on mid to high teens (this morning 17.7) Do i need to let the drugs kick in before i get concerned about the levels. I am taking metformin 500mg twice a day and gliclazide 80mg 1 in the morning and half a tablet in the evening (which seems odd) My levels since last friday have been between 10.4 and as high as 18.0 is this need for concern?? I feel fine and i'm eating healthy and having breakfast,lunch and dinner.Your opinions appreciated

Hi salty,

Readings in double figures are not good for you irrespective of how you are feeling. I agree with what others have already told you about the relatively high levels of carbohydrate in your diet and the effect that will be having on your blood glucose levels.

I'm a non-insulin dependent Type 2 who was diagnosed over nine years ago. By following the "do not test" and "eat plenty of starchy carbohydrate" advice given to so many people with Type 2, I got worse for eight years - my HbA1c rose to 9.4%. However, I have reversed my situation completely over the last eighteen months - last HbA1c down to 5.1% and is still dropping.

You can read details of the sort of diet that is working for me elsewhere on this forum by clicking on the following link:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13750

Good luck and best wishes - John