I was diagnosed T2 in April, and my GP gave me three months to try and manage with diet and exercise alone. So, so far I am not on medication or insulin.
My starting HBA1C was 9.3 and the confirmation fasting finger prick test my GP did was 12 point something. I immediately cut carbs and started to lose weight as fast as I could, and by the start of May had got my predicted HBA1C (via the MySugr app which it stresses is just an estimate based on your daily readings) down to 5.1, taking between 4-8 finger prick tests a day averaging 4's and 5s, with a few 3's.
HOWEVER... that was just the first few weeks. In the last few weeks, i.e. most of May, my fasting readings have been creeping up into the 6's and 7's, with some others spiking into 8's and some post-prandials also spiking into 8's. I have NOT changed anything, haven't gotten slack and started eating more carbs, eating more calories, or exercising less. My predicted HBA1C has now risen to 5.2% and I'm guessing 5.3% isn't far off.
(Side note: is it possible to not have eaten enough but your blood sugar not be low enough to hypo? Because my weekly calorie deficit is in the thousands, and I'm hungry and tired all the time, but my blood glucose levels have never dipped low enough to hypo.)
The only times I've been able to get my fasting blood glucose back down into a 5 is when I eat nothing for at least 36 hours. The best I achieved was yesterday morning when I got a 4.5 in the morning, after having not eaten for 54 hours. I managed to stay not eating for some of the day but kept getting dizzy spells and seeing spots in front of my eyes, and I caved and ate an avocado, a 10 g cube of Parmesan and a hard boiled egg at 4 p.m. and my pre and post-prandial readings shot from 4.4 to 7.0, I ate nothing else for the rest of the day, and my reading this morning was 7.2.
Edit to clarify: this spike from 4.4 to 7.0 has been the only time this month that the spike itself has been so big. The rest of the time my post-prandial levels have been in the high 7's and 8's only because my pre-prandial has been higher, because my fasting level seems to have inexorably risen.
Am I correct that with these kind of readings it's likely that I am simply not able to manage to control my diabetes with diet alone, and that I will have to start medication? Because I have to be totally honest and say that feels like the beginning of the end, as decline into disability and early death (however many years it takes) seems to start with requiring medication.
I have been steadily losing weight due to my calorie deficit, and am close to my first goal weight of 64 kg, starting from 73.
So am I correct that these are my two options:
1. Go on medication and eat closer to the number of calories I should be getting.
2. Try to manage with diet alone but be eating way less than I should be.
I am still very stressed and depressed about my diagnosis, which I know probably isn't helping my levels. I know there isn't really a solution to depression apart from trying to not be depressed.