Questions that I have for long time diabetics!

[scoopadoop93]

Hi, everyone

My name is Gabi and I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes on October 3, 2016 when I was 23. Although I suspect that I have had Type 2 Diabetes since I was at least 15 but nobody ever thought to test for it until I was 23. For the better part of the past 4 years, I have been pretty non-compliant. I would just really like to forget that I have this disease because it sucks monkeyballs to the 15th power.

On March 10th of this year, I went to the hospital because I thought that I was having a stroke. I had a bit of a headache and I felt like my face was sinking in. Turns out that I wasn't having a stroke but that my blood sugar was over 600. Naturally the doctors admitted me to the hospital and I got diagnosed with DKA or as I like to call it, Diabetes 2.0.

The doctors sent me home after 3 days with a whole bunch of diabetic related stuff like meters and medicine. I take metaformin and atoravastin about a good 60 percent of the time. My memory is pretty blotchy so I am bad at remembering to take my medicine everyday. I am supposed to take Insulin but I don't want to take Insulin and I refuse to take Insulin.

I won't take Insulin for 2 semi major reasons. I have an immense fear of needles and I don't want to gain anymore weight. I am already too fat as it is, why make things even worse?

My last doctor's appointment was in the middle of September. When my A1C was tested at the doctor, it was 12.6 and from what I have read online about that number, its dangerous but its not like die tomorrow dangerous. My doctor wants me to take a pill called Basgalor or Basgawhore, I don't really know the name of it. Apparently Basganor or whatever it is called is a pill that could make me gain weight and I really don't want to gain anymore weight and so I am not taking it.

My doctor wants to see me again on 12/13 and she wants me to have an A1C of like 10.1 by then. I am not even sure if that is possible.

I have tried to make little changes to my lifestyle. For the better part of the past 2 weeks, I haven't had a cup of pop. I am really trying to spread out the days when I eat out. I am really trying NOT to eat after 7:00pm. I have lost somewhere between 4 to 8 pounds cause I am trying to drink at least a gallon of water a day. I am trying to walk a bit more.

I hate this disease more than life itself. I will do anything at this point just to get it out of my body or get control of it or something. I am so sick of what the disease is doing to my face. I have never been a supermodel but I am not a llama in terms of looks. However every few weeks, there is this humongous rash that appears like a ring around my nose. It covers my entire nose and people notice it and since I don't know anything about makeup, I can't rid of it.

Oh and every few days, my neck keeps burning! Its like 1.5 on a pain scale of 10 but it still hurts. Oh and my face keeps peeling, some piece of skin is always falling off of my face. My nose is always peeling!

Oh and last week for probably the first time that I can remember, I was constipated. I was in so much pain! It was absolutely horrific. My butt hurt so bad! Let's just say, thank god for epsom salt baths.

Oh and the dreams that I have are horrible. Every since I left the hospital in March, I have been having like these weird death dreams. I have had dreams of stepping out of my body. I have had dreams of me standing in my kitchen screaming "I am not alive anymore! I am not alive anymore!" I have dreams of my subconscious self sitting on the bed next to me, telling me that I had a real heart attack. I have been thinking about death a lot more since I left the hospital. I am scared as ****, dude.

I don't really know what DKA means. I just think that my blood is burning itself. I say burning itself because the blood is acidic and acid burns.

My questions to the people on here are very simple:

1. Can I control T2 without medicine?

2. Is it possible to really send Type 2 diabetes into remission?

3. What are your weight loss tips or diet tips if you have any?

4. What are the best foods to buy when you are a type 2 diabetic? What are the foods that won't cause a blood sugar spike?

5. I am contemplating walking 4 hours a day(2 in the morning/2 in the evening), is this a good thing or an utterly stupid one?

 

[Goonergal]

Hi @scoopadoop93 and welcome

Sounds like you’re having a rough time. Here are some answers to your questions:

1. Can I control T2 without medicine?

Many type 2s on here (myself included) do just that but there are no guarantees. Some people do need medication.

2. Is it possible to really send Type 2 diabetes into remission?

Depends what you mean by remission. If you mean reduce your blood sugars/A1C to non-diabetic levels, yes. However you’re likely to need to continue doing whatever helped to achieve those numbers for ever. It’s not a case of a ‘quick fix’ and back to old ways.

3. What are your weight loss tips or diet tips if you have any?

For me it was drastically reducing the carbohydrates in my diet that helped with this. I removed them to control blood sugars (see below) and weight loss followed. Again nothing is guaranteed and reducing your blood sugars is the most important thing. Have a read of Dr Jason Fung’s book the Obesity Code, or the Diabetes Code. They’re written in a very accessible way and are very practical guides.

Please note that if you are taking the insulin or another blood glucose lowering medication (other than metformin) that your doctor has advised, then you should proceed with caution because of the risk of hypos.

4. What are the best foods to buy when you are a type 2 diabetic? What are the foods that won't cause a blood sugar spike?

Real foods - i.e. fresh foods with as few ingredients as possible. So meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables that grow above the ground. These can all be pretty much guaranteed to have minimal impacts on blood glucose. Anything else is less predictable and people vary in their responses, so using a meter (you mentioned having one) to test immediately before eating and again 2 hours later will be the way to find out what works for you.

Check out www.dietdoctor.com for more information.

5. I am contemplating walking 4 hours a day(2 in the morning/2 in the evening), is this a good thing or an utterly stupid one?

Walking is a great form of exercise. If you’re not already a regular walker then going straight to 4 hours a day wouldn’t be a great idea as you’d risk injury. Building up to those levels would be great.

 

[Resurgam]

I was diagnosed just after you, but I went low carb from that moment and it was fixed in 6 months.
I don't regard it as being 'compliant' to have my blood glucose in the normal range, so I am most likely coming at it from a totally different perspective, and I was 65 years old in 2016.
Usually I do not think about diabetes at all, relevant to myself.
I'm not trying to show off, it is simply irrelevant.
In the morning I often have scrambled egg, cheese and a tomato followed by coffee with cream. I then don't need to think about food until the evening. I can just forget all about food, diabetes, and just get on with whatever I want to do.
If the evening I have another meal with a few more carbs and more coffee, sometimes a dessert, totalling no more than 40 gm of carbs, then I pull out what I might need the following day from the freezer, and don't need to think about food again that day.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi, everyone


My questions to the people on here are very simple:

1. Can I control T2 without medicine?

2. Is it possible to really send Type 2 diabetes into remission?

3. What are your weight loss tips or diet tips if you have any?

4. What are the best foods to buy when you are a type 2 diabetic? What are the foods that won't cause a blood sugar spike?

5. I am contemplating walking 4 hours a day(2 in the morning/2 in the evening), is this a good thing or an utterly stupid one?

First off, get checked for other conditions, like lupus. I don't know what's up with the rash, but if it is butterfly-shaped on your face... It could be that. T2's get rashes too, mind, but yours sound rather specific.



1. Can I control T2 without medicine?

Possibly. I think you'd at least be able to get rid of some of them, if not all.

2. Is it possible to really send Type 2 diabetes into remission?

Depends on who you ask. You'll always be a T2, but you could be a well controlled one. As in, weight loss, little to no complications. I call having normal bloodsugars without medication for a longer period of time, remission.

3. What are your weight loss tips or diet tips if you have any?
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ <-- have at it.

4. What are the best foods to buy when you are a type 2 diabetic? What are the foods that won't cause a blood sugar spike?
Anything without or with very little carbs is good. See the link for specifics.

5. I am contemplating walking 4 hours a day(2 in the morning/2 in the evening), is this a good thing or an utterly stupid one?
Walks are fine, just don't over-do it. Build up distances slowly, or your calves will cramp in punishment.

 

[KK123]

Hi there, you say they want you to take insulin but you won't. Have they definitely said you are type 2 as you are quite young (which I know can happen of course) and you had DKA (again, it can happen with type 2). If you had been slim I am sure they would have been looking towards type 1 so do you know whether they did any tests to determine type, specifically a C Peptide test (measures how much of your own insulin you are producing) and any antibody test? If, after those tests they said yes, type 2, then there is lots you can do to improve things (see above) BUT you need to ensure that you are NOT a (slower onset) type 1 because by not using your insulin you will die, it's as stark as that. x

 

[Lamont D]

Hi,
I'm not going to say anything about your other medical questions, the others are correct is what they advise.
I will tell you about my dreams.
Before I was diagnosed, and a few times since, I have had full Technicolour vivid story dreams, not as horrific as yours. I have found myself on the floor other side of the bed sweating, gasping and aching after I have been running, fighting, battling in my dreams and I have been killed many times and I have a specific burning itch in my upper arm where in one dream was severely injured. I remember when I was ill with a fever, that I was stabbed in the back and the following morning my back had a huge bruise on my back.
With all that and many more similar dreams in my life, I have come to some sort of conclusion. Wether it's the same for you is open to question.
What I believe happens, and you dream in REM sleep is your glucose/insulin levels are fluctuating up or down and until you get in deep sleep, which is the part of sleep that helps your body repair itself, is your brain trying to communicate to you that you need something to help with your blood sugar levels control. My brain is always giving me symptoms of hunger or craving.
I'm aware that T1s have dreams if they drop suddenly towards hypo levels.

The one thing I'm sure about is as long as I'm in control, I don't have the dreams.
If I have a temperature which raises blood sugar levels as well, I have dreams, colds and flu or an infection, I have dreams.

Do you get deja vu? Been somewhere or met someone you know, but you haven't?
Think you are living in another lifetime?
Strange feeling about what is going on around you?
Do you know what is going to happen before it actually does happen? Like answer questions to quiz show that you have no idea what it is about?
Read a book and you know the story? But you haven't read it or lived it?
Or anything similar?

One of my pastimes is history, especially WW2, because of my father and uncles, but my speciality is the American Civil war. Why I don't really know but I have studied it from start to finish and the reasons, politics, technology and the human cost of it.
I have had since youth a series of dreams that I was there and fought and died.

I could go on about it but I won't.
Remembering dreams is not usually done. Only certain people get the full story of your dreams.
Someone chasing you in a dream is not my favourite!
Do you feel awful the following morning?

 

[Ronancastled]

My questions to the people on here are very simple:

1. Can I control T2 without medicine?

Absolutely, but you have to be ready for some big changes.

2. Is it possible to really send Type 2 diabetes into remission?

Yes, many on this forum have done it & have non-diagnostic levels while off medication.
Some of us may always need medication including insulin but that's ok too, it's all about keeping your blood sugar down.

3. What are your weight loss tips or diet tips if you have any?

Low carb, simple.
The high carb western diet leads to high insulin which causes weight gain.
It's a viscous cycle that ends in pancreas burnout hence diabetes.

4. What are the best foods to buy when you are a type 2 diabetic? What are the foods that won't cause a blood sugar spike?

Cheese, meat, eggs, salad, red wine.
Stay away from bread, potatoes, rice, pasta.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

OK. Some of your statements:

I got diagnosed with DKA or as I like to call it, Diabetes 2.0.

I am supposed to take Insulin but I don't want to take Insulin and I refuse to take Insulin.

Apparently Basganor or whatever it is called is a pill that could make me gain weight and I really don't want to gain anymore weight and so I am not taking it.

I hate this disease more than life itself. I will do anything at this point just to get it out of my body or get control of it or something.

Firstly DKA is Diabetic Keto Acidosis. It is a very dangerous condition and is normally due to your body not producing enough insulin to clear glucose out of your blood stream (so no energy source for your body) and your body going into emergency mode and making ketones to try and provide energy. I assume (I may be wrong) that they gave you insulin in hospital to reverse the condition.

You then list standard medications that you will not take because.......

You then say that you will do absolutely anything to reverse this diabetes......

You are obviously not thinking logically, which is understandable.

Firstly, DON'T PANIC!!!

Secondly, set your priorities.

You need to get your blood glucose (BG) levels under control as soon as possible because you are damaging your body.
The best way to do this is to take the medication offered by your health team.

Once you have stabilised your BG levels then you need to think long term.

This forum is full of tales of T2s who were over weight and on multiple medication, but took control of their diet and gradually reduced both their weight and their medication.
This is a long term project but there are many, many success stories.
Be aware that you can't just skip all the hard work and magically get to the end point.
You get back what you put in.
However the result you want is achievable if you work at it.

Bottom line; stop thinking about all the things that you won't do and start thinking about the things that you will do to make yourself better.