Glucose. Sorry, cropped it a bit too muchWhat's the top figure?
I would have thought that taking insulin without any way to test blood glucose is not going to end well.
It's weird, they keep telling me that 'economic reasons' are why I can't have a monitoring system such as the Freestyle. I wonder if it was approved but subsequently withdrawn, or perhaps it has to do with the hospital. I am part of the National Health system here, just pay a tiny bit for each treatment.They may or may not be low gi but they do have quite a lot of carbs. As you're on insulin, you'll need to count the carbs in your food.
You definitely need some sort of blood testing meter if you are on insulin (and I'd recommend it even if you were T2 not on insulin, so that you can check the effect of different foods on your blood glucose), but I suspect your nurse just doesn't want to give you a libre, as Dr google says it's been available in Japan since 2017...
Abbott's FreeStyle Libre wins reimbursement in Japan | Drug Delivery Business
If your doctor won't prescribe it, you could try self funding. Dexcom (another continuous glucose monitor) can also be bought in Japan, but I don't know whether you'd have to self fund.
So you are injecting insulin yourself with no way of monitoring your blood sugars but your reading was 72 mg/dl.. that's a pretty dangerous position to be in.It's weird, they keep telling me that 'economic reasons' are why I can't have a monitoring system such as the Freestyle. I wonder if it was approved but subsequently withdrawn, or perhaps it has to do with the hospital. I am part of the National Health system here, just pay a tiny bit for each treatment.
If the latter and diagnosed recently, you may be able to wean yourself off insulin into 'remission', typically by a combination of low carb/keto eating (unusual, but not impossible in Japan - but little or no rice, noodles, breads, potatoes most of the time), plus exercise, weight loss if needed.
Do you have the next follow up appointment scheduled?
Doc asked me if I had any hypo symptoms to which I replied in the negative. Either they don't think so or....idk. Does seems a bit cavalier. Am investigating the possibility of a Freestyle subsidised by the Govt, since that was suggested earlier.So you are injecting insulin yourself with no way of monitoring your blood sugars but your reading was 72 mg/dl.. that's a pretty dangerous position to be in.
But do they supply a BG meter (fingerprick)? These often get supplied for free by the manufacturers - they make their money off the reagent strips which end up expensive if self funding and testing a lot - 8 times a day is possibly gold standard if on insulin. I self funded my meters in Asia so mostly bought test strips duty free at the big regional airports!It's weird, they keep telling me that 'economic reasons' are why I can't have a monitoring system such as the Freestyle. I wonder if it was approved but subsequently withdrawn, or perhaps it has to do with the hospital. I am part of the National Health system here, just pay a tiny bit for each treatment.
Well done you. Also good that you are on frequent doctors visit while it is still very early days on insulin. But ideally you do need a BG meter and read up as much as you can on hypoglycaemia and how to treat.The latter. Totally low carb now. Dropped about 6kg in the month between diagnosis and now. Next visit in May.
It's weird, they keep telling me that 'economic reasons' are why I can't have a monitoring system such as the Freestyle. I wonder if it was approved but subsequently withdrawn, or perhaps it has to do with the hospital. I am part of the National Health system here, just pay a tiny bit for each treatment.
From what I read online, in Japan if you are diabetic you have monthly hospital appointments. Is this true?
But do they supply a BG meter (fingerprick)? These often get supplied for free by the manufacturers - they make their money off the reagent strips which end up expensive if self funding and testing a lot - 8 times a day is possibly gold standard if on insulin. I self funded my meters in Asia so mostly bought test strips duty free at the big regional airports!