3 MONTHS DIAGNOSED AND HBA1C TEST = EXCELLENT CONTROL

[GraceK]

I've posted this in the NEWLY DIAGNOSED section because I hope it will give newbies hope and encouragement that it can be possible to turn their health situation around in a few short weeks.

I was diagnosed as T2 in August 2012, immediately started on Metformin and came to this forum the same day I think. I began eating LOW CARB HIGH FAT immediately and I've cut out ALL simple carbs like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sweets and I've enjoyed EVERY MINUTE and EVERY MORSEL of my new way of eating and I feel alive and kicking for the first time in DECADES. I've not once been hungry, I've sneaked the odd bit of chocolate now and then and I've never felt deprived.

I had my FIRST Diabetic review and blood tests a few days ago and the results came through today.

And there at the bottom of a list of about 25 blood tests were the words -

HBA1C level - IFCC Standardised = 39mmol/mol EXCELLENT CONTROL

I can categorically state that were it not for the WONDERFUL information on diet gained from members of this forum, the valuable website links they've provided, I know I would not have had that result at all because I would have continued to eat simple carbs as advised by the NHS and been none the wiser.

My LDL cholesterol is 4.15mmol/L and my HDL is 1.78mmol/L
Serum cholesterol 6.7mmol/L
Triglycerides 1.72mmol/L
3 other heart and liver enzyme tests were high I have to go and see the doctor on Monday to discuss them ... BUT ... if I'm feeling ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL now compared to 3 months ago, and those recent test results are high, I'm wondering what the hell they were 3 months ago and earlier when I felt so ill and so despondent and exhausted and depressed that I was seriously thinking about making plans for my funeral.!!!

I've been swimming for an hour and half today, been in the sauna, done some shopping, sorted a problem out on my car, cooked a meal for myself and my swimming buddy and been to the doctors to collect my results. Believe me, I am not exaggerating, 3 months ago, I could barely walk from my chair to the bathroom before becoming totally exhausted.

The receptionist at the doctors can't believe the change in me, the staff at the Leisure Centre have commented on the difference in me and my swimming buddy who I also used to go walking with is now complaining that he can't keep up with me when we're out and about - I'm walking so fast.

I can't help feeling and being enthusiastic about those results and about how I feel and I honestly wish every newbie who comes through these forum 'doors' to try not to worry, try to stay calm and try to take one step at a time and stick with the forum.

Thanks to Everyone for the support, the information, the companionship and the fun! :thumbup:

 

[catza]

Well done Grace. I am sure your success will give any new member reading your post a lot of reassurance that taking charge of their diabetes can pay off. :clap:

 

[Fraddycat]

Well done Grace, top marks!! Go to the head of the class

 

[Ann19]

Well done Grace!!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Ann

 

[GraceK]

Thanks everyone ... I feel like a million dollars!!! Thanks to some great diabetes buddies like yourselves. :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[librarising]

Shame on you, Grace. You ought to know we like our HbA1cs in old money.

5.7 !!!!! You go girl !

It's been a pleasure reading your contributions, and your funky giraffe often makes me smile

Geoff

 

[rtee]

Way to go Grace :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[izzzi]

Well done Grace

Roy.

 

[Defren]

Now THAT is what I call a result. Well done Grace 5% club already!

 

[GraceK]

Shame on you, Grace. You ought to know we like our HbA1cs in old money.

5.7 !!!!! You go girl !

It's been a pleasure reading your contributions, and your funky giraffe often makes me smile

Geoff

I'm still trying to work it out Geoff ... can't find the flipping converter link thingummybob. :roll:

Oh I'm a silly b***er I've just noticed you've done it for me. Is it really 5.7? Wooooooooooow! I am amazing aren't I? :shock:
I expected it to be late 6's or 7's. Does that mean I'm back down to non diabetic levels?

 

[GraceK]

Now THAT is what I call a result. Well done Grace 5% club already!

Thanks Defren ... couldn't have done it without ya!

 

[Indy51]

You are right to feel very proud of yourself, Grace. Well done & bravo! :thumbup: :clap:

I completely understand where you're coming from about how well you feel. I feel the same - I never thought it was possible after years of depression and negativity. Life's a *****... and then you get diabetes, LOL. I'm actually glad I got it as getting control of it has made my life so much better in every way.

 

[GraceK]

You are right to feel very proud of yourself, Grace. Well done & bravo! :thumbup: :clap:

I completely understand where you're coming from about how well you feel. I feel the same - I never thought it was possible after years of depression and negativity. Life's a *****... and then you get diabetes, LOL. I'm actually glad I got it as getting control of it has made my life so much better in every way.

Indy that's great, I'm glad you've found being diagnosed a 'life-change' for the better. I can't help marvelling at how different I feel, because being undiagnosed for God knows how many years, and becoming gradually more and more 'lifeless' and old every day is quite scary. I felt like I was always moaning, groaning and complaining about exhaustion, aches and pains, upset tummies, itching skin. Felt like a total hypochondriac. But when it got to the stage I was unable to muster the energy to get out of bed until 1pm every day, that I told my doctor she'd better damned well find out what was wrong with me because I felt I was slowly slipping away day by day, and that if I was going somewhere, I'd prefer to go quickly thanks very much.

Sounds dramatic, but when you're chronically exhausted as I'm sure you will well know yourself, you don't have the energy to keep insisting and being persistent with your GP. At some point the exhaustion becomes stronger than your ability to fight it. I don't know about you but I felt like I was slowly becoming more and more invisible every day.

On the day I was diagnosed, If I'd had the energy to jump up and punch the air that's exactly what I'd have done. But I didn't have the energy so I just hugged my very surprised locum GP instead and thanked her for bearing with me for so many weeks and persistently sending me for repeat blood tests. I don't think she'd ever seen anyone so happy with a diabetes diagnosis before.

But no-one is more pleasantly surprised than me, at how quickly that 20 years of hell could be turned around with the right meds and the right diet. Yes I could have changed my diet at any time, but if you don't have a clear diagnosis of what's wrong with you, then you don't know what it is in your diet that creates the problem. And my doctors were looking more down the Lupus pathway than diabetes. As each day goes by now, I'm reminded of what it feels like to be more alive than dead and that's a wonderful feeling. And so is the feeling of looking forward to getting up in the morning again.

How has your life changed or improved since you were diagnosed Indy? What are you able to do now that you had lost the ability to do before?

 

[borofergie]

But no-one is more pleasantly surprised than me, at how quickly that 20 years of hell could be turned around with the right meds and the right diet.

Wow well done Grace. Another shining example of someone that turned their life around with LCHF. Once you get your head around the whole "eating fat" thing, it isn't really so difficult after all is it?

Proud of you.

S.

 

[Indy51]

How has your life changed or improved since you were diagnosed Indy? What are you able to do now that you had lost the ability to do before?

It's not so much what I can do that I couldn't before, but how I feel about everything. One of the biggest issues for me was a Vitamin D deficiency - being put on supplementation turned my life around within the space of a week, long before I got my blood glucose down. Prior to that, I'd get up, eat breakfast (porridge of course :shock: ) and afterwards be so exhausted (despite having slept 10 hours the previous night) that I'd go back to bed and doze the rest of the morning. If I tried to walk anywhere, I'd be exhausted within 10 minutes.

We have a TV ad here for a Vitamin D supplement where the woman is bouncing along, passes another walker and says "Hello, sunshine" ... I guess that about sums up how I feel these days.

I now walk about an hour/5km each day, do some body weight exercises as per Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint on the kid's jungle gym in a local park, go to the gym and do small amounts of weights a couple of times a week. And I'm actually getting muscles for the first time in places I'd forgotten there were any.

Most of all it's the change in my general mood - after suffering with depression for most of my adult life, I'm now kicking myself I didn't try eating real food many, many years ago as I think that has made a HUGE difference because I haven't always had low Vitamin D, but have always eaten lots of processed grains, though was never a big consumer of takeaway junk or soft drinks. I'm another reformed carboholic

It sounds like you have had an even bigger transformation in your health than I have - but man oh man, don't it feel good???

 

[GraceK]

How has your life changed or improved since you were diagnosed Indy? What are you able to do now that you had lost the ability to do before?

It's not so much what I can do that I couldn't before, but how I feel about everything. One of the biggest issues for me was a Vitamin D deficiency - being put on supplementation turned my life around within the space of a week, long before I got my blood glucose down. Prior to that, I'd get up, eat breakfast (porridge of course :shock: ) and afterwards be so exhausted (despite having slept 10 hours the previous night) that I'd go back to bed and doze the rest of the morning. If I tried to walk anywhere, I'd be exhausted within 10 minutes.

We have a TV ad here for a Vitamin D supplement where the woman is bouncing along, passes another walker and says "Hello, sunshine" ... I guess that about sums up how I feel these days.

I now walk about an hour/5km each day, do some body weight exercises as per Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint on the kid's jungle gym in a local park, go to the gym and do small amounts of weights a couple of times a week. And I'm actually getting muscles for the first time in places I'd forgotten there were any.

Most of all it's the change in my general mood - after suffering with depression for most of my adult life, I'm now kicking myself I didn't try eating real food many, many years ago as I think that has made a HUGE difference because I haven't always had low Vitamin D, but have always eaten lots of processed grains, though was never a big consumer of takeaway junk or soft drinks. I'm another reformed carboholic

It sounds like you have had an even bigger transformation in your health than I have - but man oh man, don't it feel good???

Indy ... your story is almost identical to mine, especially the long term depression, the processed grains and carbs etc. I ate less than normal amounts of bread, rice, pasta, was never a big fan of them but did eat them regularly. Never drank soft drinks or takeaways until I was in my 50's. I wouldn't have described myself as a carbaholic, because I've always loved my protein and fat above all else, but as I got older I found my tolerance of carbs was getting worse and worse. The depression is something I've suffered on and off with since I was 16 years of age and at times it's been mild and at other times very severe.

I've NEVER been able to tolerate much sunshine, I would wilt like a wet lettuce as spring turned into summer and always preferred indoors to outdoors in the sunshine. I'm light sensitive and my skin in 2010 erupted in huge hives which quickly turned into angioedema and anaphylactic shock due to an antidepressant I was on which is colloquially known as 'The sunshine pill' - Prozac. I sat in the sun with my grandsons one afternoon and within a couple of hours I looked like Elephant Man's wife!

Since then I've had to carry an Epipen wherever I go because I need to get to hospital within 15 mins if I go into anapylaxis otherwise I'm a gonner.

I never thought about the Vitamin D aspect until someone here on the forum mentioned it a few weeks ago and so I looked into it and bought myself a bottle of high strength Vit D3 from Amazon and yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss! What a difference to my mood. What a difference to how old or young I feel. What a difference I feel when I'm out and about and breathing better.

I was already feeling much improved by my change of diet, but I think adding the Vit D3 supplement has put the icing on the cake for me. I'd love to see pharmacies offering blood tests for vitamin levels, I'm sure a lot of heartache and illness could be avoided if we knew what vits we're short of and what to do about bringing them back to normal.

I remember the days when GPs AUTOMATICALLY gave multivitamins to patients who were on antibiotics, that was in the 50's and 60's and it was standard practice. I think it had been stopped by the 70's. Maybe too many people were getting well too quickly. :wink: Best of luck with your continued good health Indy! :thumbup:

 

[MaryJ]

Grace,

Well done.

Your positivity and excitement is absolutely exuding from your posts.

If you could bottle it and flog it you'd be a millionaire my dear

And a great place to post it

Mary x

 

[GraceK]

Grace,

Well done.

Your positivity and excitement is absolutely exuding from your posts.

If you could bottle it and flog it you'd be a millionaire my dear

And a great place to post it

Mary x

Ha! Mary I put it down to my diet of a combination of daily forum scouring, bacon fat, eggs cooked with butter, Multivits, Supplements, Vitamin D3 pills, ignoring things that I know will worry me and take my eye off the ball and swimming twice a week.

I'm seriously working towards becoming a millionaire Mary, that's one of the things on my list to do before I'm 60 next year so watch this space!!!

Thanks for your support ... Grace x :lol:

 

[Indy51]

I've NEVER been able to tolerate much sunshine, I would wilt like a wet lettuce as spring turned into summer and always preferred indoors to outdoors in the sunshine. I'm light sensitive and my skin in 2010 erupted in huge hives which quickly turned into angioedema and anaphylactic shock due to an antidepressant I was on which is colloquially known as 'The sunshine pill' - Prozac. I sat in the sun with my grandsons one afternoon and within a couple of hours I looked like Elephant Man's wife!

Since then I've had to carry an Epipen wherever I go because I need to get to hospital within 15 mins if I go into anapylaxis otherwise I'm a gonner.

I never thought about the Vitamin D aspect until someone here on the forum mentioned it a few weeks ago and so I looked into it and bought myself a bottle of high strength Vit D3 from Amazon and yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss! What a difference to my mood. What a difference to how old or young I feel. What a difference I feel when I'm out and about and breathing better.

I was already feeling much improved by my change of diet, but I think adding the Vit D3 supplement has put the icing on the cake for me. I'd love to see pharmacies offering blood tests for vitamin levels, I'm sure a lot of heartache and illness could be avoided if we knew what vits we're short of and what to do about bringing them back to normal.

I remember the days when GPs AUTOMATICALLY gave multivitamins to patients who were on antibiotics, that was in the 50's and 60's and it was standard practice. I think it had been stopped by the 70's. Maybe too many people were getting well too quickly. :wink: Best of luck with your continued good health Indy! :thumbup:

Thanks Grace - best of luck with your continued good health too.

I hear you re. the sunshine thing as well, Grace - I've got classic white skin and freckles. I had some horrendous sunburns as a kid and learned to avoid the sun for the most part. The strange thing is, now I've got the correct Vitamin D levels, I'm quite happy with reasonable sun exposure and don't burn - I've got a tan for about the first time in my life! Still more freckles than I'd like, but not much I can do about that. No sunburn so far as I made a point of slow and steady exposure during spring and can comfortably be outdoors for an hour or two in the Aussie sun now. I think the combination of Vitamin D levels and eating cholesterol/fat has together caused the change. Just as predicted by Mark Sisson and other sources.

 

[Indy51]

Interestingly enough, one of Dr Briffa's blogposts today is about Vitamin D. Interesting read:

http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/11/09/my-p ... vitamin-d/