i'm new and scared

poohbear7260

Member
Messages
24
Hi everyone
I am so glad i have found this forum. I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 about 2 years ago. I am on metformin and bydureon injections. I was so scared when i was diagnosed, i shut my eyes to it all. Now i am very ill and feel very alone. Yesterday my blood sugars tested at 28 and the nurse wanted to put me on insulin daily. I refused as am so scared of needles. It takes all my energy to inject myself once a week, let alone once every day.

I have an eating disorder too so my diet is appalling. I also have D.I.D which i find hard to explain so won't unless anyone really wants to know. I guess all i want right now is to not feel so alone and have somewhere to go to ask questions. There is so much i don't know still and have little faith in the medical team.

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening.
 

carraway

Well-Known Member
Messages
977
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
Hello


Welcome. You have no need to be alone, there are lot of people here who can and will hep you.

Daisy sends a welcome message to new members take a look at that when it arrives and ask as many questions as you want.

I stuffed my head in the sand about my health and then when I felt so ill I had to do something I found this group, took control of my eating and began to lose weight. I feel so much better than I have in a long time so I can tell you it is worth the effort.

If you want to explain more about your eating disorder and D.I.D. please do so. This is a very diverse group with lots of experience and I think someone will be able to offer help for you in those area.
I feel sure we can help bring your sugar levels down with diet advice. It worked for me. Are you overweight? Can you exercise?

Your journey starts here!

Cara
 

poohbear7260

Member
Messages
24
Hi Carraway

Wow, thanks for such a comforting welcome. You ask if i am overweight and can i exercise. Yes, i am very overweight and as a 24 hour carer for my husband who has Alzheimers, no i cannot get out to exercise. As for my D.I.D, most people shy away from this disorder. It stands for Dissociative identity disorder, and basically means that when a person suffers a trauma at a very early age, in order to cope, the body splits into many personalities to protect the main person -me! I have over 30 personalities, of all ages, some who eat excessively i.e chocolate, some who don't eat at all. I have no memory of what they do, what they eat and lose a lot of time - this is just the shortened version for now. I myself suffer from Buliemia, which means my meds don't work as they have to be taken with food, and when the others are out and in charge they will throw my meds away.

Oh, enough for now, i did not think admitting this much would be so emotional, but thanks for saying hi.
 

Andy12345

Expert
Messages
6,342
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Doctors
Hi, welcome

I'm sure this is terrible for you, absolutely fascinating to me

Best of luck
 

daisy1

Legend
Messages
26,457
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Cruelty towards animals.
Hi Poohbear and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information that Cara mentioned which is intended for new members. I see you have already had some answers and I expect you will get lots more. Ask any questions you like and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
 

WhitbyJet

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,597
A warm welcome from me too, I have an uncle with the D.I.D. diagnosis so have a fair idea of what you are up against.
Sending you a big hug x
 

Netty70

Well-Known Member
Messages
666
Hi there
Welcome to the forum
Wow you have a lot going on health wise plus you care for your husband :) you must be one busy lady
Don't know anything about your condition but it must make controlling your diabetes a nightmare
This site is very friendly and you will make lots of cyber friends RRB ANDY12345 and WHOMPA are three of my faves :)
Wish you lots of luck


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

Fraddycat

Well-Known Member
Messages
709
Hi and welcome to the forum, this place helped me a lot!! I am sure it can help you. The advice from Daisy about controlling carbs is very important, if you can find a way to reduce the carbs in your diet you will feel LOADS better and will be able to reduce your numbers. I know at first it feels really hard to change your diet so drastically but it makes such an enormous difference!!

I have not had bread or pasta for over a year, and its made such a difference to my life, if I can do it you can do it :D
 

Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,551
Hi there, what a very difficult situation you are in but you have taken a very important step by seeking help here. You must have very litle time to think about your own needs.

I would say that you might find it easier to change one thing at a time. As your blood sugar levels are so very high you need to drop some of the very starchy carbs to see an immediate effect. Maybe drop bread pasta , rice orpotatoes altogether or reduce
them all so that you start to see reduced numbers fairly quickly and this will give you an incentive to continue.
Have you been given advice and strategies for dealing with the DI .D? You must be dealing with it well to be able to take care of your husband.
So maybe start wih one item or reduce the amounts of all starchy foods and keep testing and weighing yourself so that you can see results.
Everyone here will help