Acceptance

[ricardoharrison]

One thing I forgot to mention, my doc and DSN were both awesome. It seems the level of info and support from the NHS varies from county to county. I'm lucky I've got a good doc and as soon as I saw her on my first visit had my meter and prescription for lancets and measuring strips. This has been key I think to keep a daily log and measuring what foods spike me and what foods I can eat!.

 

[Gappy]

I can identify with not always feeling the incentive to treat my type 2 seriously-i'm still getting good figures at reviews but not quite as good as before. However at work I met a bloke who's having toes amputated his attitude is "mustn't grumble, can't do anything about it" to which my immediate thought was no not now you can't but if you made changes at diagnosis you'd still be able to play "this little piggy went to market" so while i'm still in the good figures I'll get on track as I realise that, untreated, this is a degenerative disease

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[Scandichic]

You accept it as a serious condition when you decide you love your feet and eyes more than you love the food that's causes you BG levels to spike. Harsh it may be, but ultimately it's true. And at that point you accept that something has to change. For T1s that'll be the need to count carbs and inject insulin and for most T2s it'll be the need to stop eating foods that raise their BG levels and exercise more than they had been doing. For many diabetics it will also involve needing to lose weight by cutting the calories consumed.

Spot on julifriend! At the end of the day dovey1971 it's up to you. You're an adult and must make your own decisions. However if you bury your head in the sand then life will not go well. The problem with diabetes is that although you may feel rubbish if you continue to take no action or even fine, after a while your condition will worsen and julifriend has explained what will happen. And it really will happen. So please LCHF, low GI. Whatever you like the sound of. But please do something.

 

[Robbity]

Hi Lizzy, annual reviews?
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OK, but there may come a time when that information comes a year too late for you!

Even 3 monthly tests may not give totally "good" information, as it's an average over time and you don't know if you have nice steady glucose levels or if they're erretic and going up and down, high and low...

In many cases for diabetics ignorance is not always bliss.

Robbity

 

[Indy51]

I think I'm a perfect case of how little the A1c test tells you - according to mine, my last test levels are excellent (33 - 5.2%) and my GP thinks I'm doing great. But measuring my fasting BG every day in the 7's and getting high levels at 1 hour and even sometimes at 2 on a LCHF diet - even with exercising every day and controlling my weight, I know things aren't as great as they seem. Of course I could stop testing and bury my head in the sand about it, but I don't want to do that - and mostly I couldn't anyway as my toes are usually a very good BG barometer for me - soon as the tips tingle, I know my BG is higher than it should be.

 

[mine]

death comes to everyone. but its the pain and suffering which really matters.

 

[Dovey1971]

Thanks Dianagrace


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[poshtotty]

Good luck @Dovey1971 . I've personally never heard of anyone being misdiagnosed as diabetic when they're not. The fact that you feel so well at the moment, gives you an advantage. Take control while you are still well, and hopefully you will keep things at bay. But do beware of triggers such as stress or traumas. Keep monitoring to make sure you don't go into a decline. You are one of the lucky ones. You have been given advance warning and can use this time to take control.

 

[Dovey1971]

Hi thanks, I was diagnosed in 2007 and believe it to be accurate but the birth of my Twins last year has forced me to look at life expectancy and there still seems a disconnect between the physical diagnosis / long term prognosis and reality... Just wanted help to break this without and condescending / sarcastic posts!


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[andcol]

Dont think you got any condescending or sarcastic posts. Just realistic (possibly fatalistic) but you asked for motivation and now you know what drives most on the forum. The wish to live a healthy life for many years. Personally I want to live well into the upper percentile for diabetics. We are here to help as we can and if that requires us to help you motivate yourself for your new twins I think we will all try our hardest for you.

 

[Andy12345]

Hi thanks, I was diagnosed in 2007 and believe it to be accurate but the birth of my Twins last year has forced me to look at life expectancy and there still seems a disconnect between the physical diagnosis / long term prognosis and reality... Just wanted help to break this without and condescending / sarcastic posts!


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yikes, sorry if my post came across that way, ill leave you to it

 

[peacetrain]

I interpreted his post differently. I think he was trying to say that he wanted to explain how he feels about his situation without seeming condescending or sarcastic. I think he has realised his situation and wanted to share it and get some advice. And of course he will get lots of help here because it's such a fantastic community.


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[peacetrain]

I added a kiss from my iPhone but it doesn't show?!!! Is there a bank of smileys included in the forum tools?


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[Scandichic]

I added a kiss from my iPhone but it doesn't show?!!! Is there a bank of smileys included in the forum tools?


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Yes. Go onto your profile page. Scroll down to help and click on it. Took me a while to find it!

 

[mine]

when i was first diagnose, i did go around looking for good opinion on how i should continue my life as a diabetics. but i all i got was negative opinion as suggested by friends who got the information from their doctors. so much so that the doctor who first suggest that the new literature has somethings about reversal given up on me when i heard too much of those negative remarks.

soon, i decided that i should do something rather than listening to those echoes which says that it could never be reverse. now i am in normal range 4.4 hba1c as compare to 10.4 hba1c in 2013.

i have a friend whose father is also a diabetics for years and things are getting worse for his dad. the friend did not mention any positive mindset and keeps focusing on getting used to insulin and medication treatment. i stop getting opinion from this idiot and think positive on reversal, i am glad i did so.

i was told by a dietitian that many buy lottery knowing if they might win the big prize even if the odds are small. nobody buys lottery without the hope of winning. but there are some who would say that since the odd are small you will never win the lottery. true, if you never buy, you never try. you will never win.

acceptance that there are hope or you are hopeless. if you rather believe that you will never win a lottery and you never buy one, i am telling you that you will never win a lottery. if you believe that you could be lucky ,buy it and you lose. you can live and tell everyone that you have tried it without success.

but please do not try everything without some knowledge. there are many who cheat because they know you are trying hard. these are some illegal drug companies trying to make a profit off you and you end up losing a lot more. so, if you wants to buy lottery , dun bet all your money first. think first.

 

[Karen.G.]

I've re-read this thread a few times and not sure how to comment.

I think I understand: you don't feel ill, you have no symptoms, your hba1c is at a good level - so how do you accept that you have diabetes and that it is a serious disease?

Unfortunately, I've never felt like that. I've always felt ill, never normal. Even when diagnosed over 16 years ago (not sure how long I've had it!) - I buried my head in the sand and continued as normal. Didn't think anything of it. Now at age 42 I have background retinopathy - just diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy - and I'm picking myself up off the floor and finally getting a grip.

As someone said - educate yourself, read the horror stories, learn from them and keep yourself healthy.

Congrats on the birth of your twins and good luck on your journey - stay healthy

 

[catherinecherub]

How do you accept Diabetes as a serious condition, when you feel normal?


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Hi Dovey,

I think that the way you are feeling is something that happens to a lot of us.
I really thought that my results had got mixed up with someone else's and the professionals needed a better system so as not to make these mistakes and even told them so. I wasn't feeling ill so how could I possible have a chronic condition?
I have a good team and was issued with a meter and strips and sound advice from Day1. but it took a few days to sink in and I tried to distance it from my mind and went out and ate all the wrong things to prove to myself that there was nothing wrong with me, I had no symptoms and was not going to accept that this chronic condition was mine to deal with. Whilst a banana milkshake followed by a danish pastry tasted good it was about the last snack I should have eaten and I did not want to know that I was on a collision course if I carried on eating this way. I was well and truly in denial.
Then I started reading up about it on the internet and it suddenly hit me, I am a diabetic and I have to manage this condition myself with a little help from the medics if I am to avoid any complications..

I cam across this article in my search for all things diabetes related and often post it on the forum. It deals with the emotions that a diagnosis brings and the first heading is denial.


http://www.diabetesexplained.com/the-five-stages-of-grief.html

Have a read through it and see if it helps.

 

[Scandichic]

How do you accept Diabetes as a serious condition, when you feel normal?


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And this is the problem with the written word. There are no visual clues! I discovered this forum on 28th/29th of jan this year. It has, to be quite frank been a life saver. The people on here are incredibly supportive and I feel lucky to have met them. They will support you through thick and thin, do their best to answer your questions, offer alternatives, tell you where to go to get answers if they don't know. What they will not let you get away with is denial. Because we're all in the same boat and none of us want someone to deteriorate unless nothing else can be done. Many of us have been given the standard healthy plate advice. A fair few of us have chosen to reject this. My reason for rejecting this was the lack of scientific evidence which the diabetic nurse was able to give me to support the healthy plate advice. LCHF made much more sense to me and the results in my case speak for themselves. Do you need to lose weight? What diet do you follow now?

 

[Scandichic]

Hi @Dovey1971

I was diagnosed T2 in 2007 and challenged the diagnosis because I felt so well. I thought my rapid weight loss was great and sheer coincidence.

For the first few months after diagnosis I referred to myself as diabetic and was very strict about what I ate and drank, following rigidly the guidance from the diabetic nurse and clinic and ensured I had 50% carbs with each meal. I was given urine testing strips which always read the same and didn't show any bs so I got over confident and slipped back to my old ways. I continued to eat ow fat and med-high carbs and exercised daily until I got a nasty shock in January when an operation I was waiting for was cancelled indefinitely because my bs were through the roof and I hadn't realised. I wasn't testing daily and had no monitor . For several years I'd mentioned to my GP, dn and hospital consultant that I was unhappy and puzzled about my sudden weight gain, but no-one suggested it could be my diabetes. All I knew was that I overnight I became ill. and couldn't understand why. I became lethargic, had brain fog, was tearful and fell asleep at different times throughout the day. Classic signs apparently.

I've since learned that situations or traumas can trigger a deterioration in diabetes and I believe this was the case with me. A sudden death in the family and a stressful two years of family feuds and legal battles was my trigger and I'm now on medication, yet still unable to bring my fasting levels down to a healthy level.

At my diabetic review last week, for the first time ever, I couldn't feel the vibrating instrument on my toes, although I could when the nurse tested it on my hand.

My decline has been rapid and unexpected. I had felt well and in denial for 6.5 years until something triggered my diabetes and now I'm desperately trying to climb my way back up.

Please - if you've been diagnosed, take it seriously and take action to control it and keep it at bay. Don't let it control you.

Good luck and stay informed on this site where you will find encouragement, help and inspiration.

My god you've been through the wars! Thank god you have had some positives to think about lately. Your post is an excellent example of why regular testing is important and why the NHS healthy plate is not necessarily a good way forward for some of us. Take carex

 

[peacetrain]

Yes. Go onto your profile page. Scroll down to help and click on it. Took me a while to find it!