Advice needed

[btalvin]

I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 two years ago, I take two 500mg metfomin each day.
My diat I do my best with? I have never checked my own blood sugar level. But every time it's take at hospital they say it's far too high. Please can I have some advise please.

Alvin

 

[urbanracer]

I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 two years ago, I take two 500mg metfomin each day.
My diat I do my best with? I have never checked my own blood sugar level. But every time it's take at hospital they say it's far too high. Please can I have some advise please.

Alvin

Welcome to the forums @btalvin ,

I'm not sure what type of advice you're looking for but the first thing I'd recommend is to start testing. If you can afford to do it, it will be worthwhile.

I'll ask @daisy1 to give you some new member info. It has some good stuff in it, so take it from there and come back with any questions.

 

[Kat100]

I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 two years ago, I take two 500mg metfomin each day.
My diat I do my best with? I have never checked my own blood sugar level. But every time it's take at hospital they say it's far too high. Please can I have some advise please.

Alvin

Hello have you discussed medication at the hospital ..
Seems odd , because it's a low dose of metformin you are on I feel , if your sugars are to high when at the hospital ..
Might be worth a chat or a phone call with the hospital for some advice .. Good luck hope you find a solution .. Kat

 

[Liam1955]

@btalvin - Hello and Welcome to the Forum . How often do you have your Diabetes Review? And you ought to be testing your blood sugars on a regular daily basis, to see which foods you can eat and those you need to avoid. Don't be afraid to ask questions - there are plenty of helpful and knowledgeable people on here.

 

[martin_1967]

hi i can only speak by my experience with diabetic professionals... firstly i had 4-5 people telling me how to manage my t2, you only need one nurse/consultant and a good dietician. i was being told to do 4 differant things and each was wrong and you need to know your dietry needs and stick with it and i am not say you are mr michlin . i have t2 but i was 6 st when diagnosed then a year + 2 diab comas i was told t2 brittle so anyone can be t2 . bog std gluco testing for every day **** you off diabeties can be once a month ,some once a week and it varies , as much as i respect doctors and nurses they cant all be right so firstly concentrate one nurse and one dietiticion .ask the nurse what should you do about testing ( im on 2 lots of insulin and never had tablets ) if she says no need to then listen and dont buy a meter and scare yourself. i have found that most drs/nurses and diatitions say that your mmol should be no lower than 4.5 and no higher than 6 . i do hope i have not confused you even more as i have myself lost a couple of marbles while typing sorry my marbles = sugar level .. kat is right and when someone has a black cat their allways right ..love you all .thanks liam

 

[4ratbags]

Start keeping a food diary and.get a.meter asap and start testing, upon waking, before meals.and.two hours after

 

[kokhongw]

I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 two years ago, I take two 500mg metfomin each day.
My diat I do my best with? I have never checked my own blood sugar level. But every time it's take at hospital they say it's far too high. Please can I have some advise please.

Alvin

Having a meter to test before and after meal glucose level will help you understand how food affects you and allows you to make better choices.

For many of us, it is easier to start with reducing all known carbs. The improvement is often significant and fast. Gradually some may increase the carbs level according to our lifestlye and activity level. Others prefer to stick with healthy, enjoyable and satisfying carbs lite fats friendly diet.

 

[daisy1]

@btalvin

Hello Alvin and welcome to the forum Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to 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 over 150,000 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-and-whole-grains.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

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


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 bloodglucose 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.

 

[AndBreathe]

hi i can only speak by my experience with diabetic professionals... firstly i had 4-5 people telling me how to manage my t2, you only need one nurse/consultant and a good dietician. i was being told to do 4 differant things and each was wrong and you need to know your dietry needs and stick with it and i am not say you are mr michlin . i have t2 but i was 6 st when diagnosed then a year + 2 diab comas i was told t2 brittle so anyone can be t2 . bog std gluco testing for every day **** you off diabeties can be once a month ,some once a week and it varies , as much as i respect doctors and nurses they cant all be right so firstly concentrate one nurse and one dietiticion .ask the nurse what should you do about testing ( im on 2 lots of insulin and never had tablets ) if she says no need to then listen and dont buy a meter and scare yourself. i have found that most drs/nurses and diatitions say that your mmol should be no lower than 4.5 and no higher than 6 . i do hope i have not confused you even more as i have myself lost a couple of marbles while typing sorry my marbles = sugar level .. kat is right and when someone has a black cat their allways right ..love you all .thanks liam

Martin, reading your post, I'm a little confused, to be honest.

Mid way through your post you say, ".... bog std gluco testing for every day **** you off diabeties can be once a month ,some once a week and it varies,....". By that, are you saying testing is useless, or that testing in the usual way, before and after meals makes you fed up, due to the variable nature of your own type of diabetes?

Personally, I would say that for me, my meter and my home testing has been critical to achieving the improvements I made. Again, personally, I didn't need to consult a dietician, because I got meal by meal feedback from my meter on what was helpful to my blood sugars, and was was not doing me any good. There are no macro-nutrients that I know of that MUST come from carbohydrate foods. Sure, some carbs have useful macro-nutrients in them, but so do other foods.

I agree that the conflicting information out there on diabetes management can be bewildering at the outset. How did you choose which health care professional to trust in? What do they encourage you to do?

To me, it sounds like you could very easily be T1, as opposed to T2. There appear to be several people initially diagnosed as T2, due merely to age at diagnosis, who later transpire to be T1 all along. In your shoes, I would be asking for investigations, to ensure the classification in correct. My reasoning would be:
- Your very light weight at diagnosis; especially if you lost weight prior to diagnosis
- Diabetic comas are somewhat unusual in T2s
- the "brittle" nature of your diabetes sounds T1-ish, or T1 in a honeymoon period
- You went straight onto two lots of insulin; most T2s start on either dietary management, or oral medication, and working through a staged process before insulin is considered

Of course, I'm not a doctor, so just asking a couple of questions and giving you some feedback.

Good luck with it all. Diabetes can be a tricky puzzle.

 

[Daibell]

Hi and welcome. A meter is essential so do see if you can afford one. The SD Codefree on the web is the cheapest. Do look at Daisy's post with regard to diet. Personally I wouldn't advise anyone to bother with a dietician as their advice can be variable and too often simply bad. This forum has lot's of diet advice from people with experience of diabetes. If you have excess weight then a good low-carb diet together with Metformin should help bring that and your blood sugar down. If you are quite slim and the blood sugar still won't come down then query your T2 diagnosis just in case it should be T1. Do you have good diabetes support at your local surgery? I'm lucky on that score but others do have problems and need to use the hospital. Ensure you have a review at least annually with a blood test 2 weeks before and ask for your HBa1C blood sugar reading.

 

[martin_1967]

Martin, reading your post, I'm a little confused, to be honest.

Mid way through your post you say, ".... bog std gluco testing for every day **** you off diabeties can be once a month ,some once a week and it varies,....". By that, are you saying testing is useless, or that testing in the usual way, before and after meals makes you fed up, due to the variable nature of your own type of diabetes?

Personally, I would say that for me, my meter and my home testing has been critical to achieving the improvements I made. Again, personally, I didn't need to consult a dietician, because I got meal by meal feedback from my meter on what was helpful to my blood sugars, and was was not doing me any good. There are no macro-nutrients that I know of that MUST come from carbohydrate foods. Sure, some carbs have useful macro-nutrients in them, but so do other foods.

I agree that the conflicting information out there on diabetes management can be bewildering at the outset. How did you choose which health care professional to trust in? What do they encourage you to do?

To me, it sounds like you could very easily be T1, as opposed to T2. There appear to be several people initially diagnosed as T2, due merely to age at diagnosis, who later transpire to be T1 all along. In your shoes, I would be asking for investigations, to ensure the classification in correct. My reasoning would be:
- Your very light weight at diagnosis; especially if you lost weight prior to diagnosis
- Diabetic comas are somewhat unusual in T2s
- the "brittle" nature of your diabetes sounds T1-ish, or T1 in a honeymoon period
- You went straight onto two lots of insulin; most T2s start on either dietary management, or oral medication, and working through a staged process before insulin is considered

Of course, I'm not a doctor, so just asking a couple of questions and giving you some feedback.

Good luck with it all. Diabetes can be a tricky puzzle.

i have been told its brittle diabeties the the consultant in late 2007 and have been trying to deal with it since , i have had differant consultants and nurses telling me differant things and i eat at set times and for the whole of my adult life cooked from fresh for myself and that has not changed and we still can not get it stable ,if i could just test before and after a meal i would be so happy as my fingers are so tender at times

Martin, reading your post, I'm a little confused, to be honest.

Mid way through your post you say, ".... bog std gluco testing for every day **** you off diabeties can be once a month ,some once a week and it varies,....". By that, are you saying testing is useless, or that testing in the usual way, before and after meals makes you fed up, due to the variable nature of your own type of diabetes?

Personally, I would say that for me, my meter and my home testing has been critical to achieving the improvements I made. Again, personally, I didn't need to consult a dietician, because I got meal by meal feedback from my meter on what was helpful to my blood sugars, and was was not doing me any good. There are no macro-nutrients that I know of that MUST come from carbohydrate foods. Sure, some carbs have useful macro-nutrients in them, but so do other foods.

I agree that the conflicting information out there on diabetes management can be bewildering at the outset. How did you choose which health care professional to trust in? What do they encourage you to do?

To me, it sounds like you could very easily be T1, as opposed to T2. There appear to be several people initially diagnosed as T2, due merely to age at diagnosis, who later transpire to be T1 all along. In your shoes, I would be asking for investigations, to ensure the classification in correct. My reasoning would be:
- Your very light weight at diagnosis; especially if you lost weight prior to diagnosis
- Diabetic comas are somewhat unusual in T2s
- the "brittle" nature of your diabetes sounds T1-ish, or T1 in a honeymoon period
- You went straight onto two lots of insulin; most T2s start on either dietary management, or oral medication, and working through a staged process before insulin is considered

Of course, I'm not a doctor, so just asking a couple of questions and giving you some feedback.

Good luck with it all. Diabetes can be a tricky puzzle.

i was writting back and somehow lost it so try again , i was put on a mix of two firstly then on levemir and fast acting in 2007-2008 ,in the end they called me in and said its brittle diabeties t2 . all my life i have never been over 11 stone and i dont eat take out or frozen dinners and i keep a diary of food and the consultants are over the moon with what i eat ,at this time i am struggling to keep the weight to 9-10 due to the other problems and i believe thats why i cant gets a stable level i will give you a example of bgs same breakfast every day same insulin monday 2 hrs after breakfast bgs 12.8 - tuesday exactly the same 3quaters of an hr later 2,1 . absolutly no differance in mood /food ectra and its got me to breaking point and finger testing would be great if i could just do meals but its night hypos aswel and checking while in the shops i have to ckeck now if i wake up in the night for a wee its been 9 years now so the honeymoon is well over . i have a new dietion now not that i need one but she is listening and dealt with this type of diab before but in teenagers not nearly 50 yrs old but i do hop between the 2 of us i can get some better control or i dont know , she did say that if the collitus and the pancreas were in better condition id have a better and more stable life she is looking at my other illnesess in with the diabetes and this is a first, by the way i get confused easily since i become unwell and do wander a bit no a lot si i appologise for that ,thanks for corresponding and take care