Another *Newbie*

[pog]

Hello and help! I was diagnosed about 18 months ago, was diet controlled until a severe asthma attack left me in hospital for 2 weeks: since then, I have been on steadily increasing meds. First Metformin 500mg, 1 then 2 then 3 daily which made me so ill I couldn't eat..so then Nazdol x2 (now 3) in the mornings plus 2 Mets at night. I was eventually given a meter after I told them that my chemist had tried to sell me one..!
The practise nurse gave me it and said I was to "use the lancets up to 20 times each"..of course, this tears the fingers off me, the "tiny little pin pricks" end up looking like a Rottie has bitten me :lol: ..as for test strips, ye'd think they were worth much, much more than my life.

Having buried a diabetic friend yesterday, I need to know a lot more about the disease itself but from those who know what they are talking about rather than a harried GP/nurse who doesn't know what it's like to wonder if an apple is going to hurt them..
I'm a 50 yr old grandmother with arthritis, heart problems, asthma and probably hypothyroidism (waiting for test results on that one!) as well lol, lifes great :roll: but I try to be as active as I can, need to lose a fair bit of weight now and I would appreciate any and all suggestions!

 

[sugarless sue]

Is the medicine for your asthma a steroid I wonder ? If it is then this plays havoc with your blood sugar levels.
Have a read of the advice we give to new type 2's and see if there is anything there that you can use.

Here is the advice we usually give to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics.This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

The main carbs to avoid or reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating then two hours after eating you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the affect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.

As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try !!

As a Type 2 the latest 2010 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l.
2 hrs after meals......no more than 8.5 mmol/l.
If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do 30 minutes moderate exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

Sue/Ken.

 

[Synonym]

Hi Pog and welcome to the forum.

Poor you, sorry you are having such a rotten time of it. The advice Sue has posted is spot on and you will find it to be invaluable if you take it on board and follow it carefully.

I hope you have been given a meter to self test and also a precription for test strips as you really need them to sort out how your body handles the different foods.

Let us know how you get on.