Completely All Over the Place!

@OmJuice . It's good to hear that things are improving. Keep up the good work

I'm sure I have read about people on here with high cholesterol not having a problem with lchf diet. If you don't get any responses perhaps you could start a new thread asking about cholesterol and lchf. It might be an idea to do a forum search first.

OmJuice said:

This afternoon Colin's BG level is down to 10.5 just before lunch. Very pleased!! He's doing incredibly well with his diet. I think it's going to be challenging for him to maintain because sugar is so addictive, but he's really thrown himself into being better and I'm optimistic.
His vision is getting better each day and he said he thinks he'll be able to drive in a few days

Click to expand...

It will get easier for him once he has weaned himself off the carbs. Carbs are incredibly addictive. The more you eat the more you want. Once you have got rid of the addiction its a whole lot easier to say no.

Hello OmJuice, Welcome to our forum this is the best place to be. I think every reply you have had, has said it all, I had high readings in Jan this year, now 7 weeks on down to single numbers. I too had really bad blurred vision, really worrying I know. Doctor told me this was because my BG readings were high and would come down in time, and they did, took a couple of weeks but fine now. Didn't stop driving for long. Go onto the " What have you eaten Today forum " this is one of the best forums, lots of us put our daily meals on there and you can see what others eat and try for yourself as we do, food never gets boring now as we have lots to choose from. Good luck with your husband and good luck with your new to be baby, keep us informed.

OmJuice said:

We're down to 8.3 this morning!!

Yesterday BG came down consistently all day, except after dinner last night, which was carby so caused a slight raise. It wasn't until about 9pm when Colin realised he had forgotten to take his Amlodipine. Soooo...? A fair test it is not, but I do wonder what will happen today compared to yesterday, and compared to the days before that...

I was asked on this thread the other day if Colin has any other health problems, and I said no except his high BP. He reminded me yesterday that the last bloods he had done about a month ago showed high cholesterol. So now we're wondering if LCHF is really the best route to take longterm? So any experience with this would be really helpful, please!

Click to expand...

Hi. I replied earlier, saying I had been on Amplodipine for a while now..very unlikely forgetting it once would have so quick an impact, but not impossible...we have such varying systems. I would re-emphasize, however, that I was put on it by renal and diabetic specialists as it would have less impact on my BS than the one I was on...and was told it was extremely unlikely it would raise my BS at all. Yesterday's six readings all under 6..still on it...with perfect blood pressure as a result. Don't lose sight of the importance of the blood pressure staying down.

I was taking Amlodopine when I was diagnosed, and continued for 6 months afterwards as my BG levels and weight reduced. I stopped taking them just before Christmas. I don't believe they had any significant affect on my BG.

OmJuice said:

Today his BG levels went up by 3.4 after his breakfast of cheese and onion omelette. That's the first time that's happened as it's been lower 2 hrs after his omelette for the last 2 days. He took Amlodipine this morning. But he's been taking it everyday except yesterday, so who knows :/

We know the side effects, especially hyperglycemia, are very rare on Amlodipine, and much rarer than on other meds that work in a similar way. So there's a 1 in 10,000 chance that the medication is making his BG higher, which is a very small chance but one I can't get out of my mind. All his symptoms started a day after he started taking it and he'd been perfectly find before then. And he was so horribly poorly, it makes me sad to think about it.

I don't know what to think :'(

Even more frustrating - his BP isn't shifting with the Amlodipine anyway

Click to expand...

Hello there Omjuice - You've had some great guidance already on this thread and your husband seems to be doing well bringing things under a bit of control, which should, I hope, give him confidence that he can achieve decent control and improve how he feels and also his underlying medical conditions, which as you mention early on tend to be pretty "silent".

Personally, I was diagnosed after a couple of higher than desired BP readings, which resulted in a test to ensure my kidneys were still functioning well (as sustained high BP can affect the kidney function). It was a complete bolt out of the blue - especially when the bloods taken threw up higher than desired cholesterol levels too. 3-in-1 diagnosis? I thought there should be some sort of prize for that!

Anyway, much reading later, I learned that these three conditions often occur together, to one degree or another. But, and this is the critical part of my post; when I gained control of things, which also resulted in my trimming up a bit (that was never an objective, but it sort of happened along the way!), my BP reduced to extremely health levels and my cholesterol is also significantly improved.

At diagnosis the nurse I saw was emphatic I should be taking medication for my BP, at least (I think she like pills!), but my GP agreed with my own request to trial adjusting my eating choices first - especially as I was due to go on a trip lasting several months, three weeks from diagnosis. There was no way I needed to be juggling and adjusting medications 4500 miles from home!

So, what I am saying is, he's at the start of something that could, provided his body can recover from the strain it will have been under for a while with both his BP and possibly undiagnosed diabetes, lead to a significantly more healthy life than he had before this bump in the road.

I would never, ever be crass enough to say I'm pleased I was diagnosed as diabetic, because that would be a mahooosive fib, but whilst I never felt any symptoms or under the weather before diagnosis, my overall medical stats are certainly now is very good ranges for a woman of "a certain age". My usual GP said, last I spoke to her, that it is difficult to believe my diagnostic test results, when viewed with my current levels, but testing (finger prick bloods and a home BP monitor) demonstrated to me, in my own home, that those results were true and probably sadly an accurate reflection of me at that time.

I have no way of knowing why I tripped over into T2 territory, but I am reconciled now that that is no longer important and that I have to focus my efforts on not going back to that point. So far, so good.

My statistics are in my signature, if you're interested. I do reiterate I am one of the lucky ones whose body just seemed to need a bit of a trim up, a reduction in carb intake and where I can, I move about a little more than before. I've not become a gym bunny, but just park further from the supermarket entrance and have a pact with myself that I don't use the car for any errands within our village, unless the rain is torrential.

There needn't be a lot of drama in all of this.

I wish you both good luck with it all.