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Do not despair you are in the right place for support and a huge wealth of personal experience from members here.
It's amazing how everyone results are so different. Because of my collection of other conditions I choose to stay under about 90 carbs, some days I'm much lower and with just over six and a half stone loss in three and a half years was a much better solution than paying out to slimming world and only losing a stone by yo yoing over the previous four years. I still see people from the meetings and apart from a very few exceptions they haven't maintained their losses and are amazed at mine. Naturally I tell them I did it with LCHF!
Hi NorfolkMell, Being new to this, I don't know how often you should have your bloods retested but a 2 week gap seemed a little soon to me especially as I've had a cold for nearly a week and I understand illness can increase blood sugar levels. It's a bewildering world. The surgery have told me that once I have had the next blood test next week, I need to make an appointment with the nurse to talk through the diagnosis.Do not despair you are in the right place for support and a huge wealth of personal experience from members here.
I'm not a medical person but I think you need to get your stress levels down, have you discussed it with your GP? I can't understand why they want to repeat the blood test so soon, as I understand it the test gives an average of BG over 3 months so if my maths are right it will show nine or ten previous weeks BG and two or three weeks since the last one so why are they repeating it so soon? You need to ask them why.
Have you been keeping a record of what you've been eating and test results before and two hours after? This should show that you are being proactive in trying to lower your BG.
Birthdays and family meals can be difficult but you cold tell family that you have decided to eat heathy and have been doing some results and try to chose the tastiest to you thing on the menu but pass on the potatoes or rice, say no to the pudding (if you can) as you are looking forward to a small piece of cake later, all perfectly correct with your healthy eating. Hopefully you will be able to take reading before and two hours after to see what effect it has had.
I was completely stressed out when I was diagnosed, I'd only gone for my annual screening for my asthma and blood pressure. I couldn't believe it when it came back at 59 I thought I was immune to diabetes. My Mum was one of 13 children, all with heart problems, the boys all T1 and the girls all T2 and 3 girls on insulin, Mum was diagnosed when we'd just lost my Dad so you can imagine the stress she was under. My Brother was also diagnosed T2 but I think as he already had a rare genetic syndrome causing numerous complicated illnesses it wasn't really treated and could well have been T1. So having got well past the age of when my Mum was diagnosed I'd assumed I wouldn't get it. I was lucky to have a super GP who suggested LCHF the best way to go, told me about diabetes.co.uk diet doctor and Dr Unwin, told me to look at the all the information, try LCHF and then have the blood test again in three months. My next test was 49 and I'd lost a stone and apart from my last test both BG and weight have been lower every time. BG up this time but I'm stressed, my GP agrees. I keep to LCHF 90% of the time, some weeks it's 100% and my own testing before and after meals is pretty steady, even when I've completely fallen off the wagon, last night was huge carb fest but BG this morning ok. I can only tell you how I've tackled things, we are all different and what works for one of us may be completely different to someone else.
You are only just beginning your diabetes journey and you've come to the best place I've found for support and how others are travelling on their journeys.
Hang on in there, you will always find someone on here for support and advice and we will do what we can to answer questions.
Sorry that this has taken so long to reply but if you follow the football you will understand! Plus we looked through the window of our new home this afternoon which has been being refurbished and the only apparent progress seemed to be the bucket and mop had moved from one side of the room to the other. It was also so windy I couldn't make the 100 yards to the promenade to look at the waves and the pier, I've never known it so windy.
Hi, yes I'm not sure why they are re-testing so soon after the last one. As I understand it, HBCA1 (have I got the letters the right way round?) indicates BG levels over the last 3 months so I don't see how it would be any different after only 2 weeks, especially when I've had a cold for over a week. I mentioned the cold to the nurse last week but she didn't think it would make much, if any, difference to the potential result.Hi Halfhybrid
I would listen to the nurse if/when you see her but take a list of questions for her, like why so quick to re- test, when do they propose to do it again, what can you do to bring it down? What sort of dietary advice can she give and what's the science behind it? Do you need medication or could you try with diet alone for say 12 weeks before they test again? Take a list of your BG readings with you along with which foods you've identified as raising your BG, when you are satisfied that they have given a considered reply, tick it off the list and go on to the next question. I do this with consultants especially so that I really understand what I've been told, later on the list helps remind me what I've been told and if I'm concerned about the answer I can research it. Also because of having more conditions than diabetes I'll ask how the one I have the appointment for interacts with the others. Medication I take for a condition is usually contra indicated with another one. All of my medications are conta indicated with each other my GP and I have spent time and energy getting the mix to work for me, something that worries about moving to a new surgery, and chemist as once they have seen what I'm on they are immediately going to say that one doesn't work with the other. Luckily my GP has put notes on my electronic record explaining what we've tried and rejected in the past and that this works for me.
So be proactive and prepared when/if you go back for results but hopefully you won't need to. How did your birthday go, I hope you had a good time with your family and that you were spoilt rotten.
Hi, "Another stage of life" puts a new perspective on it. It will be a lonely journey outside of this website as I won't be able to talk about to family/friends but what you say about help and advice from people on the site is reassuring, thank you. I am also on several medications for other conditions like asthma and osteoarthritis painkillers. The medical people have not mentioned any potential interactions or effect on blood sugar as the focus seems to be almost 100% on diet and movement to a lesser extent. I already have a BS testing kit but I do get confused about what it tells me. I tested my post prandial level twice last night and 10 minutes after the first (which was a high 9.5), the second one said 10.5. How accurate are these things?
± 15% is the norm.
You should have a test kit that came with it to check that's it's correct, what you can do is take it with you when you go for your next test, get them to do a finger prick and test on their meter and use yours at the same time, I've done this a couple of times and we always come up with the same result, and I know that the surgery tests their meter regularly. How long after eating did you take the first reading? I know when I started testing if I thought it was too high I'd wait 10-15 minutes and do it again but my GP told me not to stress and because I worried that sent it up a bit. He also told me not to panic unless it went over 15 so when I got a 14.8 I didn't tested another hour later and it was down to 9 and eventually down to 5.
My asthma has got worse since I started LCHF by my GP put it down to getting older and going from full time crutch user to 90% wheelchair user and this year stress levels have been even worse than when I was working. But I know that for me LCHF is the only way that works for me weight wise as I'm still losing even when my hba1c rose. LCHF rocks!
I just feel that whoever I tell will be judgemental - perhaps justifiably so - but it would only make me feel worse about the situation so it's best to keep it to myself.
carbs
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Those things are all carbs???? OMG, what is there left to eat without getting scurvy?
