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DESMOND course of value? And hello

F1ying

Member
Messages
7
Location
Northern Ireland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Cleaning & gardening
Hi everyone. I’ve recently been diagnosed with T2, I’m 48, 5’2” and 92kg. I was phoned about a blood test result while on holiday in August.

Unfortunately I have spent the pandemic working from home, sitting at laptop and comforting myself with a large box of midget gems (the Lion ones with liquorice) and baking up a storm like the rest of the country.

My hba1c was 93 mmol. They redid the test 2 weeks later and it was 92 mmol. So definitely diabetic. I had gestational diabetes 14 years ago. I didn’t have any follow up appointments re diabetes until this year when my dr realised that I’d fallen between the cracks. My mum also has diabetes; I’m in this position due to genetics and lifestyle choices that I now need to change.

I had an appointment with the DN middle of September and she put me straight on to slow release metformin. Over the last 4 weeks I’ve built this up and I’m now taking 2000mg with my evening meal. (I started off taking them with breakfast but they made me feel really nauseous, switched to evening and that vastly improved.)

I’ve had my feet checked (all grand), an appointment for eye check coming up next week, and had a flu jab & a pneumococcal vaccine. DN has phoned a couple of times to check up on me. The level of care from her has been very good. (Had another phone call today - going to do hba1c again in December to see how I’m doing and now starting Statins, the blows keep coming as I’m at higher risk of heart attack/stroke).

I’ve been testing my blood in the mornings before breakfast and I can see the fasting readings coming down as the metformin increased, highest was 17.6 and today the new low of 6.9 which I know is still high, but DN is pleased with my progress so far. I’m finding it hard to plan meals that whole family will eat (very fussy teenager who things salad is a dirty word!), and I only cook one evening meal for us all to eat.

I’ve now been offered the DESMOND course. Have any of you been on this? What did you think? Is it useful? It’s going to be via zoom, two mornings in November.

[Photo of the offending sweeties attached]
 
Hello, and welcome.
I have had T2 diabetes, 16 years, and never been offered a DESMOND course.
People I know have attended, and have all talked about being told to eat ‘healthier’ wholemeal bread, brown rice, potatoes, and fruit.
This isn’t particularly helpful, as all carbs, on digestion, increase blood glucose levels.
Much more helpful to many are the low carb threads in forum. By reducing drastically the consumption of carbs many members here have managed to be medication free and put their T2 into remission.
So the sweets have to go, but the good news is that there are lots of healty and tasty foods that are low in carbs.
Have a read around the info for new members. There are also so helpful links in my signature. Scroll down for them. Good luck.
 
Last edited:
Desmond will speak about eating healthy carbs, plenty of fruit & veg basted on the Eatwell Plate.
Their advice is poisonous to a diabetic & will result in your disease progressing & resulting complications.

Those most successful at gaining remission eat a low carb high fat diet, plenty of recourses on here.
Learn to read packets & start carb counting.
Watch online videos from Jason Fung & the TED talk by Sarah Halberg.

You say your mum is T2 as well, how has she been managing her condition, is she familiar with low carb ?
 
Ronancastled said:
…You say your mum is T2 as well, how has she been managing her condition, is she familiar with low carb ?
Click to expand...

Mum lost a lot of weight at the beginning when she was first diagnosed, but over the years some of that has crept back on. We are in Northern Ireland where the humble spud forms part of every meal as far as she’s concerned. She takes metformin. I haven’t actually told family that I’ve got diabetes. It seems like an admission of failure

I’m going to have to find replacements for the carbs I like. I want to improve my health and prevent my daughter from going down the same path. Also husband is pre-diabetic despite being tall, thin and a runner.
 
I understand that the course has improved a little in recent years, but the bottom line is that it does not matter to a T2 whether the carbs are white or brown, they all add to increased blood sugar for us.
Like many others I went low carb instead, in my case by using the lowcarbprogram and Dr Unwin's info.
 
I took the diabetic nurses advice initially, and ate wholemeal bread, fruit and wholewheat cereals. BIG mistake! I did lose some weight and slightly reduce my numbers but it wasn't enough to stop progression albeit slight. Then in July this year I read some blogs on here and asked questions (as well as reading an awful lot about low carbs) and in just a few weeks I was out of diabetic figures. Please think carefully about any advise given by your GP practice as they just have it wrong!
 
F1ying said:
. I haven’t actually told family that I’ve got diabetes.
Click to expand...
So how on earth can you expect them to support you and help you? You need to tell them. Their support and encouragement will be vital as time goes on and you need someone to help you say "no" when tempted.
My husband and son have gradually changed what they eat as I have been slowly changing our family meals to low carb.
We have separate "goody tins". If they weren't separate and the boys didn't know not to touch mine they would have eaten all my low carb treats, and trust me , there's nothing more scary than a Mum who finds her treats have been eaten.
I cope with family meals by adding carbs (rice or potatoes for example) to theirs, but often now they choose not to have carbs.
Low carb food can be filling and tasty. Tonight we had a stir fry of bacon and sprouts with garlic served on broccoli rice. (End of the week, bottom of the fridge medley)
Fussy teenagers can cook for themselves if they are that fussy. My boy has turned into an excellent cook, and eater.
This change has tobe for the rest of your life. Do you really want to keeping a secret all that time? That's an awful lot of unnecessary added stress
 
Now that I am socialising again I will have to look out the baskets to carry my small dishes and the bags for the ones to go in my backpack.
My associates have learned to like the things I eat and I have to hide dishes for myself or eat before I leave home, or it is all gone before I get my coat off.
Individual dishes of cauliflower cheese seem to be the swiftest to vanish in the hot foods and blueberries in blackcurrant jelly, served with Greek yoghurt go well in the desserts.
 
@F1ying well done on reducing your blood sugars. Re the statins - did they tell you what your levels were as it seems to be the mantra that ‘all diabetics need to take statins’ even if their cholesterol levels are ok. Before you take them please research the side effects and then you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether to take them or not. In my case statins caused some side effects including increasing my hba1c so my doctor has annotated my notes with ‘statin intolerant’ as we didn’t want to take the risk of it happening again.
 

My husband knows and he’s very supportive. I haven’t said anything to our daughter. She’s 13 and too smart for her own good - too quick to google and then worries about what she finds. Though I know she’s been reading over my shoulder and probably suspects something is up. You’re right I need to talk to her.

I haven’t told my mum and dad or wider family yet. I don’t want to worry her. I know I need to, just not sure how to find the words. We aren’t good at sharing personal stuff.

I love the sound of individual treat boxes. I’m going to reorganise our living room dresser where all the **** is stored. Good job no one but me likes really dark chocolate
 



I have attached the serum lipids from the blood test done in August. Cholesterol was 6.41, LDL 4.53.

DN said that my risk was almost 10% for heart attack/stroke.

Will look into statins in more detail.

Thanks everyone for being so helpful.
 
Two things...
The DESMOND course is not all about diet, probably worth attending especially on Zoom just in case you learn something new.
It is worth trying the Qrisk3 calculator for yourself to see which risk factors are having the most effect. My doctor didn't recommend statins when my HbA1c dropped below diabetic level.
 
Had you water fasted before the bloods were taken for the lipid profile?
Your trigs seem quite high and HDL a bit low. Those are the really important numbers.
 
bulkbiker said:
Had you water fasted before the bloods were taken for the lipid profile?
Your trigs seem quite high and HDL a bit low. Those are the really important numbers.
Click to expand...

I had them taken first thing in the morning when surgery opened. I’d had a mouthful of water that morning while brushing teeth but nothing more.

Think I need to read up more. I don’t understand about trigs.
 
Mr_Pot said:

It is worth trying the Qrisk3 calculator for yourself to see which risk factors are having the most effect. My doctor didn't recommend statins when my HbA1c dropped below diabetic level.
Click to expand...

Now I’m really cheered up. Qrisk3 calculator says I’ve the heart of 66 year old
8% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years.

Well I suppose this is my baseline data to improve from.

I’m away to plan our meals for the next week. Low carb healthy food all round.
 
BTW, stop beating yourself up that this is bad and caused by you.
For example, I was/am high risk of diabetes because of 2 factors, my age and the fact close relatives have it, neither of which I can do anything about.
Over 50% of people in the UK have, or at high risk of diabetes, its something like 80% of Americans.
You are not alone, you are not to blame. Billions of us are headed the same way.
It is manageable, it is possible to go into remission, its not a life sentence or a punishment.
You are at the start of a long learning journey and I hope you come to see the positives.
For example, without the diagnosis would you be be taking such care of your own health now?
 
One of the weaknesses of the QRisk calculator is that it just asks if you are diabetic without any more detail. My doctor said that based on QRisk he was supposed to recommend statins. However, he agreed that because my HbA1c was 38 (diet controlled) it was more sensible to put me down as not diabetic in the calculator, so he didn't need to recommend statins. It is not your case (yet) but having non-diabetic HbA1c is something to aim for. Why not put "none" in the diabetes box and see how that changes things as an incentive.
As regards meals, my wife is the only family I have at home now but we almost always have the same main meal with just a modification for my moderately low carb diet. Roasts with butternut squash instead of potatoes for me, curry with cauliflower instead of rice for me etc. Tonight we will both have the same thing as it is a stir fry with duck and my wife doesn't mind protein noodles.
 
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