• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diagnosed type 2 today

L

lechiffre1969

Active Member
Messages
25
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes today. My HbA1c was 126 mmol/mol. I know that is very high but I could do with some help to understand just how high and how likely it is with good exercise and diet and medicated that I can get it down to a safer level.
I've just told my family and they were very supportive and understanding.
Right now I'm feeling very numb. I would love to hear from those can could offer some words of encouragement and to prove there's light at the end of the tunnel.

thanks
 
Hi @lechiffre1969 Welcome to the Forums. Sorry to hear of your diagnosis, which is understandably numbing. There are many (in 3 figures at least) here who show remarkable progress since diagnosis, but these three spring to mind immediately:
@bulkbiker
@JoKalsbeek
@Rachox
They all tell remarkable success stories of putting Type 2 in remission. I'm sure a Type 2 will be along before much longer. The best of luck.
 
Hi, and welcome - I’m fairly new here myself but just wanted to say I’ve been where you are now and there is definitely hope.

I was diagnosed on 5 October 2020 with a HBA1c of 91 - with information and advice from here, and support of my husband, I very quickly changed my way of eating to very low carb (it helped that my husband joined me in this too). My doctor prescribed metformin so I’ve been taking 1,500mg daily.

The welcome side effect has been that it’s prompted us to look much more closely at our health and have embarked on a proper effort to increase our daily step count - so we’ve really started investing time and effort into improving our general health and fitness. We both had BMIs in the obese category and have lost approximately 12kg each. Still more work needed to get our BMIs into the best shape but we are feeling good with the changes we’ve already achieved.

The big positive for me is that 3 months after diagnosis my next HBA1c was 43 - so I’m very pleased with that. I finally had my Diabetic Clinic appointment this week and the consultant was very complimentary about what I’ve achieved, recommended I drop to 1,000mg of metformin and told me to continue what I’m doing as it’s clearly working.

So, again welcome - you’ve definitely found a great source of information and support here.

Don’t despair - although I know diagnosis is a huge shock to come to terms with. You can do this.
 

Hi and welcome
There'll be plenty of support and info here.
The main trick to putting T2 into remission is carb cutting.. ideally as low as you feel you can go.
Many of us find that this method brings relief from high blood sugars and if we have a few extra pounds to lose (or a lot in my old self) this happens relatively easily and without hunger.
Your HbA1c is indeed quite high but some fairly simple dietary changes could start lowering it within days.
What kind of things do you like to eat?
 
Last edited:
Well that is a very high level but the silver lining is that that means there’s lots of room to improve. Take a deep breath and know it very definitely can be helped. You might well end up healthier than you’ve been in years. Many have.

What have you been told to do about it? Any medication? Is weight loss desirable? Did you have any warning this was coming and what did you try then? Have you got a meter?

Have a look at the bottom of this post below my signature and see the links. Have a read and come back and ask lots and lots of questions. In a nutshell what you eat can have an enormous difference but it’s likely to be quite different to now or even what you expect to be told. It’s all about carbohydrates not just sugar.
 

Those were the words I needed to hear. Thank you so much.

My wife is already on a low/no sugar and no carbs diet so we're going to do this together!

Your change over the 3 months is astonishing and gives m enormous hope.

I'm feeling so overwhelmed, especially as I'm a vegetarian, so I'm wondering how I'm going to be getting all of my protein. Thankfully, my doctor game me a copy of the "8-week blood sugar diet".

This feels like I'm on huge steep learning curve and I am glad that I've found this forum - reading through the comments gives me huge faith in the kindness and care from a group of wonderful people.

Thank you once again.
 
lechiffre1969 said:
My wife is already on a low/no sugar and no carbs diet so we're going to do this together!
Click to expand...

In that case you'll both be well on the way to better health.

No carbs is pretty hardcore to start with though.. do you both have an all or nothing mindset?
 

Thank you for this. It's so very much appreciated.

I'm a vegetarian and regularly eat potatoes, bread, pasta, plant-based equivalents (e.g. Cumberland Sausages, quorn etc). I have a sweet tooth (unsurprisingly).

I am very confused by the readings:
- My report from the doc showed HbA1c IFF Standardised of 126
- My wife has a blood reader (where you take a blood reading from a finger prick) and we took it earlier and her reading was 4, mine was 26. Not sure of the differences here.

I'm sure I'm going to be reading as much as I can to build up my knowledge. The key thing is that I'm 100% committed to making a significant positive change.
 
lechiffre1969 said:
I'm a vegetarian and regularly eat potatoes, bread, pasta, plant-based equivalents (e.g. Cumberland Sausages, quorn etc). I have a sweet tooth (unsurprisingly).
Click to expand...
Ah.. in that case a zero carb diet will be very hard (if not impossible). Really only meat and fish can be considered as no carb..

lechiffre1969 said:
- My report from the doc showed HbA1c IFF Standardised of 126
- My wife has a blood reader (where you take a blood reading from a finger prick) and we took it earlier and her reading was 4, mine was 26. Not sure of the differences here.
Click to expand...

Your HbA1c is an "average" of your last 2-3 months blood sugar levels
126 mmol/m equates to averages of about 19 mmol/l of finger prick testing which is very high indeed!
Your wife's 4 mmol/l is normal.
If you are seeing levels of 26 mmol/l then that's pretty bad. Do you have excess weight to lose?
 

When you say pretty bad... I'm sorry to ask the question but I'm feeling a little terrified ... but if I hadn't caught this I'm assuming the results would've been devastating for me? I am going to start taking my medication after a meal this evening. How quickly do you think it will take for me to be out of the 'danger zone' (assuming my 126 mmol/m is very dangerous) - that's with me taking the meds, doing the exercise and eating well?
 
Hi @lechiffre1969 and welcome to the forum.
Thanks for the tag @Grant_Vicat .
I was diagnosed type 2 three and a half years ago with an HbA1c of 70, I was prescribed Metformin and I embarked on a low carb way of eating, initially I kept under 100g per day but gradually reduced it down to under 45g which is where I stay now. I halved my HbA1c in a few months and have remained with non diabetic readings since. The happy side effect of weight loss was welcome too. I’d like to reiterate that buying a blood glucose meter is a great help to see what your body can and can’t cope with in the way of different foods. We can advise on which meter to get. Stick around, have a read and ask any questions you have.
 
@lechiffre1969 can you tell us which medication? It makes a difference to what we suggest you do next.
26 really is pretty worrying but it can improve within days. So try not to panic. It’s a long game with diabetes and now you know and can’t do something about it.

Low carb and very low carb is undoubtedly more challenging as a vegetarian as so much is based around meat and fish. Even harder if dairy and eggs are excluded as a vegan. It can be done but is definitely not the easier route. Some in here have reconsidered that choice, or maybe just add fish, on or after diagnosis as they previously chose it believing it was more healthy, unfortunately for a type 2 many of the regular vegetarian choices are anything but. Others stick with it and find ways to manage the challenge as for them it is about religion or animal morality type or some other choice they wish to maintain.

There’s a vegetarian section on these forums too that might be helpful. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/vegetarian-diet-forum.71/
 
Changing to lower carb veges should help, avoiding grain and potatoes in particular - but as others have pointed out, the things you are eating as a vegetarian are most likely those which you can't cope with.
I get frozen mixtures from the supermarket - so they give me the carb count, and use them for stir fries, and I grab frozen sweet pepper and mushrooms too when I see them as I have found that fresh is not always working out in lockdown.
 
Some of the meat alternatives can be low carb. I'm a vegetarian and often eat them and they don't raise my blood sugars. Linda McCarthy sausages are 1g each. Quorn fillets are low carb too. You can add them to curries etc. Just watch out for the breaded/battered quorn products as they are high carb.
I didn't eat them much before I was diagnosed, usually my meals were just carbs! But I'm enjoying the variety of foods I'm eating now.

Good luck. I was only diagnosed 4 months ago but there is hope.
 
Hi. Can you let us know whether you have excess weight. Also have you lost weight recently without trying. That BS level is very high and could indicate you are T1 particularly if slim. Anyway, drop the carbs right down
 
Hello and welcome,

I am another who went very low carb and by my first review (3 months) my HbA1c was well within the n normal range so it is absolutely possible. One of my children is vegan so I bought a vegan Keto cook book- there are now a lot of possibilities out there. But even better there are some threads on the forum for vegetarians so you can get ideas there.

Yes being diagnosed is devestating but there absolutely reason to hope. Finding this site changed my life and it can yours as well.

Good l.uck - post here- people are very willing to help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…