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broads

Well-Known Member
Messages
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About a year before I was diagnosed I had a regular thyroid test done where the doc put me down for a sugar test also. When I went for the result the thyroid test was fine but the doc said the sugar was a bit high and that I should watch my diet, giving me an A5 piece of paper with the NHS diet guidelines on it. (full of carbs) "We work on prevention here" said in a very sarcastic sort of way. She is usually really nice and this comment struck me as odd. At the time I had absolutely NO idea what so ever about diabetes and had no incline at all that this was what she was getting at. WHY couldn't she have told me? I had, obviously, heard of it but it was far removed from my life. Following the same thyroid test last year I was diagnosed diabetic. If I had known then what I know now I would have had an extra year to get to grips with things. It's more than obvious now I am in the know but it wasn't at the time. I suppose in a way from the doc's point of view , like everyone else in subjects they are very knowledgeable in, it is difficult to remember that lots of people aren't even aware of the basics.
Sorry hope that made sense. needed to get it off my chest.
 
Yes, sure it made sense (well, it did to me!). :wink:
I hope you feel better for getting it off your chest!
Doctors are ONLY human (most of them). She may have been having a bad day, or feeling overwhelmed by the increase in diabetic patients recently?
Maybe a lot of things, but the end result is still the same. You feel disgruntled, and that's a reasonable reaction. It wouldn't have realistically altered the fact that you are now a diabetic though, and that's possibly what you feel angry about?
I imagine we all felt a bit like "Why me?" when we were first diagnosed. Try and look at it from a different angle. It's "only" diabetes, not a death sentence!
I hope that helps, but if not it was only meant to. Does that make sense?
Blimey, you've got me asking now! :lol:
 
Thanks for that. I do realise that a year doesn't make any difference to anything but I object strongly to the fact that the doc didn't even use the word' diabetic'. It was the principal that got me. However all I needed to do was get it off my chest and I have done so, so thanks sugarbabe
 
BTDT except I was told categorically more than once that I was not diabetic. Strangely non-medically qualified people such as diabetic colleagues were able to diagnose me. I was put on the high carb diet to reduce my lipids, they mentioned almost as an aside that I was "eating too much sugar" which I wasn't (well I was inasmuch as any is too much, but not by normal standards) but concentrated purely in decreasing my fats and increasing my carbs.

Your doctor may have been frustrated by the fact that everyone who she gave the high carb diet to mysteriously got worse, and like mine assumed that was due to "noncompliance" when it was actually due to compliance with the wrong diet.

Getting a clueful GP has helped a lot (hint!)
 
Broads,

It is possible that your blood sugar was raised but was not quite high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes but was in the "impaired glucose tolerance" range. After a year on a high carb diet (unless there is also a huge caloric restriction) the direction of change is somewhat inevitable as you have found out.

At least some doctors in the NHS know that the regulation dietary advice is at best ineffective and at worst just plain wrong. They feel powerless to change it. Maybe you will be able to show her in time that better results for diabetics can be gained from dietary carbohydrate restriction.
 
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