Does this mean I'm in the club?

I haven't been to the doctors about this recently but a couple of years ago I was diagnosed as being at risk of developing diabetes.

Stupidly I didn't do anything about it and recently I've started to notice symptoms which were in line with high blood sugar. I have been in denial knowing that everyday I ate another chocolate bar or packet of crisps I was digging myself deeper but as I like my food and drink I refused to accept but now it's come to the crunch and the symptoms are worse than I can cope with and I need to get this under control!

I know, I'm a idiot

I've been avoiding the doctors but I wanted an answer so yesterday I went to Asda and bought a Blood Sugar meter. I unboxed it in the car park read the instuctions and put in a test strip.

I last ate probably 6 hours before and the reading was 14.5

I know this is bad and I know that I have to go to the doctors, I've booked an appointment to see the DNurse at the surgery, I attended for a while a couple of years ago and then just stopped going, I ignored the letters and phone calls and hid my head in the sand but now I need to get this sorted.

My wife says that rather than wait I should be booking an appointment with the GP ASAP to get things kicked off, I'm just so embarassed, last time the GP was really quite unpleasant and made me not want to go back.

I'm pretty confident 14.5 makes me diabetic but just how bad is it? Should I be booking an appointment as soon as possible or can I wait and see the nurse if I make a commitment in the meantime to improve my diet and do some exercise? :cry:

I know I can get fit and change my diet, I have to, I have a 13 week old baby at home and I want to see her grow up, I want to enjoy my old age and in the past I have lost weight and got fit so I know I can do it again and this is the time.

Many thanks

Matt

Thanks, I know I need to get this down.

I suppose my reasons for being in denial were really the way I translated what I was told when I was originally told I was 'borderline', I basically shoved it to the back of my mind and though 'if it isn't effecting me then I must be OK'. It's only recently that I realise this has been shadowing me and gradually looming over me to a point where I now have to deal with it, it has reached a crisis.

Bullet bit :wink:

I've got an appointment with a doctor tomorrow, not my usual GP, I requested a different one.

I've continued with the testing and my fasting count was 13.4 this morning, not good I suspect but down from the 14.9 it was when I did it yesterday and I wasn't up and down in the night going to the loo, so maybe cutting out the sweets and crisps is making a difference already

My wife is very supportive and put up with my mopeing yesterday, she eats much more healthily than I do so it won't be too hard to adjust I hope and I'll just have to chow down on salads and green veggies, something which I'll have to do anyway as I don't want my daughter becoming veggie adverse.

I've been thinking about this whole situation and as someone who works well with clear boundries in my life I don't think being diabetic will be such a bad thing. When I lost weight in the past I was someone who weighed myself everyday and I was driven by my own progress and micromanaged the process to keep on track, having bought a meter I believe this will give me the same feeling, if my BS starts to come up I'll be aware and able to able to bring myself back in line. From reading the forum I see that it is unlikely that my GP will prescribe strips but I'll just have to put the money I save in chocolate bars towards them and buy them myself on ebay, it's an endulgence but if it keeps me on track it will be worth it. I'm going to set up a spreadsheet to plot my weight and BS on a daily basis so I always know where I am

When I was in my early 30s I lost 6 stone on a low carb and exercise regime and it suited me, the carbs I ate were complex carbs, always brown rice or pasta and no potatoes or simple sugars and although I felt I was compromising I coped well and became very fit. When I get fit again I wonder if my body will be able to sustain the odd treat and maybe let me indulge a little from time to time without my BS shooting sky high. I'll also have the added please of being able to buy clothes from normal shops where at the moment I am just outside the range of Marks and Spencer and a few sizes away from the more fashionable stores.

So although this is a bit of a shock maybe it's something I needed, I didn't want to be fat dad at school sports day, I ment to lose weight when my other half was pregnant but it didn't happen, now I have no choice but to implement a plan and actually that's OK

Sorry for the rambling, getting this down is as much for me as for you but I hope people will comment :wink:

Matt

Well I doubt it will be good news, I'm sure it will be what I am expecting especially give how consistant my reading have been over the last few days.

I'm expecting good treatment, my wife goes to the same doctor and I met him when she was pregnant, he seems nice and I doubt he'll be any colder than the last one. I don't know how long it will take for him to get me on tablets, as I suspect that will be the first step to get my levels down but I do hope to diet and exercise control for a few years so hopefully once I can prove I can be a good boy then we'll be able to discuss about coming off meds and self monitoring with regular visits

I'm at the docs this afternoon so hopefully he'll help me but I have a sneeking suspicion the closer the appointment gets that I'll just get refered for blood tests and the usual NHS diet stuff. Fingers crossed though that he'll be a bit more progressive.

Readings so far are

14.5 19-10 17:38 First test ever in Asda carpark BIG SHOCK!

14.9 20-10 06:54 Fasting

13.4 21-10 08:51 Fasting

15.3 21-10 22:29 2 Hours after lunch

9.5 22-10 08:00 Fasting

I've made a few changes since self diagnosis on Tuesday and completely removed sweets, cakes and crisps from my diet, I've also stopped drinking coffee and tea and switched to water only during the day which will help me stay focused. Any carbs are shifting to complex carbs; brown pasta/ rice/ bread.

Pretty big changes but I've done carb moderated diets before, from the extreme of Atkins to more sensible routines, I've also lsot weight before, I lost 6 stone in 18 months and was down at ~10% body fat at my peak, so I know that with the right promting I can low carb, lose weight and get fit. I weighed in this morning at 19st7lbs which sounds a lot but at 6'2" doesn't make me look hugely fat, just cuddly. When I lost weight before it was scale weight which gave me motivation, I loved to see the weight come off and would weigh regularly. Now I have my meter so I can set goals for myself, I plan to explain this to my doctor and hopefully he can help me out with strips but if he can't or won't then I'll be buying them myself, with only a test every few weeks I think I will struggle to keep my focus although I can use the scale again if need be in conjunction with self bought strips.

Last night I almost had a lapse, I was home alone and had an urge for something sweet, I made it as far as the local shop and was looking at the sweets but bought a packet of pistacios instead and I thought they would probably be better? Probably not the lowest GI but not full of sugar!

I've done a LOT of reading in the past few days and it all makes perfect scense and jigsaws perfectly with my experience of low carbing in the past. The NHS recomendations won't work for diabetics, at least not directly on the diabetes although the weight loss obviously helps. If he puts me on tablets this afternoon then I plan for it to be a short term measure until I can control this with diet as I know in the long term I'll end up back on tablets and probably on injections in later years, unless someone comes up with better treatments.

Thank you all for taking an interest, reading around the board there are a lot of you who have had or are having a much harder time than me so I really appreciate your time

I'll report back this PM and let you know what the doc says and how I'm progressing

Quick update

Right, I went to the docs on Friday and pretty much as I got through the door I apologised to him, said I realised I had neglected myself and that I wanted to get things sorted ASAP.

He accepted my readings and was happy that I had bought a meter for myself and that i was finding it useful. He laid out the options, at this stage based on my readings he said I could try diet and exercise or go straight to Metformin. I told him that at the moment I don't feel 100% and if the tablets will make me feel better and give me more energy to get well then I'll take the tablets. I confirmed with him that taking Metforim for a while would not damage my chances of diet control later and he confirmed that I could come off them if I so wished and they wouldn't have a detrimental effect.

I told him I planned to reduce both sugars and simple carbs as part of a carb control diet and he agreed that if I was happy with that then so was he. I explained that I found the meter useful but understood that there were issues with prescribing strips and I would be happy to pay for them myself in the short term as they were helping me to understand my BS and he said that I had a right to strips on prescription if I wanted them and he would happily write me a script for them if I wanted them. I told him I would use my current supply and for the time being I would be spending my 'sweet money' on them. My thinking is I did this to myself why should it come out of his taxes, if I can survive without after I've used them for a couple of months then I will if not I will ask for a script for them.

So I walked out with a script for Metformin 500mg and feeling a lot happier.

The doc suggested I cancel my appointment with the nurse and that there is no point taking bloods for something we already know, we'll do a test in 3 months and see where we stand and how I've been doing, as long as my control is good then the test will be OK. He also said I can experiment with the Metformin if I need to and up my dose up to 3 times a day if I need to but to start with 1 and see how I get on.

I think I came across as someone who had done his research and has going to be his own Diabetes Care Team, someone who wouldn't be coming back anytime soon with diabetes related issues unless he couldn't get himself under control. This was really what I needed rather than to be patronised and talked down to.

What I know is thanks to you guys and your great links and other forums I have browsed, so thank you for making me an informed diabetic

The last thing he said was that this will be a long road and that at some point I will stop feeling better and just feel normal but not to stop with good eating and my appointments as this isn't something which will go away and if I was slipping to come back at anytime even if this was just for a chat.

I'm seriously thinking about writing a thank you letter to him

New meter arrrived, a Bayer contour USB, it's a nice piece of kit and as a gadgets guy it's right up my alley I'll be able to plot my tests on my PC alongside my weight

I'll keep this thread up to date with my progress and let you know how I'm getting on with the Metformin