Sam50
Well-Known Member
Afternoon everyone,
Just back from accompanying Hubby to his first meeting with the diabetic nurse which went pretty much as I expected. She was running half an hour late then spoke at a hundred miles an hour going through her set 'spiel'.
We did succeed in getting his HBAIC result (only the third time of asking !) which back in the middle of June was 11. She wants him to get down to 4 but then said that 6 was 'normal'. Converting his latest BG reading from self testing he is at 10.2.
She then went through the expected talk on diet and exercise and printed off various diet sheets. At no point did she mention self checking of blood glucose levels and didn't seem particularly interested that he had his own monitor. He is to have another HBAIC test in 3 months.
Right at the end she said that she wanted to start him on Metaformin (no surprises there) beginning with one a day and going up to four so starting on 500mg and increasing to 2000mg. She said that the Metaformin would take 3 months to have any effects on his BG. Hubby does not intend to take any tablets all the time he can see that his BG is reducing via low carb dieting and exercise. If his BG levels start to stall or rise then he would of course take the meds.
Whilst talking about diet she said that you'must have carbs' in your diet ( no mention of how much) and to choose those with low GIs and to make sure that the diet was low calorie and that T2 was a lifetime condition. When I mentioned that people had reversed ( or well controlled) it by a low carb diet and got their levels back into the normal range I was ignored.
When I got home I read the diet sheets and I was gobsmacked how inaccurate they were. According to our practice it is perfectly okay to eat potatoes, rice is good and pasta is recommended. The nurse advocated eating bananas and biscuits (yes really !!) as long as they were oatmeal or Rich Tea.
I had to really, really bite my lip. There are people who would take those diet sheets away and follow them because a 'professional' had issued them and they still would not gain control of their blood glucose levels and just end up on more and more medication. We plan to carry on with the low carb diet and monitor the BG ourselves. We will soon know if it is working or not.
I'm very grateful to have found this forum and been able to do my own research before he had the appointment. Seems to me that the folk here are far better informed and better able to advise than our local surgery.
Thank you for reading !
Just back from accompanying Hubby to his first meeting with the diabetic nurse which went pretty much as I expected. She was running half an hour late then spoke at a hundred miles an hour going through her set 'spiel'.
We did succeed in getting his HBAIC result (only the third time of asking !) which back in the middle of June was 11. She wants him to get down to 4 but then said that 6 was 'normal'. Converting his latest BG reading from self testing he is at 10.2.
She then went through the expected talk on diet and exercise and printed off various diet sheets. At no point did she mention self checking of blood glucose levels and didn't seem particularly interested that he had his own monitor. He is to have another HBAIC test in 3 months.
Right at the end she said that she wanted to start him on Metaformin (no surprises there) beginning with one a day and going up to four so starting on 500mg and increasing to 2000mg. She said that the Metaformin would take 3 months to have any effects on his BG. Hubby does not intend to take any tablets all the time he can see that his BG is reducing via low carb dieting and exercise. If his BG levels start to stall or rise then he would of course take the meds.
Whilst talking about diet she said that you'must have carbs' in your diet ( no mention of how much) and to choose those with low GIs and to make sure that the diet was low calorie and that T2 was a lifetime condition. When I mentioned that people had reversed ( or well controlled) it by a low carb diet and got their levels back into the normal range I was ignored.
When I got home I read the diet sheets and I was gobsmacked how inaccurate they were. According to our practice it is perfectly okay to eat potatoes, rice is good and pasta is recommended. The nurse advocated eating bananas and biscuits (yes really !!) as long as they were oatmeal or Rich Tea.
I had to really, really bite my lip. There are people who would take those diet sheets away and follow them because a 'professional' had issued them and they still would not gain control of their blood glucose levels and just end up on more and more medication. We plan to carry on with the low carb diet and monitor the BG ourselves. We will soon know if it is working or not.
I'm very grateful to have found this forum and been able to do my own research before he had the appointment. Seems to me that the folk here are far better informed and better able to advise than our local surgery.
Thank you for reading !