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Getting it under control

O

Osterley

Active Member
Messages
29
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hello,

I was diagnosed on December 14th after I had been experiencing excessive thirst and unintended weight loss where most of my muscles seemed to have disappeared. The initial blood test came back with about 350 mg/dl to which the doctor responded by prescribing Clovix, Metformin, Diamicron and Antorcin.

Almost 2 weeks after and the results of home testing several times a day return between 237 and 355 mg/dl with the wake up test never having been below 237 since medication started.

Diet has excluded anything in the bad carbohydrates bracket, I don't add sugar to anything, I don't eat processed food and I weigh about 60kg standing at 5'10".

Am I expecting too much? I thought that after 10 days things might be under control..........

Any thoughts would be much appreciated
 
What is your diet like? Are you doing the lchf diet? (low carb/high fat). When you were diagnosed, did your doctor do all the diagnostic tests which are hbA1c, GAD, and c-peptide? I ask because if you've only just had the hbA1c test done you may not be type 2 at all, but type 1 or another type like 1.5. I hope your doctor has done all of the tests for you. If not, that may be the first place to start. Then of course it would be a case of working on your diet and discussing your medications with your doctor if they aren't quite doing the job. You've pretty much been put on the full arsenal of oral medications there too. It could be that you need to be on insulin?
 
Hello Mrs,

Thanks for your reply. Diet wise at this moment I'm eating only mean meat, fish and vegetables or legumes and no more than 2 slices of brown bread per day.

The test results are in Greek so I shall have to ask for an interpretation of them, there are about 15 lines of results so I've no idea what all of them are.

Whist the major symptoms of raging thirst and non stop bathroom hopping have subsided, the glucose levels don't seem to have dropped as I thought they might.

I'll go back to the doctor, who knows with the Greeks, their opinion seems to change from one day to the next!
 
You have done well by disposing of sugar but are you watching the Carbohydrates, you say 2 slices of wholemal a day are those large slices or small slices? Bread is very high carb & the carbs turn into sugar you also need to dispose of rice potatoes, cereals & pasta for the time being, they are also very high carb. This does not mean you will never eat them again but cutting carbs will help reduce your numbers & lose weight, once you gain control & keep it you can then try re introducing them slowly, you may or may not tolerate them, testing will show. If you really need to eat bread seeded is better than wholemeal.


It looks like you did have all the necessary tests done
 
Hello poohtiggy,

Thanks for your reply.

At the moment, I eat only 2 slices of brown bread per day, a small bowl of cornflakes in the morning and then only vegetables, lean meat, fish and legumes.

I eat no white bread, no pasta, no fruit, no cake, nothing sweetened, no rice nor anything else that is high in carbohydrates or starch.

The two slices of bread and the cornflakes can go too, I'm not that fussed by them, after that, there's only the meat, fish and vegetables left.......
 
That's the world of diabetese I'm afraid all cereals contain sugar which comes under various other names too. Eggs are good and so is cheese in small portions, medication could also be a factor and ten days is a relatively short time, you seem to be eating a good diet do you exercise too? This doesn't have be every day at the gym, a good daily walk is just as good
 
Hello poohtiggy,

Other than the bread and cornflakes, I eat nothing other than the veg, meat etc.

I walk 2 miles each day, usually immediately after lunch. Then I do the blood test 2 hours after lunch and find that the blood sugar is up from the morning test.

Ten days may be short, which brings me back to my original question of how long does it take to get the numbers under control?
 
Hi and welcome. You do need to have GAD and c-peptide tests as there is a possibility of Late onset T1 (LADA). I'm not sure what Clovix and Antorcin are for and I'm assuming they don't make blood sugar worse. Diamicron (Gliclazide in the UK) is a suitable drug for helping with T1 as it stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin. See what the blood test results are. If positive, tablets may work for a while but insulin is indicated long-term; I've been down that route. Don't panic as it works well and is not a big problem overall. You are already doing the right thing by keeping the carbs down.
 
Hello Daibell,

Thanks for your message, I shall go back to the clinic today and see if I can get the doctor to tell me how long it should take to get the numbers under control and ask how he came to the conclusion that it could only be type 2. Here in Santorini they function at a different pace and too many questions can be too taxing all at the same time lol.
 
I went back to the clinic yesterday, apparently it is a long slow process to get the blood sugar down from 240 mg/dl and it is unreasonable of me to expect it to be under control within 2 weeks of starting the medication. Apparently, in 5 weeks time, when the diabetes doctor returns, he might consider insulin. However, in the meantime, if the numbers creep up to 300, pop back. How very Greek!

Makes me think the NHS isn't so bad after all.........although of course if 5 weeks is the norm then the Greeks aren't bad either lol
 
Clovix and Antorcin are heart / Cardiovascular drugs

You need to give it more time to settle, there's no quick fix
 
Thanks Jon, I appreciate I may be impatient, but it's really frustrating because nobody will give me then the roughest indication of what to expect. If I knew where it ought be in the region of, say 2 weeks or 2 months, then I could work at that. As it stands I know not what to expect and therefore have no idea of whether I'm going the right way or not.
 
Yes your doctor is right it does take time and everyone is different as to how long. You are on the right track keep eating how you are now and it will happen as to cereal and bread some can eat them and some can't so that's trial and error. Many here have Burgen Linseed and Soya bread and Lidl high protein rolls but they may not be available where you are so a seeded bread would be better than just brown bread or how about rye crackers . Do you have any dairy at all you can have cheese and yogurt preferably plain Greek and even cream if you like it .A lot here love a breakfast fry up with eggs sausage bacon and mushrooms can't stomach that myself so my breakfast is usually just eggs, omelette or scrambled with ham or cheese added or poached on Marmite Burgen toast and sometimes sardines mashed up with mayo spread thick on a slice of Burgen toast
 
Hello Pinkorchid,

Thanks for your message, I guess the frustration comes from being told to return with a week if the numbers don't go down, which suggests to me their is an email that they will, only to be told a week later it takes a long time. Mixed messages send to be the order of the day.

Diet wise, I've no problems, I'm not really a "food lover", I eat too quell hunger but I don't really care what I eat or don't eat. I guess I'm lucky on that front because I don't miss the excluded items and I don't object to any of the recommended options so to speak.

Lidl here in Santorini is unlike any other I've seen, I'll have to have a look for the rolls, are these usually pre packed? The Lidl here has little in the way of "loose" produce......
 
My BG was very high, and apparently had been for a long time, when I was diagnosed. I brought it down and immediately ran into massive problems with nerve pain, due to the body adjusting to much lower BG levels, this is a danger to lowering too quickly. I was on opiate based pain relief and struggled to walk at one point, that's how bad it was. So my only cautionary tale is that you shouldn't expect to get your BG on par in a couple of weeks, there's also a lot to learn.

If you're focused on doing this like you sound, you won't have a problem in getting BG under control.
 
Hello JRW,

Thanks for your post, it is reassuring to know that my expectation of assuming "normality" within a couple of weeks is not realistic. I have to confess I had started to obsess about the high numbers and I have considered finding a private doctor to obtain a second opinion.

Clearly I need to be a little more patient, the numbers dropped from the mid 300's to around 250 during the first week of medication, but they have sutbbornly stuck at 250 since then. I'll take the first months medication and see what the clinic has to say after that.

Many thanks again, have a good 2016
 
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