berrylover said:
Well went to the Doctors and felt royally patronised. Was told the thirstyness was normal and will go away "eventually", that the tiredness after eating was probably not related
That is completely out of order. Doctors should treat patients with respect and discuss their concerns fully. Unfortunately many corners of the medical profession has an arrogance that makes this sort of attitude all too common. I am afraid that GPs frequently don't know very much about diabetes. To be fair to them they have to deal with hundreds of different conditions, and can't be expected to be an expert in all of them. Good GPs tend to admit their ignorance and refer diabetics to a specialist or a clinic where they can get better advice. However, far too often GPs simply recycle badly outdated doctrine from medical textbooks - and it sounds like you are the victim of this sort of advice. Your best bet is to learn all that you can and become your own specialist. Although there is a lot to learn, this isn't as tall an order as it sounds. A knowledgeable patient only has to concern themselves with one disease, and so it is quite possible to learn far more about it that than most GPs know.
Both the tiredness and the thirst are classic symptoms of
uncontrolled diabetes. It is possible that you do have some other condition, but it would be a coincidence. Most likely this simply means that the diabetes is not under control yet. They key thing is that you get the diabetes under control - when this happens the symptoms will indeed go away. However, you need to get the diabetes under control first. If you follow the high carb advice then this will probably be difficult. If you follow the no testing advice then not only will this be difficult, but you will be doing it in the dark. If you don't get it under control, then it will get worse and the only option will be to control it with drugs and quite possibly eventually insulin.
berrylover said:
I have decided to stick two fingers up at the doctor. Am going to get myself a meter and some testing sticks and see what is happening with my bg
Well done - given the advice you have been given that is a sensible attitude. I am glad you have reached that conclusion sooner rather than later.
berrylover said:
I am stopping the high carb diet and going to try a low carb one instead, although I am wondering how the heck to do that, seeing that I am a carb-a-holic!
OK, that is the key question. If you try a seriously low carb diet you might find that it isn't as hard as you think. There is a school of thought (backed up by at least some scientific evidence) that carbohydrates are actually addictive - which is why so may people crave them. If this is the case then kicking the addiction can cause the cravings to go away to a great extent. I used to eat chocolate and sugary buns with the best of them - but now these are rare treats (not absolutely forbidden, but very rare). Rather to my surprise I barely miss them at all - I really do think that I have got over my carbohydrate addiction.
There are two ways of going about adopting a low carb diet - you can either try to wean yourself off carbs gradually, or you can go cold turkey. Which will work best for you will depend upon your personality. A gradual weaning might be easier, but it will take longer before you feel much benefit and it will draw the pain out. Cold turkey can be a bit of a shock, but it will get much quicker results, and you might find that after a few days you stop missing them so much.
One strategy that I would suggest is to go extremely low carbohydrate for a couple of weeks, whilst monitoring your fasting BG (i.e. a test taken in the morning, before eating). Hopefully, you should see this dropping quite quickly. Once it stabilises at a safe level (definitely under 7mmol/l, and preferably under 6) then you can start experimenting with various carbohydrates. Gradually incorporate them back into your diet whilst watching your BG. Eventually you should find a carbohydrate level that works well for you.
As for your current diet, then here are a few comments. You are drinking an awful lot of water - but that is, no doubt, because of your high BG. As it comes down you should get less thirsty and drink less.
berrylover said:
Breakfast.
2 slices of Wholemeal toast with low fat spread
Mug of tea
I would avoid bread - at least initially. I would suggest that a high protein breakfast might be worth trying (e.g. eggs are very good). If you can't face a cooked breakfast, then try a low carbohydrate crisp-bread instead of toast. Tea is harmless, but don't put too much milk in it - there is a surprising amount of carbohydrate in milk.
berrylover said:
Dinner
½ can of beans on 1 slice of wholemeal toast
Pear
Portion of strawberries
Mug of tea
This is all quite high in carbohydrate, I am afraid. Beans and bread both contain a lot, and fruit contain quite a lot of sugar. Pears and strawberries are better than many other fruits, but I suggest that you avoid them both initially. How about trying a green salad for lunch instead? I would suggest that you have either meat, fish, eggs or cheese along with the salad.
berrylover said:
Beef casserole with baked potato, broccoli and baby sweetcorn
Banana
The beef casserole is good (providing that it doesn't have any starchy vegetables), and broccoli is very god. However, there are a lot of carbs in the potato and sweetcorn - I would suggest avoiding them. You could substitute other (non starchy) vegetables or a salad. If you want something that tastes like starch without actually having many carbohydrates then try microwaving a grated cauliflower for a few minutes. You can then use the resulting substance as a rice substitute (it makes a very good, not to mention low carb, egg fried "rice"). I would definitely get rid of the banana. Bananas contain both complex carbohydrate and sugar (more sugar as they ripen), and so they are very bad for diabetics. If you want to have a sweet fruit, then strawberries are much lower in carbohydrate than bananas. However, there are many other alternatives. Provided you sweeten them with an artificial sweetener rather than sugar, you can make many sweet deserts. Plain yoghurt (check the ingredients to make sure there s no added sugar) is quite good, and you can even make a very good low carbohydrate ice cream (essentially frozen cream, egg yolks and sweeter).
berrylover said:
Snack
Ryvita with thin slice of cheddar cheese.
Mug of tea
That's pretty good. However, err on the side of the cheese rather than the Ryvita (there are very few carbs in most cheeses - so, if you are hungry, have more cheese rather than more Ryvita).
I hope that is of help.
Best of luck,
Tim.
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