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Have you been told not to test your blood sugars?

Fizzball said:
No, I am type 2
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The label under your photo says type 1. You really should go to your profile and get that changed to type 2, adding any medication is helpful too. You’ll get misleading and inappropriate advice potentially if people think you’re type 1.
 
yes i n the summer of 2018 my diabetic nurse told me I no longer needed to test and refused to give me any more needles or strips fast forward to November and I knew something wasn,t right with my levels but was unable to test, I had to ring doctors to get prescription which took three days to get to chemist by which time my first test told me I was running at 24, the next day I rang surgery to get app with Dr and was told it would be another two days before the i could get seen and when I did see her she tested my urine and found i iwas in keoto sis thus followed a emergency trip to AE kept in over night and given two bags of saline, on leaving i was asked if I would still like to be under my Drs diabetic nurse or change to the community one, I changed i have not looked back since
 
I was given the news of my diagnosis last Monday, while I collected my drugs I had a chat with the chemist about getting a meter. He didn't think I needed to test, and he practically did all he could to dissuade me.

Testing I finding is very enlightening... I'm keeping a record of what appears to be triggering an insulin response. It's early days yet for me though.
 
I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (93 mmol/mol) Due to covid I have only had telephone doctors appointments and have been prescribed metaformin. I have CKD which is often a contraindication for this drug. Having had a face to face appointment with the diabetes nurse, I was given a food record sheet which had boxes for sugar levels but told to ignore them as "we do the finger prick test anymore if somebody is on metaformin" I want to manage my diet as much as possible to hopefully keep the drug level down to a theraputic minimum and protect my kidney. I know how to eat healthily but not as a diabetic. Without being able to test my the effects of the meals I eat, how can I develop the most effective diet for me?
 

Hi @GolowDydh and welcome!

You may get more response if you start your own thread to ask this question. I can move this one for you if you’d like.

In short I’d say it’ll be very difficult to develop the most effective diet to manage your diabetes without a meter to test your blood. You could just eliminate or reduce carbs drastically and be pretty sure that your blood sugars would behave but that might not be a route you want to go down.

Many of us on here self fund a meter to give the option of seeing which foods cause unacceptable rises in blood sugars. I really would urge you to consider getting one. If you do, then the important thing is to get one with cheaper strips as that’ll be the biggest cost.
 
Practice nurse removed strips from my prescription years ago, saying Type 2s don't need them. I think it was more because I was asking awkward questions about carbs.. GP said CCG was doing it to save money. Not sure he was supposed to say that. I do feel that testing a lot, had made me anxious. My HbA1c came back better than I expected, every time.

However, I think that strips are essential, to find out what spikes BG, when first diagnosed. Also, to check whether supposedly low carb sweeteners have an effect on your own body. Low carb is becoming more widely known about, but some people need to see their body's reactions to food, to really get the message.

If the medications won't give hypos, I think it would be fair to say that T2s can get strips for first year and only afterwards if meds warrant it.

I may buy a BG and ketone meter to use occasionally and pay for own strips.
 
I was diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetes 3 weeks ago and told by the Nurse my blood sugar was very high 10.8 and she doubled the dose of Metformin to 1000mg twice a day. I was then handed an A4 piece of paper Food Facts - Diabetes- First Steps and told that I would at some point receive an eye test and that it was not necessary to test my sugar levels as I was on medication. To be honest I’m struggling to know what I should and should not be eating (though I have cut down on fat and cut out sugar from my diets) and I’m concerned that I haven’t a clue whether the changes I am making to my diet is making any difference. Do you think the advice I received is more to do with budget cuts than diabetes control? Would I benefit from testing my blood sugar levels and if so, how often should I do this? I’m happy to pay for my own metre and tests if it benefits my health in the long term.
 
 
You must absolutely test, otherwise you won’t know what your meals are doing to your BG levels.
 
I have been some 10 years with Type 2, controlled by diet with a couple of hiccups being on Metformin(too ill to stay on) . Still controlled by diet. If I had followed advice when first diagnosed I would not have kept off drugs.
Dietician only said what not to eat not what to have.
I initially tested myself before & 2hrs after meals & logged readings together with what I ate. Everyone is different I found what affected me & what was good, I handled CARBS better in evenings. no bread/carbs for breakfast. So adjusted what I eat, low carb always good, I also used the no more than 4% sugar in food items as a guide. I have a tester that is cheap to use the test strips so does not have to cost a lot. My GP has always said don't test but I still do now & then when I feel I might be a bit low/high or ate something different. WITHOUT TESTING I would not have been able to manage with diet control for so long. Good luck I did get testing strips on prescription to start but they stopped so switched to different tester with cheaper strips. I you would like a suggestion on a simple good cheap consumables tester let me know.
 
I would add that with the Covid19 situation my GP practice has stopped Diabetic reviews so overdue over a year now. Usually 6 monthly so some sort of self--testing is vitual.
 
Hi @Bunty321

I second the suggestions by @Robo42 and by @LaoDan -- definitely get a meter to see how you react to different types of food.

It's also a very good idea to cut out sugary foods (as your nurse suggested), but any other type of carbohydrate will also turn into sugar once ingested as you will see once you start measuring your blood glucose. (So, it's also helpful to eliminate any kind of starchy food from your diet including bread, cereal, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.). Btw, no need to stop having fat as it does not affect blood sugar levels (so butter, cheese, bacon, etc.) is fine.

Most of us begin with testing right before a meal and two hours after the first bite. The rise in blood glucose should be no more than 2 mmol.

Good luck on your journey. Very, very many of us have been able to get back to normal or near-normal blood glucose levels without having to take medication just by testing blood sugars and adjusting what we eat. So, there is very good chance it might work for you too.
 
HSSS said:
The label under your photo says type 1. You really should go to your profile and get that changed to type 2, adding any medication is helpful too. You’ll get misleading and inappropriate advice potentially if people think you’re type 1.
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I learnt from bad experience when first diagnosed after 3 HABC1 test that were good my diabetic nurse at surgery told me I did not have to test anymore she would not let me have more needles or strips took her at her word fast forward 3 months and I felt unwell for three days put in for repeat prescription which took two days after testing my sugars over 24hrs they were high in the 20,s , I made a GP appointment and she tested my urine only to find i was in keotosis , a dash to AE and a night in hospital and three drips later I was discharged home, when asked who i would like to be discharged back to the GP nurse or community nurse i picked community and have never looked back
 
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LaoDan said:
You must absolutely test, otherwise you won’t know what your meals are doing to your BG levels.
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Thank you. I went out and bought a tester from Boots. I’m now testing before eating and 2 hours afterwards. I’ll keep track and record what I’m eating too. My BG was 13 mmol and went down to 10.8 yesterday after taking Metformin. It’s 8.6 today so heading in the right direction!
 

Thank you. I went out and bought a tester from Boots. I’m now testing before eating and 2 hours afterwards. I’ll keep track and record what I’m eating too. My BG was 13 mmol and went down to 10.8 yesterday after taking Metformin. It’s 8.6 today so heading in the right direction!
 

Thank you. I rushed out and bought a tester and I’m now doing as advised and testing before and 2 hours after meals. Next step is to get my head around what I can eat (and stop craving what I can’t! I swear giving up smoking was far easier
) I already feel better about having some control over this even if all I know is I’m out of control! Nothing worse than flying blind.
 
Well done on getting a meter. It is probably the most useful tool in your attempt to get your BG down. You will be surprised at how the foods that we are told are healthy increases your BG and those that are considered to be ‘unhealthy’ by the medical profession are, in fact, ok!!
 
I was a regular meter-user for several years, but made most progress when I really took on careful carb counting when they were offering the Diabetes UK 12-week programme for free. Looking back, I can see it made me tackle things head-on in 1-day chunks, as well as looking at exactly where in the days the carbs were. When I was doing that, I also got an HbA1c after every 3 months, for a year, and that was a massive help. I still struggle - endlessly - but if I step back and look at the years since diagnosis, I can see there actually is progress, though way slower than some people manage. I'm still a careful carb-counter but am a slow learner!
 
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