Hello, My name is "Estragon" and I'm a Diabetic....

Baby steps @Estragon - so what type of D do you have and remember you are not alone.

Hello and welcome to the forum @Estragon We look forward to finding out more about your experience - dive in whenever your ready

Welcome to the Forum,

You have just taken the first step by introducing yourself.

Give a few more details and lots of people will help with very sound help and advice.

Estragon said:

Have you any idea just how difficult it's been for me to acknowledge this, in an almost Public place? And just for this very reason, I'm relieved and grateful that DiabUK exists.

I have much to ask and share of my way or route into Diabs. I'm guessing you've all heard it ALL before, but I will expand later on. Just getting over my stumbling blockage of annoucing this is quite a big step for me.

Best Regards - E

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Welcome, @Estragon. You won't find Godot here, but a lot of people who know where you're coming from. Good on you for taking that first step into the open. Do you have questions? is there anything we can help with?

Anyway, welcome, again. This is a good place.
Jo

Estragon said:

HbA1c levl - IFCC standardised

23/03/2010 53.00
07/09/2015 60.00
08/08/2016 48.00
25/08/2017 58.00
04/09/2017 58.00
06/06/2018 59.00
11/09/2019 87.00
20/09/2019 89.00

An immediate blood test gave a reading of 18 and those most recent values in RED that greatly focused my GP’s attention. Using Metphormin I’ve now completed one week of 2x500mg breakfast and 1x500mg in the evening meal. Then, and now, a second week of an additional 500mg evening meal Metphormin. But now, the other addition of blood testing throughout the day. I had no idea just what I’d been putting my body through. Since testing I’ve done 50 samples in the last 14 days and gone from 14.7 down once to a wobbly 7.9, then I ate an apple and after registered a 9.1. Yes I realise I need to achieve 5ish. I’ve got a graph which does indicate a gentle downward slope, which is a good thing. I realise it’s going to be that next HbA1c that’ll indicate what way I’m going.

What have I learnt from all this so far? I need more experiential support, hello , hence being here, and that I must be more gentle with my body’s abilities to deal with myself and my 68 year old mindset!

In actuality, I need to be more physical and, using my evidenced based results, eat what is doing me good.

Thanks for listening to me and taking interest,

E

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You've been diabetic for a while then... Prediabetes is between 42 and 48, anything above that is diabetic. Not sure why your doc got confused over those numbers, what i'm confused about is why nothing was done sooner...! T2 is, unless treated properly, a progressive condition, and if nothing was done in the meantime... This was kind of waiting to happen. Thing is, carbs turn to glucose. All of them, not just sugar, but potatoes, pasta, rice and the like too. Your body pumps out loads and loads of insulin to deal with that, but... When that happens, some people become insensitive to that insulin. That's a genetic predisposition, and medication like statins, steroids and antidepressants can speed up the process as well, or even cause diabetes. Not something you can actually blame yourself for, right? So anyway, there's loads of insulin floating around, it just isn't helping you burn off the carbs anymore. So that glucose? That gets stored in fat cells, and when the stores are full, they overflow: glucose turns up in your blood, organs, urine, tears, saliva... Then you're classed diabetic, basically. The bit where you blamed yourself earlier: if you'd done the conventional thing, you would've cut back on fats. That's the advice I got too, that's what I religiously did, and that's what got me from obese to morbidly obese and diabetic. It's the carbs we can't handle, and you can't do much about that if you don't know that... And considering a lot of doctors and dieticians haven't gotten with the program yet, if they don't know, how could you? (The NHS has, now, finally gotten in on it.). Like I said, blood glucose comes from what we eat. Exception being what our liver produces in the morning, "helping" us get started, which is called Dawn Phenomenon, and what it puts out when we're stressed, or ill. Metformin practically only tackles what your liver puts out, cutting down the liver dump by about 75%. Though it is an appetite suppressant, it doesn't actually do anything about the carbs/sugar you ingest. That's where you come in. If you change your diet -forget expensive fad diets, don't sign up for 100 pound a month courses!!!- you can get your numbers back down. Probably back into the non-diabetic range. I've seen people come in here with a lot higher than what you're starting from, and they got their bloodsugars under control in no time at all. I was diagnosed little over 3 years ago, and have been in the normal range for 3 years. Once I knew what the problem was (the carbs, oh the carbs!), I could actually tackle it. And did. Diabetes is the only ailment on my long list where I've actually got a say in how it plays out. No progression of the condition here. Which could be the same for you too.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ <-- have a read, it's a little quick-start-guide I wrote a while ago. But all in all... There's hope for you yet.

Hi Estragon,
I joined this site in August 2017 and have only just posted my first post today! Just wanted to say really well done on taking that first step. xx

Please don’t feel guilty. I know the press like to blame us but the little matter of facts don’t seem to matter. They tell us to eat carbs and cut fats. If we are genetically susceptible to diabetes then that’s terrible advice. And by your results you have been diabetic since at least 2010 not 2015 and for you dr to have done nothing til now is unbelievable.

More positively you’ve come to the best place for help and support. Many of us in here have read the scientific studies, done the personal experiments and have real world experience in how to turn this around. You’ve probably been told about “lifestyle “ changes required with no detail of what that means. @JoKalsbeek has explained the mechanics of what’s happening (carbs=sugar=weight gain and diabetes for some unlucky people like us) and given you some links. I’d add take a look at dietdoctor.com for simple clear advice in changing the way you eat to limit carbs. You can dive right in or edge in gradually depending on what approach suits you best. It will likely go against everything you’ve been told for decades, but it works and there’s ever more evidence to prove it as well as us in here. It will look and feel odd not having spuds on the plate but just add more other veg or meat to fill the gap and you’ll get used to it.

I’m curious what happened last year though when the numbers jumped upwards. Did you add or change medications (statins or steroids for example as both can raise numbers), or change the way you eat? Lose a form of exercise? Exercise helps of course but diet is more powerful than exercise and drugs.

It is possible that over a long period of time a pancreas of a type 2 can be “exhausted “ and give up producing enough insulin after years of working double time to cope. The only way to know that for sure is to have insulin levels checked by means of a c-peptide test. (It actually measures another substance that gets produced alongside insulin not insulin itself but it’s the test that’s used). If at any point your dr suggests insulin increasing medication you should really have this test done first. Adding yet more insulin to a system already overdoing it actually makes the problem worse in the long term, masking it short term.

Well the pain and inflammation around such a surgery won’t have helped whilst they were occurring. Sadly not enough clinics make patients aware of the direct and immediate effects of carbs and as you rightly say testing is key and they don’t often support that either. And the possibility of “exhaustion “is just that, a possibility not a foregone conclusion if you take action. And even if production does diminish, demanding less of the pancreas can counter act that loss.

Moving forward testing is great, before and after meals to give ou a databank of info personal to you. Dietwise check those fruits carefully. Apples aren’t great for some of us. Most of us stick to a small amount of berries (more fibre less glucose and fructose), same with falafels - chickpeas and other legumes can be problematic and read the ingredients on the koftas. Might be some hidden carbs in there. Nuts are good on the whole Brazil’s, macadamia and almonds particularly peanuts and cashews less so.

How long it takes? Well very personal again and to some extent it’ll be life long or else the numbers just jump back up but to some extent as we stop stressing our bodies the better they cope with what we allow them. And tastes really do change. In 6 months what you crave and enjoy might well be totally different.

Dinner sounds lovely. Save me a plate!

Hello and welcome.

Regular testing is a great way to find out the effect of different food on your body. I think it is sad that doctors don't recommend it to everyone as soon as they reach prediabetic levels to stop the progression.

Anyway congratulations on taking the bull by the horns. I echo other people's advice that it is all carbs that are the problem and that includes apple and legumes. You need to read the labels so you can find out what your body's tolerance is. I have gone very low carb in an effort to bring my levels down as quickly as possible. Other people gradually reduce the carbs until they get to a level that their body can cope with. Any way is fine as long as you get to low enough carbs that you get the blood sugar levels we all aim for.

I also understand the feeling of shame and have told very few people. I hope eventually that will change but I tell myself I need to do what I can cope with now.

Welcome and look forward to hearing more as your levels keep dropping.

Estragon said:

Eh? I have no idea what I need to do to get my Sloppy Graph to upload here. It’s an Apple JPEG so, it really should be straightforward.

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Try the upload a file button next to the post reply button if you haven’t already. There are issues with large files but it usually works for me