Hello peeps!

Hi Ursula and welcome to the forum.

It sounds as if you have adopted a very positive attitude towards your diabetes diagnosis, which is somewhat unusual in someone so recently diagnosed.

What is important in controlling your diabetes as a t2 is not so much the metformin, although this will of course help, but adopting healthier lifestyle practices.

- better healthier diet, unprocessed food, more green vegetables restricted intake of carbs, particularly bread and other grain products ( but brown better than white), rice, potatoes, sugar

- increased physical activity

- weight loss

Most people will advise keeping a food diary and testing glucose regularly, early in the morning and before and two hours after each meal to see how your glucose reacts to different types and quantities of food. This way you can learn through trial and error what will work for you.

At the beginning concentrate on getting your after meal counts within 2mmol of your before. Do this for a few weeks and you should notice a downward trend in your fasting and before meal levels as well ( metformin usually takes a while to kick in as well).

As you are not on insulin you can not adjust your medication to compensate for extra food particularly carbohydrate so lifestyle changes and particularly diet control are even more important for you than your insulin dependent partner.

Daisy will no doubt come along soon with the usual extremely useful information given to the newly diagnosed. In the meantime, ask away if you have any questions.

Take care

Pavlos


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Hi Ursula
welcome to the forum

Hi Ursula
welcome to the forum I am sure you will gets lots of information from this site.

Hi Ursula! You've definitely come to the right place! My doc not so great but found lots of help here! Some great joke threads as well for when you need something (other than choccie!) to bring a smile to your face!

Hi Ursula and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will it useful. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 70,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Hi. I agree with Pavlosn and of course, Daisy. The Metformin will help a bit but the main thing will be lifestyle changes including a lower-carb diet and exercise to reduce your weight. This will reduce insulin resistance which will be causing the diabetes and high blood sugar

hi, welcome

Hi Urs,

I too am on Metformin, but luckily didn't have any of the side effects. But, there is a SR (slow release) version you could get instead. I would get another appointment with your GP and tell him of your symptoms making sure TMI is given. If necessary, ask for the SR version. There is no need for you to be in so much discomfort.

Take care
Chris
X

UrsusArctos said:

Hi my name is Urs (short for Ursula).

I have been feeling really poorly the last 6/7months and finally went to the GP a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a case of being anemic and needing iron tablets. NOT SO :-( the iron levels were fine but my fasting blood glucose came back at 11.2 and the Hbc1a at 68. I would love to say that I have done nothing to cause this but I fall into the obese category and my lifestyle (although I move quite a lot) leaves quite a lot to be desired.
Yesterday I went to the GP for the first time after the blood tests and explained how I have been falling asleep all over the place (including at my desk in work). Because of my tiredness he decided to start me straight away om Metformin 500 mg/day for the first week increasing incrementally up to 1500mg/day in the third week. I have decided to cut out as much carbs as possible.
I can't wait for the metformin to kick in, I have been feeling extremely low, to the point where I wasn't sure whether I would be able to keep working. I am not glad to be diabetic, of course not, but I am glad to have a diagnosis.

I have been with my partner for a few years now, he has T2 that he controls with insulin injections. About 18 months ago I took in my bestest little buddy, terrier that nobody was willing to give a permanent home as he was needing injecting with insulin twice a day, diabetes has also robbed him of 95% of his sight, not that he lets it stop him. So I guess with me also being diagnosed we may as well call our house "Diabetic Mansions" and be done with it hehe.

Hope you have as good a day as possible!

Ursula

Click to expand...

Hi Ursula and welcome to to the forum; have only just joined myself. It looks like you have certainly adopted a positive and proactive approach to your diagnosis and that can only bode well for your future success. Speaking from my own experience there are two things I can say; first, getting this condition under control requires what I would define as a 'bit of everything', healthier lifestyle and food choices, coupled with exercise and also medication.

Second, you have been started on Metformin, which is the usual first line of treatment in most countries, including here in Israel. It may be that Metformin will be all you ever need but it might also be the case that you will need different medications at a later stage - there's no shortage these days - and it can be quite an extended trial and error process until you and your doctor find the combination that works well for you. Unfortunately, as I am finding out for myself, thisdoes take time and patience because the challenge with Diabetes is essentially twofold, how to get the body to produce more insulin and also how to get it to make better use of the insulin that's already there. You will need to accustom yourself to monitoring your sugar regularly and keeping a record of the measurements as this will help your doctor assess your condition and decide on the type and dosage of medication that you need. I found it difficult to keep doing this to begin with but eventually you just adopt the habit and fit it into your daily routine.

And lastly, if you feel yourself becoming drowsy at work, a good idea is to get up and walk up and down the office floor and even go outside and take a five minute walk round the block, weather permitting obviously. Works wonders if you keep at it.

very best of luck,
Ellis

UrsusArctos said:

Hi my name is Urs (short for Ursula).

I have been feeling really poorly the last 6/7months and finally went to the GP a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a case of being anemic and needing iron tablets. NOT SO :-( the iron levels were fine but my fasting blood glucose came back at 11.2 and the Hbc1a at 68. I would love to say that I have done nothing to cause this but I fall into the obese category and my lifestyle (although I move quite a lot) leaves quite a lot to be desired.
Yesterday I went to the GP for the first time after the blood tests and explained how I have been falling asleep all over the place (including at my desk in work). Because of my tiredness he decided to start me straight away om Metformin 500 mg/day for the first week increasing incrementally up to 1500mg/day in the third week. I have decided to cut out as much carbs as possible.
I can't wait for the metformin to kick in, I have been feeling extremely low, to the point where I wasn't sure whether I would be able to keep working. I am not glad to be diabetic, of course not, but I am glad to have a diagnosis.

I have been with my partner for a few years now, he has T2 that he controls with insulin injections. About 18 months ago I took in my bestest little buddy, terrier that nobody was willing to give a permanent home as he was needing injecting with insulin twice a day, diabetes has also robbed him of 95% of his sight, not that he lets it stop him. So I guess with me also being diagnosed we may as well call our house "Diabetic Mansions" and be done with it hehe.

Hope you have as good a day as possible!

Ursula

Click to expand...

Hi Ursula and welcome to the Forum I am new too and this is a great site for help and info. Bless your little dog = so glad he came to such a loving and understanding home as you have given him.

Definately ask for the SR version of Metformin straight away I struggled with bowel problems for too long ,The GP changed it as soon as I explained the symptoms They do know how it effects some people but the SR is dearer so they dont prescribe it right away
CAROL