Hello

phlipper said:

Hello All, I'm newly diagnosed Type 2, induced by long term steroid treatment for sarcoidosis. I'm on Metformin and insulin.

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Hello @phlipper , and welcome,

This is a good place to start. Sorry about the circumstances that brought you here though. Steroids do complicate things, but should you want to try a little bit of diet to bring your blood sugars down some, there's this: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html as a bit of a quick-start guide. (More information on this forum's webpage, diabetes.co.uk, as well as dietdoctor.com and Dr. Jason Fung's the Diabetes Code). I am assuming you are on the steroids for the long haul, which will up your blood glucose levels, but every little bit helps eh... (Just keep in mind not to make any drastic changes without adjusting your insulin, as you could hypo!)

Anyway, again, welcome...!
Jo

phlipper said:

Hi Jo, thanks for the links.
I'm hoping to decrease and hopefully end the steroid use (replaced with methotrexate which I am currently on alongside), apparently there is a chance that the type 2 will go when they do, but Type 2 is on all sides of my family going back 2 generations, so I won't hold my breath on that!
To be honest I'd been so weak for the past couple of months that getting the diagnosis was a relief, as I was beginning to wonder if I was on the way out! I've never felt weakness like it so debilitating.
My initial blood test had my level at 23, though I haven't had the result of the long acronym one yet.

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I know what that fatigue felt like. Tired to the point of pain, and when in bed you're wishing for a lie-down, then realise you already are, and it doesn't bring any relief. My husband had to cut my meat for me and half the time I was too weak/tired to bring the fork to my mouth. Sometimes my legs would just give out and man, those were hard landings... I completely get just how very, very tired you were. It's just barely existing, eh. Things turned around pretty quick once I went for a low carb diet... More energy, I can actually walk decent distances these days, (Lugging heavy camera gear around as I do) while I could barely get around the flat back then... So it can and will get better, from here on in. There's hope. Loads of it. It will get better.

That said... Considering you've been put straight onto insulin, I think you might be a bit too high to blame it completely on the steroids, but switching to the trexate-only could impact your numbers significantly, in a positive way. Just keep in mind it knocks out your immune system... And when a T2 gets ill, the blood sugars go up again. (Wash hands like a maniac, and stay away from people with even so much as a cold). You really want to keep an eye on what your levels are doing when that happens eh, because if you go too high, you might need some insulin again, albeit temporarily. Always, always take any change in your health seriously and call in help when you need it eh. You're already relatively vulnerable, health-wise, so there's no such thing as crying wolf. Still... Change your diet and you'll have good baseline to go from.

Hello and welcome,

You've already ben given a great link by @JoKalsbeek - here's another link

basic-information-for-newly-diagnosed-diabetics.17088

You have managed to find the best place in the world for advice and support for diabetics. I'm a relative newbie but I can honestly say that without this site my world would be a whole lot darker.

Read around and ask questions and vent if you need to- there is a whole lot of information here and the people here are amazing g.

Good luck and welcome.

Wonderful thread, I might put my story up now I’ve seen how helpful it is, particularly with loneliness or isolation.