Hello!

[Revontuli]

Hello,

This is Revontuli. I was diagnosed with Type 1 in June.

I'm from Turkey and I moved to Finland in December, 2010. Around Jan/Feb, my weight loss started, ending up with 15 kgs in May, from 60 kgs to 45.At first my husband and I thought that it was because of a more active life and a more healthy diet. But there were many other things going wrong: Drinking tons of water, going to toilet too often at night, some infection all the time etc(once I had nail infection and then vaginal infections over and over...) . Shortly, my whole metabolism was collapsing. I went to see a doctor for my nail infection, she just prescribed some antibiotics. And then I saw a different doctor in May, especially for the vaginal infection.I told her all the illness I had and also that my period had skipped for 2 months .I had gynecological check and she wanted blood samples to see if there was some virus and also for pregnancy. But they couldn't find out that I was actually diabetic!

So I went to Turkey in June for holiday and my parents were shocked to see how thin and sick I looked. They took me to a doctor right away. My BS was around 700! Type 1 and ketoacidosis. They put me in a ward for 5 days, giving 2-3 serums each day until my BS was under control. At the end of 5 days, I was back to normal. In a month, I was 53 kgs and since then I've been maintaining my body weight.

But of course, it was very difficult and depressing at first.The idea of depending on insuline all my life etc... But now I've learnt to live with it and I'm very glad! Because I respect myself and my body more than before, I have healthier life and eating habits, I exercise regularly. It's not cancer or any other serious illness. You just have to be careful and keep your life under control.

So, having diabetes is not the end of everything!

 

[daisy1]

Hi Revontuli and welcome to the forum Congratulations on your positive attitude towards your diagnosis. Here is some information written by the former monitors for new members, that I hope will be useful to you and help you to manage your diabetes as well as possible. Not all of the information is applicable outside the UK.

Here is the advice that Ken and I, as Forum Monitors, usually give to newly diagnosed Diabetics. We hope that these few ideas gained through experience help you to gain control and give you some understanding of Diabetes. This forum doesn't always follow the recommended dietary advice, you have to work out what works for you as we are all different.

It's not just 'sugars' you need to avoid, diabetes is an inability to process glucose properly. Carbohydrate converts, in the body, to glucose. So it makes sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate that you eat which includes sugars.

For more information on CARBOHYDRATE see here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20306

This is NOT a low carb diet suggestion, just a reduction in your intake of carbohydrate. You have to decide yourself how much of a reduction will keep your blood glucose levels in control.

The main carbs to avoid OR reduce are the complex or starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, starchy root veg and also any flour based products. The starchy carbs all convert 100% to glucose in the body and raise the blood sugar levels significantly.

If you are on Insulin you may find that reducing the carb intake also means that you can reduce your dose of insulin. This can help you to keep weight gain down as Insulin tends to make you put on weight and eventually cause insulin resistance. This should be done slowly so as not to cause hypos.

The way to find out how different foods affect you is to do regular daily testing and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks. If you test just before eating, then two hours after eating, you will see the effect of certain foods on your blood glucose levels. Some foods, which are slow acting carbohydrates, are absorbed more slowly so you may need to test three or even four hours later to see the effect that these have on your blood glucose levels.

Buy yourself a carb counter book (you can get these on-line) and you will be able to work out how much carbs you are eating, when you test, the reading two hours after should be roughly the same as the before eating reading, if it is then that meal was fine, if it isn’t then you need to check what you have eaten and think about reducing the portion size of carbs.

When you are buying products check the total carbohydrate content, this includes the sugar content. Do not just go by the amount of sugar on the packaging as this is misleading to a diabetic.


As for a tester, try asking the nurse/doctor and explain that you want to be proactive in managing your own diabetes and therefore need to test so that you can see just how foods affect your blood sugar levels. Hopefully this will work ! Sometimes they are not keen to give Type 2’s the strips on prescription, (in the UK) but you can but try!!

For TIPS FOR STRIPS see here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19002#p173253

If you are an Insulin user in theory you should have no problem getting test strips.

The latest 2011 NICE guidelines for Bg levels are as follows:
Fasting (waking and before meals).......between 4 - 7 mmol/l...(Type 1 & 2)
2 hrs after meals........................no more than 8.5 mmol/l.....( Type 2)

2hrs after meals......................... no more than 9 mmol/l ......(Type 1)

If you are able to keep the post meal numbers lower, so much the better.

It also helps if you can do at least 30 minutes moderate exercise a day, it can be split into 10 min sessions to start with. It doesn't have to be strenuous.

The above is just general advice and it is recommended that you discuss with your HCP before making any changes. You can also ask questions on the forum on anything that is not clear.

Finally a few QUESTIONS TO ASK AT DIABETES CLINIC.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17091



Sue/Ken.