Help with Starting a Testing Regime....

Makes sense.....I'll keep going at it then.....

**** those carbs - hidden or otherwise.

Ruth.Day said:

Going back to everybody is different, i would like to comment here and say that I have found that my sugar levels are a lot better after i have eaten a curry than many other foods. So have a go and test after eating one and see, dont rule them out immediately cos you could be like me and just that little bit different, although some would say weird!!!

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I had a curry last week and the results of the tests were pretty good. Now after a week where my morning fasting BG has dropped from 9 to 6.1, I will have one tomorrow as well and see whether the post meal testing has dropped accordingly too....

Now for some good news....

I saw my GP today, and he was quite blown away by the charts I showed him on the laptop of my BG levels before and after food over the last two weeks, plus the accompanying data as to what food I had eaten and when. It was quite clear that certain foods were spiking my BG levels, and that by cutting those out I had driven my waking levels down from over 9 to under 6 in 2 weeks.

I told him that I was trying to be proactive in this, and that the meter and testing regime were giving me real evidence to control my disease, but that the cost of the strips was high, so could I have a prescription for them.

He said, he normally wouldn't prescribe strips for T2, but he couldn't argue with the evidence, and so just went straight ahead and gave me a prescription for 100 strips! So now instead of paying £50+ a hundred (or even £30 a hundred on eBay), the cost has gone down to about £7.....total result!

So. If you are in the same position, test, test, test and record and plot the data so that your healthcare professionals can't argue with it. I'm using the Bayer Contour USB meter, and the data that it gives when you plug it into your computer is excellent!

Thanks for that.....I hadn't filled my prescription from yesterday, and I had my first appointment with the diabetic nurse this morning - so I asked her about free prescriptions and she confirmed it!

I went to the phamacists, and they filled my 2 prescriptions free of charge! They said that really I needed a "Medical Exemption Card", but that I could get that easily at the health centre during the week, and that as one of the prescriptions was for test strips, I was "obviously eligible"....

Saved £14 there! Nice result.

On the downside.....I had my first HbA1C result today. The test date was 15th April,which before they even told me I had T2.....and the result was 13.2 :shock:

Still....I went through my test readings with the Nurse, who was very impressed with my data and she said not to worry as I was obviously getting it under control and that we'd another HbA1c in 2 months which should be waaaaaay lower if my test results are anything to go by.

She didn't even give me a hard time about eating carbs when we discussed diet. I told her I was low carbing, she said I should still try to eat some low GI carbs. I showed her my test results from where I have tried doing that, and she just said "Fair enough......do whatever works for you. As you're testing you'll figure that out what you can and can't eat quickly enough"

Thanks!

Well.....the latest part of my experience is that I've just spent three days in hospital for a suspected heart attack on Monday. Got released today with a boatload of drugs (including Amlodipine, Perindopril, Aspirin, Simvastatin, Atenolol and Plavix), but have to go in again on Tuesday for an angiogram and 95%+ likely angioplastly.....

No surprise really....the only reason they caught the diabetes in the first place was that I've been harassing my GP about recurring chest pain on exertion for the last 8 months, and they've been doing blood tests due to that. My GP has said all along that he thought I had some kind of musculo-skeletal pain, and I've been telling him I thought it was coronary heart disease for months. I'm right - but it's not something you really feel good saying "Told you so!" about.

It seems that the biggest contributor has been 25 years of smoking - and while I'll defend people's right to smoke if they want to, it seems to have almost done for me ( I gave up 5 months ago)! Luckily it got caught BEFORE the heart attack stage and after they put the stents in next week, I should be back to full active duty again very quickly. Could have been a different story very easily though.

Anyway.....shedloads of drugs for now, treatment next week. I've already lost over a stone since I got the diabetes diagnoses and switched to an ultra low carb diet.

I had a tough time in the hospital with the dieticians though - when I told them I was diabetic and couldn't eat anything off the menu offerings, they tried to tell me i should be eating lots of carbs! I pulled out my data ( had my laptop with me as I was meant to be on a business trip but ended up in A&E instead) and showed them my food diary and test results and they all shut up and went off to find me some low carb food. BG still all over the place the last few days - up to 13.5 in the mornings as the best I could get was Alpen for breakfast. Lunches were better with cheese/pilchard/ham salads, and dinners were omelettes after I insisted. The NHS soup is just packet sh**t full of flour and hot water though. You'd think "vegetable" or "chicken" soup wouldn't be a carb fest....but it is.

Here's a typical NHS DIABETIC breakfast: Orange juice, breakfast cereal with milk, croissant & jam (or wholemeal roll and jam), and a bag of crisps. Crisps ???

EVERYBODY that was in the cardio ward with me was diabetic. Yet NONE of them had any interest in dietary control. 1 was T1, the other 4 were all T2. I tried preaching, but it was just to the choir....pills and insulin seem to be the preferred approach rather than keeping your BG levels down by diet.

HLW said:

adm said:

...pills and insulin seem to be the preferred approach rather than keeping your BG levels down by diet.

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Really not a helpful comment. Some people with type 2 diabetes cannot control their blood sugar with diet alone, it's not their fault, they haven't 'failed' by requiring medication.

omg the food they served there is cr*p! Are they trying to kill people? Not healthy for anyone, let alone someone with diabetes.

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Fair point. Although - nobody was even really interested in diet as even a helping hand....just fully reliant on meds. It was the attitude of just continuing to eat food that is at best unhealthy and at worst an active poison to your system that surprised me...

Quick update on this so far is that after 2 months, I'm now settling into a routine that seems to be working.

My BG numbers have been steadily dropping and I'm now averaging high 4's to low 5's on waking, with post meal numbers not normally going over high 6's or low 7's.

The Contour USB has been a big help here...apparently my last month's average pre meal BG is 6.0 and my average post meal BG is 7.0

Post breakfast is always the highest reading of the day - I've been eating 30g of Lizi's granola, with 100g of natural yoghurt and 100g of berries, which is a lovely breakfast, but takes me up into the high 7's two hours afterwards. My levels seem to drop from there onwards and tend to be high 5's or low 6's two hours after dinner.

I've also just done a Boots home cholesterol test and that came out at 3.9. I've no idea how accurate these are, but my total cholesterol level when I started this was 6.7 - so I have to give kudos to a low carb diet, excercise and Lipitor!

I've also lost 10Kg in weight, and increased my fitness substantially - I'm now trying to swim at least 1Km 3 or 4 times a week and cycle 10 miles or so off road twice a week at least.

I'm really looking forward to my next set of blood test results to see what the real numbers are. I'm pretty sure the A1c will still be fairly high (it was 13.8 on the 14th April when I started this journey) as it's a longer term average, but it should certainly be waaaay down from the 13.8, and the one three months after that should hopefully be in the 6's.

Anyway......I just wanted to show my progress and thank everyone here for all the help and advice over the last couple of months.

HLW said:

Congratulations!
But 100g of berries! That's lots of sugar, no wonder your blood sugar goes up afterwards.

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Yeah....I know, but I do love my fruit and it's good for you. It comes down again quickly enough though and if it maxes out in the sevens, then I'm OK with that.

I've found though that strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are best. Grapes and melon seem to really push the levels up though, so my fruit salad recipe has been getting modified over time....

Just to revive this thread again and report on progress, I just got my first set of blood test results back since the 18th of May. I missed a test due to holiday, so it's been 4 months since the last one, and now 5 months since I was diagnosed as T2.

Anyway, to cut to the chase......my HbA1c was 13.8 when first diagnosed, by June it had gone down to 7.1, but today......it's 5.4 !!!

Cholesterol has come down from 6.7 in april, to 5.9 in June and is now 3.7 today

HDL is up to 1.2, and LDL is down to 1.26

So all the numbers are now "in the green".

I'm well chuffed.

This has all been possible due to the "test, test, test" methodology. A low carb diet, plenty of excercise and no diabetic medication (lucky me). I am on Atorvastatin for the Cholesterol though and so far have no side effects). I have also lost nearly thee stone on this regime and am now fitter than I have been in years.

So - for anyone with T2 still sitting on the fence, get a BG meter and get testing before and after meals. It's the only sure way to find out what effects your levels positively or negatively and will enable you to adjust your diet accordingly.

From ending up in A&E and getting a stent fitted in May, to being almost "normal" now has been an eye opening and life changing experience.

Here's my latest update....I just got my test results in today:

HbA1c is now 5.2!

Total cholesterol is now 3.6

HDL is up to 1.4, and LDL is 1.58 (LDL is up slightly for some reason, but still well less than the target of <2. I'll have to keep an eye on that...)

All the numbers are "in the green".

Last test, I still had slightly elevated triglycerides, but these are now 1.37 - well within the target range! I also had slightly high ALT/SGPT in the liver tests - 45vs a guidline of <40. Today's results were 24!