Hi Everyone I'm totally confused please HELP!

Sorry to say, "Welcome, Arlene." Its not a club we choose to belong to.

You will get all sorts of advice of varying quality, both on the forum & from medical professionals. Hana & I went to a conference at DUK (aka Diabebetes UK) on Self Management - which really is the best way of controlling YOUR condition & managing your life. To get useful advice you will need to give specific info, & ask specific questions. Always ask your Dr for a printout of blood test results & query any results they have flagged. You may not understand what they mean at first, but the better you do, the longer you will stay healthy - & I mean healthy. I'm still playing club standard tennis at 70, 10 years after diagnosis.

See my first report on the Self Management Conference. So far 45 views & NO replies :|

Hi don't you have a diabetes nurse attached to your GP practice or local hospital. You are entitled to a diabetes check at your GP's every six months and they get paid to do this. You need to get some help or long term you may well have side effects caused by too high blood sugars. You should be having blood tests regularly to test you blood sugars over a three month period (will tell you your average blood sugar) so get on the phone and demand the service you're entitled to. They should also be able to send you on a DAPHNE course how to use insulin with carbohydrates and how much of each you should use. Even if you're on tablets they should be able to advise you

Hi Arlene,
I'm only a week old and I do share some of your frustrations. But Guess, what lets give it 6 months and we'll take Ian on at tennis.
I'm absolutely baffled by this diet thing with carbs and fats and stuff and if I'm honest I'm bottlin it a bit wondering if this 50 year old chip butty + mug of tea with 3 sugars tdh chap can hack it (tdh = tall dark and handsome!)
I've got my little gadget coming and I'm going to give it my best shot but with a smile on me face so I'll feel good doing it.
You're not married to Boycey are you?
From today I'm going to start a food diary and when i get my gadget and little carb book Hana told me to get I can put the scores on the doors. However bad they are they must be 400% better than 3 weeks ago!!
No it was Marlene and Boycey...sorry...
Keep the faith
Brendan

.
Hi Arlene, I'm hypoglycemic, and holding off diabetes.

I have two essential parts to add to the standard diabetes puzzle. They require compromising the standard medical regime.

1. Stop ingesting sugar and anything which tastes sweet. Diabetes means elevated blood sugar. Standard doctor advice is to stop eating fat. That can't be correct, and it's not correct. Simple.

Stop ingesting sugar.

2. Stop ingesting wheat, barley, rye and oats. Diabetes means fat cells are not responding to insulin. This happens because they are recognizing grassy grain protein ......gluten WGA ........as insulin. Insulin transports blood glucose out of the bloodstream into fat cells. Gluten is not insulin. Although gluten clogs up the insulin receptors in fat cells, it can't transport glucose out of the bloodstream.

Stop ingesting grassy grains

Your insulin should start doing its job. Your blood glucose should fall off dramatically. If you're injecting prescription insulin, the double insulin load would cause abnormally low blood glucose. You should keep a close watch on blood glucose during this regime, and adjust insulin injections accordingly.

Many type 2 diabetics stop being diabetics on similar low-carb diets, and stop needing insulin.

Of course, supplement with vitamins C, D3 and B complex.
..

Arlene, lets keep it very simple at first.

Those posts about insulin are not for YOU. You & I have some natural insulin which can't cope with our high carb diet.

Unless you were diagnosed with a blood sugar above about 20, or were suffering complications, you are not in imminent danger from your diabetes. You've got months, even years, to get it sorted.

As the Dr has not put you on tablets, that is a safe assumption.

All I did to reduce carb was:
stopped eating any obvious sugars, reduce obvious non-sugar carbs to about 1/3 portion - potatoes/rice/pasta/bread, increase protein & veg & fruit & stopped eating a cereal supper. ( I now do not eat any obvious carbs. ) Eat brazil nuts & cheese as a snack. (The fats aren't a problem.) Make jelly from gelatine flavoured with no-added-sugar squash.

I saw immediate reduction of my overnight BS from about 7 to below 6, & started feeling better after a few weeks. (My problem was crippling leg muscle pains.) In 3 months I was out of pain, & fully active again. And I had lost 14 lb.

Don't drink fruit juice, as a glass (250 ml) of fruit juice has 25 g or a table spoon of sugar.