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I don’t know what to do

P1ckle

Well-Known Member
I was diagnosed with T2 about 4 years ago. It has been fairly well managed until February of this year. Since then it has been uncontrolled. For the last 5 weeks my bloods have been quite high. No one seems to have any urgency about it and I’m really worried. Is there anyone or anywhere that I can share the specifics and ask for advice on what to do and where to go and just get this under control.
Admin please move if this isn’t in the right place.
I’m really worried and anxious about the whole thing. Please can someone help me.
 
hello,

What changed in February? are you on any medication? what type o food are you eating?

Please give some more information- there are many here as you know who are willing to provide some advice. Have you spoken top your doctor?

Good luck you must be feeling very stressed which is not going to help either.
 
Hi @P1ckle your post is perfectly placed. As @VashtiB says can you tell us more. Are you on any meds and do you eat a particular diet? What numbers are you seeing?
 
Hi thanks both.
On metformin 2000mg daily. Diet fairly good. No junk. Not LOW carb but I don’t eat bread or pasta. I have restricted portions of brown rice and potatoes occasionally.
The only thing that changed in February was stress. My mum has dementia and things got a lot worse from then on.
Hba1c was 55 at that point. I went to the doc and said I test at home and am seeing readings higher than normal. Normal was 10 and under but now they were around 13-15, up to 20 on some occasions. The doc didn’t seem worried but ordered another hba1c. I had to wait 4 weeks for this, then another 2 to see the diabetic nurse. Hba1c was 60. She started me on empagliflozin . After 5 days I developed thrush really badly and each time it was treated it just came back. She then stopped the empagliflozin and started me on trulicity. This went well. Minor side effects but nothing too bad. Been on that 3months and October Hba1c was 58. Not quite the drop hoped for. Middle of November i developed abdominal pain and nausea. Doc said it was the trulicity so stopped that. He told me to make an appt with diabetic specialist in practice to review next steps. First appt I could get was january 7th. That’s 5 weeks on just metformin. So I cut carbs right back to try and reduce impact of this but it’s not helping. Saw diabetic nurse on Christmas Eve and she told me to eat all carbs in moderation and to eat fruit daily. She repeated my Hba1c. It was 73.
My sugars are up and up with morning readings regularly 15-20. I now have a chest infection and am on steroids and they’re even higher.
No one seems to care. Saw the out of hours doc today and he said ketones +1 call diabetic nurse on Monday.

If there’s stuff I’ve missed please ask and I’ll fill in. I honestly dread eating now. I’d rather not eat because I can’t seem
To get it right. I walk my dogs most days if I’m well.
 
Oh and in April review they found neuropathy in my feet which has significantly worsened now and my eye screening came back with background retinopathy detected. None of these were present last year
 
What a nightmare!
You have a lot going on stress wise and with steroids too I'm not surprised your bg is high.

Personally, I'd give low carb a good go. Its worked for so many people here and it's made a huge difference to me in the past few months. My meter and I have halved my hba1c.

Good luck and hope you can get those levels down.
 
@P1ckle - the current steroids will almost certainly be pushing those bloods up a bit. Nothing you can do about that. They just do, in most folks.

I don't know how old or how trim you are, but it could be worthwhile asking about tests to rule out slow late onset T1.

In the meantime, if your numbers stay elevated, and you feel unwell, calling 111 would be a decent option.

Better safe than sorry.
 
Really - all carbs in moderation and fruit every day?
Disregarding the fact that not only is low carb not helping Hba1c is rising - not testing for insufficiency of insulin?
I think that nurse needs to be assessed for competency and you @P1ckle seem to show symptoms which are not like those of a type 2 - not that I can diagnose, but if the nurse is unhelpful on Monday, or if you start to feel unwell before then - call your GP or 111 or even 999 to get to hospital.
 
Thank you all. Is there a thread here for low carb? I’d like to follow advice from here rather than what I’ve been getting. Diabetic nurse has said she will refer me to a dietician but that won’t be for months as they are on maternity leave and we only have one apparently.
 
P1ckle said:
Oh and in April review they found neuropathy in my feet which has significantly worsened now and my eye screening came back with background retinopathy detected. None of these were present last year
Click to expand...
Hi I think you need to be firm with the doctor and ask for GAD antibodies test and c-peptide test. Definitely to rule out slow onset of T1 as you have recently developed feet and eye complications I would see this as justification.

In the meantime how about omelette for breakfast, good varied salad for lunch, healthy dinner with low carbs and keep a food diary to show the doctor. Snack on almonds. Lots of good websites already listed. We care even if the doctor doesn't!
 
Hi P1ckle,
It is rotten how one thing going wrong can be the trigger for so many more.
Stress, illness, injury, medication (both Steroids, Statins and others) as well as lack of sleep and lack of exercise can all raise your BG levels.
So it is difficult to figure out which things may be causing the current high levels.

Your treatment by the Health Care Professionals isn't unusual unfortunately. Most of us have had similar terrible advice .
What puzzles me is that you say that your BGs were well controlled until February but then in April you apparently already had some retinopathy and neuropathy. I don't see how it could have occurred so quickly. I wonder if it really was well controlled and thus when you were measuring your BG. Was it just before and then 2hrs after first bite of a meal( the best times for using control by diet)? Or was it first thing in the morning or was it just before bed?

You also say that Low Carb has not been helping so far which is a little unusual, though it is quite possible with everything else ganging up to give you higher BG. Eating between 1 and 3 decent sized Low Carb meals per day so that you don't feel hungry and don't snack between them gives a very good possibility of keeping low BG readings (post prandial) when on either no diabetes meds, or on Metformin alone. But note that it requires cooperation of HCPs when on Insulin or Glic since there is then the possibility of Hypos.

Don't starve yourself, because this will likely reduce your metabolic rate and make things worse in the longer term.

The idea that we diabetics should eat carbs with every meal and should eat more than 3 times per day comes from a proposed way of dealing with T1 diabetes way back before Insulin was available. It also made some sense for those on early forms of long acting Insulin because with that it was pretty much impossible to adjust the dosage to the actual meals being eaten. But neither of those situations has applied for a very long time!

The advice about fruit is just taken from the Eatwell plate and 5 A Day.- Neither of which had any evidence to support them for the general population and have both been demonstrated to be harmful for Type 2 diabetics.

Best wishes,
Ian
 
I agree that asking for extra tests seems a good idea, but meanwhile do try real low carb - most DNs don't seem to know a lot about this and many dietitians are still advocating more carbs that many of us can cope with.
I could not eat most fruit - a few berries or some truvia sweetened rhubarb is fine but most fruit sent my blood sugar up. I eat loads of green veg and cauliflower rice instead.

Apart from the advice and recipes for low carb here you could try the free trial on the lowcarbprogram?
 

When I said it was well controlled I meant Hba1c was stable and not rising. My morning (fasting readings) started increasing in february. My eye screening was the summer before and fine and then the summer after February showing background retinopathy. My foot check in December was fine (apparently) but in April was not fine and Christmas Eve was far from fine.
I had been following slimming world which was carb heavy until 18months ago when I dropped bread, pasta and only allowed myself small portions of oats, rice and potatoes. Only one small
Portion of one of those per day max. Rest of my diet has been veg from above the ground and meat.
Blood pressure nurse tells me off for eating fats, diabetic nurse tells me off for eating carbs but then tells
Me to eat fruit and keep all
Foods in my diet.
I think what I’m getting from this is I need to stick to really low carb whatever the medics say. My readings are now always in the 20’s and I’m barely eating anything.
Thanks for all the help. I’ll be sticking around here for advice from now on x
 
P1ckle said:
My readings are now always in the 20’s and I’m barely eating anything.
Click to expand...
Get yourself to a doctor tomorrow morning at the latest or now if you feel sick or nauseous or have a stomach ache.
Always over 20 despite not eating high carb needs urgent attention.

Take care of yourself!
 
Antje77 said:
Hi @P1ckle , how are you today?
Click to expand...

Hi,
I called my gp surgery at 9am. Told them the out of hours doc had said I need to speak to my own gp about my diabetes urgently on Monday as my readings were too high.
Receptionist said the diabetic nurse would call me back. I called again at 4 to be told that the message had been passed on and someone would call me.
I’m still waiting.
Fasting on waking 17.8
Nothing to eat, no appetite
Before lunch 21.1
Lunch was 2 egg omelette with cooked ham and a tablespoon of cheese.
2 hours after lunch 18.7
Drinking like a fish just water and tea with milk no sugar

I believe I’m trying my best to minimise the highs but don’t know what else to do.
 
P1ckle said:
I believe I’m trying my best to minimise the highs but don’t know what else to do.
Click to expand...
Sounds like nothing else you can do, except go to A+E if you start to feel sick in any way.
And push for a hospital appointment as soon as possible. If it turns out you have T1 you want to see an endo, not a GP.
Wish you all the best!
 

Are you drinking because you're thirsty, or because you're trying to get the numbers down (or indeed both)?

As @Antje77 says, if you feel unwell at all, or of those numbers go up much more, in your shoes I'd be heading for A&E. Those numbers aren't doing you any good.
 

I’m super thirsty and my mouth is almost always dry.
Diabetic nurse just called back and made an appt to see me tomorrow at 12.30. She mentioned glicazide to bring them down straight away. She said she would do a finger prick to test for ketones and go from there.
 
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