i have just been diagnosed and i am feeling very, very down, confused, scared, lost and in a dark pl

[Nuthead]

porridge may not be the best thing for you. Lots of us spike badly with it. Me included. So much it make me feel ill. Any fruit has sugar so be careful. Minefield isn't it
Are you testing ?

 

[andcol]

Try having a half portion size and nothing wrong with whole milk or cream if you are reducing the carbohydrate intake.

 

[Gobiker56]

Well, feeling 100% better today. Was a very frightening few days though, thank goodness for this forum, Especially Andrew. The responses were quick and very helpful. It's certainly a fraught time being newly diagnosed. Even though I was a qualified Nurse, it was still frightening, too much knowledge can be a real bad thing, I had everything from pancreatic cancer to Acidosis and Ebola with a dose of Glaucoma and retinal myopathy. Your imagination just runs away with you. I'll be at the surgery tomorrow at 8am on the dot to get my blood sugar done. I can't fault the service here even though I am in the middle of nowhere, (Galera, Granada , Spain if you want to google it). There is a surgery every weekday you can make an appointment on-line even for the same day, if it's urgent you can see the doctor immediately, in fact once I was really ill with a pulmonary embolism the doctor was up here to me in my house 10 mins and an ambulance here in 15mins. If you have no transport an ambulance will take you to the hospital and bring you home again after treatment. On weekends and bank holidays a doctor comes at about 12ish to the village to see anything urgent, give injections etc. I can bet you don't get that service any more in the UK. The only problem is the language, I'm doing my best but it's not easy. Luckily a local Spanish lady who speaks English will accompany you to the doctors for 10 Euros. She also will do Hospital visits taking you in her own car for 10 Euros an hour. Usually I can manage without, but not when it's urgent and confusing as in the last few days. A big thanks once again It's a great forum.

 

[Brunneria]

Well, feeling 100% better today. Was a very frightening few days though, thank goodness for this forum, Especially Andrew. The responses were quick and very helpful. It's certainly a fraught time being newly diagnosed. Even though I was a qualified Nurse, it was still frightening, too much knowledge can be a real bad thing, I had everything from pancreatic cancer to Acidosis and Ebola with a dose of Glaucoma and retinal myopathy. Your imagination just runs away with you. I'll be at the surgery tomorrow at 8am on the dot to get my blood sugar done. I can't fault the service here even though I am in the middle of nowhere, (Galera, Granada , Spain if you want to google it). There is a surgery every weekday you can make an appointment on-line even for the same day, if it's urgent you can see the doctor immediately, in fact once I was really ill with a pulmonary embolism the doctor was up here to me in my house 10 mins and an ambulance here in 15mins. If you have no transport an ambulance will take you to the hospital and bring you home again after treatment. On weekends and bank holidays a doctor comes at about 12ish to the village to see anything urgent, give injections etc. I can bet you don't get that service any more in the UK. The only problem is the language, I'm doing my best but it's not easy. Luckily a local Spanish lady who speaks English will accompany you to the doctors for 10 Euros. She also will do Hospital visits taking you in her own car for 10 Euros an hour. Usually I can manage without, but not when it's urgent and confusing as in the last few days. A big thanks once again It's a great forum.

Let us know how it goes?

 

[Gobiker56]

Blood sugar was still high 238 even though I have had no sugar and very few carbs in the last two days. Less than 200 grammes a day of carbs and no sugar. Still got affected eyesight and dry mouth. I have had a horrible taste in my mouth since the onset a few days ago that nothing seems to shift. I only drink tea and water and 1 coffee with Stevia. I wonder if that 1 cafe con leche has too much milk as I have it in the local cafe?. How long does it usually take for your blood sugar to go back to 'normal' from a 430+ high?. Stilll, feel a lot better, even made my own Hummus.

 

[Enclave]

200gm of carbs a day .. Is this a typo ? I am on 30g a day and building this up now to 50g as my sugars have returned to a normal range.
Hope your feeling better soon .. Ummm I remember hummus .. Cannot do chickpeas .. Sugar skyrockets when I do
Edit to add ... Are you getting enough fat in your diet .. If it is a typo and you are in a low carb of 20g you will need to add full fat products back into your diet .. What's you befor and after eating, sugar readings ?

 

[Nyxks]

Blood sugar was still high 238 even though I have had no sugar and very few carbs in the last two days. Less than 200 grammes a day of carbs and no sugar. Still got affected eyesight and dry mouth. I have had a horrible taste in my mouth since the onset a few days ago that nothing seems to shift. I only drink tea and water and 1 coffee with Stevia. I wonder if that 1 cafe con leche has too much milk as I have it in the local cafe?. How long does it usually take for your blood sugar to go back to 'normal' from a 430+ high?. Stilll, feel a lot better, even made my own Hummus.

I've not hit in the 20s (430+) in a while and coming out of it 15 min or less once I know I'm higher then my target range is and I take my correction. Also you might not have eaten carbs, but your body can still spike because it either thinks that its been singled to let go stuff into your system to spike you because you've not given it enough of what it needs. Also all carbs turn to sugar in the body its how carbs are broken down to work with ones brain so just because your carbs might be not from pure sugar doesn't mean the body hasn't covered it into sugar that it needs to function.

 

[Gobiker56]

You get so much conflicting info that it's difficult to work it out. Anyway I am aiming for 1000 ish calories a day with most meals less than 20 mg carbohydrate and no sugar giving my total carb intake for the day under 200 ish. I'm using Stevia as a sweetener and a little bit of Honey in my morning oatmeal.Strangely enough for a fat bloke I do get a fair bit of exercise with walking my dogs, I live high up so it's a fair walk down to the village centre, about 3 miles round trip altogether with deviations at the dogs leisure, .at least once a day.It's OK going down, it's the coming up that's heavy going. As for spiking on oatmeal I thought oats were slow release?. I have dried cranberries about six, and a chopped up date in My morning oats. This morning I had less oats but had a chopped up banana instead. I have been having Hummus on two sesame ryvitas for my lunch. Then some lean meat and veggies for my evening meal. I snack on pepitas which are the size of grass seed, they are the toasted inside of sunflower seeds. The Nurse will give me a meter when I get the blood sugar settled, so I see her every two days. I would have bought one by now if she wasn't giving me one, a meter that is.The local supermarket are doing whole Serrano ham shoulders cheap for Christmas so I'll get one and I can incorporate that into the diet. I do miss my bread and chips so much.Be interesting to hear what other people on the forum are eating/not eating then I can get some Idea of the sort of stuff I can eat. Especially what people are eating instead of Bread and chips to make you feel ;full'.

 

[Brunneria]

You get so much conflicting info that it's difficult to work it out. Anyway I am aiming for 1000 ish calories a day with most meals less than 20 mg carbohydrate and no sugar giving my total carb intake for the day under 200 ish. I'm using Stevia as a sweetener and a little bit of Honey in my morning oatmeal.Strangely enough for a fat bloke I do get a fair bit of exercise with walking my dogs, I live high up so it's a fair walk down to the village centre, about 3 miles round trip altogether with deviations at the dogs leisure, .at least once a day.It's OK going down, it's the coming up that's heavy going. As for spiking on oatmeal I thought oats were slow release?. I have dried cranberries about six, and a chopped up date in My morning oats. This morning I had less oats but had a chopped up banana instead. I have been having Hummus on two sesame ryvitas for my lunch. Then some lean meat and veggies for my evening meal. I snack on pepitas which are the size of grass seed, they are the toasted inside of sunflower seeds. The Nurse will give me a meter when I get the blood sugar settled, so I see her every two days. I would have bought one by now if she wasn't giving me one, a meter that is.The local supermarket are doing whole Serrano ham shoulders cheap for Christmas so I'll get one and I can incorporate that into the diet. I do miss my bread and chips so much.Be interesting to hear what other people on the forum are eating/not eating then I can get some Idea of the sort of stuff I can eat. Especially what people are eating instead of Bread and chips to make you feel ;full'.

I should try and persuade your nurse to give you a meter immediately - provided she also gives you enough test strips to map out what foods spike your blood glucose.

How else are you going to manage to get your BG settled?

No, scrap that. Buy one. You'll never get enough strips out of her.

You need to test before food and then 2 hrs after. Then you will see what meals and foods make the rise.

200g of carbs is a lot in my opinion.
I have higher than normal BG on 60-80g a day.
I have normal BG on 20-50g. But only if I avoid porridge, bread, rice, pasta, etc completely.

I hope you are not t the same, but if you are, regular testing is the only way to find out, get control and stabilise.

 

[Gobiker56]

I think you may be right about the meter. I'll get one this afternoon I am off to the nearest big town Baza about 30 mins away for my 'pay day' shopping. I was considering a smoothie machine, possibly the only way of getting decent amounts of 'greenery' in me as I am really not at all keen on them. I am still worried about my eyesight, it's still a bit blurry and I'm a bit photophobic with a low grade headache, I really should not have headaches as I am on 200 mg morphine (MST) twice a day and wear a duragesic patch.

 

[alliebee]

Hello and welcome to the forum

 

[Brunneria]

Did you get a meter?

I wanted to write the following this morning, but had to dash off to work. Hope you didn't get a meter and this will save you some money...

Several of us here on the forum have found that the cheapest meter and strips are the SD Codefree ones.
Available from Amazon, eBay and the manufacturer, at very reasonable prices, especially in bulk.
http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm
Worth checking out, even there's postage that bumps it up a bit for you.

 

[Gobiker56]

I am going to see the nurse today, the Meters selling in Baza Pharmacies are an outrageous price compared to Amazon or Ebay. I'll ask her for one today and if no joy I'll order one on line. I want to see the doctor too, my eyes are still playing up and the mild headache 'behind' my eyes has turned into pain. I am worried because my friends brother went blind quite quickly. As I said earlier I take MST so shouldn't have any or much pain. It's 1am and my imagination is running away with me...

 

[jack412]

if you are hungry or cold, you may need to raise your fats to make up for the lost energy from the carbs
these sites helped me
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf it’s a long page and a video

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbliving/a/Food-Cravings.htm For me, the more carbs we eat the more carbs we want. they don’t give up easy.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm

http://www.lowcarbdietitian.com/blog/carbohydrate-restriction-an-option-for-diabetes-management


blood testing

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php

http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm

food counting

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/


Newcastle diet aims in 8+ weeks to mimic the rate of ~70% remission, for surgery T2

“It is now clear that Type 2 diabetes is caused by abnormal fat storage. Research on how this may be reversed is available. “click that link on this page http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/

http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2010/mar/weight-loss-surgery-and-type-2-diabetes.html


American diabetic association ( http://www.professional.diabetes.org/)

http://www.professional.diabetes.org/admin/UserFiles/0 - Sean/dc132042 FINAL.pdf

Evidence is inconclusive for an ideal amount of total fat intake for people with diabetes;

therefore, goals should be individualized; fat quality appears to be far more important than quantity.

In people with type 2 diabetes, a Mediterranean-style, MUFA-rich eating pattern may benefit

glycemic control and CVD risk factors and can therefore be recommended as an effective alternative to a lower-fat, higher-carbohydrate eating pattern.



SD codefree meter

http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm

if you buy extra boxes of strips there is a discount code

5 packs 264086

10 packs 975833

 

[janewatt]

I am going to see the nurse today, the Meters selling in Baza Pharmacies are an outrageous price compared to Amazon or Ebay. I'll ask her for one today and if no joy I'll order one on line. I want to see the doctor too, my eyes are still playing up and the mild headache 'behind' my eyes has turned into pain. I am worried because my friends brother went blind quite quickly. As I said earlier I take MST so shouldn't have any or much pain. It's 1am and my imagination is running away with me...

Yes, I know what you mean about those early morning thoughts . . .

I live alone in rural France. I got a meter just by asking - I had to argue a little with the doctor, but it was as soon as diagnosed. The regular check-ups for diabetes should be on an information list (eg eyes, heart, kidneys, feet, etc.) These should be similar whatever European country you're in, but whether each GP follows this is another matter. Dietary advice here in France is similar to UK NHS, and therefor may be so in Spain. Just take time to get your head around all this and find out as much as you can.

It sounds like your doctor & nurse on are top of a lot of things, but it will take time. Sounds like you're already doing well - walking dogs everyday, regularly seeing nurse & doctor and have access to Spanish translator.

Let us know how it's going.
Best wishes,
Jane.

 

[AnnieC]

You get so much conflicting info that it's difficult to work it out. Anyway I am aiming for 1000 ish calories a day with most meals less than 20 mg carbohydrate and no sugar giving my total carb intake for the day under 200 ish. I'm using Stevia as a sweetener and a little bit of Honey in my morning oatmeal.Strangely enough for a fat bloke I do get a fair bit of exercise with walking my dogs, I live high up so it's a fair walk down to the village centre, about 3 miles round trip altogether with deviations at the dogs leisure, .at least once a day.It's OK going down, it's the coming up that's heavy going. As for spiking on oatmeal I thought oats were slow release?. I have dried cranberries about six, and a chopped up date in My morning oats. This morning I had less oats but had a chopped up banana instead. I have been having Hummus on two sesame ryvitas for my lunch. Then some lean meat and veggies for my evening meal. I snack on pepitas which are the size of grass seed, they are the toasted inside of sunflower seeds. The Nurse will give me a meter when I get the blood sugar settled, so I see her every two days. I would have bought one by now if she wasn't giving me one, a meter that is.The local supermarket are doing whole Serrano ham shoulders cheap for Christmas so I'll get one and I can incorporate that into the diet. I do miss my bread and chips so much.Be interesting to hear what other people on the forum are eating/not eating then I can get some Idea of the sort of stuff I can eat. Especially what people are eating instead of Bread and chips to make you feel ;full'.

No one can really tell you what you can or can't eat as we are all different what food one person can't eat another one can it is trial and error and you will only find out by using a meter to see which foods raise you most.
You may well be able to eat smaller portions of things like bread and chips and if you eat rice then basmati is a slower release one. A lot here have Burgen Linseed and Soya bread but I don't know if you would be able to get that in Spain. Look at the thread... What have you eaten today...on here that will tell you a lot about what people eat then you can start to experiment with your food

 

[Scandichic]

You get so much conflicting info that it's difficult to work it out. Anyway I am aiming for 1000 ish calories a day with most meals less than 20 mg carbohydrate and no sugar giving my total carb intake for the day under 200 ish. I'm using Stevia as a sweetener and a little bit of Honey in my morning oatmeal.Strangely enough for a fat bloke I do get a fair bit of exercise with walking my dogs, I live high up so it's a fair walk down to the village centre, about 3 miles round trip altogether with deviations at the dogs leisure, .at least once a day.It's OK going down, it's the coming up that's heavy going. As for spiking on oatmeal I thought oats were slow release?. I have dried cranberries about six, and a chopped up date in My morning oats. This morning I had less oats but had a chopped up banana instead. I have been having Hummus on two sesame ryvitas for my lunch. Then some lean meat and veggies for my evening meal. I snack on pepitas which are the size of grass seed, they are the toasted inside of sunflower seeds. The Nurse will give me a meter when I get the blood sugar settled, so I see her every two days. I would have bought one by now if she wasn't giving me one, a meter that is.The local supermarket are doing whole Serrano ham shoulders cheap for Christmas so I'll get one and I can incorporate that into the diet. I do miss my bread and chips so much.Be interesting to hear what other people on the forum are eating/not eating then I can get some Idea of the sort of stuff I can eat. Especially what people are eating instead of Bread and chips to make you feel ;full'.

If I ate that many carbs you'd be retrieving me from the ceiling!
I would up your fat content and ditch the bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. Why don't you do as @Brunneria suggests and keep a food diary and a record of your bs. Try to ditch the carbs I've suggested avoiding for a week and see what your bs is. You have nothing to lose! I love rivitas and oatmeal but they do not love me. Think fried brekkie and tapas! Your evening meal sounds great!

 

[JRW]

Unfortunately you pretty much have to educate yourself. Read 'Think Like A Pancreas' and get a carbs and calls books, and away you go. It's a learning curve, but less than 2yrs in I've got a pretty good grasp, and doing a lot of exercise.

 

[KELI]

Hello Gobiker56 and welcome. Everyone on this forum are really helpful and have lots of helpful tips.
Are prescriptions in Spain still private? If so, be careful what meter you buy, do plenty of research on the cost of test strips over there. The meter you only have to pay out for once, the test strips can be really expensive. I've lived in Gibraltar and Southern Ireland where medical cover and prescriptions are privately paid for (unlike the uk's nhs system). Sometimes it does work out cheaper though. My hubby worked in Iraq recently and used to buy my test strips over there at half the cost of here and bring them home to the UK for me.

 

[Nyxks]

Be interesting to hear what other people on the forum are eating/not eating then I can get some Idea of the sort of stuff I can eat. Especially what people are eating instead of Bread and chips to make you feel ;full'.

I eat a LOT of lentils, beans, chickpeas, zucchini, peppers, onion, garlic, rice, carrots, tofu and what not. I don't eat anything to do with gluten (i'm celiac) nor anything that comes from an animal (so no dairy, eggs, honey or the like) don't miss any of it overly so - at times when in the bakery i'll miss having fresh bread that is fast and easy to make intend of the involved process i have to do now, but just means I don't fill up on that stuff instead lentils make a large part of the deal for me, I do lentil stew up weekly and a couple times a month I'll do up cabbage stew as well (replace the meat with tofu n lentils instead) healthy and full of what my body needs plus low in sodium (i average 250 mg a day by choice not because i have to be on a low sodium deal intact my doc wont's me to increase my intake, which I find really hard to do) n high in potassium and fiber.