My husband has just been diagnosed with Type 2 (2 weeks ago). The diabetic nurse was totally useless - she was running 20 minutes late so was in a rush. She weighed my husband (at 6 foot and 10 stone 6 he wasn't exactly overweight) and said that he needed to lose weight because "all diabetics do". She then said the "type 2 diabetes is entirely self inflicted" and without even questioning diet or exercise told him he'd have to change his lifestyle radically. She gave us two copies of Diabetes UK magazines, one of which contained recipes, a prescription for Metformin 500 to be taken twice a day and a form to return for a blood test in 3 months. And that was the end of the consultation.
We went into Boots and bought a meter to test his blood sugar (we felt we needed to be proactive and try and do something constructive).
The magazines are supposed to be really helpful, but all the things it tells you to do, we're already doing. We walk a mile every night after tea (my husband has now increased his walks to 5 miles), eat red meat once a week, brown rice,pasta and bread etc so all we can do is eat tiny portions (we're now eating off side plates and half-filling them).
Yesterday he had 3 tablespoons of porridge (made with water because milk is "bad") for breakfast, a carrot chopped into sticks and a stick of celery for lunch, and a vegetable chilli for dinner with a mound of vegetables (no rice or anything else). I followed the recipe (from the diabetes uk booklet) exactly to the gramme. He had one cup of coffee (black) and dozens of glasses of water (it seems to be the only thing you can drink without upping your blood sugar level!). I know he's not eating enough and the weight is dropping off him (which will please the diabetic nurse!) but at 10pm his blood sugar was 10.4. It had dropped to 9.2 this morning but that's nowhere near the 4-6 recommended by the diabetic nurse.
The Diabetes Uk booklet goes on about eating out,eating well etc. etc. but that's just an impossible dream - all the things it says you can eat, just put his blood sugar up (the Metformin doesn't seem to alter it a lot) and the blood test result needs to be below 48 in 3 months (it was 104), so it has to come down radically.
At this rate, he will have starved to death in 3 months (perhaps that's how the diabetes problem is solved) - he looks terrible and has no energy for anything (he has to drag himself out for a walk and how he forces himself to walk 5 miles at a brisk pace I have no idea).
I am in despair - I have no idea what to feed him as I can't use any of the recipes in the booklet without sending his sugar level up, the diabetic nurse is totally unhelpful and short of taking him to A&E and saying he collapsed (in the desperate hope that someone will help) I have no idea what to do. It's made worse because my Grandmother had diabetes in the 1960's and literally starved to death because there was little treatment or help.
People talk about going on holiday, eating out and having a normal life. None of that is likely to happen for us ever again - my husband says he'd be better off dead so that our son and I can have a life. I really thought diabetes treatment had improved and that a normal life was possible, but right now it feels like fake news.
We went into Boots and bought a meter to test his blood sugar (we felt we needed to be proactive and try and do something constructive).
The magazines are supposed to be really helpful, but all the things it tells you to do, we're already doing. We walk a mile every night after tea (my husband has now increased his walks to 5 miles), eat red meat once a week, brown rice,pasta and bread etc so all we can do is eat tiny portions (we're now eating off side plates and half-filling them).
Yesterday he had 3 tablespoons of porridge (made with water because milk is "bad") for breakfast, a carrot chopped into sticks and a stick of celery for lunch, and a vegetable chilli for dinner with a mound of vegetables (no rice or anything else). I followed the recipe (from the diabetes uk booklet) exactly to the gramme. He had one cup of coffee (black) and dozens of glasses of water (it seems to be the only thing you can drink without upping your blood sugar level!). I know he's not eating enough and the weight is dropping off him (which will please the diabetic nurse!) but at 10pm his blood sugar was 10.4. It had dropped to 9.2 this morning but that's nowhere near the 4-6 recommended by the diabetic nurse.
The Diabetes Uk booklet goes on about eating out,eating well etc. etc. but that's just an impossible dream - all the things it says you can eat, just put his blood sugar up (the Metformin doesn't seem to alter it a lot) and the blood test result needs to be below 48 in 3 months (it was 104), so it has to come down radically.
At this rate, he will have starved to death in 3 months (perhaps that's how the diabetes problem is solved) - he looks terrible and has no energy for anything (he has to drag himself out for a walk and how he forces himself to walk 5 miles at a brisk pace I have no idea).
I am in despair - I have no idea what to feed him as I can't use any of the recipes in the booklet without sending his sugar level up, the diabetic nurse is totally unhelpful and short of taking him to A&E and saying he collapsed (in the desperate hope that someone will help) I have no idea what to do. It's made worse because my Grandmother had diabetes in the 1960's and literally starved to death because there was little treatment or help.
People talk about going on holiday, eating out and having a normal life. None of that is likely to happen for us ever again - my husband says he'd be better off dead so that our son and I can have a life. I really thought diabetes treatment had improved and that a normal life was possible, but right now it feels like fake news.
) and fresh vegetables to fill up on. Watch out for fruit though. I would skip the fruit for a while too until he works out how to get his levels down then slowly reintroduce a small piece here and there and watch how it affects him.
Yay, it can be done! I'm more active now than I could be before diagnosis, and I went from upper 70's to a HbA1c of 33. That's well into the non-diabetic range. I'm not on any T2 medication, not for cholesterol either. So you two are clued in on a couple of things already: You know testing is important because the meter is telling you things you REALLY need to know. And, metformin isn't doing anything about what is being eaten (And it isn't, it just affects how much glucose the liver dumps), and food is impacting bloodsugars, so if Met isn't doing anything, changing food will. Conclusion you came to on your own, as like so many of us, you're pretty much left to fend for yourselves. I wrote a little "nutritional thingy" a while ago (
