I really need some advice :(

@rookgirl

Hello George and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members (even though I know you are not newly diagnosed) and I hope you will find it useful and helps you with some of your problems you write about. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will be able to answer.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Welcome
You do need some help,and you will get it on the Forum.take time to read threads.
Be kind to yourself,and listen to all advice and you will soon feel beter.

Hi and welcome

Please take the time to read that posted information .... it is invaluable and a great start :

Mike

First of all have a hug! Now have another one!
Now have a read of this
www.dietdoctor.com
If you don't believe it look at my signature!
Don't forget to take your meds and keep posting!

Hi @rookgirl I'm sure you will find the help you need on the forum. Take your time and have a good look through. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here so dont be afraid to ask any questions. Good luck

rookgirl said:

You won't believe how much a hug would be nice sometimes. So thank you very much. I will check out all of your info, and thank you to the others for the welcome, I know everything is a mess right now, but I'm planning on getting a good start. I just have a lack of support and it makes motivation hard, especially when I'm going through flare ups.

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When I was first diagnosed on 28th of Jan it felt like the whole world was against me. I was given the meds and told to look on the Internet. They gave me an appointment with DNS a week later. Went home in a panic. Went on the duk website as advised and saw stuff like: when you make a cake use half the sugar, no food is banned, etc. went to show hubbie, typed in the wrong address, ended up here and someone gave me the website I gave you. It was a revelation. I checked out the doc who wrote the site and yes, he is a doc, I wrote to him, he wrote back. I also tried to find the science for the healthy plate. I couldn't so I went LCHF, kept a food diary. Then I went funny at work, endured a lecture about how my diet was dangerous and ****, got sent home, so went to docs, saw DNS, who was vile and told me to eat starchy carbs with every meal refused to give me a bs meter, refused to see me again and referred me to the hospital. So I bought my own meter and carried on with lots of support from the fabulous peeps on here. My results speak for themselves. So hang on in there girl, try out lchf (you have nothing to lose!) and have another hug!

Hello and a big welcome! You have such a lot going on, hopefully now you are here you will find the great advice, information and support will help! The diagnosis experience seems to be the standard stock they issue to us all! I just thank my lucky stars the nurse practitioner DIDNT have anything for me to take away to read and mentioned this website, which led me to the forum and totally informed and empowered me!!
Keep reading, asking and posting!!

Hi @rookgirl, welcome . My, you've certainly been through the mill haven't you! You do need to get your blood sugars under control, you haven't said what your numbers or and much about about what you eat specifically. Lupus (which I confess I know little about and won't pretend to) is another factor that may complicate things and could be linked in some way to the diabetes - maybe post a separate thread about this and see if there are others on here who have the condition and can share experiences.

But there is time to help you sort this out so don't panic and have a good read around and ask more questions. The thread linked in my sig below may be of some help.

sanguine said:

Hi @rookgirl, welcome . My, you've certainly been through the mill haven't you! You do need to get your blood sugars under control, you haven't said what your numbers or and much about about what you eat specifically. Lupus (which I confess I know little about and won't pretend to) is another factor that may complicate things and could be linked in some way to the diabetes - maybe post a separate thread about this and see if there are others on here who have the condition and can share experiences.

But there is time to help you sort this out so don't panic and have a good read around and ask more questions. The thread linked in my sig below may be of some help.

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So sorry you're having a hard time. Please investigate possibilities for having breakfast. Doesn't have to be "breakfast" food as long as it's something you like and doesn't adversely affect your BG levels. You'll then remember your meds! May I suggest you set an alarm on your phone to help you remember? Keep the meds in your bag and perhaps a small bottle of water?
Just researching here will make you feel better because (a) you will feel better for helping yourself and (b) you won't feel so alone. I'm sure you will find people here who have similar health profiles to yours. You've already helped yourself enormously by visiting the site.
I wish you well on your journey. Remember though, there's never and end to the journey, but lots of "scenery" to take in. Some scenery is better than others and you may get saddle sore at times but that's what this oasis is for!!
Best wishes

peacetrain said:

So sorry you're having a hard time. Please investigate possibilities for having breakfast. Doesn't have to be "breakfast" food as long as it's something you like and doesn't adversely affect your BG levels. You'll then remember your meds! May I suggest you set an alarm on your phone to help you remember? Keep the meds in your bag and perhaps a small bottle of water?
Just researching here will make you feel better because (a) you will feel better for helping yourself and (b) you won't feel so alone. I'm sure you will find people here who have similar health profiles to yours. You've already helped yourself enormously by visiting the site.
I wish you well on your journey. Remember though, there's never and end to the journey, but lots of "scenery" to take in. Some scenery is better than others and you may get saddle sore at times but that's what this oasis is for!!
Best wishes

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Well said @peacetrain!

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Hopefully you will find the support and advise here that you can't seem to get elsewhere. There is plenty of advise around, have a read of the threads and links and it should give you some ideas on how to tackle the issue yourself. I don't know a lot about Lupus, but I have know a couple of people who's children had it so I do have an idea of how nasty a condition it can be.

You already know you are overweight, but if its any consolation I am only an inch or so taller (5'2" to 5'3" about) and at the start of this year weighed in at 113.5kg, having come here to take the diabetes in hand having ignored it for several years, reduced my carbs significantly and watched my portion control, particularly my carb portion (my meter soon lets me know if it is getting out of hand) I am now down to 94kg, still a long way to go to get where I want to be, but it is coming off steadily and best of all I don't feel like I am having to do without and don't tend to feel hungry.

Be warned, your system might object when you start reducing your carb intake, most people don't realise that carbs are almost an addiction, you might feel bad for a couple of week, but you will feel better afterwards.

As others have said, try and find something you can stomach for breakfast it does help settle our blood sugar at the start of the day. Full fried english, full fat yogurt with berries are far better than cerial, try thinking outside the box, just because it is not normally associated with breakfast doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. If it works for you it it is right for you. I tend to be in a bit of a rush in the mornings getting everything ready for work and have found that cerial bars work for me, no preperation just grab one out the cupboard and eat while drinking coffee. Just check the carbs on the label, I try and keep it below 20g (Alpen light bars are about 11g per bar and have several flavours).

Take it one day at a time and try and remember to take the medication.

rookgirl said:

Yes, I need to increase the dose slowly. I need to find out, though, what foods will last longer because I'll eat and still be hungry after. Like dizzingly hungry, stomach gets tight and queasy, I feel hot and cold and fainty and I just.... it needs to stop.

Unfortunately, none of my family cares and I'm such a recluse that I don't have any friends. I try and talk to my family about both my diabetes and my lupus but I'm often told to "drop the subject" or it's "all in my head."

I know my own body and I know I'm a drama queen, but I'd rather fake being well, thank you.

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Have you had a chance to read the diet doctor stuff? Hugs scandix