- Messages
- 623
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
So I'm a week into life with my new life buddy, Dio - I personify EVERYTHING and this is how I'm coping with the T2 diagnosis: it's a part of my life yet separate to me, it doesn't define me, but it cannot be ignored, If I personify it, it becomes a tiny, individual part of my psyche that has its own needs, considerations, moods and quirks. I've also done this to my vicious and often troublesome reproductive system, otherwise referred to as "The She-*****" (she has a terrible appetite for the worst kind of men, is vengefully painful and messes my entire body up once a month.and then will ignore me for weeks. She's the nightmare room-mate)
ANYWAY.
I'm a week into life since Dio moved in with me, and there are some issues that I can't seem to resolve or find any data on. While I have an NHS appointment (a 45 minute "education" appointment with the gramatically amusing "surgery's diabetic nurse") on Wednesday, I'm already aware that my circumstances alone are unusual enough to warrant much of the advice pointless, let alone the feelings of the NHS and NICE regarding testing for T2s, low-carb diets, medication and whatnot. From my brief time reading this forum, it seems very clear that, when it comes to Dio, there's more than one way to skin this particular cat.
So I thought I'd throw some questions out to you, my Shiny New Community and see what you come up with. Please, any kind of opinion, experience, even weblinks (real, reputable scientific publications only, if you're going in that direction, please!) are welcome. There's so many people here that, I figure, when you break my weird set of circumstances down into pieces, lots of people will have experienced little bits of the whole, right?
So here goes - and thanks in advance!
Q1. Exercise!
I literally can't exercise at the moment - I have severe lumbar spinal stenosis and lose feeling in my legs after about 2 minutes standing up. That and having 2 slipped discs means that there's a severe limitation to what I can do and how long I can do it for. I know that exercise has strong links with a reduction in insulin resistance (and supports weight loss) and, therefore, is important to anyone, especially me with Dio and my gorgeously whale-like figure but how do I do it?
Does anyone else have experience with severe spinal injury and exercise? How did you manage it? How much did it cost? How much exercise is required before you felt its impact?
Q2. Weight Loss / Low Carb Diet
I guess I'm far from alone in saying that, throughout my life, I've had a complicated relationship with food and that this has been further complicated by living on very little money (single parent carer on benefits), very little energy (aside from diabetes, have been on-off severely anaemic for last 4 years) and by the fact that my 11 year old son, Euan, has autism and some serious sensory issues regarding food.
I am ready to (aggressively) embrace a low carb lifestyle (I see it like banging on Dio's door and telling him to keep the noise down) but I have real concerns about whether I can afford it and what my son will eat. You have to understand, saying his sensory issues with food are something he's chosen is like saying I decided to become insulin resistant. So, there's 2 diets to accommodate out of the same single budget. But, also, does it take very much time to prepare meals? Does it feel like a diet (denying one's self and feeling hungry all the time) or like a lifestyle change?
I signed up to the program already, I just can't commit to starting until I understand the impact it's going to have on Euan. If anyone else out there has experience to shifting reluctant family members onto a low-carb diet, please share!
Q3. Medical ID.
I read someone's view on this forum (my apologies, I don't remember who you are) that said they felt that by wearing a medical bracelet, they were "branding" themselves as diabetic, and that was too much of a definition for them to mentally and emotionally cope with. And I get this - it's why I say "Euan has autism" and not "My autistic son, Euan" (in the first, Euan possesses ASD, in the second, ASD possesses him).
BUT, I am a full-time carer who has no back-up and a shady medical past (2 blocked kidneys and sepsis 3 years ago left me fighting for my life for a month) and it strikes me that while the above concerns are correct, it's simply just practical to allow medical teams access to the appropriate information should anything happen.
Are there any other carers with thoughts on this?
Q4. Parents telling children.
I've seen a lot about how parents explain diabetes to their children when it's the child's diagnosis, but next to nothing on how to explain a parent's diagnosis to a child. Much less how to explain it to a child with autism / socio-emotional issues / learning difficulties.
I'm a parent who very much believes in truth at all times and information ALWAYS being available. But how do you explain diabetes to children? How much info is too much?
My strategy thus far is to take Euan with me to the appointment on Wednesday and let him be as much a part of what's going on as I am. To let him see a testing meter and watch it in use, to ask questions about numbers, life expectancy and so on. I want someone with authority to categorically answer his questions and anxieties - but am I making Dio too significant? Am I building and investing in it too much?
Anyone else's thoughts would be welcome!
Q5. Grief. Coming to terms. Shame. Negative emotions.
I've been grotesquely and painfully aware of my weight since before I was overweight - thanks, Mum. I'm 6' tall and built like a Cornish fisherman and, since I was a kid, back when you could still count every rib in my chest, I've always read as overweight on every weight chart.
Doctors will tell me that my ideal weight is around 11 stone. When I weighed 14 stone, I couldn't lie on the floor without my hips getting bruised. With this obvious disconnect between What Doctors Say and what my experience in my body has been, it seems obvious now that diabetes has always been something of an inevitability.
In the last week, since my diagnosis, I've found it very hard to tell even my closest friends because I've felt so ashamed. The media does a grand job of shaming the overweight as it is - as if we woke up one morning and said to ourselves "Sod it, I'm going to get really, really fat and stop moving and continue like this for years. Then I'm going to let someone else worry about all this for me!"
I've seen obesity variously described as a disease, a modern plague, a lifestyle choice. The truth is, I've been too busy single-handedly raising, learning about, understanding, fighting for a disabled child with complex needs to consider my own health for quite some time, and before Euan arrived, the guidance was neither realistic nor helpful.
I'm curious, how has anyone else coped with these feelings? Where do you find your strongest support? How did you beat the shame?
Q6 (A final quickie) To gastric band or not gastric band?
I might be facing spinal surgery already. What are people's thoughts about gastric banding?
Many thanks in advance to any and all replies.
Love and good readings,
Sock x
ANYWAY.
I'm a week into life since Dio moved in with me, and there are some issues that I can't seem to resolve or find any data on. While I have an NHS appointment (a 45 minute "education" appointment with the gramatically amusing "surgery's diabetic nurse") on Wednesday, I'm already aware that my circumstances alone are unusual enough to warrant much of the advice pointless, let alone the feelings of the NHS and NICE regarding testing for T2s, low-carb diets, medication and whatnot. From my brief time reading this forum, it seems very clear that, when it comes to Dio, there's more than one way to skin this particular cat.
So I thought I'd throw some questions out to you, my Shiny New Community and see what you come up with. Please, any kind of opinion, experience, even weblinks (real, reputable scientific publications only, if you're going in that direction, please!) are welcome. There's so many people here that, I figure, when you break my weird set of circumstances down into pieces, lots of people will have experienced little bits of the whole, right?
So here goes - and thanks in advance!
Q1. Exercise!
I literally can't exercise at the moment - I have severe lumbar spinal stenosis and lose feeling in my legs after about 2 minutes standing up. That and having 2 slipped discs means that there's a severe limitation to what I can do and how long I can do it for. I know that exercise has strong links with a reduction in insulin resistance (and supports weight loss) and, therefore, is important to anyone, especially me with Dio and my gorgeously whale-like figure but how do I do it?
Does anyone else have experience with severe spinal injury and exercise? How did you manage it? How much did it cost? How much exercise is required before you felt its impact?
Q2. Weight Loss / Low Carb Diet
I guess I'm far from alone in saying that, throughout my life, I've had a complicated relationship with food and that this has been further complicated by living on very little money (single parent carer on benefits), very little energy (aside from diabetes, have been on-off severely anaemic for last 4 years) and by the fact that my 11 year old son, Euan, has autism and some serious sensory issues regarding food.
I am ready to (aggressively) embrace a low carb lifestyle (I see it like banging on Dio's door and telling him to keep the noise down) but I have real concerns about whether I can afford it and what my son will eat. You have to understand, saying his sensory issues with food are something he's chosen is like saying I decided to become insulin resistant. So, there's 2 diets to accommodate out of the same single budget. But, also, does it take very much time to prepare meals? Does it feel like a diet (denying one's self and feeling hungry all the time) or like a lifestyle change?
I signed up to the program already, I just can't commit to starting until I understand the impact it's going to have on Euan. If anyone else out there has experience to shifting reluctant family members onto a low-carb diet, please share!
Q3. Medical ID.
I read someone's view on this forum (my apologies, I don't remember who you are) that said they felt that by wearing a medical bracelet, they were "branding" themselves as diabetic, and that was too much of a definition for them to mentally and emotionally cope with. And I get this - it's why I say "Euan has autism" and not "My autistic son, Euan" (in the first, Euan possesses ASD, in the second, ASD possesses him).
BUT, I am a full-time carer who has no back-up and a shady medical past (2 blocked kidneys and sepsis 3 years ago left me fighting for my life for a month) and it strikes me that while the above concerns are correct, it's simply just practical to allow medical teams access to the appropriate information should anything happen.
Are there any other carers with thoughts on this?
Q4. Parents telling children.
I've seen a lot about how parents explain diabetes to their children when it's the child's diagnosis, but next to nothing on how to explain a parent's diagnosis to a child. Much less how to explain it to a child with autism / socio-emotional issues / learning difficulties.
I'm a parent who very much believes in truth at all times and information ALWAYS being available. But how do you explain diabetes to children? How much info is too much?
My strategy thus far is to take Euan with me to the appointment on Wednesday and let him be as much a part of what's going on as I am. To let him see a testing meter and watch it in use, to ask questions about numbers, life expectancy and so on. I want someone with authority to categorically answer his questions and anxieties - but am I making Dio too significant? Am I building and investing in it too much?
Anyone else's thoughts would be welcome!
Q5. Grief. Coming to terms. Shame. Negative emotions.
I've been grotesquely and painfully aware of my weight since before I was overweight - thanks, Mum. I'm 6' tall and built like a Cornish fisherman and, since I was a kid, back when you could still count every rib in my chest, I've always read as overweight on every weight chart.
Doctors will tell me that my ideal weight is around 11 stone. When I weighed 14 stone, I couldn't lie on the floor without my hips getting bruised. With this obvious disconnect between What Doctors Say and what my experience in my body has been, it seems obvious now that diabetes has always been something of an inevitability.
In the last week, since my diagnosis, I've found it very hard to tell even my closest friends because I've felt so ashamed. The media does a grand job of shaming the overweight as it is - as if we woke up one morning and said to ourselves "Sod it, I'm going to get really, really fat and stop moving and continue like this for years. Then I'm going to let someone else worry about all this for me!"
I've seen obesity variously described as a disease, a modern plague, a lifestyle choice. The truth is, I've been too busy single-handedly raising, learning about, understanding, fighting for a disabled child with complex needs to consider my own health for quite some time, and before Euan arrived, the guidance was neither realistic nor helpful.
I'm curious, how has anyone else coped with these feelings? Where do you find your strongest support? How did you beat the shame?
Q6 (A final quickie) To gastric band or not gastric band?
I might be facing spinal surgery already. What are people's thoughts about gastric banding?
Many thanks in advance to any and all replies.
Love and good readings,
Sock x
