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Just been told that I have Type 2

James Kidwelly

James Kidwelly

Member
Messages
6
Location
Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My doctor has informed me that my levels are at 65 and now prescribed Metformin 500mg. starting with one per day and two per day etc next week, a slow build up. Bought a Sinocare blood glucose testing system, did a first test yesterday after a fish lunch and it registered 10.9. Did a fasting test first thing this morning that was 8.3. all new. Lunch test today was 11.1, shocked
 
Hi James,
It is not a great feeling, we’ve all been through this. I have been diagnosed 6 weeks ago and still sometimes feeling down about this but you will improve… someone told me on here that this is a marathon rather than a sprint and it takes time to improve. Have you tried low carb diet?
 
Welcome James
There's not a lot you can do to influence your fasting numbers so at first concentrate your efforts on reducing your meal time numbers. If you check your levels just before you eat and again around 2hrs, the difference in the two readings will show how your meal affected your blood sugar. A rise of more than 2 mmol indicates that there were too many carbohydrates for you to process.
If you really want to discover how a certain meal or food affects you you can test at 30 min intervals until your blood sugar is back to its pre meal level. It uses up a lot of strip's and will probably cause sore fingers but you will learn how high that food/meal spikes you and how long it takes to come back down.
 
Karoline said:
Hi James,
It is not a great feeling, we’ve all been through this. I have been diagnosed 6 weeks ago and still sometimes feeling down about this but you will improve… someone told me on here that this is a marathon rather than a sprint and it takes time to improve. Have you tried low carb diet?
Click to expand...
Thanks Karoline, yes but tried a Keto diet and will now probably go back on that one, as I did feel good!
 
catinahat said:
Welcome James
There's not a lot you can do to influence your fasting numbers so at first concentrate your efforts on reducing your meal time numbers. If you check your levels just before you eat and again around 2hrs, the difference in the two readings will show how your meal affected your blood sugar. A rise of more than 2 mmol indicates that there were too many carbohydrates for you to process.
If you really want to discover how a certain meal or food affects you you can test at 30 min intervals until your blood sugar is back to its pre meal level. It uses up a lot of strip's and will probably cause sore fingers but you will learn how high that food/meal spikes you and how long it takes to come back down.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks, its a new learning curve for me. Yes, will try the before and after method, interesting to see the different levels.
 
James Kidwelly said:
will try the before and after method
Click to expand...

It really is the only way to use your meter effectively and actually learn from the test results. A single reading tells you nothing of any value it's just a snapshot of your sugar levels. Take the 11.1 reading that gave you a shock, if before your lunch your level was around say 6, a rise of 5mmol would mean that you need to rethink that meal, cut some carbs out of it or even ditch it from your diet altogether. If on the other hand your pre meal reading was somewhere around 9 then your lunch didn't cause too much of a rise and maybe your breakfast was the culprit.
If you keep a food diary along with your glucose readings, in no time at all you will have a good Idea of what you can eat and what you need to avoid
 
catinahat said:
It really is the only way to use your meter effectively and actually learn from the test results. A single reading tells you nothing of any value it's just a snapshot of your sugar levels. Take the 11.1 reading that gave you a shock, if before your lunch your level was around say 6, a rise of 5mmol would mean that you need to rethink that meal, cut some carbs out of it or even ditch it from your diet altogether. If on the other hand your pre meal reading was somewhere around 9 then your lunch didn't cause too much of a rise and maybe your breakfast was the culprit.
If you keep a food diary along with your glucose readings, in no time at all you will have a good Idea of what you can eat and what you need to avoid
Click to expand...
Yes thanks, need to start keeping better records, its still all new at the moment, give me a few weeks and hopefully I will get the hang of this and hopefully re start my Keto diet.
 
Still learning with my blood glucose meter and taken a test 2 hours after a tea of porridge with honey and a slice of home made lemoncake (with butter cream), this should be interesting? result 4.8 normal..............slightly baffled!!
 
Hello and welcome,

Having a meter is the best thing you can do to help you work out what you can and can't eat.

The 2 hours thing is a guide and helps with consistency. Different amount of fat and exercise will affect when the peak actually is- when I eat something new I often test a few times over three hours and the peak can vary a lot. That said 4.8 is excellent :)

You've made a great start-if you have done keto before you already have some ideas for meals so you are way ahead.

Good luck and welcome. :)
 
VashtiB said:
Hello and welcome,

Having a meter is the best thing you can do to help you work out what you can and can't eat.

The 2 hours thing is a guide and helps with consistency. Different amount of fat and exercise will affect when the peak actually is- when I eat something new I often test a few times over three hours and the peak can vary a lot. That said 4.8 is excellent :)

You've made a great start-if you have done keto before you already have some ideas for meals so you are way ahead.

Good luck and welcome. :)
Click to expand...
ok, thank you.
 
James Kidwelly said:
porridge with honey and a slice of home made lemoncake (with butter cream), this should be interesting? result 4.8 normal..............slightly baffled!!
Click to expand...

Testing is not an exact science and the meters we can buy are not as accurate as we would like. Your 4.8 seems like a great result but was it a faulty strip ? Were your hands completely dry, any moisture can dilute the sample, did the fat in the butter cream delay the absorption of the carbs so the high levels came later ? Who knows. I can guarantee that it won't be the last test result that puzzles you.
If we ignore your strange 4.8 results. Porridge (high carb), honey (pretty much pure sugar) cake (high carb) are not the best choices for a T2. In my opinion the only suitable food you had was possibly the butter cream.
 
Yes, don’t want to be a killjoy but my gut feeling is that the 4.8 result was maybe an error rather than your diabetes being suddenly fixed. OR, more optimistically, maybe the porridge with honey spiked you so dramatically that the spike was much earlier than 2 hours and you missed it (that would be a better option, because at least you did get back to normal!). But porridge with honey? That’s making my blood vessels curl up in horror lol.
 
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