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Lots of questions

M

M4ggie

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
hi I need help understanding the management of my husbands diabetes. He was diagnosed about 3 years ago, aged 36, he was not overweight and played football 4x a wk. However he noticed he was lethargic and going to loo lots. As his mother and father were both diabetic he went to gp, they ran several blood tests and one fasting blood test and eventually diagnosed him type two. While all this was going on he was also getting extreme tummy upsets we thought lactose or gluten intolerant but couldn't work out the link?

We immediately made big changes and were amazed at the hidden sugars in foods, when we cut this out and he started the metformin his tummy improved too!

Now three years on he has been advised as he is a,most 40 he must take a statin and double his dose of metformin as not so well controlled. He runs several times a wk and plays fives but is finding his weight creeping up, the stomach upsets appear sporadically and he is very lethargic and at times irritable. Feel like it's worse again and gp not being very helpful.

What else should we do? I wondered if he should be monitoring his own blood, gp says defo not? I also wonder if he even is type two, he doesn't fit the usual risk factors? Also is his tummy sugar related and is it true he must take a statin?

Lots of questions I know any help much appreciated.
 
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What's he eating is the important question.
 
We eat generally Porridge for breakfast, snack on fruit and nuts and sugar free jelly. Lunch is salad or a wrap, or scrambled eggs?Dinner is generally chicken or fish with veg. He drinks lots of water and green tea. Most food cooked from scratch so we know what's in it.

Advice from gp on diet has been non existent except for don't eat cake and sweeties.
 
All breakfast cereals are a bit dodgey for T2's including porridge.
Saying that I have itr every morning but with a coconut oil in or a table spoonful of butter on to slow down the conversion to glucose.
A lot of T2's can't manage it full stop.
Fruit can also be loaded with sugars .... natural they may be but they are still sugars .... bananas and pineapple being the biggest offenders for me.
So big I no longer touch them.
If it ends in berry is usually a safe one but we're all different.
 
His GP doesn't sound like he knows very much about diabetes. I would be wary of going on a statin, as there are often quite bad side effects, so unless there is a clear and strong need for it, I would stay well away. If your husband can reduce his carbs he might not need an increase of metformin.

Here is some info you and him might find interesting:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/18382053.php
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14047009.php
 
If I'd have listened to my GP's I would be on more medication and fatter and sicker.
Sorry GP's but that is the reality.
Instead I listened to people here and gave it a go .... massive improvement in my diabetes to the point of almost no medication loss of weight lower blood pressure lower bad cholesterol higher good cholesterol and almost total control of my sugar levels.
Almost none diabetic in fact.
 
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M4ggie said:
I wondered if he should be monitoring his own blood, gp says defo not? I also wonder if he even is type two, he doesn't fit the usual risk factors?
Click to expand...

Hi,

Yes your right. Your husband should be monitoring his BS with a meter. You wouldn't know what was going on if you drove a car without the gauges..! Then it's too late when your bloke gets flashed in the "speed trap" of an HbA1c check up.. ;)

Anyone can fit the "risk factor". My dad was an active slim guy.. T2. (His Doc gave him a meter.) There are other, more sporting types on this forum T2 too..
 
Ok so we need to look at the diet more closely. Where is it we should look for best advice? I find that he is always hungry and if too hungry very irritable, I can always tell when he is hungry lol.

Going to buy a testing kit today what features should I be looking for and how much do they cost?

I think we need to look more closely at LADA as surely when he is diagnosed with type two under 40 and not overweight with a strong family history and we immediately dramatically cut the refined sugars out of our diet we should have seen some improvement? Not be doubling doses three years on and still feeling tired.
 
The SC Codefree meter seems to be the most frequently recommended meter on this forum. The test strips are the cheapest, apparently.
 
M4ggie said:
Ok so we need to look at the diet more closely. Where is it we should look for best advice? I find that he is always hungry and if too hungry very irritable, I can always tell when he is hungry lol.

Going to buy a testing kit today what features should I be looking for and how much do they cost?

I think we need to look more closely at LADA as surely when he is diagnosed with type two under 40 and not overweight with a strong family history and we immediately dramatically cut the refined sugars out of our diet we should have seen some improvement? Not be doubling doses three years on and still feeling tired.
Click to expand...
Hi I agree that at that young age and not overweight and active, then LADA becomes possible. Do discuss this possibility with the GP. He may dismiss it like mine did but there are two tests to help diagnose it. If he is a LADA then Metformin isn't the optimum tablet. Ref the statins do ask why they are being prescribed. Don't go by total cholesterol which is irrelevant but the HDL/LDL ratio. This website or Google will tell you the right ranges.
 
Thanks will need to look up all these numbers again. Think he gets access online. Bought a glucose monitor in boots today.

The problem with the statin is that since being put on it he has defo been worse. But they put him on that and doubled the metformin at same time, about start of June and they still haven't checked his blood again. So how do they know it's working? It all seems a little haphazard to me.

My husband is very much of the mindset that you don't question the doctor and they know best. But I don't think they always do.
 
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