Missed Diagnosis

Hi, sorry you have had such a difficult experience so far. Many people on here with Type 2 have had a lot of success in lowering their blood sugar numbers with adding in exercise daily and eating a low carb diet, so you are definitely in the right place.

Many foods that can make your blood sugar go up a lot are things like bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and dairy milk (the milk you put in tea, although Dairy Milk chocolate is very sugary!).

A good way of getting more information on what affects your blood sugar is to get a blood glucose monitor and strips, and test at the first bite of food and then 2 hours later.

Some people also use a CGM - continuous glucose monitor, which shows you what is happening minute to minute and is very useful to see what foods are problematic and how different things affect you, for example, stress, and illness - I am currently higher than normal as I have a cold and can usually see it coming via the blood sugar numbers before I am sympromatic!

@Rachox has a list of the blood glucose monitors and where to get them as cheaply as possible.

This forum is really brilliant as a place to come for support and to see what other people have found works for them. I would have been lost on diagnosis completely if I had not found the forum and learned so much that could help me manage the diabetes, even though there have been a lot of stumbles on the way I feel I am now doing OK and have got my HbA1c down to 40, when it was in the 120s last year like yours.

edited to add - some diabetes drugs cannot be combined safely with very low carb diets, as Resurgam has mentioned in their post, so testing is a good idea in order to make sure you are not causing yourself issues by going too low carb.

Hello @mark.hance and welcome to the forum.
Are you concentrating on sugar, or all carbohydrates?
When taking gliclazide you do ned to have some carbohydrate in your diet, but high blood glucose levels can result from starches just as much as sugars.

Thanks for the tag @AllieRainbow , I think as @mark.hance is on gliclazide he should have been provided with blood testing equipment. If you haven’t Mark it might be worth checking with your GP if they can prescribe it for you, rather than funding it yourself.

@mark.hance As people here mention, people with diabetes have to look at all carbohydrates not just sugars. It is a general misunderstanding by most people until diabetes rears its head. All carbohydrates affect us. I’m a type one on insulin, I do not eat any carbohydrates without matching them with insulin. As you are taking glicazide I agree with @Rachox your Gp should be providing a blood testing kit. I also agree with your concerns about your Gp being a little slow in the information and help they are giving you.

Unfortunately, doctors can be slow in diagnosing or indeed quite casual about doing so. My diagnosis was in 2015 with the words, 'You are diabetic' and zero follow-up for about 5 years despite my pushing. 11 years later, I have just had my first appointment with a diabetic dietician...ho hum.

My situation is similar - my medical records show I was pre diabetic in 2016 but nobody told me! Then when I went to the Dr in 2018 with blurry vision I was told I was then diabetic with a HbA1c of 67! When I questioned it, I was told well it’s too late now isn’t it so just do diet and exercise for 3 months and see how it goes

9 months later my bloods hadn’t changed so was started on Metformin. I have been on the slow release version since and seem to tolerate it well although there has been little change in my A1c over the years.

I have seen the practice nurse several times, although with minimal contact through covid. I’ve had little guidance from them about how to manage my sugars and no info about low carb. I’ve been tried on dapagliflozin and Alogliptin but couldn’t tolerate either of them.

It’s interesting to read that with gliclazide, I should have been given a testing machine but despite my asking, I was told I was not entitled to one and it was only for type 2’s on insulin. I bought my own at this point as I failed to see how I could manage my sugars without it.

In March 2025 I was due to have surgery on my hand. I was sat there, all prepped and ready to go to theatre when the surgeon appeared and asked how long I had known that my sugars were so high. My A1c was 95 and they could not do the surgery as anaesthetic guidelines need it to be below 60 for surgery!

I begged to be put on insulin immediately due to them refusing my surgery. I have been on Humulin I since. My A1c initially came down to 62 and they agreed to do the surgery but it is not really controlled, despite the insulin. I do finally though have a funded monitor and testing strips.

You have to be very pro active with getting follow ups from GP’s. It will take years at my surgery from someone to contact me and it is very unlikely to be the GP, they usually leave management of long term conditions to the practice nurses.

I’ve not done myself any favours as have basically been in denial about my diabetes from the time I was diagnosed. I am very angry with the whole situation but it is what it is now and only I can do something about it. I have finally been referred to a dietician when I told them I was doing low carb, they think it might be helpful! Lol