Uhmm, now that I've broken the posting ice and seem to be going a bit OTT I thought I'd use my energy today to introduce myself properly.
I'm 55, weigh 17 1/2 (was 18 1/2) stone, 5ft 10, but still got all my hair.
25 years ago, I was reasonably fit, slim and a chain smoker of roll ups.
Then I became a JW and as part of that I gave up smoking. The first thing I noticed was that I began to put on weight and more weight.
Some years ago (more than 5 I think), and I just cannot remember when, as part of some blood test my doctor told me I had diabetes type II. He said lose some weight, do some exercise. I did neither just kept on with my sedentary lazy life and though I tried the gym for a few months that's all I did.
Oh he gave me a blood glucose meter and I just took the occasional reading and recorded it, but it didn't really figure. It was up and down like a yoyo and so like my blood pressure didn't seem to be consistent enough to mean anything. I think I was once told my HgA1c reading, but it meant nothing.
Then he decided to put me on Metformin, gliclazide, januvia for the diabetes, ramipril and simvastatin and . an aspirin. What a drag. Anyway I just took them.
The worst symptom I experienced at this time was a lessening of er, prowess!
I sort of knew diabetes was a bad thing, but since I didn't feel much different I wasn't bothered.
I then read about how a gastric bypass could end my diabetes and so I gave some consideration to that and was sent to the local hospital. Fortuitously there was a series on tv about gastric bypass surgery as well. The consultant sent me to the dietician - I had to lose some weight first and to the diabetes doctor who put me on Byetta, taking me off the Januvia.
It was a pain in the neck having to inject myself before each meal, though the injections themselves didn't bother me - I have enough midriff fat - sigh. After a year? I asked to be put on Bydureon with it's once a week injection. The needle was much bigger for this and sometimes very painful as well as a faff, but better once a week than twice a day.
Every year I would have my feet checked and my retinopathy exam - both okay, though my health area -stoke-on-Trent) stopped the foot exam, which I now feel is appalling.
I didn't have any side effects, but neither did I lose any weight, in fact my weight increased during this time. However, every six months back to the diabetic doctor who just said, improve your diet and do some exercise. I said to the dietician that I realised I wasn't going to change my diet that much and just couldn't be bothered doing exercise, so we agreed not to bother seeing her anymore. The diet suggested was just a balanced type thing. I knew I had to cut back on the beer and the chocolate biscuits and eat more fruit and veg, but English fruit and veg seemed so horrible compared to what you get from the markets in France etc that I just paid lip service to that.
I also decided that the gastric surgery was much too drastic for me and had a high risk and since I hadn't lost any weight the surgeon wouldn't do it anyway.
During all this time I never got the impression that I was ever given any serious explanation as to what was going on with the diabetes, how it worked, what I could do. It just seemed to be lose weight, do exercise and you'll be right.
I noted that I had elevated blood glucose level at the start of the morning and when I mentioned this to the diabetes nurse (who was sort of monitoring my byetta/bydureon use) just suggested I have an extra gliclazide. It didn't do any good.
A year or so ago I noted pain in my arms and in the shoulder. I was sent for an injection that sorted out the pain in the shoulder eventually, but the pain in my arms kept on.
I mentioned this to the doc who said and did nothing.
Three months ago I noted that my blood glucose seemed to be getting a bit higher, again mentioned to the doc who said and did nothing. By this time my simvastatin had been changed to atorvastatin and dded amlipodine (or whatever its called). I didn't feel as well with this and I noted my arm pain got worse.
Doc didn't seem bothered when I mentioned it to him.
I got called in to be told my liver ALT reading was twice as high as it should be and that I needed to stop drinking for three months. I used to have a beer or two at night.
I also got called in to visit the eye doctor at the hospital as a result of my last retinopathy exam. This was a bit worrying as it hadn't looked like a problem.
Then one night about a month ago (May 3rd 2014) I was looking at the captions on the tv and noted a blurry spot in my vision. This was rather more worrying. I later found it that it was probably sugar getting into the fluid in the eye and causing the rays of light to be diffracted slightly differently - like a sugar drop in the eye fluid.
Again when I mentioned this to the doc he just looked at me and said nothing. He gave me an inhaler for my cough.
However, this blurriness at last worried me enough that I decided that I needed to get to grips with my diabetes and pains as no-one else was going to.
Very fortunately I saw the book Blood Sugar 101 on Amazon, downloaded it and was blown away.
I couldn't believe how ignorant I was. I'm not stupid - I teach computer programming, maths and statistics etc - but man was I ignorant about something that was heading towards killing me horribly.
I realised I didn't want to go blind as I love reading etc.
Over the last month (is it only that long?) I have gone mad with the blood glucose meter, at first taking my readings every hour and graphing the results. It's cost me a fortune in strips, though the doc has now increased my prescription, I have read Bernstein and many other forums. I have now come off my meds totally from today, though I know this will have an adverse effect on my blood glucose for a while, but I just need to get rid of this cough and I am on a low carb diet, which is hard work, but at least I can see the results on my testing. The Dawn Phenomenon is my biggest issue, and my cough is lessening. My arms still hurt, but not as bad as when on the atorvastatin.
My doctor won't let me try basal insulin. I have to see the hospital doctor later this month, see what he says. My ALT is hgher than it was before, so now I have to go for a liver scan.
However, I am now in some kind of control, I now have the power to decide what I will or will not do about the diabetes. I now have a good chance of not going blind.
My average bg was 9.3, for the last month it has been 6.1 - That I consider a battle won in the war.
Look forward to sharing.
I'm 55, weigh 17 1/2 (was 18 1/2) stone, 5ft 10, but still got all my hair.
25 years ago, I was reasonably fit, slim and a chain smoker of roll ups.
Then I became a JW and as part of that I gave up smoking. The first thing I noticed was that I began to put on weight and more weight.
Some years ago (more than 5 I think), and I just cannot remember when, as part of some blood test my doctor told me I had diabetes type II. He said lose some weight, do some exercise. I did neither just kept on with my sedentary lazy life and though I tried the gym for a few months that's all I did.
Oh he gave me a blood glucose meter and I just took the occasional reading and recorded it, but it didn't really figure. It was up and down like a yoyo and so like my blood pressure didn't seem to be consistent enough to mean anything. I think I was once told my HgA1c reading, but it meant nothing.
Then he decided to put me on Metformin, gliclazide, januvia for the diabetes, ramipril and simvastatin and . an aspirin. What a drag. Anyway I just took them.
The worst symptom I experienced at this time was a lessening of er, prowess!
I sort of knew diabetes was a bad thing, but since I didn't feel much different I wasn't bothered.
I then read about how a gastric bypass could end my diabetes and so I gave some consideration to that and was sent to the local hospital. Fortuitously there was a series on tv about gastric bypass surgery as well. The consultant sent me to the dietician - I had to lose some weight first and to the diabetes doctor who put me on Byetta, taking me off the Januvia.
It was a pain in the neck having to inject myself before each meal, though the injections themselves didn't bother me - I have enough midriff fat - sigh. After a year? I asked to be put on Bydureon with it's once a week injection. The needle was much bigger for this and sometimes very painful as well as a faff, but better once a week than twice a day.
Every year I would have my feet checked and my retinopathy exam - both okay, though my health area -stoke-on-Trent) stopped the foot exam, which I now feel is appalling.
I didn't have any side effects, but neither did I lose any weight, in fact my weight increased during this time. However, every six months back to the diabetic doctor who just said, improve your diet and do some exercise. I said to the dietician that I realised I wasn't going to change my diet that much and just couldn't be bothered doing exercise, so we agreed not to bother seeing her anymore. The diet suggested was just a balanced type thing. I knew I had to cut back on the beer and the chocolate biscuits and eat more fruit and veg, but English fruit and veg seemed so horrible compared to what you get from the markets in France etc that I just paid lip service to that.
I also decided that the gastric surgery was much too drastic for me and had a high risk and since I hadn't lost any weight the surgeon wouldn't do it anyway.
During all this time I never got the impression that I was ever given any serious explanation as to what was going on with the diabetes, how it worked, what I could do. It just seemed to be lose weight, do exercise and you'll be right.
I noted that I had elevated blood glucose level at the start of the morning and when I mentioned this to the diabetes nurse (who was sort of monitoring my byetta/bydureon use) just suggested I have an extra gliclazide. It didn't do any good.
A year or so ago I noted pain in my arms and in the shoulder. I was sent for an injection that sorted out the pain in the shoulder eventually, but the pain in my arms kept on.
I mentioned this to the doc who said and did nothing.
Three months ago I noted that my blood glucose seemed to be getting a bit higher, again mentioned to the doc who said and did nothing. By this time my simvastatin had been changed to atorvastatin and dded amlipodine (or whatever its called). I didn't feel as well with this and I noted my arm pain got worse.
Doc didn't seem bothered when I mentioned it to him.
I got called in to be told my liver ALT reading was twice as high as it should be and that I needed to stop drinking for three months. I used to have a beer or two at night.
I also got called in to visit the eye doctor at the hospital as a result of my last retinopathy exam. This was a bit worrying as it hadn't looked like a problem.
Then one night about a month ago (May 3rd 2014) I was looking at the captions on the tv and noted a blurry spot in my vision. This was rather more worrying. I later found it that it was probably sugar getting into the fluid in the eye and causing the rays of light to be diffracted slightly differently - like a sugar drop in the eye fluid.
Again when I mentioned this to the doc he just looked at me and said nothing. He gave me an inhaler for my cough.
However, this blurriness at last worried me enough that I decided that I needed to get to grips with my diabetes and pains as no-one else was going to.
Very fortunately I saw the book Blood Sugar 101 on Amazon, downloaded it and was blown away.
I couldn't believe how ignorant I was. I'm not stupid - I teach computer programming, maths and statistics etc - but man was I ignorant about something that was heading towards killing me horribly.
I realised I didn't want to go blind as I love reading etc.
Over the last month (is it only that long?) I have gone mad with the blood glucose meter, at first taking my readings every hour and graphing the results. It's cost me a fortune in strips, though the doc has now increased my prescription, I have read Bernstein and many other forums. I have now come off my meds totally from today, though I know this will have an adverse effect on my blood glucose for a while, but I just need to get rid of this cough and I am on a low carb diet, which is hard work, but at least I can see the results on my testing. The Dawn Phenomenon is my biggest issue, and my cough is lessening. My arms still hurt, but not as bad as when on the atorvastatin.
My doctor won't let me try basal insulin. I have to see the hospital doctor later this month, see what he says. My ALT is hgher than it was before, so now I have to go for a liver scan.
However, I am now in some kind of control, I now have the power to decide what I will or will not do about the diabetes. I now have a good chance of not going blind.
My average bg was 9.3, for the last month it has been 6.1 - That I consider a battle won in the war.
Look forward to sharing.