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Need some advice please

chili

Member
Messages
19
OK i am 53, 6ft 1" and tip the scales at 15st.
about 2.5 yrs ago i was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. this came about because of my feeling constantly tired and my love of sweets, i had the blood sugar test done at my local hospital. Anyway i cut out the 2 spoons of sugar in my tea but other than that i have done nothing in the way of diet or consistent exercise. during the 1st few months i was self testing at every meal time i was like a bloody pin cushion, however all my self tests were in my opinion fine never above 7 when i tested myself 2hrs after eating. i was taking 500mg of metformin 2 tabs twice a day (2000mg total) while taking this i suffered from random dizziness, nausea, vomitting, and to put it politly exploding bowels, by this i mean 1 minute i would be fine the next i had to run to the toilet literally and my backside would open up like the suez canal, eventually i got sick of this and stopped taking the tablets, and none of these effects re-occured, ate as per normal and generally carried on with life as i did pre diagnosis. during this time when i attended my clinic for the hbc1a check up the result were always according to the nurse good 6.2's 6.5's nothing ever above 7.
anyway this december just gone at my lastest hbc1a test i confessed i had stopped taking the metformin and explained why, the nurse asked me to try the SR version of which i did, for the first 2 weeks i took 1 x 500g tablet once a day with my evening meal everything was fine, then as instructed i increased this to 2 tablets with evening meal, the first few days everything seemed fine then yesterday i had bad dizziness, nausea, extremely bad vomiting and seriously bad runs everything seemed to be luminous yellow coming out of both ends. Now i drive buses for a living and these effects are something i do not need while in control of a bus, so again i have decided to stop taking these tablets and hopefully these effects will once again stop.

My overall thoughts are "am i actually type 2 diabetc" everything to me seems to say i am borderline diabetic and not full blown type 2 using my self testing results to form this opinion.
i must say the help i have recieved from my local clinic has been very sparse right from day 1, i was told to alter my diet and portion size, and be on my way, i recived no info on what was good to eat or what was bad to eat, i done some research into various foods etc, but i felt at my age i want to enjoy my grub. even now i still eat sweets and ice cream and i have a whiskey when off work and i still randomly test myself and as always my sygar levels are below 7 at the 2hr interval after my binge

so in my position what would you do or suggest?

many thanks for reading this (bit late but happy new year too)

chili
 
You know your body best. Your BG numbers seem OKish, a little higher than normal but nothing drastic. Some healthcare providers find it easier and quicker to medicate rather than educate. If you don't tolerate the tablets well, I would not take them. However, I would let them know. If you can find time to take some regular exercise, this will be more beneficial then the metformin anyway ! Good luck ! Mo
 
i know it seems hard on met as im new on it the side effects go quite quickley so maybe try taking them a litle longer, if u poss can, try drinking plenty of water to help keep ur system flushing , as a driver it is hard and i dont think theres any quick fix here, best of luck to you x
 
Hi. Sounds like you are very borderline. I suspect if you were to reduce your carbs e.g. sweets (a no-no) and not worry about the Met you would come right into the normal range. Try it and see what the meter says.
 
many thanks for the replies. what would you guys suggest for taking to work that is easy and convinient then? at the moment i am taking tinned fruit salad
 
many thanks for the replies. what would you guys suggest for taking to work that is easy and convinient then? at the moment i am taking tinned fruit salad
You could take nuts, pieces of chicken ? You can Google low carb snacks and there will be some good ideas.
 
Cheese, hard boiled eggs, celery, salad are good for packed lunches.

If you want to watch your carbs which is a great way of reducing blood sugar then I recommend the book Carbs and Cals. It shows photos of real food with portion sizes and tells you the carbohydrate, calories, fat and fibre. It sounds a bit like a gimmick but I found it quite an eye-opened

Let us know how you get on

Cara
 
I make myself salad boxes with mixed salad and cherry tomatoes as a base.
I then add different stuff on a daily basis such as different flavoured chicken, peppered beef, boiled eggs, pork, venison, cheese and ham.
I buy my meat from the deli and packets of flavoured chicken from the meats section. I don't touch bread at the moment. I make up for that with extra meat.
It takes me 2-3 mins to make on a night. Oh and I also add salad dressing.

Keeping it tasty and interesting is key to me sticking to it.

Good luck.


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