New diabetic nurse

[Sun7 flower]

Hi all, I went for my part two diabetic appointment this morning, new nurse had always seen the Doctor, who was happy with everything I did, I had never been told it's not what I eat you can eat what you like, it's all about meds I am on Metformin I was was really taken back by her comments, has anybody else been told this.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. I've seen many posts like this about nurses who I'm afraid don't always have a clue. For all of us, diet matters a lot and that means keeping the carbs down. For T1s medication will also be needed and for T2s Metformin often helps but with the right diet medication can sometimes be avoided by T2s or kept at Metformin only. All you can do with the nurse is smile and do what you know matters.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi,

I would imagine most of us type 2s are told this. I certainly was told to eat plenty of carbs, especially wholemeal bread, although I was never offered Metformin and was given a chance to lower my levels with diet and weight loss.. Your nurse is wrong. If you follow her advice your Metformin dose will get increased before too long, then other tablets will be added, and eventually insulin. The choice is yours, but diet is the key, not increased medication.

As a matter of interest, what was your HbA1c on diagnosis and more recently.? Also, what are you doing that your doctor approved of?

 

[Sun7 flower]

Thanks for the replies, Bluetit the Doctor was always very happy with my diet which I am careful with, my blood pressure was always fine also, Nurse told me my reading was 55 and it should be 54 I was told no need to test on Metformin, all she seemed interested in was putting me on more meds, which I refused, told me to come back in three months for another review, so working extra hard on my diet.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi again,

Have you decided to ignore her advice not to test? I hope so, because testing is the only way to gain proper control. Testing before and after food, keeping a food diary including portion sizes, and recording your levels alongside will help you enormously because it will show you where you are going wrong with your diet (and also what you are doing right.)

A reading of 55 isn't bad at all, but with testing and learning from testing you could get this down even further before your next test.

 

[Sun7 flower]

Hi Bluetit , the Doctor won't give me testing kit so where do I get it. from can I get it from the chemist, I would like to test to see what I am doing and where I am going wrong.

 

[hornplayer]

You can get them in Boots. Plenty of other places too. My GP gave me a test kit, as they'd just been sent some samples, but I buy my own lancets and strips. Tesco order them in for me. I agree with Bluetit. It's really important to test. Without that it's very easy to convince yourself that everything is going well just because you don't feel bad. Trouble is, the body gets used to higher readings and the symptoms for high BG are very like the symptoms for low BG. Mixing those two up can lead to all sorts of problems.


Sent from my iPad using DCUK Forum

 

[ally1]

The cheapest meter to buy and cheapest test strips is the sd codefree. Which is bought from the internet

 

[Sun7 flower]

Thank you hornplayer, will go and investigate at my local boots.

 

[LittleG]

http://homehealth-uk.com/ I think this is the website that a lot of users here buy from, someone will be able to give you the code to order the strips in bulk for much cheaper. The testing machines are relatively cheap but you have to be careful which one you buy as the strips can be expensive. I think the cheapest machine and strips is the Codefree on this website.

 

[Sun7 flower]

Thanks ally1, will look at that option as well.

 

[LittleG]

Beware buying from Boots, they do a really nice cheap machine Accu Chek mobile but the replacement cassettes are £25 - £30 for 50 tests which is very expensive. There are much cheaper options.

 

[Sun7 flower]

Thanks to everybody for your help, will be looking into it.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hi Bluetit , the Doctor won't give me testing kit so where do I get it. from can I get it from the chemist, I would like to test to see what I am doing and where I am going wrong.

Try here for the Codefree meter, which many of us self-funders buy because the strips cost very little. If you buy from any pharmacy, ask how much the strips cost then compare to the Codefree. It is a good little meter.

http://homehealth-uk.com/product-category/blood-glucose/

Pharmacies don't sell them, and don’t forget to declare you are diabetic in order to avoid any VAT.

There are discount codes if you buy in bulk
5 packs 264086
10 packs 975833