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New Diagnosis. Blood Glucose Monitoring, what do I need to know?

S

StevenJS

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I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes on 13th July with a reading of 122, following a blood test.

I was put on Metformin 2 x 1000mg.

However I ended up being admitted to hospital due to my reaction to the heavy dose. Confusion, memory loss, fatigue and blacking out.

I’m now on 1x 500mg. The upside is I feel loads better, due to reduction in dose.

My GP gave me a Blood Glucose Monitor this week (before he was on annual leave from the surgery). I do the test before breakfast and over 3 days it’s been 10.8, 12.3 and now 13.2.

So whilst I’m better, the tablets aren’t impacting and controlling.

I’m even more careful with my diet and whilst still quite ravenous, I’m losing weight and looking a bit withered.

I’ll see my GP when he’s back from holiday. I realise that it’s a bit “trial and error” with medication and it seems Metformin isn’t for me.

However I’m curious as to whether my story is normal and I’m unduly worrying and fixating on Blood Glucose Numbers.

Any observations, tip or guidance would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Steven
 
Welcome to the forum. I was diagnosed at 122 as well. What are you eating in a typical day?

Click on the link in my signature. You should test before you eat and 2 hours after the first bite. If the rise is more than 2 you ate too many carbs.
 
Thanks for your response.

I’ll check whether my carb intake is too much.

In terms of eating, yesterday:

Breakfast - Weetabix, 2x Toast (wholegrain)

Lunch - Tuna Sandwich (wholegrain), plus bag of oven baked crisps.

Dinner - Quorn Chilli (made from scratch). So just veg. Ate double portion

Evening - Banana, Cashew Nuts, plus more toast....still starving.
 
Your breakfast is pretty dreadful. Can you switch to bacon and eggs?

Lunch. The tuna is ok, nothing else.

I would have to look quorn up. What other ingredients?

Evening is pretty horrendous. Two worst fruits for T2 are bananas and grapes. Cashews are high carb.

Don't worry, it's quite a learning curve but we can help.
 
Welcome to the forum Steven, many of us are on here trying to get a handle on what's happening to us.

We've got our preferences, but I couldn't get by without putting all my food consumed in a day through an nutrition app of some sort, I use fatsecret.co.uk through a browser, it's free. As @exfieldok mentioned weetabix is pretty much loaded with carbs. Fatsecret tells me there's 29g of carbs in 2 weetabix with skimmed milk. That would leave me ravenous within half an hour!

This morning I had 3 rashers of back bacon, 2 large eggs mixed with double cream to make scrambled eggs, and three large mushrooms sliced and fried in butter - total carbs = 3.3gs. This breakfast keeps me going till dinner time without a problem.

There are more carbs in milk, so I now have the luxury of having double cream in my coffee (about 1 carb). It's just a matter of adjusting to see what works for you.

We're all different, and what might spike my insulin might be ok for you, that's why you're testing.

If you keep your total net carbs in a day to under 20g, you'll be doing keto, meaning your insulin will be kept low (insulin makes me hungry), ketones will rise (making people satisfied) - ketones also have the ability to raise your metabolic rate, which is great for energy - many sportsmen are on the keto diet because of the energy boost.
 
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Thanks for your helpful response. I’ll certainly have a look at the app. I went through what I was eating with the Diabetes Nurse when I was admitted to hospital. She indicated she was pretty happy with my diet. Although I’m still losing weight, which I don’t want to happen.

I appreciate that I need to establish what works for me. I’ll keep plugging away and monitor my levels and speak to the GP again.

Thanks again.
 
Increase your protein and fat to stop losing weight or to maintain weight.

A lot of health care professionals are hooked on carbs, we know that carbs don't do us any favours.
 
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