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New Member

PeterWalker

PeterWalker

Newbie
Messages
4
Location
Edinburgh
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi all,

I've been newly diagnosed with diabetes and just wanted to say hi and share my story so far, as I've already found this forum a great resource.

Around 6 months ago I started noticing that weight was dropping off me, and I hadn't changed my diet or exercise habits at all - in the past 6 months I've gone from 100kg to 93kg and counting. This was obviously unusual but could have been a number of things, but I then experienced another problem which I read could also be a sign of diabetes so I asked the doctor to check for it and the dipstick and subsequent HbA1c tests came back positive, and I was told I had type 2 diabetes.

This was just over a month ago and, due to a 3 week holiday, I only just had my follow up appointment at the hospital diabetes clinic yesterday. They were really helpful and thorough (I was there for 4 hours and saw 6 different people!). Anyway, I was a bit suprised when the doctor said they weren't sure what type of diabetes I have, and that my "story" pointed more towards type 1 (LADA was also mentioned). They've taken a further blood sample for a test to check for type 1 which will take a couple of weeks. The way they were speaking, I think they suspect I have type 1 but don't want to confrim until the results come back. I've been given a home test kit that does both glucose and ketones and asked to test glucose 4 times a day before meals and bed, and ketones once a day before bed. They also prescibed me 80mg of Gliclazide a day, which they said wouldn't do anything if I was type 1, so I think it's more of a test to see if I react to it.

I'm male, 32 and 6'4, so while my weight of 100kg might sound high, I wasn't hugely overweight or anything. I also had the full works of blood tests done at the end of 2014 and diabetes didn't flag, so it's come on fairly recently. The glucose test they did yesterday morning was 17, and my home tests have ranged between 5.6 and 13.6, lowest being the before dinner tests. The 5.6 result is a bit of a (low) anomoly and I may have done something wrong as it was the first test I did myself (plus it was just before dinner and I'd eaten very little that day).

I'll continue testing and speaking to the nurse until we figure out exactly what I have, but any thoughts or input would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Peter
 
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Hang on in there and just carry on doing what you are doing and await the results! Not much else you can do at the moment I guess. The good things is they seem to have been thorough which is not always the case! Good luck and stay in touch.
 
Hi, you sound like you are taking it pretty well which is a good thing. I'm glad they are being thorough but I don't understand why the blood test you had yesterday will take a few weeks!? Did they say why?

The 5.6 reading is confusing to me, did you test again straight after to see how they compared?

I'm going to tag @daisy1 who can give you some basic info :)
 
Mrsass said:
Hi, you sound like you are taking it pretty well which is a good thing. I'm glad they are being thorough but I don't understand why the blood test you had yesterday will take a few weeks!? Did they say why?
Click to expand...

Probably because if it's an antibody test, takes a while to return. :)
 
@PeterWalker

Hello Peter and welcome to the forum :) As a start, here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

  • Reduce your carbohydrate intake
  • Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
  • Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
  • Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
  • 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

  • structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
  • self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...cose-testing-supplies-incl-test-strips.19002/


You may also be interested to read
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/questions-to-ask-at-a-diabetes-clinic.17091/


Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
 
Thanks for the advice :)

The 5.6 reading was taken before dinner and I'd had a lot less than usual to eat due to being at the hospital all morning. I'd taken my first Gliclazide tablet at lunch so not sure if that could have had some effect. I did also have to jab my finger 3 times and eventually squeeze it to get some blood for the test, and have since read that squeezing can affect the results (got the hang of it now though!). The before bed reading was back up at 13.6

That said, there does seem to be a dip before dinner, as it was the same (but less extreme) yesterday:

Before Breakfast - 10.4
Before Lunch - 9.2
Before Dinner - 7.3
Before Bed - 9.9

Very early days, so I'm still tying to make sense of the numbers and why there would be a dip before dinner. Could it be that it's because that's the longest period I'll go before having some food, or might the Gliclazide be doing something? Kinda wish I'd had a day or two of readings before starting the Glic to have something to compare to!
 
Hi and welcome. I have to disagree (as an amateur of course) with the experts about the Gliclazide. If you still have working islet cells in your pancreas as you probably do have at this stage, then the Gliclazide will stimulate those cells to produce more insulin. Those LADA's (Late onset T1 or T1.5) still in the honeymoon phase where the islet cells are still functioning to some extent will often be prescribed Gliclazide as I was. So, be aware that your blood sugar could go down into the hypo area but with only 80mg it's unlikely. I assume you are having a the GAD and c-peptide tests done for T1 confirmation. In addition to Gliclazide sometimes another tablet such as Sitagliptin may be added if needed to control the blood sugar. I was on 320mg of Gliclazide and Sitagliptin before insulin. If you are a T1 then insulin may be needed eventually but don't panic as it's not a real problem; more a nuisance
 
Thanks Daibell. The nurse phoned today to see how I was getting on and was happy that the Gliclazide was taking my numbers below 10, and has asked me to take a second 80mg with dinner to try and get the evening/morning numbers down more. She did warn (as they did at the hospital on Tuesday) that the drug can cause hypos and what to look out for.

I asked if the Gliclazide working could tell us anything and, as you've said, the answer was no - she said that we've caught it early enough that I'm probably still producing insulin, but that's likely to reduce as I progress towards type...she then caught herself and said, "well, we don't know what type you are yet!" o_O
 
PeterWalker said:
Thanks Daibell. The nurse phoned today to see how I was getting on and was happy that the Gliclazide was taking my numbers below 10, and has asked me to take a second 80mg with dinner to try and get the evening/morning numbers down more. She did warn (as they did at the hospital on Tuesday) that the drug can cause hypos and what to look out for.

I asked if the Gliclazide working could tell us anything and, as you've said, the answer was no - she said that we've caught it early enough that I'm probably still producing insulin, but that's likely to reduce as I progress towards type...she then caught herself and said, "well, we don't know what type you are yet!" o_O
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update. It looks like you have a nurse who knows what she is doing.
 
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