New person!

[mazz33]

Hello!
I was diagnosed on the 18th. My blood glucose was 23.6, and I had ketones (still not sure what that means). Ended up in A&E with bad pain, but turned out not to be acidic lactosis (?) which is good.
Fasting blood test was 16.2.

Since then I've been eating no sugar, low salt, low fat. Cut out bread entirely. Wholemeal versions of rice and pasta. Lots of salads and lean meats, Oatibix and unsweetened almond milk. I'm on 4x 500mg Metformin a day. I've got the first diabetes clinic next week so I hope to get more info about eating and exercising.

I've had some side effects from the Metformin. Stomach upset mainly, I find even thinking about food makes me feel nausea! I've had trouble eating, but force myself to do it three times a day. I've lost 9lbs since diagnosis, but this is a good thing!
The nausea with food does bring me down a bit. The only things that don't do it so much are proteins, but other than chicken I'm struggling to find stuff low enough in fat and salt. Fish tends to turn my stomach a bit.

I love vegetables and fruit so that's something.

I keep a diary of food and test results.

The doctor said to test my BG twice a day, but he didn't specify what times. So I do it first thing and last thing at the moment. I will see what the clinic says when I go about that. But my BG has been around 7 each time, so I figure the Metformin is working?

The other thing to mention is that I am having problems with my sight. I can't focus on things close by, they look all blurry. My Hba1c was 10% so I'm guessing I have had high blood sugar for a long enough time to have messed my sight up. I think I read on here that when you start to normalise your blood sugar, your sight might go a bit funny until it settles again?
I'm going to check with the doctor anyway.

I hope this isn't too much info. The diagnosis scared me big time. I am very overweight so I feel it's my fault. I'm determined to sort it out now and get as stable as possible.


(edited to change title as I saw someone else had used the same one)

 

[daisy1]

Hi Molly and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will 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 well over 30,000 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 ... rains.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

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 blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

 

[mazz33]

Thank you Daisy!
I guess my main question is whether the Metformin effect is permanent or wears off. It's basically stopping me from eating, which is remarkable since I was pretty much a gannet before (hence the diabetes I guess). What is other people's experience of this?

 

[Yorksman]

I'm not on Metformin but from what I have seen others write, the worst effects are at the beginning.

If you are very overweight as you put it but are motivated to change your diet in the way that you say, you have good improvements to look forward to. Adjusting your diet should not only allow you lower your BG levels but should, in time, result in weight loss. That will level out eventually though as will your BG levels. The new you will then have to start increasing the exercise that you take and this will help with another period of weight loss and, hopefully, a lowering of BG levels. All you can do is aim to get them as low as you can but, as many people here have discovered, it might even be possible to reduce or come off metformin altogether. Whatever improvements you make are better than giving up or ignoring things. Just don't fall into that bad habit of thinking that the metformin will sort out all your problems for you. It won't, it just helps you along. The willingness has to be in you but you sound as if you already know that.

Monitoring first thing and last thing is not a bad idea but it is also good to test before some foods and test two hours after eating, to see what effect a particular food has on you. You say you don't like fish but there are so many types to choose from. Surely tinned tuna or salmon isn't stomach churning is it?

 

[mazz33]

Hello Yorksman, thank you for replying.

I hope to come off the Metformin at some point, so yes I am going to focus on weightloss and diet change. I am waiting to see the nurse before I start exercising seriously but I've been doing some.
I don't expect the Metformin to take care of it all. I have planned two weeks' of meals and I keep a food diary. I'm really serious about sorting this out, it really woke me up getting the diagnosis.

The evening test is two hours after dinner, and is always around 7 at the moment. I hope to do some more testing around specific foods once I've been to the clinic and they've seen the monitor from the last two weeks.

Ironically tinned fish is what makes my stomach churn the most! It seems to have a metallic taste to it. To be honest though all food makes my stomach churn at the moment, apart from maybe porridge or Oatibix. I was a bit worried when I saw people on here say to avoid grains but I find oats to be very comforting and filling. Will have to test to see what it does to my BG.

I do actually like fish! Or I did before this. I like sashimi the most but it's expensive round here, with our single sushi place!

Cheers