• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

New to being a diabetic

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start Date Start Date
A

Anonymous

Guest
Good evening all.

Sorry to bother you all but i am new to this and i will try and explain.

My name is andy and i live on the south coast.

Last week, i collapsed at home after feeling awful, dizzy, etc.

I was rushed into hospital and put on an iv drip and i awaited to find out what was wrong with me ?

All afternoon, evening and night i was on the iv, then combined with a glucose drip and a very large looking syringe type thing in a machine called insulin, i was pumped !

Every hour, my fingers were stabbed for blood, and blood pressures etc etc were taken and i still felt lousey.

By monday morning breakfast (no sleep) my fingers were so sore and looked like very large sausages and my wrists were painful too with these tube things inserted into a multi drip tube thingy ma jig.

After breaky, i was poked, prodded more blood taken etc and i was informed that i was now a diabetic, type 2.
My sugar levels on admittance was 44, which to me, meant nothing at all !

Over a few days, the nurses and doctors brought my sugar levels down to 20 ish which sounded better than 44 !

So, now it seems i have to change my ways and listening and hearing some of the horror stories of being diabetic, is not much fun really.

They gave me a blood testing machine, pricker thing and test strips and now i have cut out 90 % sugars, my levels remain around 20 - 25 !

I have to attend a clinic tomorrow to learn more so to say a certain part of my body goes half a crown, sixpence, half a crown sixpence is an understatement !

Ok, now i bored you all to death, i'll look round this site ! :lol:
 
Good luck and do come back for more info as you need it. It's scary being diagnosed isn't it?
Don't listen to the horror stories. We are in a better situation now than at any time in history. You have to look after yourself, but don't let the scare tactics get you down.
One thing - do ask them how they are sure they've put you in the 'type 2' category. Most diabetics are type 2, and they may have assumed you are, but if you are still struggling to get your sugars down despite cutting carbs so much, you might benefit from checks to see if you are one of us rare and lovely type 1s. :wave:
 
Hi Andy and welcome to the forum :)

Here is some information which we give new members which will be helpful to you to get started. Ask all the questions you need to as there is always someone here 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 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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please sign our e-petition for free testing for all type 2's; here's the link:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition/

Do get your friends and colleagues to sign as well.
 
Grizzly Bear said:
They gave me a blood testing machine, pricker thing and test strips and now i have cut out 90 % sugars, my levels remain around 20 - 25 !
Click to expand...

If you are new to this Andy then you may not be fully aware of all the foods that the body can turn into sugar. The major ones are flour, rice and potatoes.

Don't worry, you don't have to stop eating all of those but if your meter readings remain high then think of what you ate and if it contains one or more of those then you will have to cut down on it. Don't go hungry as a result, eat more meat and veg.

Another problem is finding out what some ultra processed foods are made of. Many of them contain flour and sugar sadly. There is one famous gravy which is 60% carbohydrate. The recipe for it is starch and caramel (flour and sugar). It's never seen a cow.

Good luck finding out what to eat.
 
My god,

this is a lot to take in here on this site !

Thank you Snodger for your info. I went to see diabetic nurse and she took my readings from my test machine today.
she told me it is early days and not to panic. easier said than done in my case, i still feel nervous now !

Daisy, thank you for what you posted and i shall trawl through what you put on here, thank you.

Squire, thank you for the tips and yes, i am now looking to see what has high levels of sugar etc.
I popped into a supermarket after the nurse and looked at the sugar contents on items i wanted, my god, it was eye opening !


I feel scared as there is so much to learn and take on board etc !

Oh well, here goes everyone :D

Thank you all :thumbup:
 
Welcome to the forum Grizzly

Take your time

You've had db for a while - it didnt come overnight

Take time to get your head round it all, read and ask questions

Mary x
 
(((((Hugs to you Grizzly))))) ... it is scary being diagnosed at the best of times but you seem to have been through the mill with your diagnosis but at least now you know what you're dealing with, you can get sorted. Stick with this forum, it really is the best thing since carb free sliced bread which hasn't been invented yet!

Daisy has given you some great info up there but you don't have to take it all in at once. The main thing is to know what foods to avoid and I've found this website absolutely brilliant for helping me with that - http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Keep on posting and asking questions - we're all learning from each other here. :)
 
Good morning Grace, i cannot stop laughing at your avtar, very good. :lol:

thank you for replying and yes, i do need to know what to avoid food wise ! :?

I don't drink, i don't smoke.
I hate chocolate and fast foods !

The nurse yesterday said things like spuds, rice, pasta are not good !
I also need to have a photo of my eyes i believe from specsavers ?

Aaaaahhhhh ! Roll on when i see the diet nurse ! :crazy:

I will learn soon so much about being diabetic :crazy:

andy
 
Good luck with it, Andy. Everyone here talks a lot about what to eat and to not eat -- and that's the key to controlling this disease. You're on a good path in that you don't like chocolate and fast food. You'll find it's really criminal what they put into some of the foods that seem to be innocuous. My husband who is T2 was looking at a number of foods yesterday and was astounded to find that orange juice was so high in carbs (he believed it when he read it - better than listening to me! ;) )

You'll get into a groove once you figure out what works for you and what doesn't. And you get to meet all these nice people here! ;)
 
Back
Top