New to this diabetes thing!

Hija Matt

Welcome to the Forum, I have only be 'posting' for just over a week but it has been a great help to me.

Your B/S is still very high and needs to come down my main question would be what are you eating? If you are eating a balanced diet but one with lots of Carbs try cutting down on the Carbs first to see if this has nay effect. I would also go back to my GP and request to be referred to a Diabetic specialist nurse - this has possibly saved my life.

I found initially my control was very good and this lasted for over one year it was after this time I 'lost' control and then it took another 9 months trying other types of tablets before my DSN recommended Byetta - this is injected but it is not insulin. The Byetta started to work straight away and even though I have only been on it less than a week I have started to loose weight as well!!

All i can say is you have found an excellent source of VERY GOOD support and information. So Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Jacqueline

Hi Matt and welcome to you.

You have made a pretty good start with the metformin, getting down to 16+ from 24+. Hopefully the metformin will continue to help the BG levels get lower, but you can help this process along yourself. The carbohydrate in the food we eat is what creates blood sugar in the first place, so if you want to have lower blood sugars then the answer is just eat less carbohydrate. Yes, it really is as simple as that.

Have a look at the starchy carbs that you eat now, things like breakfast cereal, bread, rice, pasta and potatoes, and see what you can cut down on. I don't mean not eat at all, but just reduce. For example, if you normally eat breakfast cereal then every other day have something different (like egg and bacon, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, omelette, ham and cheese). Try one of the lower carb breads (like Nimble at around 8g carb per slice) instead of white or wholemeal at 15g+ per slice. If you would normally have potatoes with a meal. try having half the spuds but more of one of the other vegs. If you like shepherds pie, try it with mashed cauli on the top instead of mashed potato.

How long you have to get things under control depends entirely on your GP's attitude towards diabetes treatment. Most will want to see how you are doing after 3 months, and if the treatment (and your diet) is working they will give you another 3 months, then maybe another 6, etc. Many people manage to stay on a combination of metformin and diet control for years. Metformin is by no means the only oral treatment available and if your GP feels that the metformin needs to be supplemented with something else then he might prescribe a sulphonylurea or a glitazone treatment, alongside the metformin. There are also a number of newer meds that tackle Type-2 diabetes in a completely different way, like Januvia and Byetta.

Most GPs seem to take the line that, if they can't get your bloods stable on tablets, then they eventually have to resort to insulin injections. But, as I said above, you can't just rely on the meds alone - you have to be prepared to help them.

Remember that we are here to answer any questions you have and to support you as much as we can, so just fire away if there's anything you are not sure of.

Hi Matt,

That's more bread than is good for you, and a huge amount of fruit. Bread is full of starch and fruit is full of sugar (fructose). Both will cause a big rise in your blood sugar. Have a good read around the forum, particurlarly around the food-related threads. You will find a common theme that all those who are most successful in controlling their blood sugar are on a diet that is much lower in carbs than what the medical profession recommends for a normal healthy diet. And when you think about it that makes perfect sense. Carbohydrates are what causes blood sugar to rise, diabetics have difficulty dealing with high blood sugar, so the logical solution is simply eat less carbs.

On the drinks side, coffee and tea are not a problem. But use a sweetener instead of sugar if you have to have them sweetened. Fizzy drinks are also fine - provided you stick strictly to the diet versions, not the full-strength ones which are extremely high sugar. In terms of what to avoid, just read what it tells you on the label. When it says for example
carbohydrate = 25g
of which sugar = 10g
That is telling you that the 10g of sugar will cause your blood sugar level to shoot up immediately. The remaining 15g that is made up of other forms of carbohydrate will also raise your blood sugar, but more slowly (could be anything from 10 minutes to a couple or hours depending on how quick-acting they are). You will find that diet coke for example contains hardly any carb so won't sent your sugars rocketing.

Labels always say how many carbs there are per 100g. Some people suggest that anything containing more than 10g carbohydrate per 100g should be avoided. I personally find that a little too strict and I tend to avoid anything over 15g carb per 100g. However, an important thing to remember is that we are all different, have different body shapes, different metabolisms, different amounts of exercise, so what works for one person will not necessarily work for anyone else. You will find that over time you will come to understand exactly what foods works for you and what don't. You won't gain this knowledge overnight, nor do you need to. It will be a slow learning process, but by the end of it you will feel that you are in complete control of your diabetes and in the event that your sugar levels suddenly spike, you will know exactly what caused it.

Hi, I bought my own meter and tried differant things, one thing i tried was test, then go for a walk for half hour and test again, my number dropped about 2 points.
The other thing i tried was a LARGER this also dropped my numbers, ????? dont ask me.