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New to Type 2 Diabetes

Z

Zoëlynch

Member
Messages
8
Location
Hampshire, UK
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People who have garden bonfires, especially when they light them up at 6pm on a Saturday evening, just when you would like to relax in your own garden, but cant because they are too **** antisocial to go to the tip and recycle! Rant Over!
Hello

My name is Zoë, I am 50, married with two kids at Uni, and live in Hampshire. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in March after a long running post surgical infection, following treatment for Breast Cancer which was diagnosed last August.

During that time I have been on antibiotics for some 33 weeks now and hospitalised for infection too to have IV medications. I know I am antibiotic resistant bugs bacteria free. Through out all of this no one thought to try and find out why I didn't heal, despite being seen a Dr of one sort or another on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

Eventually my GP decided to screen me for every ailment known to man, and Type 2 Diabetes came up as the bad boy! I have drastically modified my diet, lost some weight, and take Metformin, in the hope that someday soon, my immune system will kick into action and knock the infection (Cellulitis in breast and right arm) on the head. I also suffer Thrush a lot.

I would be grateful for any and all advise with regards to managing infection and Thrush. I also want to learn how to control my diet properly, my scheme so far has been to cut out anything that had refined sugars or fats in it. Also eating mainly chicken or fish, and lots of veg, fruit, cereals, and pulses. I find it horribly restrictive, and eating out is impossible, unless I better understand what I can actually eat.

My blood glucose levels tend to fluctuate a bit, and generally my morning fasting reading is around 7.4. Obviously its early days, but this is vast improvement on what it had been at anywhere between 13.6 and 18.9 prior to diagnosis! I know my medication is under review, and dosages have been changed already. Also aware that being ill, infection, stress and any one of a number of factors messes it all up too, so any advise on how best to interpret these numbers into diet changes would be very welcome too.

Look forward to getting to know you all.

Zoë
 
Hi Zoë,

Welcome to the forums!! I am Alice and we are nearly the same age, although I do not have the Cancer history you have. So pleased to hear you have turned a corner in your recovery! What a battle you have had on your hands! Non-healing wounds are typical of T2 - I had something of a similar experience - now 2.5 weeks into Low/Moderate Carb diet, I have almost healed!! Thrush is another thing common with women with T2, as far as I have been able to gauge on the reading I have done. Treatment? Get some cream/pills or a combination a your chemist and change your diet.

I am, one of many, newly converted to Low/Moderate Carb diets to get the BS numbers down and to help me loose the necessary weight. I was diagnosed just over 2 weeks ago (check my thread in this forum) and the benefits I have experienced from changing my diet is amazing. Not just loosing weight but as importantly, my many diabetes symphtoms have all but gone.

Saying this, doing "the Carb thing" is not working for all as you will see from the various posts, but it works for so many that it is worth trying.

Not only have I lost weight, my wound is virtually healed (after 5-6 months), thrush is gone too and I feel well and alive like I have not done for months!! :D

If you want to know more about "the carb thing" do go to the "Low Carb" Forum and read the many thread and posts there - but do start with the excellent and pinned "Low carb diet - a newbies guide" at the top.

The classic starter is dropping Pasta, Rice, Potatos and Bread from your diet altogether!! I nearly freeked when I heard this, but I have to bow to the many experience people here - for me it works a treat!

Many more and far more expeirenced people will welcome you and give you advice, I am sure and you might even find all the advice a bit confusing and some contradicting. The "secret" is to read and get knowledge about the subject, then try things out for yourself and see what does and what does not, work for YOU, your body and your diabetes.

Keeping asking questions - we are all here to help and support each toher the best we can! You are so NOT alone!

Best
Alice
 
read this

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

then have a look through the Stickies and Success Stories threads

Don' worry yourself too much about fats at this stage, what you need to concentrate on is getting your BG down. You will probably need to cut back drastically on your consumption of starch, like that cereal, and fruits except for berries.

Also have a look here

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/joomla/free-veggies

for a list of things you will almost certainly be able to eat, also have a look at the Eat The Rainbow thread, though you may find some of the fruits too high carb. Fish, white meat and probably red meat will be doable.

You are currently caught in a loop where the high BG is feeding the infections, and the inflammation from the infections is keeping your BG up. Once you can break out of this you should see some major improvements.
 
Hello again,

Thank you both very much for the welcome and the advice. Much appreciated. I shall get busy reading!
 
Well this is getting serious now :(

I saw my Surgeon for a check up on Tuesday to review my progress with the infection in my arm and chest ( Lymphoedema and acute Cellulitis caused by surgery to breast and axillary lymph nodes and 25 fractions of Radiotherapy).

I dont seem to be able to get my bg level down below 7.2, and am taking Metformin 3 times daily. I also take a whole pile of antibiotic and anti cancer drugs too.

Surgeon is speaking to Microbiology and a Diabetes Consultant and they are hoping to come up with a reviewed drug regime to treat the infection. I was told that if this didn't work, then more surgery was the only solution remaining. Despite everything and all the treatment I had to battle the Breast Cancer, a bliddy infection may cost me my breasts anyway!

I am sure my diet is the key to getting out of this Diabetes/Infection cycle, but I cant find it!

Help! Really desperate now.
 
Hi Zoe,

The advice from Trinkwasser is pretty much spot on, but if you can give us an idea of a typical day's food intake (including drinks) maybe we can find some suggestions that might help.
 
Zoe, I am so sorry to hear about this - you obviously have a huge task on your hands with all of this, but I am sure if you stay strong you will get through it. Feel free to pm me anytime if you want to chat or "unload"!

I have to be honest, as you know I am myself new to this, but everything tells me that you need to sort your meds with your surgon, DC etc. I would think that if you can keep your Bg around 7 - 7.2 whilst you are battling infection you are not doing so badly!! The infections, the meds and stress of it all will have a huge impact on your Bg levels, so I am not too surprised if you see it "stuck" on 7.2.

I would have tought that keeping the Bg level regular at 7.2 and making combating the infections, then sort out the cancer meds to work optimal for you going forward, then get back on track and work on the Bg levels.

I am of course no doctor at all, but as I said - I would pay more than a little attention to your health team advice but DO question things you are uncomfortable with.

I wish you all the very best and will keep you in my thoughts and as I said, if you need someone just to talk to, feel free to pm me.

Best
Alice
 
Hi Zoe
You seem to have met the "treat one condition at a time and never the whole patient" school of medical practice.
You are in Hampshire, have you by any chance hit the sphere of influence of the Royal Berks Hospital?
 
Have you considered insulin? This would certainly be temporary.

Someone I knew in the States had a massive pocket of infection in his back and correspondingly high BG. He was put on insulin temporarily (AFAICR it took a couple of weeks before his BG started to respond to diet and he was able to drop it again) to break him out of "glucose toxicity" and improve the healing of the infection.
 
Trinkwasser, ermm nope, I didn't know I could pick and chose what drug treatment I had for the diabetes.

Hanadr, Royal Berks is about 10 miles north of me, but I have never been there. Most my treatment for the breast cancer has been at either Basingstoke or Southampton. For the diabetes, my GP has been looking after my care, via a practise nurse that specialises in it. I haven't seen a dietician, and think this may help. I was put on Metformin straight away, and since being diagnosed, the dose has been increased. I was given a bg monitor and get test strips on prescription as I need them. I spent some 10 days on the Oncology Ward in Southampton with an acute infection, late last year, and not one of the Drs looking after me thought to test for diabetes when I didn't heal, despite being blasted by IV drugs like Vancomycin. I do sometimes I feel slip through the safety net, and then I have to make myself heard. You are right, until very recently the approach is not been at all holistic.

I go to Frimley Park every 12 weeks as a day patient too, so coordinating Drs across different PCTs and different disciplines can be tortuous!
 
Zoë said:
Trinkwasser, ermm nope, I didn't know I could pick and chose what drug treatment I had for the diabetes.
Click to expand...

You probably can't. :( It's just that I've seen people in a similar situation with more proactive doctors who have been given temporary insulin to improve the BG to a level where it allows the other conditions to improve, you might bring up the subject and see what they say?

Some doctors don't seem to think you are allowed to have more than one thing wrong at once.
 
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