Newbie to the forum

[DJ Dave]

Hi

I was diagnosed in April 2015 at a midlife health check that I very nearly missed.

In previous 6 months I had lost 25% of my bodyweight, got the unquenchable thirst and lost the feeling in my toes.

Diagnosed with T2 that had gone unnoticed for possibly as long as 20 years.
Nerve damage quite bad, some retinal damage too, initial reading of 107 and cholesterol was off the chart.

Very confused and upset to start with and since my body strongly rejected Metformin to start with, quite ill too.

Things have settled down a little now, and I am using slow release Metformin as well as Gliclazide.
Just before Christmas, I was put on Dapagliflozin, reduction in Metformin, down to 1000mg a day I found I had much more energy.

At the last checkup my average sugar levels were around 14 m/mols and cholesterol hadn't changed much.
The neuropathy has traveled up both legs and I have very little feeling in both feet. Oh and my marital duties have kind of gone out of the window, even with the little blue pills.

I am not a great patient and have admiration for those of you who are.
It's encouraging to see I'm not alone.

 

[jjraak]

@DJ Dave ..aw mate that's not good.

the only positive to take is you now KNOW so tomorrow
the come back begins and you can start to improve.
(i know you date back some time, but you sound like you need a little extra help getting to grips with it, perhaps
otherwise you'd of been here long ago)

lets take the back of this first.

YOU are NOT alone.

i think that's the default position of o much of T2.
TOO little information and TOO little that IS actually useful to boot.

I reckon if you take the time to read up, maybe put one or two things into practice, WITH attention to your personal regime of medication, you may not feel better straight away, but you will feel better over time.

I was and AM amazed at just what effect to simplest of foods can have on us.
add in the toxic chemical mix i was happily downloading down my gullet each day, i'm now surprised my HBA1c at dx was SO low.

So YOU.
the energy levels rising is a good thing, right.
I am only on diet and Metformin, so can't compare the drugs, but once i dipped a toe into the LCHF waters, i did find until i got the Fats right (yeah, not good, right..except for me they WERE..and continue to be so)..my energy levels were shot to pieces, less foods and not enough fats i now believe..but once i sorted that, i felt great and good enough to run for buses, etc where i couldn't have walked fast for the bus..and i was only mid 50's then...

so you may IF you opt at some point, you MAY find that same energy level, if not greater.

as a little ray of hope OR food for future though..i was i think T2 about 2011 or at least well on my way to it.
so have back tracked on my blood tests and kept a record of how they progressed.



Reading from left to right.
2011 2 tests..so not good.

middle two test..Dx and 6 wek follow up, where following the 'Official' eat well guidelines..
slight improvement in my bloods but my HBA1c i got worse.56 went to 57.:***:

and the last two..Jan 2019..hba1c at 42 from 57.and the last one, July 2019, where i officially hit normal numbers again
40. whoop whoop...

and YET those last two, i got from eating the very things we are told to avoid all our lives..how weird is that.

For neuropathy at that level i only know of @Jim Lahey ..(sure there are others) hopefully he can come along and give you his version of how it was for him and what he did to improve it.

do read upon the Cholestrol threads.

while yours are high, i might do you good to read the discussions on how to interpret to scores and how certain situations can affect them adversely.
add in the Ratio seems to be MORE important then just the top line Cholesterol score.

If you have your Blood scores, then i'd suggest taking a good look at your Triglyceride levels.

My Cholestrol stayed pretty much ok, from my 2011 diet changes, down from 7+ to 5+..BUT my trigs were pants.
Mine were 6+ 2011..should be lower then 1.7..NO one mentioned it..(and it's a BIG indicator of how much fat/glucose is circulating in us)..from 2011 i got mine from 6+ down to 2.7..over 7 years of strict (er) eating then before 2011..yet i halved that in less then a year using LCHF..1.2 to be exact

as i said..your NOT alone.
where ever we are on this T2 Road, there's always someone on here who's been there OR able and willing to lend a hand or a just a friendly ear.

sorry if i've overloaded you with so much homework.
i'm just hearing someone reaching out from a none too pleasant outlook,
maybe wanting a better way to deal with this insidious disease.?

But they say, Life is what we make it.
and that takes effort
but you do seem motivated to try.

Best of luck on the Journey.