brdavies
Active Member
- Messages
- 40
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Hi Everyone -
I thought I'd share my newly diagnosed experience as some of this might help other people get started in managing their diabetes.
I'm 51, and I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes on March 16, 2014, about 10 weeks ago, here in Singapore where I live at the moment. I was in hospital for minor surgery, and the blood work found that my fasting glucose level was at 16.0, and after eating hit about 20.0. My HbA1c was at 10.4%. Sugar was also spilling over into my urine as well. I'm 6'3" tall, and was about 97kg at the time, so slightly overweight, but not severely.
I hadn't felt any symptoms, although I noticed I was tired after eating frequently, and there were a few hints here and there that I didn't pick up. For example, my glasses prescription changed about 3 or 4 years ago (it got better). I noticed if I drank a large soft drink at a fast food place, I felt a bit 'odd' afterwards, slightly sick. Same if I drank more than one glass of Bickfords's Blackcurrant Cordial (my favourite). I made a blueberry pie and found I couldn't eat more than one piece (too rich!) I work 2nd shift, and have a fairly high stress job at times, so I was putting down general tiredness to that and also to just getting older.
Unfortunately the doctor that I had put me on Janumet 50/500 2x daily for about 3 days, then said "you seem to be tolerating it well so we'll up the dose to 50/1000 twice daily." He basically gave me those meds and did not refer me to an endocrinologist, or dietician etc. Janumet is a combination of sitigliptin (50mg) and metformin (at first 500mg, then 1000mg). Of course most here will know what suddenly going on 2g/day of metformin will do to most people - major digestive side effects set in after about 3 weeks. He is really a cardiologist, added due to other findings, and so he also prescribed a statin and CoQ-10 - but was the main doctor for treating the newly discovered diabetes.
So for the first week I was in shock and took the medications, but came to the conclusion that this was an inept way to treat someone diagnosed with diabetes. You cannot just stick the person on meds and hope it will be OK with this disorder, and in fact my opinion is that it's a backward approach. My mother is T2, and my grandmother was too, so I know that diet and exercise is of primary importance to manage it. THEN you add meds if you need extra help getting it under control.
So I decided to take control. First, I fired that doctor and got a referral to both a proper endocrinologist and a different cardiologist. I did a huge amount of research (I highly recommend http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes by the way). I changed to what's called here a low carb high fat diet, based on my previous success with The Zone diet, and some of the ideas of the Paleo diet. In addition, using small meals but lots of them (I eat 6 times per day, not three). I added exercise and started going to the gym. But most importantly I bought a meter and those expensive test strips (paying for them myself) and started testing, trying out different meals and building a mental database of how different foods affect me.
After about a week my vision changed, this time my prescription got worse - by about the same amount that it had changed 3 to 4 years ago. I now know that's because a change in the glucose level in the fluid in the eye changes the optical properties, so can change your prescription. My weight has come down to 92kg in that time, and still reducing; but my goal wasn't weight loss, it's purely the glucose levels and avoiding spikes. I can now keep my BG between 6.0 and 8.0, occasionally going up to 10.0 for short periods, but I also use exercise (like a brisk walk) to take it back down if it goes above 8.0. My first appt. with the new endocrinologist was about 8 weeks after diagnosis, and in that short time my HbA1c had dropped to 7.5%. My personal goal is to get HbA1c under 6.0%, and never have my BG go above 7.8 (which is about 140 mg/dl). This is because that is the approximate level around which damage can start to happen.
I told my endocrinologist what I was doing and why, and he literally leapt up to shake my hand a couple of times (I'm not kidding), when I told him I was eating to my meter, etc. He was very happy with how proactive I decided to be. He set an appt. for 2 months in the future, and at that point we would evaluate whether to add metformin to the regime. (In my view, it might give me a little more headroom on what I can eat, so as long as I ramp up the dose very slowly so my body has time to adjust, I think it may be helpful.)
Just as an aside - the reason I had a cardiologist was that the heart monitor showed an odd pattern, and a full ECG showed a LBBB pattern. Further tests show that my coronary arteries have developed in an unusual pattern, and there could be some early stage heart disease - for which I have a PET chemical stress test planned. For now I am continuing to take the statins, but I will most likely refuse it if the PET scan does not show the need to systemically reduce plaque - scans so far show that the amount of plaque is low (maybe 15%), and my calcium score is zero across the board (that's very good). The (new) cardiologist notes that an LDL of 1.5 or lower has been shown to reduce the soft plaque - and my LDL levels were not really that high to start with, so it's worth a shot - if the plaque is everywhere. It's a calculated risk of course.
No sign of complications, my retina scan was completely clean, no neuropathy, and all my other blood work showed very healthy kidneys etc.
Interestingly, a LCHF diet changes your perception of taste. After a week or so on that, your taste buds adjust, and suddenly everything tastes just much, much better - more vibrant and more alive. Something like an apple tastes super sweet, like candy (and it is, nature's candy). But even the mundane salad with capsicum, onion, and lettuce is a real delight.
Another thing I've found is that once my blood glucose level was under control, I felt 10 years younger (maybe more). Coupled with the improvement from the exercise, and I just feel really great - better than I have in years. It's amazing how much difference resolving that chronic condition of too much glucose makes. And I can feel the body start 'asking' for exercise - it's like it's saying, "Hey! Let's go do something!" So much more energy, better balance, no getting puffed out walking up a hill, etc.
So in a way, being diagnosed with T2 diabetes was like a motivating wake up call for me, to stop being lazy and take care of myself. It also gives you a social excuse to refuse to eat certain things; my family for example doesn't take offence if I choose not to eat any of that chocolate birthday cake. (I did have a very, very small amount. Man that stuff is poison, took me right up to 10.0.)
I'll probably post once in a while and help here and there, but of course I'm still learning. But I'm quite happy with where I'm going, and the fact that I feel so great as a result of taking better care of myself makes it a blessing in disguise.
I thought I'd share my newly diagnosed experience as some of this might help other people get started in managing their diabetes.
I'm 51, and I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes on March 16, 2014, about 10 weeks ago, here in Singapore where I live at the moment. I was in hospital for minor surgery, and the blood work found that my fasting glucose level was at 16.0, and after eating hit about 20.0. My HbA1c was at 10.4%. Sugar was also spilling over into my urine as well. I'm 6'3" tall, and was about 97kg at the time, so slightly overweight, but not severely.
I hadn't felt any symptoms, although I noticed I was tired after eating frequently, and there were a few hints here and there that I didn't pick up. For example, my glasses prescription changed about 3 or 4 years ago (it got better). I noticed if I drank a large soft drink at a fast food place, I felt a bit 'odd' afterwards, slightly sick. Same if I drank more than one glass of Bickfords's Blackcurrant Cordial (my favourite). I made a blueberry pie and found I couldn't eat more than one piece (too rich!) I work 2nd shift, and have a fairly high stress job at times, so I was putting down general tiredness to that and also to just getting older.
Unfortunately the doctor that I had put me on Janumet 50/500 2x daily for about 3 days, then said "you seem to be tolerating it well so we'll up the dose to 50/1000 twice daily." He basically gave me those meds and did not refer me to an endocrinologist, or dietician etc. Janumet is a combination of sitigliptin (50mg) and metformin (at first 500mg, then 1000mg). Of course most here will know what suddenly going on 2g/day of metformin will do to most people - major digestive side effects set in after about 3 weeks. He is really a cardiologist, added due to other findings, and so he also prescribed a statin and CoQ-10 - but was the main doctor for treating the newly discovered diabetes.
So for the first week I was in shock and took the medications, but came to the conclusion that this was an inept way to treat someone diagnosed with diabetes. You cannot just stick the person on meds and hope it will be OK with this disorder, and in fact my opinion is that it's a backward approach. My mother is T2, and my grandmother was too, so I know that diet and exercise is of primary importance to manage it. THEN you add meds if you need extra help getting it under control.
So I decided to take control. First, I fired that doctor and got a referral to both a proper endocrinologist and a different cardiologist. I did a huge amount of research (I highly recommend http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes by the way). I changed to what's called here a low carb high fat diet, based on my previous success with The Zone diet, and some of the ideas of the Paleo diet. In addition, using small meals but lots of them (I eat 6 times per day, not three). I added exercise and started going to the gym. But most importantly I bought a meter and those expensive test strips (paying for them myself) and started testing, trying out different meals and building a mental database of how different foods affect me.
After about a week my vision changed, this time my prescription got worse - by about the same amount that it had changed 3 to 4 years ago. I now know that's because a change in the glucose level in the fluid in the eye changes the optical properties, so can change your prescription. My weight has come down to 92kg in that time, and still reducing; but my goal wasn't weight loss, it's purely the glucose levels and avoiding spikes. I can now keep my BG between 6.0 and 8.0, occasionally going up to 10.0 for short periods, but I also use exercise (like a brisk walk) to take it back down if it goes above 8.0. My first appt. with the new endocrinologist was about 8 weeks after diagnosis, and in that short time my HbA1c had dropped to 7.5%. My personal goal is to get HbA1c under 6.0%, and never have my BG go above 7.8 (which is about 140 mg/dl). This is because that is the approximate level around which damage can start to happen.
I told my endocrinologist what I was doing and why, and he literally leapt up to shake my hand a couple of times (I'm not kidding), when I told him I was eating to my meter, etc. He was very happy with how proactive I decided to be. He set an appt. for 2 months in the future, and at that point we would evaluate whether to add metformin to the regime. (In my view, it might give me a little more headroom on what I can eat, so as long as I ramp up the dose very slowly so my body has time to adjust, I think it may be helpful.)
Just as an aside - the reason I had a cardiologist was that the heart monitor showed an odd pattern, and a full ECG showed a LBBB pattern. Further tests show that my coronary arteries have developed in an unusual pattern, and there could be some early stage heart disease - for which I have a PET chemical stress test planned. For now I am continuing to take the statins, but I will most likely refuse it if the PET scan does not show the need to systemically reduce plaque - scans so far show that the amount of plaque is low (maybe 15%), and my calcium score is zero across the board (that's very good). The (new) cardiologist notes that an LDL of 1.5 or lower has been shown to reduce the soft plaque - and my LDL levels were not really that high to start with, so it's worth a shot - if the plaque is everywhere. It's a calculated risk of course.
No sign of complications, my retina scan was completely clean, no neuropathy, and all my other blood work showed very healthy kidneys etc.
Interestingly, a LCHF diet changes your perception of taste. After a week or so on that, your taste buds adjust, and suddenly everything tastes just much, much better - more vibrant and more alive. Something like an apple tastes super sweet, like candy (and it is, nature's candy). But even the mundane salad with capsicum, onion, and lettuce is a real delight.
Another thing I've found is that once my blood glucose level was under control, I felt 10 years younger (maybe more). Coupled with the improvement from the exercise, and I just feel really great - better than I have in years. It's amazing how much difference resolving that chronic condition of too much glucose makes. And I can feel the body start 'asking' for exercise - it's like it's saying, "Hey! Let's go do something!" So much more energy, better balance, no getting puffed out walking up a hill, etc.
So in a way, being diagnosed with T2 diabetes was like a motivating wake up call for me, to stop being lazy and take care of myself. It also gives you a social excuse to refuse to eat certain things; my family for example doesn't take offence if I choose not to eat any of that chocolate birthday cake. (I did have a very, very small amount. Man that stuff is poison, took me right up to 10.0.)
I'll probably post once in a while and help here and there, but of course I'm still learning. But I'm quite happy with where I'm going, and the fact that I feel so great as a result of taking better care of myself makes it a blessing in disguise.
