Newly diagnosed-confused and a bit scared

Hi @Angiegood69 and welcome to our forum.
Yes, I can relate to your circumstances.
It is so reminiscent of what I was like many years ago.
Yours seems to be more severe than I was, though the resulting effects were the same.
Understanding what happens to you is so important to how you can start to get some control of stopping the hypers/hypos rollercoaster ride.
If it is RH, then it is food related and finding which foods cause the symptoms is part of the process to getting control.
I had all the advice about low GI, and was told constantly from my medical team that I had to have carbs and so called healthy foods. But it was those healthy foods, especially low GI carbs that was triggering the symptoms.
Since I used a food diary, a glucometer, and recorded everything that I ate and drank, and discovered those foods, did I gain some control.
If you have RH, then I would say that, like me, you are carb intolerant.
Maybe, you should try just having protein, but I should warn you, that this is not a short term solution, your body is all over the place and you will require long term lifestyle changes with your dietary regime.
It will take a few weeks to get some control.
I would start, by eating every three hours, very low carb.
By doing this, you will offset the hypo, it should be only a few bites of protein, non starchy vegetables, and introduce some full saturated fats, like cream, cheese, butter.
Unless like me you are lactose intolerant.
If possible do more walking after eating, this will help with blood glucose levels.

Do read the threads on the forum, there is some good information.

Any questions, one of us will be glad to help if we can.

Best wishes

When I was diagnosed with T2D 6 years ago my sugars were around 23, my feet suffered from pins and needles, constantly thirsty and needed to pee regularly. I was placed on metformin for the diabetes and gabapentin for my neuropathy. I was then sent on a diabetic course where I was told to have a varied diet and a booklet showing my a high percentage of carbs and recommending five a day of fruit and vegetables. My T2D stabilised but the diagnosis was of a lifelong chronic illness which will never get better.
I have now been off my medication for 8 months. My blood sugars around 5 and often below it and have come down in weight from 97k to 81k. The neuropathy is still there but not as bad. My solution, I started on low carbs high fat diet, quickly went into a keto diet and have been practicing time restricted eating (16 to 20 odd hours a day without any food) since April.
I would like to say it was hard and a struggle for me, but it wasn't. Low carb/high fat and Keto is essentially old fashioned eating with cooked breakfasts and a proper wholefood meat and two veg meal. By the time I started time restricted eating I wasn't particularly hungry and had no issue dropping breakfast and then lunch.
I don't count calories and eat as much as I want. The only thing I avoid is processed carbs e.g. breads, pastas, rice, cakes, snacks, fruit juices and sugary drinks. I reserve birthdays, etc, as cheat days when I will indulge a little with the occasional thin slice of cake, which I actually enjoy more than when I was having slabs on the stuff.
Do your own research, reduce the processed carbs, and you will be fine.

Angiegood69 said:

Hi everyone

thank you for having me. It’s so good to have somewhere to share information and concerns. I am newly diagnosed. My sugars were up to 22 and dropping within the hour to low on my monitor which I believe is below 0.7 and I have conked out completely while shopping and spend most of the day trying to stay awake. I seem to nod off all over the place. I have been put straight on medication and doubled after a week but even with low GI foods I am hyper then hypo. Today I had a green apple really small and I still went to 10.8. Is this bad? I am doing my bloods every half hour and they either rise or fall rapidly. I have tinnitus, blurred vision and numbness in my hands and feet. Headaches on and off and wake up every hour and half through the night shaking after nightmares and shouting out. My mouth is bone dry and I feel a sense of panic. Can anyone relate? I’m really trying but getting to the point that tomorrow will have to be a meat only day as I’m still trying to understand. Any advice greatly appreciated. I’m confined to my house pretty much because of it xx

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Angiegood69 said:

Thank you so much. It’s really really helpful. It’s only been two weeks and they’ve doubled my meds. They said they’re not licensed for it but for low blood pressure but they’ve had good results in the research. The are called Nifedipine. Every time I think it’s improving slightly I eat something that they’ve recommended that spikes me like a small green apple but 10.8 is better than the 22 when I started. I still start dropping rapidly on a 10 but through monitoring and eating every couple hours I can stop it before the hypo when I’m awake. I just am struggling with the eating low gi and any carb seemingly. I also spend most of my time trying to think, prepare and cook and take bloods in an already exhausted double vision brain foggy way. That’s not so bad if I’m at home but I can’t go out for food as I’m too scared. Exercise makes me hypo too. I seem to be ok on protein but I’m a bit cheese fish and meated out and this is for life I also have quorn but maybe I’m just a bit overwhelmed with it all. Perhaps it will improve over time. Thank you so much. I’m going to check out some type 2 food ideas and cut any carbs if I can. A food diary is a great idea. Xx

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Hi again,
How do you feel when you get up?
Before you have breakfast?
If I was to suggest waiting for an hour before eating, and then take a fasting blood reading. This would give you an idea how your pre meal blood sugar levels are before eating, then take readings every half hour after to track what happens.
Have you angina? I know you said you have low blood pressure, but I have to be so careful what meds I take, which meds I can take especially for colds and influenza because they are full of sugar, same goes with antibiotics, it is so important to find what the ingredients are.
Strenuous exercise causes a trigger for me also, walking is really good!
Food preparation and cooking is essential, I don't do prepared food, I buy meat, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, and cook it, have a few salad vegetables, it sounds boring, but until you get control that is what I have, a pork joint is roasting away now for my first meal of the day.
I only eat after 3pm and only for a few hours, so that I leave four hours before bed to make sure I haven't triggered a hypo. I use intermittent fasting, after I got really good control. I started using a Keto diet about five years ago along with intermittent fasting, because I didn't like the symptoms!
It works for me.

Best wishes