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newly diagnosed member

london55

Newbie
Messages
3
Hi there,just joined after the doctor told me this morning after a blood test that i have diabetes.
Reason for contacting doctor in first place,lost a few stones and allways thirsty and peeing a load.
Wants me to drop in a urine sample in the morning to test whether i need tablets or injections to control it, and pick up a prescription for some tablets.
Im 55 and 14st,was 16.6 a few months ago,had a nurse i know at work give me a blood suger test a few hours ago,17.4.

Can anyone tell me what is likely to happen next,i think he said i will get a months supple,2 a day.and then what?

I know i will have to change my eating and drinking habits,love my beer and allready gave what beer i had away.

Thanks for reading and any advice/help/tips will be muchly appreiciated.

London55
 
Welcome to the forums @london55 .

The treatment will depend a bit on what type of diabetes you have, (which your doctor may want to double check), and how high your blood sugars are. Did your doctor say what your hba1c was? (It's used as a rough estimate of how high your bg was for the last 3 months and it's a great starting point to have before treatment). 17.4 is quite a high blood sugar level (non diabetics stay between 4 and 8 most of the time) so I can see why your doctor is giving you medication.

T1s always need injections (eventually if not initially) but many T2s on these forums have achieved normal blood sugar levels and reduced or dropped their medication by reducing the carbs in their diets. And yes, unfortunately beer has a lot of carbs in it.

As in the "then what", as a diabetic your doctor will want to monitor your long term levels and change your medication if needed. You should get regular checks of things like eyes and feet to ensure that they stay healthy.

But if you want a quick introduction to T2 and low carb, here is my favourite resource, @JoKalsbeek 's excellent blog.
JoKalsbeek's blog | Diabetes Forum • The Global Diabetes Community

Good luck and do have a browse round the forums. They tend to be quiet around this time of day (night for you I guess) but should liven up later.
 
Hi @london55 and welcome to the forum

No matter whether you are Type 1 (not producing insulin or not near enough) or Type 2 (highly insulin resistant and probably overproducing insulin), cutting down on the carbohydrates in your food and drink will help reduce your Blood Glucose levels and reduce the chances of the nasty consequences of uncontrolled diabetes.

In the UK Type 1 diabetics get a Blood Glucose meter on prescription, but Type 2 diabetics generally don't and are even encouraged not to test their own Blood Glucose levels. This is short sighted since a BG meter is a great aid in finding which foods to cut down on/cut out and has helped thousands of diabetics (including me) to partial or full remission of their T2 diabetes.
 
thanks guys,a lot of information there,the doctor has just called,apparently there is something called ketones or something in my urine sample and says he is booking me an appointment at the hospital for an injection and the tablets that i got this morning likely wont be any good.so i take it,its worse than he first though if i need an injection and should i be worried,thanks
 
Given they've found ketones then I presume (though I may be wrong) that they'll be checking for Type 1 as whilst some T2's can get ketones with high blood sugars its not very likely whereas with type 1 it is, also if your weight loss was unexpected that is another sign for Type1, obviously they'll need to actually test for it, and we can not diagnose it here.

Presumably the hospital appointment should be very soon if your doc suspects T1
 
cheers,they just got back to me,apparently the diabetic clinic wants the doctor to access me first before going any further,seeing him in the morning
 
Hi everyone,
From Canada, feeling exactly the same, anxious and scared more than anything. My GP informed me a couple months ago that my bloods tests show that I am prediabetic. I am devastated as I have always ate healthy, excercised, don't drink, don't smoke. And now at 50, I am dropped this bomb. What was I thinking that I could avoid this? My mother is diabetic, dependent on insulin for nearly 30 +years and I have seen all that she has gone through (heart attack, osteoporosis, arthritis, kidney disease, hypothyroidsm, etc..) and I am so afraid of what's to come for me. I had to take care of her through all these and now it's my turn and I am alone and depressed with no one to turn to for support. I also have hypothyroidsm, perimenopause, a breast nodule that is being followed up, kidney issues, etc...I'm scared to eat anything and feel that I'm not getting any nutrients if I can't eat the way I used to. I can't eat red meat, I love beans but have to give them up, scared to eat soy because of the breast nodule, can't eat fruits which I love, and the whole grain carbs like quinoa and oats. I feel as if there is nothing left for me to survive on. What is the point then. So sorry to rant. I am a complete hopeless mess and have anxiety attacks which does not help with the stress probably spiking my bloods through the roof.
 
 
Your hug reply made me cry....
 
even without red meat, there are other meats, and fish, eggs, cheese, yoghurt and low carb fruits, and a whole raft of low carb veges, and mushrooms.
I am certainly never short of choices.
 


You poor thing, you’ve been through a lot. But you’re still only at the prediabetic stage, so have time to turn things around. Perimenopause makes it harder to control blood sugars so it’s understandable it might have helped tip you into prediabetic.

Your mileage may vary but I actually don’t find anxiety raises my blood sugar that much, only carbs really elevate it.

I totally understand you feeling overwhelmed, but feelings aren’t facts. There are lots of meal suggestions elsewhere on this forum, including for non-meat eaters, and lots of vegetables and other healthy and delicious options for side dishes. Many people find eating low carb brings their bloods into line — without cravings or feeling hungry between meals.
 
Thank you for your kind reply & to help me stay positive throughout all this. I just feel defeated. I love good food and I worked out most of my life to be able to enjoy fine dining as the reward. Now I feel that there is no point now. And I am so limited to what I can eat because of all the other health issues. I can't have kale or spinach because of the darn hypothyroidism and have to watch protein intake to not make kidneys worst. I mind as well starve. I fear that it will turn to type 1 like my mother in which case it can't be turned around. I'm so afraid of needles, and how to calculate the units of insulin like she had to go through is overwhelming, like the fear of putting too much is so scary!!! I've seen the low reactions she's had since I was a youngster and I am traumatized as I fed her spoonfuls of sugar with orange juice. I just can't do it on my own now. Again, so sorry for being so negative and such a Debbie downer. Nobody likes to hear about this. Thank you for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.
 

I understand being depressed, believe me, but the stuff depression tells you is always the most pessimistic, alarmist and often just not true.

type 2 doesn’t “turn into” type one, sometimes type 2 patients need insulin, but you’re not even diabetic at this point. It seems like your thinking has gone very “all or nothing”.

Perhaps you could look into whether you could reduce carbs to any extent, research some examples of what you could cook (or have when eating out) — you don’t have to overload on protein or only eat kale and spinach! And you can take baby steps.

Of course, you don’t have to change anything at all, but if you do, it’s more likely you’ll be healthier. Up to you.
 
Hi again,
My mother had a teleconference with her endo today, reviewing her bloods. She had ordered a c-peptide test and it showed that levels were very low so it confirmed that my mother had LADA or T1.5 as she was diagnosed only as an adult at 27 years old after giving birth to my brother and she was put on insulin shots right away, and it eventually became full blown T1. I am so stressed that this is why my A1C is showing prediabetes because i probably have the same condition LADA. I looked up some of the articles on LADA on this site. We also both have hypothyroidsm so that's also an immune attacking disease, and we are not overweight. So whatever I do, change my diet, exercise, etc..will not change anything, it's bound to strike me, guess I had an extra 20 some years before the A1C blood sugars started to rise and now finally hit borderline...just in time for fun perimenopause! Thank you again for the sound advice. I just can't breathe at times. yesterday i thought i was going to suffocate while trying to sleep but only nightmares. No sleep causes even more stress to blood sugars and whatever else it's doing to my body. i'm so stressed that I feel the nodule in my left breast getting even bigger. I'm also afraid to take the anti-depressants that the GP prescribed. I'm a total mess since my mother relies on me as her caregiver (all doctors, prescriptions, etc...), but how can I deal with all of that when I can't even take care of my own self.
 
I have hypothyroid and am an ordinary type 2 as far as I can tell.
I don't avoid any foods due to the failed thyroid - but I take a supplement each day, Thyroxine - which has just been reduced again - I thought that once it failed that was it, but after a long time of treatment, my dose has been reduced for a second time.
I would not be over weight if I had not had a whole series of GPs telling me that I needed to eat carbs rather than a low carb diet.
I do suffer from sleep apnoea, and use a CPAP machine, but all my adult life I had nightmares about drowning, until I got the little machine, and now I sleep well - unless I take the Thyroxine late in the day, which can bring on some vivid and most peculiar effects, including waking up but continuing to dream.
I realise that you will have to change your diet as you have been eating high carb foods, but I have salads and stir fries, curries, casseroles - I grow things in the garden now - just getting the first courgettes, so things could not be fresher and I am looking forward to rhubarb in a year or so after sowing the seeds this year.
 
Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate your feedback and how well you are coping. That's amazing. I don't think I can even have such a positive outlook on life. I do take synthroid for the hypo but I have to take it on an empty stomach & wait hours before I can eat, that's lovely for the blood sugars! I am starving & my sugars must be off the charts. I dread the day when I will have to figure out how to give myself insulin shots?
 

I'm confused here. If your mother has had T1/LADA for 50 years I would expect her insulin production to be zero rather than very low by now (happy to be corrected by some LADAs). She could equally well be T2 as my understanding is that very long term T2s find their insulin production reduced (high blood sugars kill off beta cells?). Having said that, if her doctor confirmed that she has LADA I take it all back.

In any case, nowadays neither T1/T2 nor LADA is an automatic route to ill health and dependence (speaking as a healthy 59 year old who has had T1 for 51 years). I appreciate that hypos can be very scary if you are unfortunate enough to lose hypo awareness, but modern technology such as cgms make them much less so. While I can't comment on your other health issues (other than to send you virtual hugs) I can promise you that diabetes itself can be managed. In any case prediabetes is by no means guaranteed to lead to full blown T1 or T2.

Madisons said:
I'm also afraid to take the anti-depressants that the GP prescribed.
Click to expand...
I suspect that some of your current mindset is caused by fear and anxiety rather than actual fact, and taking those anti-depressants might help you to step back and lose some of the panic?
 
Madisons said:
So whatever I do, change my diet, exercise, etc..will not change anything
Click to expand...

Hi Madisons, well you may be right in that there's nothing you can do to prevent type 1/lada/type 2 etc, but there is plenty you can do to help combat it. It's the same with most conditions, if you follow a healthy diet (pertaining to your condition), exercise, maintain a weight that isn't causing you issues, and so on then there's a good chance you can help prevent any further issues arising from that condition. I know it's hard but it's clear to me you want to do something about it as you are on this site and engaging, you sound like a lovely person helping your Mum, I know what that's like as my Mum had type 1 (very uncontrolled through no fault of hers) and it's exhausting trying to keep on top of it...then you get it yourself!!! Please feel free to ask any questions. x
 
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