Newly diagnosed

jaffafa said:

Hello, I am new here and
I have been newly (recently) diagnosed with Type 2.
I have been doing research about it on google, reading articles and others experiences but all this is new to me and i do not have enough knowledge about this so please excuse if i say anything that doesn't fit around the box

I have been diagnosed on the 6th of this month. I was told my HbA1c is 59
I was told the normal is 48 or below, so I am +11 high.

I do not have any symptoms, I only feel sleepy and fall asleep 1 hour after if i eat rice, then sleep for one or two hours. Other foods dont affect me much.

The doctor referred me to diabetic nurse who will prescribe me metformin or whatever else she thinks best for me after another 2 weeks

What I would like to know is, if i take metformin than can i eat as normal or why do i have to change my diet if metformin this wonder pill will take care of everything and put everything right.

I take statins 20mg once a day, and didnt have to change my diet, everythings good. So, cant i do same with metformin ?

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Hi jaffafa,

Welcome to the forums.

Some good advice from lovinglife and I can only add the full fat Greek Yoghurt, full fat cream cheese and butter is also ok. A lot of us on the low carb diet have Cauliflower Rice instead of rice and it actually tastes good but means you can still have curries etc.

I also agree on getting a Blood Glucose Meter as that really a great tool to have, test upon waking, then test just before you eat and 2 hours after to see what spikes you, you are looking to keep it a full 2 above your first readings, i.e. if say you get a 6.1 then you want to eat things that will keep you below 8.1 two hours later.

We all wish there was a "Magic" tablet that would cure diabetes or allow us to eat anything and everything we wanted but there isn't. So it is a matter of changing our life styles a little and getting those numbers down, read around the forums and you will see it can be done.

Looking forward to reading more of your posts and hearing how you are getting on.

Hi @jaffafa and welcome to the forum. I definitely back @lovinglife ’s suggestion of getting a meter.



Here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.



HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews if you use this link and select the meter plus 5 packs of strips, and then add the code dcuk (all lower case) at check out you may get money off, I’m not sure if this code is still valid.



https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/



Links to the strips for future orders:



https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/glucose-navii-blood-glucose-test-strips-50-strip-pack/



There are also discount codes for when you come to buy more strips - "navii5" and "navii10" will give you 20% off purchases of 5 packs of strips and 25% off 10 packs of strips respectively. Again I’m not sure if these codes are still valid.



Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!



https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/



Discount codes for the Code Free strips, again I haven’t used them in a while.



5 packs 264086

10 packs 975833







SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + which is quite popular however I haven’t been able to find it on their website lately.



(Old link which doesn’t work for me now but maybe works for you, if it doesn’t try the phone number below

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793 )
or Google it and you’ll find it’s available from other outlets.



The strips are to be found here:



https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097



Some members have got a free Tee2+ by phoning up to order, with a large order of strips they often throw the meter in for free:



Phone number 0800 8815423



If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.



Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)

lovinglife said:

The biggest tool in your box is your diet, there is no magic pill that can let you eat what you call normal. Carbohydrates are not good for diabetics, especially T2. Many of us on the forum eat a low or very low carb (keto) diet to control our blood sugar. Some of the things that you need to reduce massively or even cut out altogether, rice,pasta, potatoes, bread and bread products, flour and baked goods, below ground veg, anything sugary including drinks Metformin will work on your insulin resistance but it won’t do much to reduce your numbers.

Get yourself a meter and begin testing right before your meal and 2 hrs after first bite, you need to see a rise of less than 2 points to know if you can cope with that food.

Things to eat, meat, fish, chicken, eggs, above ground veg, cheese, cream, a few nuts, avocados.

Having said all that it’s very overwhelming to begin with so take your time have a read of the forum and see how other people manage, you’ll get there it’s a big learning curve but you need to be willing to change

I’m tagging @Rachox who has some great info on meters also watch a YouTube video by one of our members @Debandez, hopefully she will see this tag and post it for you (I’m not techy enough to do it lol )it’s invaluable for those who are newly diagnosed

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Thank you for the tag @lovinglife

Great advice from you.

Here's the link to the video (in the success stories thread)