Newly diagnosed

Hi there and welcome to the forum. These guys are brilliant, I couldn't cope without them. Any questions you have or if you just fancy a rant please do not hesitate, we're all on this journey together. Ohh I find ketchup to be the worst thing for my BG shame as I love it.
Sorry can some just clarify this for me - Is what the doctors have said true in that someone can be too old for type1? I was told that type 1 can hit at any age, as a friend in her late 40s was diagnosed only a few months ago

Hi & Welcome to the forum, @trinity0097, I am just going to Tag @daisy1 who will be along with a long list of information that we give to all new members.

It maybe a little late now but if she does not turn up shortly then she will definitely be along in the morning.

Neil

trinity0097 said:

Have found this forum this week, since being diagnosed on Monxay. Had an awful event, including chest pains (heart attack ruled out!) on Monday morning, the very nice paramedic when finding a clear ECG did a blood sugar test, looked rather shocked, scrubbed a finger totally clean then did it again and pronounced I was straight off to the hospital in an ambulance with a blood sugar reading of 32!

Luckily once I got out of A&E into the assessment unit one of the doctors on call was a diabetic specialist, so he was able to go through everything with me and get me started immediately with a testing kit and metformin. Apparently I am too old for T1 and too young for T2, so they are treating it as T2 for now and I will find out oater which it is when the lab work gets sent back,

My GP has been useless, as the practice do not allow GPs to prescribe sharps bins, testing strips or needles for the pricker thing, luckily the DSN was able to the next day - the nurse can be trusted to prescribe the right thing, but not the doctors! Have done the paperwork for my medical exemption card for prescriptions, hope that gets to me as the box for the street was far too short for my street name!

Have tried to cut out obvious sugar from my diet since, and my levels have been between 8.5 and 12.5 since. Waiting to hear for my appointment at the diabetic clinic at the hospital. Suffering a bit with the side effects of metformin, but this will work wonders for my weight! Was having a good day levels wise today, despite a spoonful of my mother-in-laws trifle, but I think I ruined it by having ketchup on my scrambled eggs on toast for supper!

Glad to have found somewhere to come for help and advice!

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Hi Trinity, Just reading you introduction and read the Ketchup thing, I think what it will have been to raise your blood sugars is the Toast.

Don't know how many slices you had but unless you had low carb something like Hovis seed sensations or Burgen Linseed & Soya then the bread will have had a lot of carbs, the ketchup would not help but would not have made much difference unless you had lashings.

Potatoes, some root veg Rice Pasta Bread are all real No No or in very small portions but you will need to test to see what effects you.

Neil

Hi @trinity0097 welcome. Have a read of the first link in my sig below for starters, ask any questions.

monkehwife said:

Hi there and welcome to the forum. These guys are brilliant, I couldn't cope without them. Any questions you have or if you just fancy a rant please do not hesitate, we're all on this journey together. Ohh I find ketchup to be the worst thing for my BG shame as I love it.
Sorry can some just clarify this for me - Is what the doctors have said true in that someone can be too old for type1? I was told that type 1 can hit at any age, as a friend in her late 40s was diagnosed only a few months ago

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AFAIK toddlers can get T2 and 80 yr olds can get late onset T1,

trinity is getting a c-peptide blood test etc to see which one

monkehwife said:

Hi there and welcome to the forum. These guys are brilliant, I couldn't cope without them. Any questions you have or if you just fancy a rant please do not hesitate, we're all on this journey together. Ohh I find ketchup to be the worst thing for my BG shame as I love it.
Sorry can some just clarify this for me - Is what the doctors have said true in that someone can be too old for type1? I was told that type 1 can hit at any age, as a friend in her late 40s was diagnosed only a few months ago

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I have recently been diagnosed type 1 at 48, they say this is due to me having in the past acute/chronic pancreatitis. not one nurse or doctor told me there was a high chance this could happen. i dont drink and eat healthy, i cant work any more as i have mobility problems, the diabetic nurse told me i should have been informed. I have yearly blood tests and apparently this was spotted 14mths ago but was not picked up by anyone, for the past goodness knows how long I was left feeling unwell all the time, dizzy, confused, so tired and thirsty. I got all my stuff a week ago and the headaches have stopped thank goodness. Just cant wait now for the tiredness ect to go.

@trinity0097

Hello and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful in addition to the useful advice you have had from several members. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will be able to reply.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 130,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

@trinity0097

Sorry Trinity you said you didn't need the intro post as you had seen it already but we were posting simultaneously !

trinity0097 said:

This morning sugars at 8.5, which is almost my lowest since Monday, (have managed an 8.3 yesterday lunchtime, after a McDonald's breakfast - go figure that white bread in the muffin and a hash brown!!!)

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Not a bad result, but nonetheless, an 8.3 should be enough to tell you that the Maccas meal is still not a good choice. Imagine if you'd eaten something halfway healthy without the white bread and the potato and then imagine the figure. It would have been (in all likelihood) lower

THAT is your target. Keep goin'

trinity0097 said:

To be fair I think that 8.5 is way better than 32 which was my starting point 6 days ago!

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Nobody said it wasn't trinity. It's a GREAT result and well done on doing it. Matter of fact, it's amazing. If you can drag that number down gradually, you'll get on top of this in no time

Mike

Hi. Yes, T1 can occur at any age. It sounds like you are overweight so T2 becomes more likely. Don't rely too much on the Metformin as it will help with blood sugar but not by a lot. A low carb diet is the best way forward. If the Metformin continues to give bowel problems, do ask for the Slow Release (SR) version as it's much kinder

trinity0097 said:

I don't quite get what you can actually eat that is a meal on a low carb diet, if you also need to be low sugar and low fat. That rules out all pulses, rice, pasta, bread etc, fruit, yogurts etc etc, plus you can't eat any root vegetables. Are you just meant to eat a grilled chicken breast or a piece of steak for every meal?! Whilst reading other threads I saw people say that they had Greek yogurt, but that was full of carbs and sugar, so I am rather confused!!!

On the plus side I just recorded a score of 7.0 after my rather boring breakfast of a sachet of ready brek and some agave nectar, but 2 hours after the meal my score was still over 12. Just had a bowl of chicken soup and a piece of wholemeal seed sensations bread.

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you eat in your diet healthy fats, to replace the lost carb energy. have full fat everything and add olive/coconut oils and butter
I know it's hard getting your head around that fats are good for you
you cut the starch and sugars

I used to have low sugar low fat but now have low carb full fat ie I have butter, whole milk, single cream, Greek yoghurt, proper cheese, etc and my last hb1ac was 42, my cholesterol is down from 5.6 to 4.2 and I have lost weight at an average of 1-2 lbs per week. I did have a problem 'getting my head' around this way of eating because for years I thought I was eating healthily with low fat but I now feel better than I have for years and i probably eat more carbs than many here! If there is no problem with you eating low carb and full fat give it a try and see what happens.