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Newly-ish diagnosed and got a few questions?

nymple

nymple

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Birmingham
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I've been lurking for a few weeks now and the advice on the forum has helped immensely so thanks to everyone for their contributions! However I had a couple of questions so figured it was time to stop hiding and pop up and introduce myself. So, HIYA! Haha.

I first had a high blood sugar reading in February 2013 however it took 4 months from this test for me to be officially diagnosed. The reason being is that I had just come off Roaccutane for my horrid complexion. It wasn't in the warnings but after doing some research I discovered that is medication is known to raise your blood sugar and also triglycerides, cholesterol (although these were mentioned and yep, I got them too). Quite a lot of people went on to be diagnosed diabetic although more often T1 after coming off the Roaccutane google told me, after the fact, doh! Therefore the (new) doctor, after checking in her trusty medical books confirmed that it can cause high blood sugar so gave it a few months to see if my blood sugar would go down.... Haha obviously it didn't!

So around May or June, aged 30, I was officially diagnosed as diabetic. What type seemed to flummox her though. Her almost exact words were "Well, not to be rude but you aren't really fat enough to have T2 at your age but if you had T1 you'd have been really ill and lost a lot of weight so, honestly I don't really know". Annoying but Kudos to her for admitting she was clueless and ringing the diabetic nurse for advice. They decided I must be T2 and immediately put me on metformin. When I saw the DN in July she gave the usual advice and upped my metformin to the maximum dose however she gave me a metre when I asked for one advising that the practice might not let me have the strips on prescription as I was T2 (so far they have but I suspect it won't last much longer).

I brought my numbers down a little on my own (from 10/11/12s to 7/8/9s with some 5/6s creeping in occasionally although my morning numbers were always on the high side) but I was frustrated. Odd things seem to affect my levels and after being threatened with more medication at my next DN visit I just really wanted to do everything I could to resist this. So I started to reduce the amount of the carbs I would have (which were all already brown) and tried making my own rye bread and similar things. I saw a small drop in numbers but the levels seemed to fluctuate more. Therefore I started to think that maybe I just needed to accept the help of extra medication as maybe I couldn't do this on my own...

But then I started reading the low carb forum and despite knowing it would be so so tough for me (:( I love my carbs) decided that I better give it a go as I love my eyes and feet more! WOW! Thank you so much for the advice on the low carb forum, and the success stories for giving me motivation! I've seen an immediate drop in my numbers and although I'm struggling with cravings like you wouldn't believe, I'm not actually hungry most of the time.

Anyway, this leads me to my questions (eventually, crikey! I do go on but sorry I have a lot of words since I've been storing them up for nearly a month whilst I lurked! :))

I've got high morning numbers, at least I though I did. The last few days I tested when I get out of bed and then an hour later when I get to work and eat my breakfast. I've discovered that the number starts out alright (5.7-6.7) and then an hour later before breakfast when I had been testing the number had risen to 7.5/7.8 and on one occasion up to 9.2! At first I thought that this was the dawn phenomenon but now I am not so sure... I have a short walk from to and from the bus in the mornings and the one day I actually had a lie in, the number went down. So:

1. I know that for some people blood sugar can rise immediately after exercise so could a short walk in the morning cause this? Could it be combining with the dawn phenomenon to make the exercise rise more pronounced in the morning? (I workout pretty much every day in the early evening but don't notice it affecting my before dinner reading this much unless I test immediately after and even then the rise isn't that high)
2. Have you got any suggestions for how to stop this happening? Obvious answer is to eat breakfast at home but I'm time poor in the morning and I just wondered if there was any other advice?

3. The strips for my current metre are costly and like I said, I don't think they will give me many more. Also they only give me 50 at a time as I'm only supposed to be testing once a day but I'm a convert on eating to my metre so am going through those far quicker than they will give them out. Could I have some suggestions for a cheap metre, in terms of the strips? I was looking at the SD code free but was concerned by quite a few reviews on Amazon complaining of inaccuracies. What are your experiences if you have one of these?

4. As a usually tech savvy person this one hurts a little but I can't figure out how to post a new thread on the forum app. I think I am being a bit slow! Haha How do you do this? :banghead:
 
Hi, Welcome :)

your doing great!

i think your right about your morning reading and eating is the answer, i wouldnt expect a short walk to raise bg but the exercise combined with no food may be provoking your liver

im sure the sd code free is fine for most, itll be the same old thing, where you only hear the bad experiences with things

best of luck with everything and its very nice to have you here with us :)
 
Thanks Andy.

I shall just have to get more organised and try scoffing my breakfast first thing in the morning and see if that helps the numbers. Fingers crossed eh?

You are probably right about the metre too. I might just take the plunge and order it.


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have you heard of livlife bread? its low carb, you can buy it in waitrose and some morrisons, you could maybe try a slice of toast if you dont have much time and eat it on the go, just to see if it works then youll know if you need to make some more time in the mornings to eat properly :)
 
I'd seen it mentioned but hadn't investigated it properly yet. I shall have to look into it. Currently my breakfast is Greek yogurt with cinnamon and almonds so it's not massively time consuming but I've just got in the habit of rushing out the door and eating at a more relaxed pace at work whilst I wait for my incredibly slow computer to boot up.

Ah well, it isn't the first habit I'm changing following my diagnosis and I'm sure it won't be the last. I shall check out that bread though, I'd pretty much given up on the idea of toast. It tough changing my eating habits but also kind of exciting really. I'm pretty sure it was one of your posts that convinced me to give cheesy cauliflower mash a go when I next plan my menu. I'm excited.... About cauliflower! Who would have thought it!? Haha


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Hi, welcome and nice to see you out of the shadows!
In answer to how to create a new thread on the forum up:
1. Select the forum you want to post in by clicking touching e.g "discussions".
2. A list of the threads should then appear. At the top of the page on the right side of the red band you should see "...".
3. Select "..." And then "new entry" from the menu that appears.

Hope this helps.

Pavlos


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Thanks Pavlos!

For some reason that option wasn't there before my first post. It just had "Mark as Read" and "Subscribe" so I was really confused. It's appeared now so I won't have that problem again.


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Hi. There is always the possibility of you being LADA (Late onset T1) particularly at age 30. Quite a few of us on the forum were dumped into the T2 category by GPs who didn't understand that not being overweight and not being T1 from birth leaves the possibility open for a diagnosis of a late T1. If with low-carbing and not being overweight your readings 2 hours after a meal keep creeping up then do ask your GP for the two tests for LADA. If LADA comes on slowly as mine did then you will not move into ketone territory overnight although my bloods at diagnosis were in the 30s area. I was diagnosed just before I would have had serious ketone problems. Metformin won't help much but won't do any harm. You may need to go thru the cycle many of us have i.e. adding Gliclazide and/or Sitagliptin which help the pancreas for a while. With LADA insulin will finally be needed (don't panic as it's a real solution). May be your aren't a LADA but do bear it in mind.
 
Hi Nymple l have the same SD thoughts problem as you although others here have said it is fine. If you wanted could look to getting one and a set of strips and doing side by side checks with your meter.

Failing that l use the Freedom Freestyle Lite. Abbot sent me a free meter and also the lead and bits to connect it to the computer and then you go nuts on all the numbers and drool a lot in excitement. So far l am having strips supplied but want to top up due to exercise routines l am getting into and someone here said the freedom lite strips are £15 + 1.50 P & P if you go to pharmacy they are £22-28 ouch!

I rang them up as had trouble logging into the site with the code on my old meter.

If you fancy any other meters go direct to the manufacture they will send a free meter and lot cheaper on the strips. I think if standard type 2 you don't need fancy like the insulin folks some meters almost sing and dance if you were other then they have other excellent meters that do more

MID
 
Thanks Daibell, the thought had crossed my mind after reading up a bit but I wasn't really sure of what signs to look out for if it is LADA and not T2. I am overweight though, just not overweight enough to generally fit in my doctors expectations of T2 at 30. I also do not have a family history of any diabetes at all. I will keep it in mind and maybe mention it to my doctor next time I see her as a possibility. She might be open to testing me as I don't think she was convinced of the fact that I am T2 either considering she asked all the other doctors at a practice conference and then spoke to 2 diabetic nurses. She might not know right away, but she doesn't pretend to know or fob me off so I think I found a good 'un :)


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Mud Island Dweller said:
Hi Nymple l have the same SD thoughts problem as you although others here have said it is fine. If you wanted could look to getting one and a set of strips and doing side by side checks with your meter.

Failing that l use the Freedom Freestyle Lite. Abbot sent me a free meter and also the lead and bits to connect it to the computer and then you go nuts on all the numbers and drool a lot in excitement. So far l am having strips supplied but want to top up due to exercise routines l am getting into and someone here said the freedom lite strips are £15 + 1.50 P & P if you go to pharmacy they are £22-28 ouch!

I rang them up as had trouble logging into the site with the code on my old meter.

If you fancy any other meters go direct to the manufacture they will send a free meter and lot cheaper on the strips. I think if standard type 2 you don't need fancy like the insulin folks some meters almost sing and dance if you were other then they have other excellent meters that do more

MID
Click to expand...
I shall have a look around some more and see whether something else meets my needs but honestly, I think I might just bite the bullet and get the SD one. I can still keep using both for and if I find the readings massively off then I can chalk it up to experience and pay for the more expensive strips.

Haha the metre you have does sound snazzy though, I like the idea of being able to upload the data... Although I'm not sure how often I would actually do this! Thanks for the useful information about getting things straight from the manufacturer, I should check out my current strips as the price I got at the pharmacy nearly made me faint! Haha


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Hi there
It sounds like you are doing really well half the trouble with DB is changing your thinking. Have you thought of grabbing a handful of Almonds on the way to work or before you leave the house just to stop your liver thinking you are starving to death! I got a codefree meter and although it may not be as accurate as some of the other meters all I want is to check whether m levels remain consistant The strips are very much cheaper than accu chek ones that I had and that very occasionally my GP can be co-erced into letting me have strips. I use the multiclix lancing that comes with the accuchek meter it is the kindest for a coward like me .Accuchek may send you a free meter if you contact them and tell them that you test your BGs
CAROL
 
carty said:
Hi there
It sounds like you are doing really well half the trouble with DB is changing your thinking. Have you thought of grabbing a handful of Almonds on the way to work or before you leave the house just to stop your liver thinking you are starving to death! I got a codefree meter and although it may not be as accurate as some of the other meters all I want is to check whether m levels remain consistant The strips are very much cheaper than accu chek ones that I had and that very occasionally my GP can be co-erced into letting me have strips. I use the multiclix lancing that comes with the accuchek meter it is the kindest for a coward like me .Accuchek may send you a free meter if you contact them and tell them that you test your BGs
CAROL
Click to expand...

Thanks Carol, I shall maybe try contacting Accucheck for a metre as I find my lancing device quite painful sometimes. That's very helpful to know, I think I saw someone else mentioning the multiclix was gentler than a lot of other lancing devices. I think I'm probably going to buy a codefree metre and see how I get on as well though. I'm a bit obsessed with monitoring my levels at the moment so I'm going through a lot of strips!

I shall also try the nuts before my commute and see if that staves off the morning rise, thanks for the tip!


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I gave the nuts a try this morning and my by came down on the way to work. Going to bite the bullet and do breakfast at home tomorrow so fingers crossed. Thanks everyone for their advice and comments! Much appreciated :)


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:playful:Welcome, nymple! There are some helpful, lovely people on this forum, as you have probably noticed. I've been on almost every day for about two weeks, since I've been diagnosed with t2. It's so much better to go all of the changes and adjustments with people who are going through it too. See 'ya 'round!
 
FatGenes999 said:
:playful:Welcome, nymple! There are some helpful, lovely people on this forum, as you have probably noticed. I've been on almost every day for about two weeks, since I've been diagnosed with t2. It's so much better to go all of the changes and adjustments with people who are going through it too. See 'ya 'round!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome fatgenes! :) Indeed, I am quickly discovering that there are lots of helpful lovely people on here. Glad I stopped lurking!


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