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Not yet diagnosed but...

A

adriangoatseye

Well-Known Member
Messages
63
Location
Kent
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Banks
...potentially about to be.

I everyone. I went for a minor op recently. The op was fine but the aftermath has not been. When I went for the pre-op my blood and urine tests put HBaC1 as being at 51. I was actually told by phone that my blood sugar was a little high so a letter was being sent to my doctor (I was somewhat shocked to later find that I was in the diabetic range not pre-diabetic). I started eating more healthily (or so I thought having just read your low carb forum) and shed 4lbs in four few weeks. I went for my appointment at my doctors (with the nurse). This was a major disappointment. I received lots of info about managing diabetes but not much of a response when I asked about reversing the condition. Being reasonably educated I decided to go and read for myself and that is when I came across the Newcastle study. Since then I have been calorie counting (about a week) but have not been feeling great as a result although I am down another 2lbs.

I do note form reading the forum prior to posting this that I am not as high up the scales as many people. My arrival on here has been about seeking to control through diet. I am already a bit cheesed off that if I go for my second blood test and register HBaC1 above 48 I will be registered as a diabetic and, as I have since discovered, once that happens it is something I shall have to declare forever, even if I can manage to lower my readings. That is hardly fair in my eyes. I guess the second part of my arrival on here is to get an idea of some of the practical problems once you have been diagnosed (eg. insurance, jobs etc).

Like I say, I do not have some of the higher figure being mentioned on here. My height is 6'3" and my weight is 14st 11lbs (at most recent weighing) down from 15'3" at pre-op. My BG at my op were 6.8 and 7.2 although I had obviously been fasting at that point.

I hope that I can glean some info from this forum and I am very interested in the low carb forum. I really want to control this before it controls me. I have to say that moving to healthier eating has already made me feel less tired (I had been complaining about sluggishness for 2 or 3 years) and it has certainly lost a bit of weight. Having read the Newcastle study in brief I understood that you had a 50/50 chance of reversing diabetes completely (if you keep a well-maintained weight) if you reduced weight considerably. Armed with this I have set myself a target of 13st so a little way to go. Personally, I have not found reducing calories or cutting out rubbish food too difficult. It is quite time consuming to count calories although a better alternative to medication (something I will avoid at all costs).

I hope I will find information and, in time, maybe even provide it. I have certainly been transformed around food since January.

Adrian
 

Once you're formally diagnosed, that (I'm sorry to say) is that. Can you get to non diabetic levels? Yep. You can't "reverse" it (yet) .... but you can control it and stay within the target range so that takes discipline as many here have done. I'd continue down your path, work diligently at it, get another test done and see how you go.

LCHF diets are to many, the way they go. Good luck
 
Yes, you can reach a level whereby you may be taken off the diabetic register. Some on here have done that. I was offered this myself a couple of months ago but declined. It would have meant less regular monitoring of not just HbA1c but all the other bloods they do. (liver, kidneys, cholesterol, FBC and other things), plus the annual retina eye screening and foot checks may have been taken away. I prefer to stay controlled (by diet only) but remain labelled as a diabetic. It hasn't affected anything, insurance, driving, nothing at all. I am retired so work doesn't come in to it for me.

There is a lot of controversy about whether Type 2 can be reversed completely. One thing is virtually certain though, if you do get down to non-diabetic status you will always have to maintain a careful diet or you will be back where you started. My diabetes is definitely not reversed despite non-diabetic levels and dropping my BMI from 31 to 21. When I eat more carbs than normal my post meal levels are unacceptably high (for me, that is) and take longer to come down again.
 
The guidance from the NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme is that people who have been diagnosed with diabetes should NOT be removed from the screening database of diabetics even if they go into remission:-
  • patients should be screened annually for life if there has ever been a definite diagnosis of diabetes, excluding gestational diabetes
  • patients in remission – for example due to an intervention such as bariatric surgery – should be classified ‘Diabetes in remission’, not ‘Diabetes resolved’. This ensures they will still be invited for screening
  • patients will not be invited for screening if they have a read code of ‘Diabetes resolved’. This code should not be used for patients whose diabetes is in remission due to an intervention
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...formation_sheet_270215_final_for_printing.pdf
 
Thank you for the replies. I am going to bite the bullet and go for the second blood test tomorrow and then sit and wait. Even if it says I am below the 48 barrier I will still keep up my move to reduce my weight from around 16st at my heaviest to 13st.

Over the last few days I have been spooked by the visit to my doctor's and fiddled around with my diet. This has resulted in me feeling a little dizzy and unwell. Today I reverted to a salmon and scrambled egg breakfast, a mid-morning yogurt, a tuna sandwich for lunch and a roast dinner in Wetherspoons (although I cut back on the potatoes and my little one ensured I cut back on carrots). Despite still having a fairly low calorie count from that, I feel better today although it may be that I am more relaxed. If I am diagnosed then I will not want medication unless I absolutely need it. It worries me that doctor's push medication without considering the alternative and IMO better remedy of diet. My main problem is that there is such a myriad of dietary advice out there it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
 
Depending on when your "recent" surgery was, if you are trying to avoid a diagnosis you might want to hold off a bit on getting another A1c. Generally there isn't much point in getting an A1c more frequently than 3 months, since the A1c is a measurement that represents the average of roughly the last 3 months. If "recent" is fewer than 3 months, any changes you have started to make in response to the high value may not have had time to resolve your high A1c.
 
Hi. Thanks for this. I had thought that might be the case but I have bitten the bullet and gone and done it this morning. I guess your health is more important than whether you might get affected in some small way. From reading what other people were saying it did not seem like it was a massive effect on your life other than the sudden learning of what you can and cannot eat. Hopefully, I am not proven wrong there. Too late now. As I keep saying, even if I do avoid diagnosis (a little unlikely methinks) then the positive effects on my diet will still have been a good thing because I was definitely heading in the wrong direction.
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
I wonder what circumstances would warrant a "diabetes resolved" classification.
Click to expand...
Some practices use it to correct coding errors or misdiagnosis although arguably they should use the code "not diabetic" instead.

If someone has a short period of steroid-induced diabetes it may be appropriate but GPs should decide this on a case by case basis.
 
I think for some people (me included) it has been fairly easy to modify our diets to cut out/down on carbohydrates. For others it can be very daunting and confusing. However, it will generally need to be a permanent (or at least a long term) lifestyle change rather than a "fix it" diet, if you're going to keep diabetes under control.

If you have dramatically reduced your carbohydrate intake, then your feeling unwell may possibly be due to withdrawal symptoms (aka Atkins/carb/keto flu - check Google) while your body gets used to its new dietary regime. Some people get this - others don't - I had reduced my carbs in steps so didn't have any real issues.

Robbity
 
Hi @adriangoatseye
Good luck with the test. Let us know how it turns out. If it is confirmed this is a great place to help get on top of it and ask any questions you may have
 

I can't speak for anywhere but the US - here (by law) it can't impact your access to health care insurance or work. It can bump up (or keep you from getting) life insurance. Aside from that it's just a royal pain that is forcing me to spend far more time focused on food than I want to be - but with tremendous positive benefits. (I had no idea how much impact having undiagnosed diabetes was having on my day-to-day life.)
 
Hi again everyone.

Thanks for the replies. I will await the results of the blood test but have already started on weight loss (down from 15'3 to 14'11 so far). Also went to the gym at my local sports centre and did a whole 2k (wow!) of walking and running on the machine. I felt a little dizzy after although that may be partly due to general lack of fitness coupled with my diet tinkering at present and the fact that I am generally eating 1600 calories a day. I have to say that a breakfast of mushroom omelette and a tuna salad (well cucumber and tomato) seemed to perk me up a bit today. Not sure if my present strange state of feeling is down to the sheer stress of finding all this out. I've tried to start going low carb but struggling with this. You plop in something you think is low carb and it is not low carb at all. I think I managed to end on 62g by the end of today. Not too bad for a beginner. What do people use to measure carbs. I have found something called www.caloriecount.com. Not sure how good it is though, Open to suggestions. I'm also finding fruit a struggle because something as simple as an apple seems to bump carbs up
 
Hiya. First things first - if you haven't got one, get yourself a meter. You don't need an expensive one, a lot of us use the SD Codefree, as the test strips are cheaper and it is fairly rare for them to be offered by the diabetic nurses/gp's. Test before eating and two hours after, that will let you get a handle on what food affect you. You may well be able to eat small portions of carbs but testing is the only reliable way to find out what is ok for you personally.
Secondly - don't panic. If you do decide to go lower carb, it isn't that difficult, honestly. It really is a question of tweaking your diet, and being prepared to change ways of eating a bit. There are loads of low carb recipes on this site, but again, you may not even have to use them (although they are good!) A lot of people use the My Fitness Pal app, I use it too although I haven't quite got it all figured out yet!

All will be ok, promise. Just relax, sort a meter for yourself, and have a look at how many success stories there are here.
 
I use http://www.calorieking.com/ to check carb, protein and fat content of various foods.

62g is quite a good start. I found I didn't need to count carbs if I eliminated sugar, grains, rice, starchy veg, and fruit.
 
Welcome. The first thing I would say is although the majority of BG readings are food related but there are other causes. You were undergoing an operation. Blood sugars rise when you are stressed (the anticipation of flight or fight pumps the blood with sugar). You are doing wonderfully. You have identified you are diabetic. Accept it. Its a non curable disease, you are always going to have to watch what you eat. You can gain control of the blood sugars. Most of the people who have gained control have done it with a blood sugar readings via a machine. If you get a good Dr you might get good advice. Most of our experiences with Drs are not so good. They will offer the eat well plate. This has a high proportion of carbohydrates. We do not process carbohydrates right and it affects our blood sugars. Drs are pretty hit and miss when it comes to giving you a blood monitoring machine. If they dont prescribe one, buy one they are pretty cheap. Getting your weight and food under control is a must if you want to get your blood sugars right. Good luck in your journey and well done for finding the forum.
 
Hi Ladybird, Nocrbs and Kyi...thanks for the welcome and the advice. I am awaiting my test results before I do get a meter (will see if they will give me one). However, I will buy one soon if not. It has already been an interesting journey so far and, like some, I am finding that changing my diet has resulted in much fewer calories being eaten. I'm tending to cook from fresh much, much more and I find that cutting chocolate and crisps was almost effortless. I will add the calorieking thing to my saved websites.
 
I can relate to your concerns about meds. I was diagnosed T2 last week and in the same breath my GP suggested he would precribe Metformin.
I asked for some time to do some research and think about it and I have gone back to him this week to say I'm following an LC diet, self-monitoring, and I'm open to discussing it again at a 3-month review. He agreed, reluctantly, but still gave me the lecture on what the NHS considers to be the "most suitable course of action for diabetics".
Hmmm, OK, but it's MY body and I have the right to decide if I want to fill it with chemicals (which, of course, ultimately I may have to, but at least I will have tried the alternatives first).
Stick to your guns - from my reading on this site it seems that those who are proactive, keep an open mind, and take responsibility for managing their condition have the best results in the long term.
 
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