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Oh goodness, can you help?

L

lizzy@

Newbie
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3
Hi everyone.

I'm a newbie so best explain myself first.

A while ago I had a blood test and the doctor told me that my blood sugar was a bit high, he assured me that I wasn't a diabetic but need to keep an eye on things.

He gave me an appointment with the diabetic nurse who had a little chat with me about things and said I would be tested again in 6 months time, this was done, and the reading had gone down a bit, after another 6 months I had another fasting blood test and was told at the next appointment that it was all back to normal, so to just keep losing weight and carry on as I was, (I have a lot of weight to lose) my next appointment would be in 12 months time as she said that would be enough.

For a number of months now I've been really bad as regards to my eating, I've been eating all the wrong things, chocolate, cake, you name it, I've had it, put some weight back on too, (no surprise there then) Xmas was an eating disaster to say the least and it just carried on, I've totally lost the plot!

I've got to get back on track which is what I'm working on now, it's difficult, I'm addicted to carbs and the white stuff for sure.

Anyway, I thought using a glucose monitor would help me get back on track, so I've bought one, so what I need to know is when do you think I should test my blood, how often and at what time, what should it measure etc, I don't want to be doing it all the time, I don't think I need to do it daily, but just having some idea what my level is I can keep it in check, I'm guessing the first test will scare me to death, I've been so naughty!

So can someone give me some help and advice on how to move forward with my new monitor, I'm very much a newbie both with diabetic 'stuff' and the forum so do forgive my ignorance, I'm just trying to get myself back on track and hope that I don't get as far as being a full blown diabetic.

Thanks in advance.

Hugs Lizzy.
 
It is unfortunately a lifetime commitment trying to stay on track. Every couple of months I stock up on strips and I will test upon waking and before meals and 2 hrs after meals and it gives me a good indication of what my BS is doing. This is great for working out which foods are having an effect on your BS and those that your body can tolerate. I personally get my HbA1c test done every 3 months so I know I am keeping everything under control as a lot can change in a year.
 
Thank you for you reply 4ratbags, that's very kind of you. I was thinking of just testing once a week, first thing in a morning, I don't know if that would be enough.
Hope one or two others could maybe reply and give some advice, that would be great.
Many thanks.
 
@4ratbags is correct, in the early stages concentrate on pre meals and post meals two hours after. This is the only way to see if you can tolerate the food or combination of foods you eat. If you are above 2mmols after the two hour reading, then there is some part of what you have ate that is raising your blood glucose levels to high and needs removing from your intake. It is usually carbs or sugars.

Eat to your meter.

Reduce your carbs and sugars.
Reduce your plate size.
Increase your exercise.
 
@lizzy@ The trouble with testing once a week, say first thing every Saturday morning, is that you might be tempted to be "good" on Fridays (I know I would be) and possibly a bit less good on other days. The glucose monitor, which you have at home, will just tell you how much glucose is in that particular bit of your blood at that moment. OK, if you have binged all week, there will have been little recovery time and the reading will be higher than if you have been fairly good all week, but it is a spot reading.
Can I suggest that you do before and 2 hours after meals for a couple of weeks, so that you learn about how different foods affect you. You will then really know what to avoid. You can then go on to occasional spot checks, just to make sure nothing is going madly wrong.
Sally
 
If you don't want to do a lot of testing, you can set up a pattern that will still form a good picture. When I was first diagnosed and started to get it under control (a long time ago now) I was initially advised to take one or two tests each day, but at a different time each day on a rolling pattern, so that after a few days I had one reading per salient time period of the day - and that builds up a pattern for the entire day.

So, day 1, I might test on waking, then 2 hours after breakfast, day 2 I might do before breakfast and before lunch, day 3 would be 2 hours after lunch and before dinner. etc. etc.

If you want to know more detail and the effects of particular foods, you'd need to test more often than that, but maybe try this for a week and see what sort of numbers you're getting.
 
That's great folks, a real help, just what I needed, I really am groping around in the dark with all of this. I think I'll set up a routine of testing before and after food as you suggest for a while to see what different sorts of food affect me, that sounds good to me thanks so much everyone for your help, I just needed pointing in the right direction, I will let you know how I get on, it will be my first day to start this new regime tomorrow so I'll give it a couple of weeks and let you all know how I'm getting on.
Thanks.
 
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