Panic: Went to Dr. for something else, and glucose was found in my urine. I'm very scared.

Hi seriously don't panic. I'm a newly diagnosed type1 diabetic. Could you not go to your local hospital and then they could see too you and if anything was to happen you are in the right place for medical assistance.


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First off, don't panic. They wouldn't have let you go home if you were in any danger. Make an appointment after the weekend, ask to be seen that day, explaining that you are very worried.

In the mean time don't starve yourself, eat sensibly avoiding sugary things and have a read of some of the threads here. They will give you a lot of info and you'll have a better idea of what questions you may want to ask the doctor.

Hope this helps, there will be others with more knowledge than me along soon... and if it does turn out to be diabetes... being diagnosed was the best thing that has happened to me for a long while. I've got my life back after a period where life was quite poor...

Good luck.

6.7 isn't that bad so you can calm down. What is intriguing is the glucose in your urine.
Does any relative of yours have diabetes? As glucose in urine when bg is below 11 is rare and occurs in some hereditary types of diabetes.

Anyway, no need for panic. Go easy on the most carb heavy things until you have seen a Dr. Don´t eat rice is my first advice and not too many sandwiches, nor pasta. Cheese, nuts, fish, meat, fat of any kind (but not margarine!) and vegetables of course, all these are fine. Have dry red or white wine if you want a drink, not beer or any sweet stuff.

Diabetes rarely hits suddenly so if it is diabetes in your case you have had it for some time. A couple of days more before you can see a Dr won´t make any difference. Keep cool, avoid beer, sweet stuff and rice, eat proper food and things will get clearer soon.

I thought anything under 7.8 was defined as non-diabetic.

Nico, Daisy will post some very helpful basic advice as soon as she picks up on your thread, but it's currently on "Diagnosed a Few Days Ago" which is still on this page if you want to have a look.

It's easy for me to say, but I wouldn't jump to firm conclusions until you've been assessed by your GP.

HI. If you can get the blood and urine sugar down thru reducing your carby food then it will help reduce the infection. Also, infection causes increased blood sugar as well. In the meantime eating fats, protein and veg is fine unless you have been told otherwise because of the urine infection. Cranberry juice (but no added sugar variety) can sometimes also help a bit with urine infection but don't have too much as it does have natural sugars

I would try to stay calm and if you are going to read, I think the following site is an excellent place to start learning about blood glucose. The site is called Blood Sugar 101:

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/index.php

As others have said, don't panic. To give you some context for the number, mine was about 20.0 and 16.0 (two tests) when I was diagnosed, with glucose found in my urine - and the 16.0 was after fasting. I'm just fine, no sign of any complications because they caught it after it had been there for only a few years (3 to 5 by my estimate.)

Even if you find out you are diabetic, there are good strategies now that you can use to avoid the kinds of problems your relatives may have had, by taking charge and controlling your blood glucose level. It's not like it was 30 years ago. I do not ever expect to have complications because of the control I am putting on my glucose level now.

If you want to improve your diet, you can follow ideas you can find on the forums here, especially around eating real food. That kind of eating is healthier for everyone, not just diabetics. Exercise helps keep you healthy too, but I'm sure you already knew that!

SJC said:

I thought anything under 7.8 was defined as non-diabetic.

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Depends on a lot of factors; whether fasting or not, what you ate the night before, whether you drove, walked, jogged to the Dr., etc. My BG this morning was 5.5, controlled with diet and exercise alone, but it doesn't mean I'm not diabetic.

2131tom said:

Nico, Daisy will post some very helpful basic advice as soon as she picks up on your thread, but it's currently on "Diagnosed a Few Days Ago" which is still on this page if you want to have a look.

It's easy for me to say, but I wouldn't jump to firm conclusions until you've been assessed by your GP.

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Hi Nico and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it helpful. Carry on asking questions and someone will help, as you have already seen from the good answers further up the thread.


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 100,000 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.

Hi Nico

Excellent advice here as always. I was diagnosed prediabetic last year which scared the life out of me especially as cuts on my feet were not healing properly causing me pain when walking, my BMI was 30 and I had excessive itching.

But...I took this as an opportunity to sort myself out and thanks to this forum, I followed a lot of advice and now I am officially non-diabetic.

So...take a deep breath, Tuesday is not far away now and as others have said, you may just have a UTI. Make sure you drink lots of water to cleanse your system and try and get a good night's sleep the night before.

Please do let us know how you get on x

The sugar in urine could be from the kidney infection

SJC said:

I thought anything under 7.8 was defined as non-diabetic.

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No. Fasting and pre prandial should be below 5.9
Post prandial (2 hours after food) below 7.5
The limits are on the website part of this website (if that makes sense)

Nico1920 said:

Yesterday morning my pee was brownish. I went to a walk-in centre, and got my urine tested. They found an infection, but also glucose in my urine. Then they measure my blood with a machine and got 6.7 (At that point I had no idea about what that number could mean).

I was adviced to get an appointment at my GP to discuss the issue. I was so shocked that I couldn't ask any further, and left the place without any orientation about what to do next. I was in total panic! Once outside I went to the nearest bench and cried as a baby for some minutes. After that I've been scared. Totally scared.

I'm afraid to eat. I had some chicken with salad today, but I am scared about eating anything, and dinner time is approaching. I've read the first 20 or so google results of diabetes. I am very anxious, and have to wait the whole weekend plus bank holiday to ask for an appointment. It's saturday right now, and I don't think I could resist all this anxiety any longer. I know it will make things worst, but I've smoked two packages since the event.

Now everything makes sense. The constant peeing, the scares in my arms, that ankle twist that never healed... Did I mentioned that I'm 30?

I'm in panic. Please help me.

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Me too! Went to get antibiotics, came away with metformin. Would imagine that you'll be asked to do a fasting blood test, then they'll need to see you to discuss the results. They'll probably give you metformin and tell you that you don't need to test. This is because the government has given them a get out clause, the strips are expensive and they don't want to fork out for them. (This is very common).
What I would suggest is that you buy an sd codefree meter from ebay and 50 strips and 50 lancets. They normally do a starter pack with everything included. It is important to test. You should test before food and 2 hours after food initially. Write down the result and what you eat. This will allow you to work out what you can and can't eat. If you do this for about a month, you'll have a starter diet. After that, I test, if I feel funny or I want to introduce something new. If you are ill, you will probably experience a rise in blood sugar. Mine goes hay wire during a cold.
Next, the diet. Some people eat smaller portions, avoid sugar and eat low fat. This is the standard NHS advice. The argument being that carbs provide energy. This is effective in losing weight but since carbohydrate raises the blood sugar, lots of us eat low carb and moderate to high fat. Fats are also a source of energy and don't raise your blood sugar. Have a read of www.dietdoctor.com - I follow this diet. Many NHS professionals don't like it because of the fat. I have lost 2 stone 4lbs and halved my bs since Jan 28. Basically don't weigh anything and avoid sugary foods, rice, potatoes, pasta and bread. Fry up for brekkie, tapas for lunch and meat or fish with green veggies. Good luck.

Nico1920 said:

Thank you for all the advice.

Without the intention to start a flame, I must say that I've been reading a lot of contradictory information about diet, and while both sides ensure that their claims are facts, it is clear that there is some controversy. I would guess that some things are not well understood and/or not discovered yet.
Is not my field at all, but seems to be an area full of myths that fuel the debate, and it's difficult to tell apart science from pseudoscience in claims at both sides of the argument.
I think I will do the research at some point before advocating to any side. In the meantime I will do mainly vegetables with meat.

Once again, thank you all. I will have to wait until Friday next week for my appointment, but I'll let you know.

By the way, the urinary infection doesn't seem better, although I have almost finished the antibiotics.

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Well the main thing is that you have got several options now! I was the same - low fat or low carb? Research away and do what you thinks best. Keep posting and good luck with whatever you decide to do!