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Partner recently diagnosed with type 2... Any advice please...

C

clairejayne

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi.
My partner was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes Tuesday this week, by accident, he had a abscess drained 2 weeks ago and had been seeing the district nurse, it was was only that he had to go to the surgery for the nurse to change his dressing and she did blood tests for his yearly check up. He got a call from the nurse at 7pm that evening, asking him to go down to the surgery as his blood sugar was 27. He has been checking his levels which range from 11 to 24 since, He says he doesn't feel particularly ill just tired. He has to go back Tuesday to see the nurse, he is hoping to control this by loosing weight and changing his diet. We have been given very little information.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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Welcome to the land of the dispossessed loads info here peruse around and ask questions wherever you are confused. Daisy will put more up just now. Food wise lot of us here low carb (low carb high fat) From what you say he is basically healthy no gall bladder or kidney or other problems so scroll down to the low carb section and read Vivs modified Atkins also check out Dietdoctor l have about 30g carb a day.

The LCHF is best way l know to loose weight and get bloods under control add in exercise but that can be anything from gentle strolls to 40 mile runs any little bit helps. Make sure he gets a blood glucose meter and tests before first mouth of food and 2 hrs after that. He will probably be told don't need it...that is the first lesson in ignoring your healthcare team. It is his life and his complications not theirs.

Lesson 2 on ignoring the nhs. They push 3/4 plate of starch and carbs... shove back at them. He will need to cut out starch and carbohydrates. Both are sugar, l only found that gem out post diagnosis from here. Now l have no sugar no potatoes, bread, pasta, rice and feel better for it. My body breaks down fat for energy.
I look for food that has 5g carbs/100g food, if higher l decide if and how much l want that item. Eggs are brill though can scoff them. Book carbs and cals is very good get the full size not pocket edition.



 
Hi and welcome. Yes, do follow Mud Island dwellers advice and in general NHS dietary advice can make you worse so beware any advice to have carbs. Set a daily carb limit of perhaps, 150gm/day or less. Make them low-GI carbs when you can. Have adequate protein and fat as well as veg. This approach should reduce both weight and blood sugar. Do come back with any questions
 
Many thanks daibell. We are struggling with what to and not to eat, trying to cut down on potatoes also bread, trying to find alternatives is very confusing, I made fish pie tonight, we usually have mashed potatoe on top of the fish, I sliced potatoes and placed them on the top instead of the mash which cut down the amount we usually have, plenty of veg with it too. He is now wanting something sweet, had a bowl of sugar free jelly, but fancying ice cream, I have looked for alternatives but am getting confused. Sure we will crack this. :-)


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if your partner is serious about the diet and exercise then I would recommend looking into the newcastle diet or read my thread (here)
It isn't an easy option nor is too difficult and it only needs to last a few weeks to shock the body back.. There are many others that have followed this approach and there is a whole forum on the newcastle diet. Unfortunately there is no guarantees that it will work but is a good way to shake off those pounds.

Good luck to you and your partner. I am sure with your encouragement he can achieve anything he sets his mind to.

Edit: Oh and get a blood glucose meter no matter what his nurse.doctor says. You wouldn't drive blindfolded so why fly blind with his diabetes. The codefree one from amazon is very reasonable
 
Try to avoid the idea that all meals have to have a high carbohydrate element with them. You don't need potatoes/rice/ pasta/ bread. if you do have them use small portions. I seem to have had success using small potions of Al Dente wholewheat spaghetti. As mentioned above the only way to really know is get a blood glucose meter to see what a meal has done, and weigh your food.
 
Suds as said on the no list. Someone can not remember who has found a small amount of fresh new spuds is ok. Some people can eat brown rice the basmati type, l look at it and my blood spikes. I found the easiest was to cold turkey on all pasta spuds rice bread sugar. Once you get over carb cravings and have settled into a new eating plan then try with testing small amounts of forbidden food.

l looked at newcastle but decided it was to difficult so just slung off and did low carb a lot easier for me :hilarious:

For sweet things l have a small bowl of mixed berries with fresh cream one or 2 times a day. It is yummmy. Get some packs in the frozen food part of the supermarket. A lot of people have full fat yoghurt..lidl is l think 4g/100g. l can not eat yogurt as it spikes me. You need to get your head round the fat is bad for you more and more studies show it isnt. Read this as well from Southport GP if you don't want to read the whole lot read the first page and last couple.

Be careful of fruit it has high sugar in. UK fruit is safest in small amounts, look on foreign as high sugar and avoid, again test all fruits you may get lucky on a fruit you like.

As said buy a small set of scales to weigh food on till you get used to amounts along with a meter invaluable.
 
Hi Welcome :)

What a shock huh, follow the advice above, you will both be fine,once the shock, fear,denial subside and you learn the correct way to control things (not the NHS method of insanely making things worse) you will fine, it isnt too bad :)

best of luck!
 
Hi clairejayne and welcome to the forum :)

Here is the information we give to new members (mentioned by Mud Island Dweller) and I hope you will find it useful. Carry on asking questions and someone will help, as you have already seen.


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.
 
clairejayne said:
Hi.
My partner was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes Tuesday this week, by accident, he had a abscess drained 2 weeks ago and had been seeing the district nurse, it was was only that he had to go to the surgery for the nurse to change his dressing and she did blood tests for his yearly check up. He got a call from the nurse at 7pm that evening, asking him to go down to the surgery as his blood sugar was 27. He has been checking his levels which range from 11 to 24 since, He says he doesn't feel particularly ill just tired. He has to go back Tuesday to see the nurse, he is hoping to control this by loosing weight and changing his diet. We have been given very little information.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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Hi there,
Follow the advice you've been given here. Although it must have been a shock to get the diagnosis, a positive that should come of it is that once your husband has got his blood glucose levels back down to a more healthy range he will begin to feel a lot better and have more energy again.
Another place to look for basic information is at Team blood glucose - in the type 2 diabetes kit bag. http://www.teambloodglucose.com/TeamBG/Kit_Bag.html
Stay positive - you have done the right thing coming here for advice, and will allow you to enable your husband to get control of his diabetes much more quickly.
 
Many thanks to everyone who commented on my post... My partner is back to see the nurse on Wednesday, she told him that his blood sugar had to be under 10 to avoid him taking medication, he is reluctant to take any as he is a class 1 HGV driver and is worried this is going to affect his licence and job. We have totally changed our diets cutting carbohydrates to a minimum, no sugary foods, plenty veg and salad, fish and chicken, but his levels are between 11 and 20. He has been complaining of very bad blurred vision at times but says he still doesn't feel particularly poorly just tiered. I can't believe what a trying stressful time this has been for both of us. I have to say I have found this site a great support, all the advice and reading other peoples stories has been a great help.


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clairejayne said:
Many thanks to everyone who commented on my post... My partner is back to see the nurse on Wednesday, she told him that his blood sugar had to be under 10 to avoid him taking medication, he is reluctant to take any as he is a class 1 HGV driver and is worried this is going to affect his licence and job. We have totally changed our diets cutting carbohydrates to a minimum, no sugary foods, plenty veg and salad, fish and chicken, but his levels are between 11 and 20. He has been complaining of very bad blurred vision at times but says he still doesn't feel particularly poorly just tiered. I can't believe what a trying stressful time this has been for both of us. I have to say I have found this site a great support, all the advice and reading other peoples stories has been a great help.


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If he is low carbing and still get so high bg I think he should get antibodies checked.

Or maybe he doesn't eat enough fat but a lot of protein? Excess protein can contribute to high bg while fat has no effect at all.
 
Check up but l dont think metformin is a problem with diabetes as an hgv it is when he is put on insulin and l think glicktizade. If that is the case then go step one to metformin it assists the liver.
 
clairejayne said:
Many thanks to everyone who commented on my post... My partner is back to see the nurse on Wednesday, she told him that his blood sugar had to be under 10 to avoid him taking medication, he is reluctant to take any as he is a class 1 HGV driver and is worried this is going to affect his licence and job. We have totally changed our diets cutting carbohydrates to a minimum, no sugary foods, plenty veg and salad, fish and chicken, but his levels are between 11 and 20. He has been complaining of very bad blurred vision at times but says he still doesn't feel particularly poorly just tiered. I can't believe what a trying stressful time this has been for both of us. I have to say I have found this site a great support, all the advice and reading other peoples stories has been a great help.


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If he complains of blurry vision and tiredness, should he be driving HGV's? That would really worry me.
 
Mud island dweller..
Today he has had breakfast - 2 slices Burgen soya and linseed bread toasted with marg (I have seen several post that this bread is low carb). Lunch - 3 Home made pork sausages. Dinner - chicken breast, 1 potato, curly kale, cauliflower. Snaks sugar free jelly, peanuts, 1 yogart, 2 cups of tea with milk, 4 cups of coffee. Any advice if we are doing wrong would be great.


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Hi @clairejayne did you test his levels before eating and at 2 hours after each meal and did he do any exercise after eating. The exercise is extremely great for bringing levels down to acceptable levels. However if you do to much vigorous exercise you can make you numbers higher. Try getting him to walk up and down the stairs 20 times about 40 minutes to an hour after starting to eat. Alternatively got for a 30 minute walk after eating.
 
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