Really Frightened now, but determined to change my lifestyle

[douglas99]

Yesterday I got a seriously massive wake up call when my gp told me that my Hba1c has significantly gone up, my blood pressure is a bit high and that protein was found in my urine test. The gp has prescribed me with ramipril and this has made me realize what I am doing to myself as my kidneys might be failing.

On this Monday coming up I have an appointment with a dietician at the Royal Derby Hospital and I have proposed a somewhat low carb diet which I am planning on following for two months if the dietician think that its a good idea. For breakfast: 125g of Brooklea Low Fat Natural Yoghurt with a handful of blueberries. For lunch; 2 scrambled eggs with a pinch of chilli powders. For dinner: a beef burger cooked on a George Foreman Grill with a layer of lettuce, red onion slices and sliced tomato.

From today I have started to follow my meter and already my sugars were at 11.7 when I woke up this morning at 7am to 21 at 11am after having a bowl of oats with yoghurt and blueberries and my meds. I have just tested now after walking outside for 30 minutes and is now at 21.3. I am now thinking of skipping lunch and test every hour to see if they will be lower by 2 or 3pm.

Good luck.
See the dietician, and work out a diet that suits you.
It's better to look at the change for life, but there is nothing wrong with a more extreme diet to start off with, then looking at a maintenance diet later on. But you do need to decide on what you can achieve from day to day, and target accordingly.
As for feeling hungry, people can manage the Newcastle diet, it's nothing to be afraid of, and it obviously can be done with bit of effort.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

I don't take insulin, but I do take 2000mg metformin and 320mg gliclazide every day. I have just had a blood sugar reading of 19.9 and feel fine, apart from a blocked nose and a minor chesty cough.

Do you have a cold at the moment as that can raise bg?

Personally, I wouldn't skip lunch. I used to, but make a point of having it now - usually just some home made broccoli soup with a splash of cream in it. Not sure of the science, but I have read that if you go for too long without food, your liver will give you some glucose to keep you going and this raises bg.

Good luck at the dietician tomorrow.

 

[big_daddy]

Well the dietician appointment went ok, she wanted me to go Liraglutide and I was a bit hesistant at first and then I tried the injection in my thigh with water and now I am further put off from starting it. But overall she told me that my LCLF diet is great apart from two things which is the full fat cheese and mayo that I have for dinner on my beefburger. Also told me to only check my blood sugars 4 times every 2 - 3 days a week and to add some carbs to my meals like a tablespoon of porridge oats with my breakfast and mushrooms with a slice of toast with my lunch.

I also talked to her about a exercise regime and said that walking is the best exercise and got me a pedometer as well as telling me that having full access to the gym and swimming pools in two weeks time will be beneficial for me.

I have a question about dark chocolate as my girlfriend bought me a bar of Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate 85% Cocoa and she told me that a tiny bit of it was good for me. Is this true or not as I thought that all chocolate is bad.

 

[CollieBoy]

Big_daddy,
re dietitian:
Take more carbs ! did she do a degree in getting it wrong?
Only check your blood sugars 4 times every 2 - 3 days a week ! Good lord she really is parrot in gcr@p IMHO
one thing in her favour: A little 85% chocolate is OK IMHO

 

[douglas99]

Big_daddy,
re dietitian:
Take more carbs ! did she do a degree in getting it wrong?
Only check your blood sugars 4 times every 2 - 3 days a week ! Good lord she really is parrot in gcr@p IMHO
one thing in her favour: A little 85% chocolate is OK IMHO

It'll be interesting to see the responses to this one.
Big_daddy has suggested what is effectively a close to zero carb diet, the dietician hasn't suggested any massive amount of carbs, just a few grams a day in the mix. A tablespoon of porridge and a slice of bread.
Other posters have already suggested eating more, and the dietician also suggested mushrooms as well here.
So already one down on the dietician, so I'm very interested to see who else agrees with zero carbs, just fat and protein. (apart from a bit of onion and tomato)

Personally, full marks to the dietician, they sound supportive, and appear to be supporting the op and the diet plan,
So, good luck to the op, and stick with it.

 

[big_daddy]

Thank you douglas99.

I think that when I have full access to the gym and swim pools, I might decide to increase my intake of food at a suitable level. As for drinks I've cut out beer and diet coke for green tea, black tea and I am also going to experiment with making my very own blueberry juice.

 

[douglas99]

Thank you douglas99.

I think that when I have full access to the gym and swim pools, I might decide to increase my intake of food at a suitable level. As for drinks I've cut out beer and diet coke for green tea, black tea and I am also going to experiment with making my very own blueberry juice.

Yes mate, it's not impossible.
You have to distract yourself, as half of my eating was just boredom or habit.
What to drink is the hardest for me, I never liked the diet stuff, and tried every tea on the market!
Too much coffee is probably my vice now.
Get in the pool when you can, it's a good way to get the exercise in.
You'll notice the difference, but the weight loss has highs and lows, so never get disheartened, it will slow down, it's just the way the body works, then it picks up again, so hang on in there for the long stretch.

 

[Thommothebear]

Zero carb is a very bad idea, low carb low fat is a bad idea given you have said you have kidney problems. i'd say go low carb moderate protein, and test test test while increasing carbs by 5 g a day until you find what you can tolerate. Use fats to get the calorie level to an appropriate level, at least 1200 cals per day, as you increase carbs, reduce the protein and fats to as appropriate.

You may be able to tolerate increased carbs as you progress. But I get problems if I go over 80g a day


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[big_daddy]

Zero carb is a very bad idea, low carb low fat is a bad idea given you have said you have kidney problems. i'd say go low carb moderate protein, and test test test while increasing carbs by 5 g a day until you find what you can tolerate. Use fats to get the calorie level to an appropriate level, at least 1200 cals per day, as you increase carbs, reduce the protein and fats to as appropriate.

You may be able to tolerate increased carbs as you progress. But I get problems if I go over 80g a day


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It may be kidney problems, but I have been having treatment for thrush and it is reducing down now. I am going to test, test, test as I have 250 testing strips and I want to get my blood sugars down by not eating carbs until I get to 4.5 as now I am currently 9.7 which I want to get down as my blood sugars used to be between 4 and 8.

 

[big_daddy]

My blood sugars have now come down to a reasonable level today from 8.6 at 8am to 6.0 at midday to 5.6 at 1pm and I feel totally fine and not hungry. Should I be worried about being hypoglycaemic from my current medication of metformin, gliclazide and ramipril.

 

[Thommothebear]

Typically not from the metformin point of view but glicazide I beleive there is a risk of hypos


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[douglas99]

My blood sugars have now come down to a reasonable level today from 8.6 at 8am to 6.0 at midday to 5.6 at 1pm and I feel totally fine and not hungry. Should I be worried about being hypoglycaemic from my current medication of metformin, gliclazide and ramipril.

If you are on gliclazide you should test as yes, you can go low.

 

[big_daddy]

Well I have just learned that Ramipril can also lower blood sugars as well and just tested again (5.1) as I have the shakes and feel dizzy and now going to have something to eat.

 

[carraway]

What are you going to have?

 

[big_daddy]

What are you going to have?

I had a few tablespoons of porridge with milk at 2:10pm, then slept from 2:20pm till 5pm and checked my blood sugars just now and they were at 6.7.

 

[DiamondAsh]

If you take insulin then I would take a correction dose with sugars that high and continue to test until they come down.
Oats tend to send my sugars really high so that could be why they've shot up (although eating this again and testing will confirm if you can tolerate them or not).

Personally i wouldn't skip lunch as it just cause me to be really hungry later and eat loads and probably make poorer choices. Maybe a salad with some protein or cheese might be good as it should have less impact on your sugar that carbs.

It would be good to raise wanting to do low carb with the dietician and showing her what you intend to eat. However, not all dieticians and doctors agree with low carb so don't necessarily expect them to support you. Although they may surprise you and tell you to go for it!

I'm noting some really good points there, some which i have discovered myself, such as a protein meal when I'm hungry but I don't want my BG to go up any more. Then when it goes down later, I have some low GI carbs to maintain level. I don't put big meals together now... I just have two or three items and eat that. So far so good

 

[big_daddy]

Well I experienced my first every real hypo on Saturday Morning after I went clubbing at a club called Mosh on Friday Night and normally I don't take my meter with me when I go out, in fear of losing it and before I had my meal of a cheeseburger with the bun and 3 mozzerala sticks in breadcrumbs my BS were 5.6, then at the club I roughly had 4-5 bottles of Carlsberg on the night where my BS were 9.6 (11pm), 10 (12am), 10.6 (1am) 8.4 (2:30am) .

The next morning at 11:30am I checked my BS again as I felt shaky, sweaty, eyes were blurry and they were 2.8 so I then had a glass of pure orange juice with my fry up breakfast/lunch. checked them again after 30 minutes with a BS of 4, 90 minutes later 4.5. I still took my gliclazides and ramipril. Later on at 4pm, I got given a can of full sugared coca cola as one of my friends who has a type 1 parent somehow recognised that my blood sugars were low and he was right as my BS was 3.4. 2 hours later I decided to order a dominos pizza with my friend, shared it and boosted my BS to 8.4 which I was happy with after I had another can of coke.

And today my BS is 11 which is normal for me as I average between 8 and 13 in the mornings. I was wondering if what I did was wrong or not when treating the hypo as I feel so ever guilty about it and thinking if I should have done something differently.

 

[Andy12345]

hi, sorry your struggling here, its not your fault, you re getting conflicting advice from every direction so im not going to add to this, which is very hard for me lol

best of luck