Shell shocked

Sam72 said:

Hi all. Have literally just returned from the doctors with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Have been given metaformin to take 3 times a day and have appointments in the next week or so to see nurses, doctors and who knows else!! Feeling completely shell shocked and upset.

I'm 42, have 2 primary school children and i am a teacher. Been feeling so poorly for over a year now. Doctor diagnosed depression and I resigned from my job in the summer because I felt ill and put it all down to stress.

Last week I had a blood test following a couple of skin infections and now I'm told I have diabetes.

Where do I go from here? Feel overwhelmed.

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Hello Sam.
1) Try your best not to be upset. I am 72:- HbA1c 62 in May tired out most of the time. Started Metformin 500mg x3 per day at end of June. In September HbA1c down to 51. ie 2 months blood glucose improved by 10 points. Feel much brighter. Can't wait for a six month test.
Don't feel put out with all the tests the nurses keep a check on you report back to the doctor & consultant. Say what you like about the NHS but you are in safe hands. In a few months time you will feel like a new woman.
For your childrens sake explain what your problem is, they are more understanding than you think & you will feel all the better for so doing..

Been off the forum for a week or so, so just seen your posts. Loads of good advice here and I don't propose to add to it as I have taken similar advice which has worked for me.

1. Adopted the LCHF diet a week after diagnosis in March.
2. Took up walking about three miles every other day, either as a block or in shorter bursts to keep in with my other routine stuff.
3. Started testing virtually straight away with the codefree meter from amazon, without any problems.
4. BG has reduced from an average of 9.9 2 hours after a meal to between 4.9 and 5.6 on average.
5. Have lost 1.5 stone in weight slowly, but surely and can now wear clothes I haven't been able to wear for five years or more.
6. Am fitter and happier than I have been for a long time.

The simple point is that the initial shock is a difficult one, but you do adjust and once you get into the routine of changing things, it becomes just another routine part of your life. Also, you find out that many people you didn't know were diabetic open up to you, if you're open about your diabetes, and they've lived well enough with it, some for many years. And complications are not inevitable if you have good control and management, you can remain healthy, and might actually be healthier than many who don't have diabetes, and lead an unhealthy lifestyle.

My six month check up is due, so hopefully I can persuade my doctor to reduce my metformin to nil per day if the results are OK.

There is hope yet.

Hello everyone, I am feeling really low at the minute. I don't know why. I think I'm really "over loaded" with diabetes information but I don't think I'm taking it all in. I get terribly agitated, anxious, fidgety etc.,

Is this diabetes related? Does anyone else feel like this. I hope it passes soon, it's a dreadful feeling

Hi Connie

It can be a bit overwhelming but don't worry you don't have to get it all in at once. Nobody will be setting an exam paper.

Start with the basics, limiting carb intake, testing glucose levels, increasing physical activity and losing weight and you will be on the right path. In fact you will be nine tenths of the way there.

You don't have to get it all right first time either. You have to learn through experimenting and trial and error. This is how most of us learned.

Do not be shy to keep asking questions here until you feel confident of the way forward.

Finally do not think that you are alone in feeling the way you do. Most of us probably started out the same way.

You will be advising us in no time,

All the best

Pavlos

Andy12345 said:

hi, welcome

Your first job is to put the kettle on, have a seat, breath and don't panic!

Firstly stop reading about type two diabetes on google, if your anything like me the only thing you will se is the complications we can get from it! everything you need to know is here, you can research further later, but for now you are in a state of panic and we need to keep things simple so you can absorb them, diabetes is controllable! no big deal as long as you take it seriously, in fact it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise because once you get your blood glucose numbers where they should be you should start to feel a lot better and be able to return to work if you so wished, its not a disability, or a death sentence, it basically means your body can no longer deal with sugar or carbohydrates very well and you therefore need to reduce your intake drastically, also exercise helps us and weight loss if you are heavy, so for now, take some time and read the forum, there are many many happy diabetics who's feet aren't falling off or dropping dead every minute, we can help you gain control you will need a little willpower and a lifestyle change, but the changes you will need to make are only the stuff you should have been doing anyway so its all good, don't worry about feeling depressed, in denial, angry etc etc this is all normal, we all go through it, so as to not bombard you with too much, have a read and try to take some of it in, this is a marathon, not a sprint, there is no need to try and become an expert overnight, take your time, for starter, cut out all sweet stuff, carbohydrates are our enemy so try to reduce, potatoes, rice, pasta and bread, just for now until you decide where you wanna go with your control, this will have an immediate improvement on your blood glucose whilst your finding out whats what, ask as many questions as you like, nothing is a silly questions, i promise you its been asked before

best of luck

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Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, I have been in a state of denial, depression, angry, totally feeling sorry for myself, just been recently diagnosed, turned down medication from Doctor, but now taking it, slowly getting my head round things, still scared, but getting there, so much information to digest, but this has help a lot, thank you

StitchyJue said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, I have been in a state of denial, depression, angry, totally feeling sorry for myself, just been recently diagnosed, turned down medication from Doctor, but now taking it, slowly getting my head round things, still scared, but getting there, so much information to digest, but this has help a lot, thank you

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hi, welcome thankyou for posting, it gives strength to people that are in the same boat but dont feel ready to share, helps always here when you need it, sometimes just telling your story to people that get it can help, ask questions when you have them,

you can do this,

when we are in our darkest place, we can shine our brightest

Hi Sam,

I am a 56 year old who was diagnosed almost a year ago and now has sugar levels in the normal range ( I had a reading of 32 when diagnosed!). I was on 4 pills of metformin a day and now take one slow release one. The point is that the only thing that made a real difference was a dramatic change in my diet. Having kids you are bound to have a high carb diet in the house. You cannot take them with you. You have to be determined and do it for yourself at the same time as accepting they will still want all those high carb treats. I realised that I had to cut all high carb foods from my diet, so bread, cakes, potatoes pasta etc and sweets were out and I simply switched to eating lots of leafy greens and good sources of protein plus low glycaemic index fruits and healthy nuts. Every supermarket has one type of low sugar salad - read the labels! And nuts and berries are good for snacking. You need to add a lot of fat in to compensate for the carbs so I drizzle olive oil on nuts and green veg for example as well as eating only butter ( not marg made from petrochemicals!) I have also found useful recipes in the book "I quit sugar" by Australian journalist Sally Wilson which you can buy in supermarket book aisles.

You are smart - you can manage this.

One thing that motivates me is that I am determined to be around for a long time for my kids and that means being as healthy as I can.

Best of luck!

Sam72 said:

I've been told to take 500mg three times a day with meals. Should it be built up slowly? I've only taken 2 so far and I feel a bit sick although it could be psychological. Is it best to slowly decrease carbs too?

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I started on 3/ 500's a day so don't worry.
I think that's fairly normal these days.
Snacks for me are nuts and pork scratchings.
I'm having full fat yoghurt with nuts and berries for breakfast because there isn't a cereal that won't spike me.
They'll tell you ... Weetabix is best ... I don't know anyone who agrees with that.
If I have the time and inclination I'll have cooked stuff for breakfast these days ... eggs bacon sausage etc but no bread unless it's fried bread ... fat slows down the conversion of the bread into glucose meaning a slow trickle of sugar as opposed to a main lined hit of the stuff.
When I first joined here I came up against a huge conflict.
The NHS were telling me exactly the opposite of what the people here were saying.
The NHS presumably would know what they were talking about compared with a bunch of lunatics off the internet who might be a tad confused with all their high and low sugar problems and all that medicine!
So I didn't hang around here too long.
I did everything nurse told me and ... kept putting on weight ... kept feeling very unwell and getting worse. Sugar control none existent.
I was being warned that I was heading for more and more medication and possibly injections at some point down the road ... down the road was becoming a route I seemed to be destined to travel ... a dark lonely road.
Something wasn't right.
I came back here and read every night ... food medication weight loss blood glucose control and ... turned out the lunatics were right!!!
I'm eating healthier than I ever did ... I'm losing weight I have more control and I'm actually enjoying the challenges that get thrown up.
I'm on a different journey now and instead of going down the road ... the dark and lonely road ... I seem to be on freedom highway right now just zipping along.
This place is a mine ... a mine of information ... get digging.
Best digging tool seems to be asking questions ... as many as you want as this place is open 24 hrs a day in all weathers including bank holiday Mondays and half day closing.
Welcome to the right place.

Did I mention .... t's all free advice too!!!!

Please keep a positive frame of mind. I was diagnosed type 2 about 3 years ago. I used it as an excuse to get back to my old hobby of wildlife photography which got me quite a lot of gentle exercise and a great deal of enjoyment. Being diagnosed isn't the end of anything and, with the right approach, can be a new beginning. Choose something you enjoy which will also help to reduce your sugar levels and have some fun at the same time. Best of luck.

hi, its probably because the media portrayal of type 2 is we are fat lazy drains on society

that happens to be true for me, but its still a stereotype

Sam72 said:

You're being really helpful thanks!

May research the pot noodle approach! (The humour is masking the terror I think at the moment!)

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Hi Sam I'm going on over a year now and feeling better than ever.

I like you ate relatively healthy but loved carbos and fruit.

Just remember that getting control of your illness is a marathon not a sprint and its not really about a diet as it is a life style change.

Four things I would recommend to do:

1. Get involved with forum and listen and apply what you hear AMD read here - more valuable than anything you will hear from NHS.
2. Read Dr. Bernstein's book 'Diabetes Solution'. I read it and threw it down as rubbish who could live like that. Over the year I've ended IP basically follow its recommendations and I'm thriving.
3. Watch this video about fructose and how it is really a high fat diet Sugar: The Bitter Truth: its long but you will want to take organic chemistry after watching it
4. Watch this video about a MD that was diagnosed with LADA and what he did diet wise Troy Stapleton - I Manage My Type 1 Diabetes By E…:
Lastly as you start to make the changes test and record your BG multiple times a day. Test certain foods to find out which ones spike your BS - you might be amazed that you can eat small amounts of chocolate. Different foods affect each one of us differently.

Finally, this disease changes because there are so many independent and dependent variables, just accept that fact.

For me following the Bernstein diet has been so helpful and the other was not so much losing weight but really increasing my % of muscle mass to fat. It has been like vaccine on steroids IMO.

Sam72 said:

Been doing LCHF for a week now and been taking metformin x3 each day. I've not felt great all week but today I feel shaky, sick, dizzy and headachey. I had my first results on Thursday ( taken a week ago) and they were 13.9 / 126 which looks to me to be teally high ( no one explained them to me) I had kidney function and cholesterol done and should get those results this week. All of a sudden I feel really scared

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the foucus has been to get you started on your diet, there hasn't been much said about your levels. do you have your own BG meter? if not you will need one to see what foods spike you and to check on your progress with LC. codefree sd is what a lot use here if you need to buy your own.
the light headed and dizzy may be a false hypo because your BG is coming down from the LC diet and your body's not use to it.

Personally I would avoid foods marked "diabetic", i.e. Jam. A lot of them cost a lot more than 'normal' foods. They are loaded with sweeteners of which are not good for you. Diabetic chocolate tastes disgusting and can have a laxative effect. The LCHF regime is perfect. Since being on it my blood sugars have stabilised significantly as I used to struggle to keep them under control .
Good luck

Sam

Not to worry. You are going to feel weird for sure and so many things can be at issue - at least 1/3 of people have issues with metformin.

I remember over a year ago after leaving hospital and testing my BG at midnight and I was like 280 and I almost called emergency as I was sure I could feel my toes falling off.

Luckily they didn't and today they are like 90% better.

There are lots of ways to treat this disease. Of course I'm a Dr. Bernstein fanatic - but the best way to gain a sense of control and to see what is really happening is to test and record everything.

Test your BG all the time at first ( even when you feel weird ) and record.

The same goes for what you eat and exercise. I use the premium version of mynetdiary as it has a diabetic portion for tracking BG levels.

There are others.

If you do this religious and obsessively at first, in 3-months time you will feel the difference.

There is nothing better than looking at the BG levels scattergrahm for 3-months and see the downward trend and be able to look at the higher than supposed-to-be levels and see exactly what you ate or the type of exercise you did that day.

Honestly you are young and if you do the right things and over time keep the BG low and not spiking you can reverse a lot of damage over time and be more healthy than many non diabetics over time. Really!!! It is a great motivator to stay on the straight and narrow path.

I'm old, and a year ago I had to use 2.50 readers today I'm using 1.25.

Sam72 said:

Been doing LCHF for a week now and been taking metformin x3 each day. I've not felt great all week but today I feel shaky, sick, dizzy and headachey. I had my first results on Thursday ( taken a week ago) and they were 13.9 / 126 which looks to me to be teally high ( no one explained them to me) I had kidney function and cholesterol done and should get those results this week. All of a sudden I feel really scared

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Some people feel rotten if they suddenly reduce their carb intake. This is called carb flu/Atkins flu/keto flu and is quite natural and will soon pass. It is also natural to feel scared when blindsided by a diabetes diagnosis. Everything that is happening to you is natural so try not to freak out. You will start to feel much better soon and D will just be part of your life x