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Still trying to get use to it

C

Cinnamon54

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi There. I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 2 about a month ago. I am still trying to get use to it and feeling confused and a little down from time to time.
I am due to go and have HAB1C next week and just hoping I can bring my levels down. i have no idea what medication I will be going on. There is some talk of cholesterol tabs and HB tabs.
I have cut down my sugar intake and my fat intake considerably and must admit I feel hungry all the time. Just feel a little lost in the fog at the mo. I am sure I will find some help on this forum and look forward to getting to know you and hopefully receiving some advice.
I have have symptoms of reoccurring thrush, burning hands and feet, extreme tiredness and hot sweats. If anyone has any advice or if anyone can tell me if these awful symptoms will eventually disappear I would be very grateful. Forgive me for waffling on I am just feeling very confused and as I say a little down.
 
Hi Cinnamon and welcome to the forum :)

It can be very difficult at first but you will feel better once you know more about diabetes, which you can learn from this forum. Reducing your levels by cutting down carbohydrates will help a lot. This information which we give to new members should help you. Ask all the questions you like and someone will be able to answer you.


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 well over 30,000 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 ... rains.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 blood glucose 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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please sign our e-petition for free testing for all type 2's; here's the link:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition/

Do get your friends and colleagues to sign as well.
 
The burning sensation in hands and feet is likely to be nerve damage - it settles down a lot when your sugars come under better control. With the thrush this is common in uncontrolled diabetes where high blood sugars gives the candida a plentiful supply of food which it use to multiply - when the sugar level is controlled there less chance of the thrush taking hold. The tiredness may well relate to the situation where whilst your body has a lot of sugar going round and around, it is unable to use it - this again settles down a lot when you get your levels under control. Cant suggest anything re the sweats - my only experience of these was at menopause which also made diabetes a more difficult as I found my body massivley changed how it responded to carbs once I was at this stage of life.

I would reccommend that you get yourself a glucose meter & test strips ( if possible from the doctors, if not its worth investing in one) - I found that testing my own bodies reaction to particular foods was vital in getting to understand and control my diabetes. It was that approach that has allowed me to keep the diabetes from progressing for 15 years and to reestablish control in the face of menopausal changes in my body's responses
 
Hi. Daisy will be along shortly to give you a lot of facts and links to further info. In the meantime, don't panic as you will soon start to understand how to manage your diabetes and this forum has excellent advice from others with diabetes. First it's not just suagr you need to control but all carbohydrates. Go for low-GI carbs wherever possible. Don't worry too much about fats as the NHS gets a bit paranoid about them rather than focussing on the causes of high blood sugar. Obviously unsaturated fats are best such as fish. Based on your Hba1c results your GP may start you on tablets; probably Metformin which most of us take. As your blood sugar readings reduce your thrush should recede as it's caused by sugar in the urine which occurs when the kidneys dump sugar for Hba1c levels above around 10-11%. Do come back with more questions
 
A huge thank you to you all for what is great advice and support, I know this sounds soppy but I am nearly in tears with the support I have received so quickly, I will read as much as I can on this forum and try and understand as much as I can.CinX
 
:wave: Hello Cinammon ... I'm new here too ... a few weeks now I think and I love the place. I even put my feet up on the furniture now, that's how at home I feel here. The support is wonderful, the information is brilliant and the rantings are fantastic. I love the rantings :clap:

I think if I hadn't found this forum I'd be in a blind panic by now to be honest, but just knowing whenever a question pops into my head, that I can come in here and ask a question or search for an answer and there's always someone who's been there, done it and got the T shirt - and that really supports me. No-one gives advice, they share information and I've learned more about diabetes in the past few weeks than I ever learned in my 40 years as a medical secretary. Oddly enough I've worked in just about every field of medicine from Cardiology to Mental Health but I haven't worked in Diabetes and Endocrinology. How's that for a cosmic joke? :lol:

Don't worry about learning a lot as soon as possible cos you'll probably puddle your brain ... just take your time and relax and bits of info will come to you as and when you need them. I treat the forum like a form of food, sometimes I need a lot, sometimes I need a bit less and don't want too much on my plate at once. It's always here when I need it.

Look forward to hearing more from you :)
 
:wave: Hello Cinammon ... I'm new here too ... a few weeks now I think and I love the place. I even put my feet up on the furniture now, that's how at home I feel here. The support is wonderful, the information is brilliant and the rantings are fantastic. I love the rantings :clap:

I think if I hadn't found this forum I'd be in a blind panic by now to be honest, but just knowing whenever a question pops into my head, that I can come in here and ask a question or search for an answer and there's always someone who's been there, done it and got the T shirt - and that really supports me. No-one gives advice, they share information and I've learned more about diabetes in the past few weeks than I ever learned in my 40 years as a medical secretary. Oddly enough I've worked in just about every field of medicine from Cardiology to Mental Health but I haven't worked in Diabetes and Endocrinology. How's that for a cosmic joke? :lol:

Don't worry about learning a lot as soon as possible cos you'll probably puddle your brain ... just take your time and relax and bits of info will come to you as and when you need them. I treat the forum like a form of food, sometimes I need a lot, sometimes I need a bit less and don't want too much on my plate at once. It's always here when I need it.

Look forward to hearing more from you :)
 
badcat said:
Cant suggest anything re the sweats - my only experience of these was at menopause which also made diabetes a more difficult as I found my body massivley changed how it responded to carbs once I was at this stage of life.

I would reccommend that you get yourself a glucose meter & test strips ( if possible from the doctors, if not its worth investing in one) - I found that testing my own bodies reaction to particular foods was vital in getting to understand and control my diabetes. It was that approach that has allowed me to keep the diabetes from progressing for 15 years and to reestablish control in the face of menopausal changes in my body's responses
Click to expand...

You made an excellent point above Badcat - the menopause and how it changes our body's responses to lots of things. When our oestrogen takes a downward turn, it has a knock on effect on all the other hormones our body uses, and many of them work overtime trying to make up for the shortfall of oestrogen. The body is like a clock. It ticks along for so many years with all the hours in place, and then we lose an hour, let's call it 3pm, and suddenly all those other hours try to make up the shortfall in time.

We're frequently advised that the menopause is 'a natural event' in a woman's life. It's not an event, it doesn't happen overnight, it's a gradual process and a woman's body is constantly trying to balance out the hormonal imbalance. My menopause began at 39 and ended at 50 in terms of menstruation, but in other terms its ongoing ie, my poor pancreas is protesting at having to work so hard because my ovaries have decided to call it a day. And I swear to God if I hear another man cracking jokes about menopausal women, I swear to God I'll hex him so that he comes back as a woman next time! :lol:
 
The title of this thread says it all! Does anyone ever really get used to it?

It's one year this month since I was diagnosed. I haven't got used to it but I have got complacent with it! I had the fear factor at the start and was testing regularly. The fear factor disappeared, I went back to eating chocolate (I hasten to add, not as much as before) and only tested whenever I felt unwell. It became obvious that I felt unwell whenever BG was above 9.

Last night I had eaten quite a bit of chocolate and felt absolutely fine but decided to test anyway (was actually bullied into it by my dad :oops: ) BG was 11.3 :shock:

I then received a PM today from a good friend on this forum and decided it was the incentive I needed to come back here and get back on track again.

The point I'm trying to make is I thought that, after 1 year, I was used to diabetes but I'm not :(
 
Huge big welcome from me too. Ask questions, nothing is to small or silly. We were all newly diagnosed at one point, and I would lay odds we all know exactly how you are feeling.

Take care, don't stress, let us help you, help yourself.

Joanna.
 
chocoholicnomore said:
Last night I had eaten quite a bit of chocolate and felt absolutely fine but decided to test anyway (was actually bullied into it by my dad ) BG was 11.3
Click to expand...

See, I leave you alone for 5 minutes and that's what you get up to! Naughty girl!
Have an idea for you. I recently found a new (for me) type of chocolate. It's made by Cavalier, a belgium firm. It's sweetened by Stevia which is natural sweetener from the leaves of the stevia plant, plus some lactose content. They do lemon and lime cream filled dark chocolate, dark orange creams, vanilla cream, mocha, ordinary dark chocolate and so on. They have milk chocolate as well, but it's higher in carbs so you need to stick to the dark chocolate plain or cream filled ones. Each bar has 6 chunky squares, and half a bar (3 biggish squares) is only about 4 grams carbs! SO, POINT IS, you can be strict and still treat yourself. I have half a bar each evening, and STICK to that. I KNOW then I can allow myself it again the next day if I only eat that much. It had no effect on my BGs at all at half a bar. Extra benefit is, it's really nice! The creams are the proper colours, consistency and flavours of "normal" chocolate; especially if you keep it in the fridge like I do. You can find it on Amazon, BUt it's cheaper and you get much more selection if you go straight to the cavalier site in Belgium. I ordered lots (postage is the same for a lot or a little) and it arrived in a big polystyrene box. Inside that was a freezer gel block. next to it was a silver padded insulation bag and inside was the perfectly preserved choccy! Bit expensive at £1.50'ish a bar delivered, but worth it. Not allowed to put links on the forum, but if you want a link to the site you can PM me.
Now behave youraelf, have SMALL treats and get those BGs back under control! :D
 
Wakeup call for me too. Its a strange thing, I never ate chocolate before, but now I can't go a day without the 'dark stuff'. Just tested my blood with a new meter 11.1 omg.
Anyway welcome cinnamon, good forum, very well frequented.
 
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