Struggling with diagnosis

Hello @kate_88 welcome to the forum and the club. Not. Type 2 myself but fully get where you are coming from.

Others will be along in a bit, who will offer advice on how best to deal with T2.

Hi Kate.
Welcome to the group.
You will find lots of help here. Ask us anything and someone here will know the answer

Hi Kate. Welcome to the forums. You are in the right place. T2DM does not have to be a ball and chain around your neck for the rest of your life, so firstly please take comfort in that. There are many people here who have regained control of their diabetes and even beaten it.

The only practical advice I’m comfortable with offering is to have a look out for a book/audiobook called The Diabetes Code by Dr. Jason Fung. I was in a position not too dissimilar to yours when I discovered this book. Fast forward one year and I’m now free of diabetes and have reversed very serious foot and eye complications. Insulin sensitivity still improving every day. That’s not to say that you’ll have the same experience, but it’s a brilliant read nonetheless and will almost certainly turn your idea of diabetes completely upside down.

Hi @kate_88 and welcome, as this is your first post I’ll tag in @daisy1 for her useful info post. I have got on top of my type 2 with a low carb diet, Metformin and self monitoring. I was a foodie and still am, just different food! Take a look at this thread to see the types of things you can still eat:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/page-1122#post-1967777

Welcome to the forum @kate_88 you are not alone!

T2 can be hard to deal with emotionally, but most, if not all, people on here will have a lot of insight into how you are feeling, and will have probably felt like that themselves at times.

I have been diagnosed around 9 months and I am still getting to grips with how I feel about it - it varies from day to day. I certainly know all about the stages of grief now - anger, denial, acceptance, depression etc, sometimes all in the same day.

There should be no social stigma attached to Diabetes - from what I have read it is something that takes many years to develop, and people who are overweight T2's are very probably overweight because of the insulin resistance that is part of the process of diabetes developing. I can look back on my life and see times of enormous stress, and medication I was on that I believe started the ball rolling in the first place. Isn't hindsight great...

I never liked going to the doctor's due to being overweight and feeling that any issues I had would be written off as caused exclusively by my "lifestyle choices" - it is quite a relief to see that there were hormonal and chemical reasons why I turned from an extremely skinny teenager into a morbidly obese adult after many years of eating the wrong kinds of foods and not doing enough exercise.

Eventually realising I had diabetes (self diagnosed - if only they did HbA1c tests as a routine every year...) made me understand how what we eat affects the way we feel both physically and mentally, and our overall health in many different ways. I am still finding out how to eat to be healthy and get the weight off, and hopefully put this disease into remission permanently.

It can be scary, but you are not alone and this forum has been a real lifesaver for me, reading about other people's experiences and feelings, and getting so much support and encouragement.

kate_88 said:

I am here really to look for support as I am the only one in my family/friendship groups/work with this condition and at 30, I am struggling to get my head around the fact that this is a lifelong condition. I also have periods of time where I want to face this
head on but there are other, more overwhelming, times where I feel like there is no hope and I want to eat everything in sight and put my face in a vat of chocolate.

Click to expand...

Welcome to our liferaft. You now have a huge network to exchange experiences with, to give you support, understanding and so much knowledge that it's quite unfathomable.
Start with the chocolate, as long as it's very dark (Lower Carb content), and let bits of it melt on your tongue, while reading around in here and watching videos on how T2 is brought on by the carby foods that are the norm for us in the western world and most places where you can buy a can of coke. The more you watch, the more you'll realise that you're only to blame for being born with a body that's unable to cope with the unhealthy and all too available diet of carbs that we eat. Most people are. Have you got Netflix? Find 'The Magic Pill' and lean back and watch it. I used to wonder why we see this obesity and T2 epidemic, but I don't anymore. Right at the start of 'The Magic Pill' there's a voice over asking why humans, and the animals fed by humans, are the only beings that have weight problems. Why are our systems so screwed up? Gaining knowledge will curb any possible feelings of shame attached to the social stigma, and you'll probably want to fight. Fight the feelings of shame as well as your condition, because it may not be a life long condition, depending on how you tackle it.
I raise my cup of tea with heavy cream to you, and hope to see you posting in here frequently.

Good call on The Magic Pill. It’s a great docu-movie. Informative, entertaining and heartwarming. I’ve seen it three times! Pete Evans is a nice guy and he also hosts a cool podcast called Recipes for Life that I’m subscribed to.

That Sugar Film is also worth a watch. I think it’s on Amazon Prime Video if that’s available to you..

kate_88 said:

Thank you for your words of encouragement, Jim. It is so difficult with the social stigma attached to t2, seen as the type of diabetes that you 'bring on yourself' and are a burden on the NHS. Trying to be more positive and it is great to hear your story of success.

Click to expand...

It’s not your fault. I won’t get too controversial here just now, but many people hold the view that the NHS goes some way to create this issue for themselves. Certainly a few of us feel that they have historically exacerbated the T2 diabetes problem with inappropriate dietary advice. This is slowly changing though. There’s a paradigm shift occurring in nutrition science, and you’ve joined the fray just at the right time.

You can’t change the past, but armed with the knowledge and encouragement that you will find here, you can steer your ship toward better metabolic health in the future. You may actually end up finding the whole thing quite fun and liberating, as perverse as that may sound. A great deal of T2 diabetics feel that it’s the best thing that ever happened to them once they get control back.

Jim Lahey said:

Good call on The Magic Pill. It’s a great docu-movie. Informative, entertaining and heartwarming. I’ve seen it three times! Pete Evans is a nice guy and he also hosts a cool podcast called Recipes for Life that I’m subscribed to.

That Sugar Film is also worth a watch. I think it’s on Amazon Prime Video if that’s available to you..

Click to expand...

Love That Sugar Film. It's on Youtube too divided into smaller bits, but I was fortunate and amazed when it popped up on Danish tv not so long ago.

Edited to clarify which film I love

Jim Lahey said:

but many people hold the view that the NHS goes some way to create this issue for themselves.

Click to expand...

NHS and the various health authorities around the world + the big bad cooperate food boys.

@kate_88
Hello Kate and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it interesting and helpful.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 235,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.