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To test or not to test

M

millysue

Well-Known Member
Messages
565
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
I am type 2, taking metformin 2 twice per day.
Have at long last decided to take this thing they call diabetes seriously.
So I asked the nurse for a meter, and I got the standard reply, you don't need one, your not on insulin so couldn't adjusts your medication anyway.

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago, lots of people say you must test.
So, now armed with meter. Started testing 31st January.

My new found meter testing knowledge:

Breakfast:
First check for ice and snow. If clear, yes I can have porridge for breakfast.
I like porridge. After breakfast I can take our old dog for a stroll.
Check with meter two hours later, the reading is now lower. I'm told thats good.

Lunch: Two poached eggs on two very small seeded slices of bread.
Need to do more testing around my lunch.

Dinner: Have been having lots of veggie stry fry.
Lasts nights dinner was, cauliflower cheese and stry fry veg.
Before dinner 5.9. @ 6.45 pm. Bedtime 6.1 @ midnight.

Before breakfast this morning was, 7.1
Yes, it would appear I have the dawn phenomenon thing going on.

Dinner this evening, well pudding to be precise ( yes, all scream together NO! )
I have / had some eating apples that needed using up.
So apple crumble it is:
Cook apples ( did not add sugar ) but did throw in some sultanas.
Husband has sweet tooth.
The crumble, butter white flour and some porridge oats, small amount of sugar.
This made two pudding, one for our son to collect which he did.
The other one.
I made custatd for husband, I being good ( yes you can laugh ) had yogurt, the natural Greek one. Boy even if I do say so myself, it was good.

So it's now 11.50 pm and bedtime.
You want to know what my meter said ( apart from, oh no,!)
A big fat 12.1, which is the highest so far. No I am not proud of it.

My point on all the above rubbish it.
WITHOUT A TEST METER, HOW THE HELL ARE WE TO KNOW WHAT OUR BLOOD SUGAR IS DOING.

The other week I had fish and chips.
Sunday dinner about 3 weeks ago, my roast root veg. Potatoes, parsnips, squash and small onions. With rosemary sprinkled on top and a dash or two of balsamic vinegar.
Quorn and sprouts.
This was followed by apple crumble, apple being fruit must be ok.
My BS figure would have blown the meter up.

A feel we should be shouting to ALL doctors, give people with type 2 a meter, and more knowledge.

Do I feel better for that rant, yes!
Will I eat apple crumble again, no!
Will husband get to eat apple crumble again, no! Because I won't be making it.

Sorry if i have broken any rules by posting such a load of rubbish.
Regards Millysue
 
You're experience is not unique. I didn't get a meter until about 6 months after being told I had type 2. I began reducing my carbs within hours of starting to use it, having been trying to follow the low fat high carb diet that we've been told is healthy.

I kept on reducing until eventually I eat almost no carbs - just what's in fresh, nonstarchy veg.

My doctor did not suggest I get one, even though I have private insurance that pays 100% of the cost of the strips. I got one not long after joining this forum and realizing that it was a necessity.

Interestingly, I got a new doctor and she said I don't need to test and had no interest in seeing my self testing results.

Anyway, it is rather odd about self testing and type 2 and the health care industry's attitude. They tell you to eat the "healthy" plate diet which has loads of carbs and not to test. Then they watch as your diabetes gets worse and worse and prescribe more and more meds until you die of some horrible diabetes complication. Or, you ignore their advice and get your diabetes under control and they are very surprised because very few of their patients have managed to do that.
 
Unfortunately its a common problem for us Type 2, NHS says we don't need meter and to eat plenty of carbs, as you have found out carbs can send BS sky high and the only way we can know that is by testing. So like many others I fund my own meter.

I can manage a small amount of wheat flour and now have started baking using a mix or flour and ground almonds, using Stevia (Canderel Green) instead of sugar in baking. Its a bit of trial and error with the amounts and I find using cups instead of grams does convert better. I haven't tried crumble yet but I will give it a go at some point.

Some people prefer to cut things out totally, I prefer to find alternatives if I can, this is a change I will have to live with for the rest of my life therefore it has to be a change I can live with.

Try experimenting, it can be fun, even if some experiments really don't work out well.
 
I was diagnosed about 5 years plus ago, I also did the fresh fruit ans all veg thing, cut down on fats, skimmed milk etc.
Stumbled on this site a few weeks ago.
Bought meter and started to test.
My putting To test or not to test, was just trying to highlight to newbies with type 2. YES test.
I didn't think in anyway my experiment was unique.
Why our NHS system is telling us not to test is beyond me.
 
I was diagnosed in Jan 2013 and only recently got a meter throught Diabetes site. My levels have shocked me as more often than not they are 10 and above - highest being 16! I had no idea. When I mention the meter to my GP he told me thats not how type 2 is treated as they do blood test every so often to check and they are usually OK.
 

Yes and we are the poor sods that have got the illness, and are probably heading for the **** complications.
( I apologise for the bad language ) getting mad at NHS
 
Yes, my story is exactly the same. No support for home meters from my nurse, although after a lot of nagging she did eventually give me a meter but no prescription for strips.

In addition to telling me my diet needed a great deal of tweaking and avoiding various foods, my meter also told me I didn't need to despair. With lots of tests, trial and error, I discovered I can manage one slice of heavily seeded bread with a meal, I can also manage a couple of new spuds, a couple of roast spuds, or even 6 or 7 home made deep fried chips, or half a slice of delicious fried bread with my fry ups. These revelations have kept me on the straight and narrow.
 
Hi all
a T1 here for 42 years but my dad has been T2 for the last 18 years.
He has tested religiously mainly because he saw what it did for me.
His doctor also is somewhat disinterested but I keep telling my dad to ram it down his throat.

Well done to all of you posting on this topic - keep testing and spreading the word
 
Test, test, test ,testm!

Experiment, trial and error, then test, test, test!

Tell your dns you are low carbing to get your bloods back to normal levels and you want support to do it, you want to control your diabetes. Then test, test, test!
 
This is awful. The nhs really need to wake up and start doing something about it. I would do everything I can to get a meter and rant and rave at everyone until I do. Id say find another diabetes specialist that will help you. I remember in the past I asked my gp for more test strips only to be told that that I didnt need any. So I went to see the diabetes team at hospital and they wrote a letter to my gp telling them to increase my test strips. Sometimes you've got to fight for it. :/
 
My nurse said, you'll have to take it up with the government.
 
I would say you need to find another nurse. She is no good.
 
Sorry. That probably came across very harsh. I know you are doing the best you can but seriously, there will be a way of getting a meter out there.
 
nosher8355 said:
Test, test, test ,testm!

Experiment, trial and error, then test, test, test!

Tell your dns you are low carbing to get your bloods back to normal levels and you want support to do it, you want to control your diabetes. Then test, test, test!
Click to expand...
If I told my DNS I am LCHF I will be thrown out the door with her shouting eat carbs and low fat .... And DON'T test ... I think they just want to be proved right that diabites is a progressive health problem .. Even when we follow their advice on eating!
When we think for our selves and manage our diabites .. They just don't like it

Edit to add ... This is for T2 ...T1's always have their strips .. Drs cannot refuse theirs
 
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That is all very well as you are on insulin and need to test for hypos, driving, and injecting. Non-insulin users are different. Very, very, very few GP's/nurses will prescribe strips, and those that do only prescribe a few. Type 2's are not normally seen at hospital clinics. They are looked after by their GP or nurse.
 
gateian said:
Sorry. That probably came across very harsh. I know you are doing the best you can but seriously, there will be a way of getting a meter out there.
Click to expand...
I'm my drs it is easer to get blood from a stone .. If your T2 .. It's diffrent for T1 .. They cannot block their test strips ..
 
Ok. Forgive my ignorance on the subject. That really should change, but I guess given the current state of the nhs thats not going to happen. Of course if more type 2s could monitor their own blood sugars then further down the road there would be less complications and less cost to the nhs. It would probably balance out. Are we even able to buy our own test strips? Ive never inquired about that.
 
I self fund my meter and test strips .. Codefree are the cheapest for strips .. But other meters are available
 

I am insulin dependant t2, when I told my gp I needed more strips, he said I only needed to test 4 times a day, I was and am having a problem with insulin take up, in that I can inject my insulin and it can be 2,3,4,5,6 hrs before it starts to work then it will all work at the same time and I hypo, but he still doesn't see it as a problem, yes I have asked to go back to the hospital but he is reluctant to do this as it marks him out as a failure, so for the moment I am asking for 100 strips every 12 days but I doubt he will provide them for much longer, and yet the hospital when they discharged me told him I should be testing at least 8 times a day plus testing for driving, if he stops my strips I will be pushing to go back to the hospital.
 
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