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Very scared and have no experience with diabetes Help!

G

GM1986

Active Member
Messages
25
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
I had some routine blood tests done recently and my glucose put me in a pre diabetes ranges so they have ordered an HBA1c test for a diagnosis. I’ve been monitoring my blood sugar levels with the finger prick monitor, perhaps obsessively so! Today I woke up and my fasting glucose was 7.4! That’s the highest it’s ever been. I haven’t eaten and I’m far too afraid to eat with my glucose that high. It’s 1 hour since I woke up and my glucose is now 6.2
I have a very poor diet and I’m 240lbs, so very overweight. I have a mental illness which keeps me from being able to do much of any exercise.
My heart rate is always on the high side and I’m weak and exhausted all the time. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
Hi GM1988
No need to be scared, it's not the end of the world, not many of us had any experience of diabetes before we got it, we're all still here alive and kicking
It's not even that complicated to understand, you are starting to have trouble processing the carbohydrates in your diet.
Carbs when digested (apart from the fiber which passes right through) are converted into glucose, you are having trouble using that glucose so it hangs around in your blood until it gets stored away in your liver or converted to fat.
The answer is also not that complicated, stop eating carbs. Easier said than done I know, but nevertheless it's the most effective way to control your blood sugar.
High carb = high blood sugar = probable weigh gain
Low carb = reduced blood sugar = probable weight loss
Have a look at the link for the Nutritional thingy at the bottom of my post
 
Thanks for your reply, I’m confused about the blood sugar level testing. If you eat do you have to wait at least 2hrs or more before u can eat again for your blood sugar to return to its original level?
 
The 2 hour gap from starting to eat until the post-meal test is when, on average, your reaction to a meal is at its highest. The more carbs in the meal the higher the postmeal test. The other thing to note if the dawn phenomenon, it is the last reading to go into the normal range as our livers dump glucose ready for the morning.
This will help you understand what you might see:
www.diabetes.co.uk

Normal and Diabetic Blood Sugar Level Ranges

Normal blood sugar ranges and blood sugar ranges for adults and children with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and blood sugar ranges to determine diabetes.
www.diabetes.co.uk www.diabetes.co.uk
 
The idea behind the 2hr thing is that people who don't have diabetes, will usually be back to there starting level within 2 hrs. Obviously it depends on their meal, something like pizza and even They might struggle.
Our aim is to keep our blood sugar as close to normal as possible in order to hopefully avoid some of the more unpleasant side effects of uncontrolled blood sugar levels.

We usually give ourselves a little buffer of 2mmol/l because the meters are not that accurate.
So if at the 2hr mark you are 2mmol or less above, the you can reasonably assume that your body handled that meal OK. If your 2hr level was higher than 2mmol then you need to re assess that meal, maybe have smaller portion next time, or cut some carbs from it, or even cross it of the menu altogether.

The whole point of testing for us is to learn how we react to the foods in our diet, if you were to eat something else in the 2hrs then the test would be useless, you would not be able tell if it was the meal or whatever you had in that 2hr window causing your sugar levels,

Just like any other tests you have to be clear about what you are trying to learn, then conduct the test in a way that gives you the information you need
 
So if I were to have a starting blood glucose of 5.5 before eating, then eat a meal high in carbs and sugar and have a blood glucose of say 5.8 after 2hrs would it be unlikely I have diabetes?
 
TriciaWs said:
The 2 hour gap from starting to eat until the post-meal test is when, on average, your reaction to a meal is at its highest.
Click to expand...
actually that’s typically at around an hour, depending how much fat and fibre is present too though as these can delay the highest point. 2 hrs is when in a non diabetic has returned to close to pre meal levels after the highest post earlier So we attempt to do likewise.
 
GM1986 said:
So if I were to have a starting blood glucose of 5.5 before eating, then eat a meal high in carbs and sugar and have a blood glucose of say 5.8 after 2hrs would it be unlikely I have diabetes?
Click to expand...
Doesn’t mean it’s a healthy way to eat though or you wouldn’t be storing up problems for the future if that were a common way to eat. We only see the problem in our blood levels after it’s been building for years with ever increasing insulin resistance and insulin levels working double time to keep glucose normal, until it can’t manage anymore.
 
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GM1986 said:
So if I were to have a starting blood glucose of 5.5 before eating, then eat a meal high in carbs and sugar and have a blood glucose of say 5.8 after 2hrs would it be unlikely I have diabetes?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily it depends on what carbs, and was the 5.8 accurate. You don't get diagnosed with a finger prick test because it is just a rough snapshot of your level in that one moment. I say rough because our meters are only accurate to +/-15%.
You are diagnosed with something called a HbA1c test. A sample of your blood is tested in a laboratory, it measures how much glucose has got stuck to your blood cells in their lifetime of around 12 weeks. So instead of a single moment in time, it shows how high your levels have been over the last 3 months.
 
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