PurpleHippo
Member
- Messages
- 19
Hi all. Newbie here. I’ll try to keep this short, but I’ve kind of been through the mill lately and could do with venting, so this could be a long one, so you might want to grab a cuppa and go for a pee before you start...
So... Hi, I’m Kerry. I’m 43 and have just been diagnosed with Type 2. My dad is type 2, insulin managed, as are a couple of his brothers and his mum (my Nan). I think he was diagnosed around the same age I am now and then mismanaged it for years and is now blind (diabetic retinopathy that he ignored) and had to have 3 toes removed due to cellulitis. Heart conditions are also prevalent in my family - the same Nan had a heart attack in her late 50’s and had to have a triple heart bypass, and my brother had a heart attack at the age of 42... and then died of heart failure 3 months ago. My other brother has high blood cholesterol and pre-diabetes. Diabetes, heart problems, big calf muscles and a short temper are the closest thing my family has to a ‘family heirloom’!
Me? I’ve been unwell for quite a while. Last march I suddenly felt ill whilst at home; I suddenly felt sick, hot and incredibly sweaty, dashed to the bathroom then woke up to paramedics putting me back onto the bed and vomiting violently. In hindsight, I should have gone to the hospital, but I insisted that I was ok - turns out I had a pretty severe concussion that took me about 5 months to recover from. And then the real problems started...
In October I went back to work (I work in education) but I had developed anxiety and depression and had a complete mental breakdown in December due to the pressure (and almighty poo-storm at work). My GP diagnosed me with an Anxiety Disorder and put me on Sertraline to try to tackle the panic attacks and assorted other miseries plaguing me. I worked through the extensive list of rubbish side-effects: relentless diarrhoea, head aches, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, dry mouth, light-headedness... any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, fellow diabetes sufferers?? At the time I put it down to side effects, but now I’m not so sure. I spoke to my GP again, who then added Propranalol to the mix, to try to counteract some of these ‘side effects’, but after a couple of months on those, I’m convinced they made me feel worse, so I slowly took myself off them.
I have to be honest, I thought I was going mad and have been getting really depressed at the ridiculous myriad of physical and mental issues. I spoke to my GP regularly and told him several times that I thought that there was something more to all of this. Now, to be fair, I was going through some other things too - We lost my Thai sister-in-law in October to Covid, then in March my brother suddenly became uncontactable and, after a search by his friends in Thailand and having to involve the authorities, he was found, a week later, in his apartment, where he had passed from heart failure - although I say that he died of a broken heart at the loss of his lovely wife. Needless to say, as a close family, this was absolutely devastating and shocked us to the core (I still haven’t fully dealt with it, to be honest and I know it’s soon going to hit me like a **** train sooner or later). A month later, being the Clumsy Susan I am, I fell on the flipping stairs (yeah, it was a full on, slapstick, banana skin slip, both legs in the air, would be funny if it weren’t so painful, fall), landed on the edge of a step and broke my coccyx! So... with all this going on, my head has been completely battered, but I insisted, several times that there was something else going on. I suggested to my GP that maybe I had a thyroid issue or maybe early menopause, but he fobbed me off and gave me some **** analogy about me being “built like an expensive racing car” *roll eyes* (basically calling me a neurotic hypochondriac).
A couple of weeks ago, I had to call to get my sick note renewed and was called back by a different GP, who was very sympathetic and agreed that with all the physical problems, there could indeed be something wrong, so sent me off for bloods. A day later, she called me back after hours to tell me that I had diabetes, with a “count of 75, raised cholesterol and there may be a problem with my liver”. She then signed me over to the diabetic clinic, which I went to on Monday, where they gave me another blood test to confirm it. Now, I’m pretty annoyed that it’s now Friday and I still haven’t been given any results, as I feel absolutely awful, but I’m very annoyed that my own GP, who I’ve known for over 20 years and knew I had gestational diabetes with my now 13 year old and had also talked me through being ‘pre-diabetic’. I realise that nobody is infallible, but I have been through hell and back, have been off work for 6 months, and at one point, had some very dark thoughts and I’m as mad as a wet cat that he ignored my concerns.
Anyway... moving on... I called the medical practice yesterday and have a telephone appointment on Monday to discuss my results (obviously the first test wasn’t wrong) and another appointment with the diabetes nurse to ‘get started’. They mentioned Metformin and dietary changes, so I’ve already gone back to eating low carb/high fat (I lost over 3 and a half stone on it in 2019, unfortunately I found it all again (turns out it was in the bottom of a Nutella jar!). I have been told that I probably won’t get a glucometer, which seems ridiculous to me, as I won’t be able to keep track or figure out when my highs and lows are, or how certain foods or eating times effect my levels. It seems crazy that I have to wait for a month/3 months to see how I’m managing. Is this standard? How will I know whether my sugar levels are high or low when I feel like **** or if it’s my sugar levels being out of whack when I’m freaking out for no reason? Should I invest in one myself? If so, which one? Can you get them so that they sync with an app to keep track? My brain is basically made of cotton wool at this point; I’d forget my own name if it weren’t written in my knickers (George, Asda...
) so I need something to help me keep track.
So, yeah. That’s me. Congratulations if you’ve made it this far, you must have the patience of a saint!
I’m absolutely made of questions at this point, so I’m sure you’ll see me around here, cluttering up the place with stupid questions and accidentally highjacking people’s threads. I’ll try to be less long winded and more succinct in future posts. Promise.
So... Hi, I’m Kerry. I’m 43 and have just been diagnosed with Type 2. My dad is type 2, insulin managed, as are a couple of his brothers and his mum (my Nan). I think he was diagnosed around the same age I am now and then mismanaged it for years and is now blind (diabetic retinopathy that he ignored) and had to have 3 toes removed due to cellulitis. Heart conditions are also prevalent in my family - the same Nan had a heart attack in her late 50’s and had to have a triple heart bypass, and my brother had a heart attack at the age of 42... and then died of heart failure 3 months ago. My other brother has high blood cholesterol and pre-diabetes. Diabetes, heart problems, big calf muscles and a short temper are the closest thing my family has to a ‘family heirloom’!
Me? I’ve been unwell for quite a while. Last march I suddenly felt ill whilst at home; I suddenly felt sick, hot and incredibly sweaty, dashed to the bathroom then woke up to paramedics putting me back onto the bed and vomiting violently. In hindsight, I should have gone to the hospital, but I insisted that I was ok - turns out I had a pretty severe concussion that took me about 5 months to recover from. And then the real problems started...
In October I went back to work (I work in education) but I had developed anxiety and depression and had a complete mental breakdown in December due to the pressure (and almighty poo-storm at work). My GP diagnosed me with an Anxiety Disorder and put me on Sertraline to try to tackle the panic attacks and assorted other miseries plaguing me. I worked through the extensive list of rubbish side-effects: relentless diarrhoea, head aches, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, dry mouth, light-headedness... any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, fellow diabetes sufferers?? At the time I put it down to side effects, but now I’m not so sure. I spoke to my GP again, who then added Propranalol to the mix, to try to counteract some of these ‘side effects’, but after a couple of months on those, I’m convinced they made me feel worse, so I slowly took myself off them.
I have to be honest, I thought I was going mad and have been getting really depressed at the ridiculous myriad of physical and mental issues. I spoke to my GP regularly and told him several times that I thought that there was something more to all of this. Now, to be fair, I was going through some other things too - We lost my Thai sister-in-law in October to Covid, then in March my brother suddenly became uncontactable and, after a search by his friends in Thailand and having to involve the authorities, he was found, a week later, in his apartment, where he had passed from heart failure - although I say that he died of a broken heart at the loss of his lovely wife. Needless to say, as a close family, this was absolutely devastating and shocked us to the core (I still haven’t fully dealt with it, to be honest and I know it’s soon going to hit me like a **** train sooner or later). A month later, being the Clumsy Susan I am, I fell on the flipping stairs (yeah, it was a full on, slapstick, banana skin slip, both legs in the air, would be funny if it weren’t so painful, fall), landed on the edge of a step and broke my coccyx! So... with all this going on, my head has been completely battered, but I insisted, several times that there was something else going on. I suggested to my GP that maybe I had a thyroid issue or maybe early menopause, but he fobbed me off and gave me some **** analogy about me being “built like an expensive racing car” *roll eyes* (basically calling me a neurotic hypochondriac).
A couple of weeks ago, I had to call to get my sick note renewed and was called back by a different GP, who was very sympathetic and agreed that with all the physical problems, there could indeed be something wrong, so sent me off for bloods. A day later, she called me back after hours to tell me that I had diabetes, with a “count of 75, raised cholesterol and there may be a problem with my liver”. She then signed me over to the diabetic clinic, which I went to on Monday, where they gave me another blood test to confirm it. Now, I’m pretty annoyed that it’s now Friday and I still haven’t been given any results, as I feel absolutely awful, but I’m very annoyed that my own GP, who I’ve known for over 20 years and knew I had gestational diabetes with my now 13 year old and had also talked me through being ‘pre-diabetic’. I realise that nobody is infallible, but I have been through hell and back, have been off work for 6 months, and at one point, had some very dark thoughts and I’m as mad as a wet cat that he ignored my concerns.
Anyway... moving on... I called the medical practice yesterday and have a telephone appointment on Monday to discuss my results (obviously the first test wasn’t wrong) and another appointment with the diabetes nurse to ‘get started’. They mentioned Metformin and dietary changes, so I’ve already gone back to eating low carb/high fat (I lost over 3 and a half stone on it in 2019, unfortunately I found it all again (turns out it was in the bottom of a Nutella jar!). I have been told that I probably won’t get a glucometer, which seems ridiculous to me, as I won’t be able to keep track or figure out when my highs and lows are, or how certain foods or eating times effect my levels. It seems crazy that I have to wait for a month/3 months to see how I’m managing. Is this standard? How will I know whether my sugar levels are high or low when I feel like **** or if it’s my sugar levels being out of whack when I’m freaking out for no reason? Should I invest in one myself? If so, which one? Can you get them so that they sync with an app to keep track? My brain is basically made of cotton wool at this point; I’d forget my own name if it weren’t written in my knickers (George, Asda...
) so I need something to help me keep track. So, yeah. That’s me. Congratulations if you’ve made it this far, you must have the patience of a saint!
I’m absolutely made of questions at this point, so I’m sure you’ll see me around here, cluttering up the place with stupid questions and accidentally highjacking people’s threads. I’ll try to be less long winded and more succinct in future posts. Promise.
