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What do you wish someone had told you when you were first diagnosed?

L

lalaleroux

Member
So, I posted a couple of days ago about questions and y'all were so lovely and welcoming. (Although, I do owe an apology for using a curse word out of frustration ... I am so sorry if I offended anyone. )

I sometimes feel very alone in this new diagnosis. As I mentioned before, I received the diagnosis without a single bit of advice about what to do with this information. I spent a whole lot of time research and googling until my fingers bled, but while I got a lot a of good information-what I didn't get is a lot of "you got this" kind of information. It makes me sometimes feel like I have a lifetime left of being broken and struggling to get it right.

What I realized I needed, I think, to help with the super anxiety I am feeling is that stuff a "mentor" would share. So I am here, with my figurative hat in hand asking for that "you got this" in the form of the question "what do you wish someone like a diabetes mentor told you when you were first diagnosed."

(By the way, I am type 2 on metformin and was diagnosed in the beginning of October so shiny new at this)

Thank you for what ever advice you want to share,

lala
 
I would have liked to have been told that a box of test strips would cost me $50.00 for 100 when I went into the pharmacy I use, but only $1.00 for 100 if I was a member of the NDSS.

This was nearly six years ago.

.
 
Well, not really answering the question, perhaps, but the best advice on first diagnosis is "DON'T PANIC!"

The thing that wound me up most on first diagnosis was all the scare propaganda about feet.
I know that it is a terrible thing to have neuropathy in your feet such that you get an infection and you can't feel it and an abscess develops and......
However if your diabetes is well controlled, you can still feel your feet and you still heal well then you CAN walk around in bare feet in your own home if you really want to!

And breathe.

I think the best advice is that there is a difference between healthy eating for a non-diabetic and a diabetic.
 
I was given no advice. I came home and talked to Dr Google for a couple of days. I read all sorts of rubbish, but I kept coming back to this site. I decided that this place had the most plausible information, diet was the answer. I am forever grateful that after dx in November 2017, I was told to have a good Christmas and come back in the new year. It give me the space and time to do my own research, come to my own conclusions, put in a plan of action.

The information on this site, together with the support from the awesome members here enabled me to get down from a horrible 122 at dx to 35 4 months later.
 

Hi @lalaleroux , that's how it goes (with the odd rude word.) as an ex moderator myself, it's just what we "do" to protect you against "you..?"
Sooo.
Put yer "hat" back on. You are not "broken." Just a change of tactic on driving the road of life...
I'll tag in @Goonergal , @Rachox & @DCUKMod who are T2. & boo, hiss (pantomime season ) Mods.

Mentioning another of the "bad guys." @Diakat mentioned "carbohydrate" it's not just sugar content in the diet... For any of us..

But take heart. There can be tasty alternatives at hand...
 
Thanks for the tag, @Jaylee .

@lalaleroux - The biggest thing I wish I had been told, on day one, would be "Eat to your meter".

By eating to my meter I mean, do a finger prick test, eat, then test again after 2 hours. If the number is satisfactory (even "satisfactory" changes over time), feel free to eat that again. If the result is too high, either eat less, or don't bother with it again.

This highly personalised feedback loop really helped me get things straight.

Good luck with it all.
 
Thanks for the tag @Jaylee

@lalaleroux I think @LittleGreyCat has it with the ‘don’t panic’ advice. The key is to make changes you think you can sustain and find things you enjoy eating. Those things may change over time (if only someone had told me that I didn’t have to eat vegetables ) but so long as you’re consistent, this is totally manageable. Good luck and keep posting!
 
I wish somebody would told me that diabetes are not so uncommon side effect of taking prednisone.................

>.<
 
The thing I wished someone had told me is that the medical profession don't necessarily give the best advice for type 2 diabetics. The specific advice was about not needing to get a meter and do regular testing and to eat healthy carbs.

I'm quite a conservative 'rule keeper' so it was quite challenging to accept the idea that maybe I would come to have more/better knowledge and information about how to approach diabetes.

These sorts of threads always remind me how grateful I am for this site. Without this site I would be in despair. I probably would have started testing- having a degree in science really trains you to like the idea of testing, but eating carbs my numbers would inevitably have got worse. I generally suffer from anxiety and depression with a stressful job This site kept my sanity I really mean that.

If someone had told me the doctors get it wrong I don't know whether I would have just believed them. People with experience and testing telling me that- well that was different.

I hope that sometime in the near future that will not be necessary to tell people what I wished I'd known at the start because the medial profession will learn and adapt their advice to what works.
 
It’s your diabetes, your body, your health.
It isn’t the doctors’ or the nurses’.

There is only one person who can take control of this diabetes, and that is you.
 
Thanks for the tag @Jaylee , I would second what @Brunneria says, Drs and nurses are there to advise not dictate. I find they both now discuss things with me in an interested manner as they realise that I do my homework and I can argue my stance on low carb and no statins from my own research and my numbers prove it’s doing me good.
 
What I wish somebody had told me when I was first diagnosed with Type II is exactly what you wish somebody' d told you, 'you got this, you can do it, you're in shock now but you're going to be OK and we're here to help'.

I wish somebody had told me that there are alternatives to the 'regular' NHS approach to managing Type II diabetes; that there are dietary approaches which are evidence-based and have proven to be effective in putting Type II into remission for lots of people - your choice - but if you want to give it a go we'll support you.

Finally, I wish somebody had told me that as well as putting my Type II into remission, LCHF would improve my health exponentially (big word for this time of night - hope it's the right one!) - normal BP, normal BMI, fatty liver fixed, aching joints gone - and that I would have loads of energy, great skin, and be calmer and happier! (and so no, you aren't going to have a lifetime of being broken).

Oh, and that they'd reminded me that I didn't have to make all the changes at once - that 'as you can when you can' is OK.

Like you, and a lot of people on here, I didn't get that support from the health sector (NHS in my case) although the eye and foot checks are great. But even though I wasn't posting until recently, I did get that support on here. As well as being told all the things I've mentioned above, I also read and followed practical advice e.g. about buying a home meter, cheap strips and testing my bgls, I learnt what to eat, after a tip I signed up for getting my blood test results online so I could better manage my 1:1s with health staff, and when I was told I needed statins, I found links to research and advice on here which really helped me make an informed decision.

I do understand about feeling alone with your diagnosis, but honestly you're not, we're all here with ours. This forum is a fantastic support system, do keep using it.
 
Advise i wish they could say in that 10 minute window IF they were allowed to be honest...?

Your on your OWN...Suck it up, butter cup

Go google stuff,,i i'm so sorry but i just don't have time for YOU

and if ANYONE ever say's you don't need to test.
Run a mile cos they is talking utter BS

what i'd say back...

walk in my shoes (ours) THEN tell me NOT to test...

No/, you would't do that or tell YOUR family not to do that IF they were affected would you....?
really why am i not surprised, yet you tell US it's too 'stressful'

i'll tell you whats stressful, worried to eat ANYTHING, because it might add to complications

YET the very fact we don't eat well adds to other issues...

*** TELL us to test.
in fact make it OFFICIAL POLICY...to tell us to test.
i'd like to see people struck for this BS statement.

It is pure and simple neglect,,doesn't that oath mean anything or is just all about the dollar ?

we, US who are aware, savvy and want to look after ourselves save YOU the medical profession in the UK
an absolute FORTUNE.

we need less treatment... we self fund ...we are pro active and in many case , we interact with others to bring them into the fold,

Meanwhile YOUR sad, outdated advice leads far too many to the operating table...."

Is what i would say given the chance they MIGHT just listen...

ok climbing down off the podium, rant over.

move along nothing to see.
just move along...
 
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Love that post.
so ON the MONEY as they say.

Best wishes for your journey, as well as best regards to OP
 
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