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

“Take a look at these NICE endorsed pictograms of tea spoons of sugar equivalents for various foods, compiled by Dr David Unwin”.

https://phcuk.org/sugar/
 
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Welcome to the Brotherhood, Fellow Ranter...

A little known side effect of T2D Diagnosis, So recent Research suggests......

.(delivery of it, obviously.. )
 
I wish the consultant told me about carb counting rather than tak 6 units of insulin before every meal.... Would have save me a lot ov very severe hypos and anxiety.... Especially following a chicken salad!!!
 
lalaleroux said:
"what do you wish someone like a diabetes mentor told you when you were first diagnosed."
Click to expand...

I was told nothing except "you can't believe everything you read on the internet". I probably didn't need that advice, even in 1997 I was aware of the fact that you can put pretty much what you like on the internet, and that meant I had to be careful in what I believed.

Sorry, I forgot, dietary advice, which was eat sensibly, which was loads of carbs. Bad advice.
 
Well if we are talking actual diagnosis when a doctor says yes you are diabetic and puts you on the register.

I was told "I'm sorry John we seem to have missed the boat on this one" then well you knew you were any way so why be upset then take this prescription for Metformin and as you have been treating yourself for a while now just carry on.

Which I did.
 
I wish someone has told my father to limit his carb when he was first diagnosed with pre diabetes and used a meter to monitor carefully.
 
I have to admit that luckily I found this site pretty soon after diagnosis so I got told all the right things.

But I still wish my doctor had told me to get a meter or better yet prescribed one for me instead of trotting out the old mantra T2s don't need to test.

Even though I am drug induced so not really T2 in the normal sense.
 
I wish someone had explained that the insulin response is more important than the blood glucose level. As well as all the preceding posts!
 
Please respect the OP and stick to providing comments that address the question in the opening post. Discussions between individuals on other topics should be taken to PM or a new thread to avoid derailing this one.
 
I hope it is ok to tell what I wish I hadn’t been told? By the GP nurse.

That would be:
  • You must eat carbs with every meal, 3 times a day plus two snacks
  • Low fat yogurts and plenty of fruit should be part of your diet
  • T2 is a progressive disease... You will probably need insulin in time, but don’t worry. We will look after you.
  • You don’t need to test your blood glucose levels. It only makes you anxious.
By following the above advice for first 6 years after diagnosis, I became fatter, and HbA1c levels continued to rise. It was only after I did my own research, and ‘owned’ the situation that I realized what absolute tosh I had been given, and got control by first of all using Very Low Calorie diet, followed by Low Carbing, and using a blood glucose monitor.
 
Goonergal said:
Please respect the OP and stick to providing comments that address the question in the opening post. Discussions between individuals on other topics should be taken to PM or a new thread to avoid derailing this one.
Click to expand...
What's the Prime Minister got to do with it?
 
You mention, received diagnosis without a single bit of advice about what to do. This seems very familiar. I was called by the doctors to come straight away. When I got there the receptionist said I would have to make an appointment for later that day. I was quite blunt, you called me, so here I am fit me in, they did. Called in to doctors room, sat down and she proceeded to tell me you have diabetes, we think type 2. Here is prescription and a web site you can find out all you need to know. A short intake of breath and I came out looking at my wife and said is that it? So I fully understand your plight. Keep your chin up, the people on this forum are so kind and do help.
 
Sounds very familiar
 
I wish someone had told me they were sorry for not telling me I had been diagnosed with fatty liver years before. If I had known I could have done something about it and may not have progressed to T2.

I was already cutting out the major carbs when I was diagnosed so I ignored the advice in the booklet for newly diagnosed T2s to have carbs with every meal and to ask for an extra bread roll on a flight. I mentioned this on another thread a while back and was told that this was advice for insulin users only. I found the booklet the other day, it said nothing about being for insulin users only and was for all newly diagnosed T2s.
 
I wish that I had been told that drastically lowering carbs would be the #1 thing to do, being the most logical, considering my disease.

I wish that I had been given a brochure that succinctly described the different kinds of diabetes, and the current state and actual knowledge from medicine and science about all the kinds of diabetes.

I wish that I had been given the wonderful '50 Shades of Diabetes' graph BEFORE I spent a couple years without it trying to make sense of the different measurements whilst reading up on diabetes.

I wish that I had been told with an apology from the supposed experts in the field, "Gee, Aloe, the world of science and medicine has known about the role of insulin since the early 1900s - we sure are sorry we didn't connect the dots regarding too much insulin and insulin resistance and tell you in time, as in - decades ago when you were diagnosed with PCOS - before you developed T2D - which would have been completely preventable! Sure sorry about that - Oops! Our bad." (Plus "But we are making sure your GPs and you know everything about it now - here is the brochure explaining it...." .)
 
I wish I’d been told when given a diagnosis of prediabetes, that there WAS something I could do about it. When I asked my GP he just said ‘live a healthy lifestyle but you’ll probably end up with it anyway, most people do’ so I did live a ‘healthy’ lifestyle - lots of whole grains and low fat food, and lo and behold I developed diabetes. I wish I’d found this site back then.
 
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