• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Yet another newly diagnosed Type 2

Tony.H

Tony.H

Active Member
Messages
29
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
hi just got my diagnosis about 2 weeks ago , on metformin for the last week and I'm all over the place , no energy , stomach not great and on top of that I have ulcerative colitis , with an ileostomy , which makes what i can eat even more difficult , but just have to get on with it , the nausea from the metformin is doing my head in but hopefully that will ease off in the coming weeks?
 
Hi @Tony.H and welcome o the forum.

I'm a slim (Thin Outside Fat Inside) Type 2 diabetic in remission (controlled only by Low Carb eating) and my brother has a stoma bag after an ileostomy (cancer).
Metformin is well known for its affect on digestive tract. Taking it with a meal and using the Extended Release version are the main ways of reducing this side effect. If you can't tolerate it at all, then don't worry because a low carb way of eating has a much greater effect than metformin does. Also if diet and exercise is not enough for you then there are alternative medications which have less digestive side effects.

My brother finds the greatest problems with bulky foods (high fibre vegetables) so to a certain extent our diets are similar (except for me eating low carb vegs which he cant. We both concentrate on protein and high quality animal fats. So meat, fish (especially oily fish), eggs form the bulk of our calories and we both avoid rice and whole grains.
Don't suffer needlessly, the only way to know which foods work well for diabetes control is to get a BG meter (most here like the SD Glucio Navii of the Spirit TEE2+- both of which have cheaper test strips which is the major expense). Test before a meal and the 2 hrs after first bite, looking for a rise of no more than 2.0 mmol. less than 2,0 mmol means the the ingredients and quantities didn't hurt your Blood Glucose and if you can do that constantly you will probably get into remission within 3 months (though because of the averaging effect build into an HbA1C test, it will probably take about 4 or 5 months before you get close to an HbA1C of 47 (the first level out of the diabetic range).
 
saw the practice nurse this morning and got my HbA1c , apparently it was 59 , gave me a full MOT , blood pressure , feet , heart trace and all were good , gave me diet advice and basically told me eat healthy and come back in 3 months for bloods ,
told me no need to be checking my BG myself as our health service here in Ireland don't advocate it unless I go on insulin or my HbA1c worse , she said if I could go under 50 I would be doing well
 
And how does she think you’ll know what’s good i you don’t test? :banghead:

There is an entire enormous thread devoted to this ridiculous advice https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/have-you-been-told-not-to-test-your-blood-sugars.66574/

Basically it comes down to
1. Cost of supplying test strips to all type 2 is high
2. Ignorance of how testing meals can help type 2
3. False assumption testing is only helpful for insulin dosing and hypo avoidance
4. A small study showing a small minority found testing stressful - mostly because they weren‘t taught what to do with or how to interpret the data it gives so all they knew was sometimes is it was high, not what to do about it. What a shocker that’s stressful eh!
 
HSSS said:
And how does she think you’ll know what’s good i you don’t test? :banghead:

There is an entire enormous thread devoted to this ridiculous advice https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/have-you-been-told-not-to-test-your-blood-sugars.66574/
Tony.H said:
hi just got my diagnosis about 2 weeks ago , on metformin for the last week and I'm all over the place , no energy , stomach not great and on top of that I have ulcerative colitis , with an ileostomy , which makes what i can eat even more difficult , but just have to get on with it , the nausea from the metformin is doing my head in but hopefully that will ease off in the coming weeks?
Click to expand...
Hi Tony the advice already given above is sound. Read around the forum, the most important thing is everyone here has walked the walk not just talked the talk. So many of us have turned our T2 around by getting a meter, big tip get one that has cheaper test strips. I kept a written diary for the first few months recording how I reacted to meals ie readings before first bite and two hours later. Sometimes I just needed to adjust what I put in certain meals (cooking for me and OH) but your meter will show you the way. I know you have additional stomach issues but I think you can eat your way to lower BG. To me managing T2 without meter readings would be like crossing a busy road with a blindfold on! your Hba1c isn’t too high so I think you have every chance of turning it around in 3 months. Best wishes.
Click to expand...
HSSS said:
Basically it comes down to
1. Cost of supplying test strips to all type 2 is high
2. Ignorance of how testing meals can help type 2
3. False assumption testing is only helpful for insulin dosing and hypo avoidance
4. A small study showing a small minority found testing stressful - mostly because they weren‘t taught what to do with or how to interpret the data it gives so all they knew was sometimes is it was high, not what to do about it. What a shocker that’s stressful eh!
Click to expand...
 
Hi @mods not sure what happened to my post which seemed to hang on to @HSSS previous post, maybe you can fix?
 
PS. Tony when you get your meter you might want to invest in an Accuchek Fastclix pen which makes drawing a drop of blood so much easier and gentler. Btw I reuse my cartridges of six piercers several times without any issue.
 
Tony.H said:
she said if I could go under 50 I would be doing well
Click to expand...
If you get it to under 42 you will be into normal territory, and you will have done really well.
But she thinks that dropping a measly 9 points and still being in the diabetic range is doing well!
Sort of explains why most T2's get progressively worse, have to take an ever increasing amount of drugs and end up loosing things like eyesight and toes.
It really is in your best interests to ignore your nurse, buy yourself a meter, test your meals to discover what foods cause high blood sugar, and get your HbA1c as low as possible.
 
thanks so much for the input , i was thinking it was a load of bull@~@T , so im going to buy the test kit myself even if its just as posters here said , to find out what food causes spikes and what doesn't , so glad I found this site , thanks everyone for all the help .
 
Been on metformin for nearly 3 weeks and still feeling nauseous most of the time , checking blood’s almost before and after every meal,
Had a couple of high spikes of 9.3 after a curry (used some sweet and sour)
and today got a 9.2 after a small portion of oatmeal made with whole milk and half a teaspoon of Manuka honey +a small orange ,

Really watching the carbs but last night I had a thick slice of sourdough bread with chicken and coleslaw ,

Really missing the occasional burger but I’ll see in a few months how the bloods are doing before I chance one , thanks again for all the helpful comments , great site in general
 
Tony.H said:
Been on metformin for nearly 3 weeks and still feeling nauseous most of the time , checking blood’s almost before and after every meal,
Had a couple of high spikes of 9.3 after a curry (used some sweet and sour)
and today got a 9.2 after a small portion of oatmeal made with whole milk and half a teaspoon of Manuka honey +a small orange ,

Really watching the carbs but last night I had a thick slice of sourdough bread with chicken and coleslaw ,

Really missing the occasional burger but I’ll see in a few months how the bloods are doing before I chance one , thanks again for all the helpful comments , great site in general
Click to expand...
I wrap burgers and cheese and coleslaw in lettuce leaves - really fresh and crunchy iceberg type and I like that better than a bread roll.

Although you write that you are watching the carbs - did you add up the carbs in the oats, milk, honey and orange you had? Your post meal reading wasn't bad, I'd have been in the teens I am sure - except I'd never eat it as I know I would not cope with that amount of carbs in one meal.
 
Resurgam said:
I wrap burgers and cheese and coleslaw in lettuce leaves - really fresh and crunchy iceberg type and I like that better than a bread roll.

Although you write that you are watching the carbs - did you add up the carbs in the oats, milk, honey and orange you had? Your post meal reading wasn't bad, I'd have been in the teens I am sure - except I'd never eat it as I know I would not cope with that amount of carbs in one meal.
Click to expand...
nope thought the oats would be ok and got lazy , going to try weetabix with skim milk and see how that goes , my big problem is that I have no colon and was used to snacking just to keep weight on me , now im always hungry
pre op I went down to about 46kg and my GI wanted me to put on weight , I was actually advised by a dietitian in the hospital to keep snacking everything and anything to recover (crazy looking back at it now) , thanks again for helping
 
Tony.H said:
nope thought the oats would be ok and got lazy , going to try weetabix with skim milk and see how that goes , my big problem is that I have no colon and was used to snacking just to keep weight on me , now im always hungry
pre op I went down to about 46kg and my GI wanted me to put on weight , I was actually advised by a dietitian in the hospital to keep snacking everything and anything to recover (crazy looking back at it now) , thanks again for helping
Click to expand...
Expect a similar result to the oatmeal. Weetabix is high carb (70%) and skim milk has carb as well. If I recall correctly two weetabix plus milk comes in around 30g carb.

It's not for me but you might find it has a different impact - for better or worse - than the oatmeal.
 
If you start to take Metformin better talk to your doctor and start vitamin B12 Mytacoblamin because Metformin make a deficiency of B12 in body ..before taking consult with doctor…..
 
Been changed to Forziga 10mg , nausea gone overnight , peeing a bit more but so far so good .
 
Back
Top