you are not diabetic unless you are on insulin

I'm diabetic and still eat cake. I'm afraid I'm not one of these low carbers that live off nuts and seeds. I like proper food. So I inject a little extra insulin. Of course you can be diabetic without having insulin!

Just because we are diabetic starlight, it doesn't mean we can't have the occasional treat, I never deny myself anything as long as its within reason, the odd cake here and there isnt going to cause untold harm to your sister as long as it isn't something she indulges in every day of course, I rule my diabetes, it doesn't rule me and I think all diabetics should have a treat now and then by all means respect your diabetes but dont be afraid to live a little now and then, all the best to you and your sister.

There are some strange myths surounding diabetes. I find it quite funny sometimes when I efuse cetain foods and some "expert"
informs me that someone they know eats that food and He/she is on insulin! That is supposed to be the "clincher"
Sometimes I find that the acquaintance is T1 but sometimes they do mean T2. I eplain that I too would be on insulin if
I had just allowed myself to be bulldozed ito it at an unsuitable time but that if I had accepted the profferd item and continued to do so , I too would be on insulin pretty quickly.
So your sister is not alone in her beliefs Starlight!

I do occasionally eat cake but I make sure by testing or incorporating it into my diet /medication/ exercise regime and testing before and aftewards that it is likely to make only the minimum difference , if any to my levels

I agree with tighthead. That is how I control it and not vice versa. Obsessing about somethig you really feel you want is not good for you. Its more likely to cause you to give up and overdo things or to feel resentful if I really wanted something which I shouldn't have. very badly I would eat just a small portion of it , test myself afterwards and then ask myself if i was really worth it I usually feel angry with myself for being so silly. Tastes change anyhow as you get used to not having sweet things and carbs, i think there is a case for trying these things occasionally if you crave them You may find that you no longer like them.

What worries me about this is not that your sister chose a cake or even wanted one it's that you had to convince her she was diabetic and therefore her gp and dsn hadn't managed to explain that to her. It's either that or your sister is in denial about her condition and the words she used were part of that denial.

If its the later and I'm by no means saying it is then what Sarah69 says about going on insulin may well be appropriate for your sister, it's may well be a lot safer for her health than letting her continue in denial.

All I personally would suggest to any Type 2 who elects to go on insulin (including you Sarah69) is don't do it as an excuse not to lose weight and change to a healthy normal diet. Insulin will have a tendency to make you gain weight (as any Type 1 will tell you) so unless you do maintain a healthy weight and therefore a reasonably good diet you really do put yourself at a very high risk of heart attacks and strokes and similar bad things. There are many studies that show this happens to quite a large percentage of diabetics on insulin who do not control their weight. Put bluntly they die.

At the moment I'm quite happy low carbing to control my diabetes (and fyi Sarah69 I eat a lot more than nuts and seeds so I don't think that part of your post is helpful) but at the point I stop being happy I would quite seriously consider jumping straight to insulin. Why? Well at the moment I have some pancreatic function left lets say roughly a third of normal as a guess. If I go on the classic drugs esculator and take drugs that effectively attempt to turbo charge my pancreas to produce more insulin then I would guess that my pancreatic function will begin to fall to zero pretty quickly and at that point I'll need insulin anyway. So would I rather have a working pancreas be it at a it's current power and have to inject small quantities of insulin to cover that I want a wider diet or a completely knackered pancreas and have to inject to cover everything I eat? The answer seems pretty obvious to me but everyone has their own choice to make.

Oh and of course by low carbing and dieting first then when I do go on insulin at my much reduced healthy weight I won't be at at the risk of all those heart attacks, strokes and other killers and will be use to eating a healthy diet to start with.

Sarah, I'm a very low carber and I love 'proper' food too. I do not 'live off nuts and seeds' far from it, both of those things increse my weight, so I don't eat them.
I would dearly love to eat cake, but I can't, so I don't. I'm also not on insulin like you and neither is the OP's sister, so we can't cover for a bit of cake, which, as we've seen in SOME insulin takers on the forum leads to many more bits of cake and the possible complications that go with it.

wiflib

Hi, I found this to be a very interesting thread. I was diagnosed diabetic about 6 years ago, and although my pancreas was producing some insulin, it wasn't enough and I was put straight onto both Insulatard and Metformin.

Gradually over time my Insulatard usage increased and I also went onto Novarapid before each meal. I was losing weight before I was diagnosed (apparently a common symptom) and after I started injecting I went from 16 stone all the way back up to over 19 stone.

Although I often turned down cake, I did start getting into the habit of having a dessert in a restaurant and just injecting a bit more insulin to cope with it - A slippery slope to weight gain I have found out.

Well after seeing a picture of myself at a group outing last Easter, I decided to lose weight, have been dieting for the last 7 months and lost 5.5 stone. The strange thing is, about a week into dieting I started getting close to hypoing daily. I cut down my insulin usage and eventually stopped completely.

Now I haven't injected anything for about 7 months, and have stopped all my other meds. My last med was metformin and I came off that in Feb. That's Insulatard, Novarapid, Simvastatin, Ramipril and Metformin no longer taken, primarily due to change of diet and also now loss of weight. I am now wondering why I was on insulin in the first place if I could have controlled this by diet all the time...

I do feel that the "safety net" of being able to inject insulin at any time in order to control any excess sugar made me more prone to eat "bad food" than I would have done on a completely diet controlled regime...

Those are some accomplishments Stoker, it lifted my spirits just reading your story.

Massive congrats to you :thumbup:

Yes St0ker that is a brilliant achievement well done :clap: :clap:

I can understand your concern Starlight. My sister has been pre-diabetic for years but because she has other conditions the diabetes has never been a priority with her. She couldn't ever understand my concern although I have complications.

When her partner was diagnosed last year with T2 he was given medication but no advice and no testig equipment .
They both took this as "proof " that I was overreactig and making a mountain out of a molehill., although they know
I have been having treatment for diabetic reinopathy and maculas r oedema for 4 years and have o attend the hospital every few weeks althugh my levels have been under control for some ime now.

My sister's parner has an eremely sweet tooth and eats massive amounts of carbs. His job is quite physically demanding so this probably helps a little. In spite of this his levels kept rising. he has recently been diagnosed with the beginnings of kidney failure. He was told this was reversible if he changed his ways.
He has. he now takes the medication but will not even consider changing his diet. My sister remarked to me that they would never be "like me". So "into it all" They were just happy to accept medical advice!

She has thyroid and heart problems as well as diabetes. I think she was told at her last check-up that she was now diabetic but no treatmen or advice was offered. She has a good diet generally but does ot eat at regular intervals and often suffers hypos. She can't exercise because of arthritis in her knees. She has recently suffered horrendous side effects from her medications and discovered that she has been given the wrong prescription for her thyroid for over a year!
You have to wonder what it akes o shake people ou of their complacency about Gps ad Pracice nurses and make them realise they must take some responsibility for their own health.

If you manage to find a way to get through to your sister Starlight, please post it here and I will try it!