Re: Overwhelmed Newbie

Paul L wrote: 
VBH wrote:

Paul L wrote:

Howdy Folks ... as many before me I'm sure I just don't know where to
start.


Absolutely.  You're not alone there.


Was just diagnosed with type 2 on Friday afternoon.   I had scheduled
  a physical to determine cause of my loss of weight (190 lbs down
 to 162 lbs over 2 1/2 months.   My classic symptoms apparently were
 also thirst and frequent urination.  The portable test read 373 in
the
 Doctor's office.   I have not had a fasting blood sugar level test
yet.
 I am 52.


Sounds pretty conclusive.


He set me up on Metformin and testing kit ...

A good start. How much metformin? 



  I am on 850 MG twice a day



My numbers have been
really
 high.  If I eat anything at all I get numbers in the 400s and 500s.
Just
 this am I went from 293 to 417 an hour after eating a small amount
 of oatmeal.   I am really concerned about these numbers and after
  doing a small amount of online research about Metformin it's hard to
 be optimistic that it will have any appreciable effect on blood sugar
  levels.


OK the first thing you have to know is that metformin takes about 3
weeks to work up to becoming effective.  It has to build up to become
effective at first and then you keep it at "maintenance" level if you like.

In the meantime, your best immediate help is from diet and exercise.
After the metformin kicks in, you need to keep the diet and exercise
going as well, but for now they are your only tools.

Exercise will help to drop your BG (blood glucose) immediately and also
help for the rest of the day and to some extent for the next two days.
It has many other benefits such as helping the heart etc, but we can
talk about those later.

Diet - Can you tell us what you have been advised as far as diet is
concerned?  The first thing you have to know about diet is that all
carbohydrates raise BG.  Its not just sugar - although sugars are some
of the carbs which raise your bg the fastest and by the most.  White
bread is just as bad for example.  Some ways of preparing potatoes make
them hit your BG faster and harder than sugar.




  Thanks ... my wife and I are just learning.  The Irish Oatmeal
  I had this morning was prepared directly from a diabetic cookbook.

  Thanks for the great info.


Many of us here deal with this by reducing carbs overall and by making
sure that the carbs we do eat are as slow as possible.  So perhaps
reduce bread, potatoes, root vegetables, pasta, rice and replace with
veggies - particularly green and leafy ones.

Now that sounds a bit basic, so read this:
http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

By using your meter you will be able to find out what effect certain
foods have on you.  To work out what to eat for now, have a read through
some of the recent posts on here and see what other people are eating.
The more you can stick to "safe" food combinations - as used by others
in our position- then the quicker your bg will come down.

Part of the reason your BG is so high is that it has been at a high
level for quite some time.  If you can resist overdoing the carbs for a
while then your bg will come down and you will feel a lot better.



  Understood ... thanks much.



First thing in the am has been 353, 321 and today 293 in my first 3
days of
 testing.  But my daytime testing numbers have been really high.


There are a lot of different estimates, but somewhere around 2/3 of all
type 2's are more resistant to insulin in the morning than afternoon.
This means that we can tolerate foods in the afternoon and evening that
we cannot in the morning.


Any thoughts appreciated. 

Just a quick suggestion - make an omelette for breakfast tomorrow.
Maybe some onions, cheese, peppers if you like.  No bread.  No oatmeal.
 No juice.



   Thanks again ...




Hopefully a couple of hours after that you will see a significant
difference in your BG from today's.  Would be good to see you have a
better start to the day with your BG.  You will find it hard to bring
the numbers down at first but it is possible to overdo it.

If you start to feel wobbly, faint etc then eat a small amout of carbs.
 This could happen from a drop in BG where your body is used to running
on very high for a long time.



  Tremendously helpful ... thank you.

Paul


Just a couple of follow up notes Paul,

I cranked out that reply pretty quickly partly because I noticed that you were replying to posts quickly. So it was a case of getting down as much as possible quickly.

This is a pretty complex subject so there is a lot of information heading your way at the moment. So the intention of the above was an immediate "starter kit" if you like.

But I would like to add my backing to a couple of others:
Quentin's advice is always superb. The GI and blood tests will be very useful to you over the coming weeks.

Nicky's suggestion of Gretchen Becker's book is an excellent one. My aunt was just diagnosed so I sent her it via amazon. Here's a link:
http://tinyurl.com/7kmt7
Note: that is the second edition. I don't know which country you are in but hopefully you can find it from the ISBN etc.

I didn't go into adult onset type 1 - not something I know anything about but OldAl certainly does. You do need to check that out with your doc if your BG does not start to drop. And as Jenny says, there is no need to be afraid of insulin.

Chung's posts should be ignored. Hes not always wrong but is a nut with an oddball agenda.

A quick thought on diabetic cookbooks. I bought two a while ago and just threw them out. I found that some of the recipies I tried raised my BG significantly. Others contained up to 70 carbs per portion which is about half of what I eat a day in one sitting. I'm not saying NOT to use them because right now you are looking for some ideas, but only your meter will know if that meal works for you. Try anything but test afterwards.

I'd like to ask you though to keep us posted if you can. There is a lot to learn at first and if we know how you are doing then we can post suggestions which may be useful to you more immediately. If a meal raises your BG badly for example we may be able to suggest a close alternative which works better from experience.

There's a lot to take in right now and its a sharp learning curve, but you will get the hang of it and as you can see there are plenty of people wanting to help.

Cheers,
VBH
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Overwhelmed Newbie
    ... I have not had a fasting blood sugar level test yet. ... After the metformin kicks in, you need to keep the diet and exercise going as well, but for now they are your only tools. ... Many of us here deal with this by reducing carbs overall and by making sure that the carbs we do eat are as slow as possible. ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)
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