# New diagnosed and bit scared



## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hi my names Jo I’m from the UK I was diagnosed Monday just gone and I’m scared to death, I got a blood sugar machine and I don’t understand my symptoms are not matching my blood sugar readings.
Help me please x


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## Drummer (Nov 23, 2019)

Hello Jo and welcome.
Can you give a bit more information about the diagnosis - your profile shws type two - do you know your Hba1c level at diagnosis?
What sort of figures are you seeing on the meter, and what symptoms are you expecting?
Have you altered what you are eating? That can be the first step to returning to normal numbers.
Were you prescribed any medication?
Hopefully you were not told to swap to brown carbs and to eat fruit - the carbohydrates are all much the same in the long run - they all, both sugars and starches end up in the blood stream, but fructose, the sugar from fruit, has to be dealt with by the liver, which can result in problems there.
I hope that you can soon get a grip on the diabetes and show it who is boss.


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hi drummer thanks for your quick reply my Hba1c was 50, on my blood sugar meter this morning was 11.4 I think then it went to 10.7, then I ate some fruit and after about an hour half went funny, started shaking, sweating, blurry vision, bad tempered, so I grabbed some chocolate and a piece of toast after about 15 mins felt normal again checked my blood sugar levels and they had gone down to 5.4.

Im diagnosed as type2 and been given Metformin 500mg one in morning
On the 26th of this month got to increase to two a day.

because it was a quick diagnosis my proper diabetic appointment is not till the 4th of December where they will explain everything, apart from that I no nothing about diabetes x


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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hi @Jo7 
It’s definitely a bit scary at first, welcome to the club no one wants to be in. What symptoms are you experiencing and what are your meter readings.
Also have you been started on any medication and have you changed your diet at all, we as T2 diabetics need to limit carbohydrates in our diet, not only the simple sugars found in all sweet things but the more complex starches found in wheat and other grain products, potatoes, root veg and some beans etc.
A good place to start is reading Maggie Daveys Letter a great intro for T2 diabetes...(link below) 

http://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/maggie-daveys-letter-to-newly-diagnosed-type-2s.61307/


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hi Martin9 see above post I replied back to drummer x


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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)

Those wildly fluctuating blood sugars don’t seem normal to me, are you washing your hands before taking readings, otherwise your meter may not be working properly ...


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Ahhh good point didn’t know I had to wash hands, I will try that from now on!
Thankyou x


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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)

Jo7 said:


> Ahhh good point didn’t know I had to wash hands, I will try that from now on!
> Thankyou x


Well if you got fruit juice or anything else on your fingers can skew results..


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Lol yes I never thought of that!
I will see what tomorrow brings, I’m trying to change my diet also, I’ve never been a 3 meal a day person but because of the symptoms I’m getting if I don’t eat it’s now making me eat 3 meals aday x


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Martin9 said:


> Well if you got fruit juice or anything else on your fingers can skew results..


Just washed my hands now and checked blood sugar 7.7 it was us that good or bad ?? x


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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)

If you’re not used to eating 3 meals a day you don’t need to eat 3 meals a day, Metformin doesn’t usually bring on hypoglycaemia, the symptoms you were experiencing , were unlikely to be hypoglycaemia, could you be suffering any infection etc.,
It’s not likely to start of at 10 odds eat fruit , then suffer hypoglycaemia then eat toast and chocolate and then end up at 5 odds ..I suggest you may be starting some infection or that meter is not working ..


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hummm right the meter is brand new and obviously when you get something new the family all want go, when I test them it’s 5.4 or 5.7, or 5.3 so I don’t know, what are the normal ranges I’m looking for ?


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Martin9 said:


> If you’re not used to eating 3 meals a day you don’t need to eat 3 meals a day, Metformin doesn’t usually bring on hypoglycaemia, the symptoms you were experiencing , were unlikely to be hypoglycaemia, could you be suffering any infection etc.,
> It’s not likely to start of at 10 odds eat fruit , then suffer hypoglycaemia then eat toast and chocolate and then end up at 5 odds ..I suggest you may be starting some infection or that meter is not working ..



no I’m not used to eating 3 meals a day but if I don’t eat I go funny so I’ve tried eating, fish and veg and just healthier stuff ? I’m so confused about all this x


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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)




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## Martin9 (Nov 23, 2019)

Jo7 said:


> no I’m not used to eating 3 meals a day but if I don’t eat I go funny so I’ve tried eating, fish and veg and just healthier stuff ? I’m so confused about all this x


If you’re going funny it may be what called a false hypo, not a real one, as your body gets used to lower levels of sugar than its used to..


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Ahhhh right, I’m starting to understand abit now thanks for your help you’ve been brilliant x


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Martin9 said:


> View attachment 12624


Thankyou


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## rebrascora (Nov 23, 2019)

Hi Jo and welcome.

Firstly there is no need to panic. Your HbA1c reading at 50 is only just over the threshold for diabetes, which is 48, so it would be unusual for you to have symptoms at that level ..... other than perhaps sugar withdrawal symptoms if you have previous been consuming a lot of sweet stuff and have suddenly cut back. My reading was 112 when it caused me symptoms .... which were unquenchable thirst and consequent weeing but otherwise I didn't actually feel all that bad and there are some members whose readings were higher still, so your 50 is really nothing to worry about.

I am actually quite surprised that they have given you Metformin with such a low reading rather than seeing if you can push it into remission with some dietary changes. Those need to involve reducing your consumption of carbohydrates....fruit, chocolate and toast were not great choices to eat.
I agree with @Martin9 that you may have had a residue of something sweet on your fingers which influenced the first readings of you may have been suffering the effects of dawn phenomenon, which is where your liver releases glucose into the blood stream to give you the energy to get up and "catch" breakfast.... a cast back to our caveman days when we didn't have a fridge to store our breakfast and had to head out on foot to hunt it down and needed a surge of glucose to fuel that.
If your wobble moment was after taking the Metformin it may have upset your stomach, especially if you just took it on an empty stomach or with a bit of fruit.... it is renowned for causing digestive upset and is best taken with a substantial amount of food, *mid meal*.... it might be best if you take it with your evening meal instead of in the morning since you are taking it just once a day at the moment.

It is also important that you are quite structured about using the BG meter. Before food and 2 hours after food is the recommended schedule and you are looking for a rise of no more than 3 mmol between the readings. It is important to keep a record/diary of what you ate and your readings so that you can see the effect that food had on your levels and therefore adjust the portion size or carbohydrate content to keep your readings more in range. You will usually see patterns over a couple of weeks so don't get too fixated on any one reading. You are looking more for trends.

There is almost no risk that the Metformin will take your BG too low and even if it does, it will not go dangerously low like injecting insulin can do... it just doesn't work like that, so don't guzzle high carb stuff  if you feel a bit wobbly. By all means check your BG if you feel unwell but it would have to be below 3.5 for it to need treating with a few jelly babies or glucose. Otherwise have a few nuts or a chunk of cheese as these are low carb options which will satisfy you without spiking your BG.

Carbohydrate rich foods are the obvious sweet stuff, like sugar, sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits but also fruit and in particular fruit juice but more importantly bread, cous cous, pasta, potatoes, rice and breakfast cereals. These are the things you need to cut down on to push your diabetes into remission.
The good news is that meat, fish eggs, full fat dairy (avoid low fat yoghurts and go for creamy natural yoghurt) cheese butter cream etc are all on the menu with lots of fresh leafy green veg, most of which benefit from being cooked in a knob of butter or a dollop of cream cheese. Mushrooms are great and Mediterranean veg like courgettes, aubergines, peppers tomatoes and cucumbers I make a big pan of ratatouille to last me a week and have it with chicken or burgers or sausages. Cauliflower makes a great carb substitute and can me mashed with mustard and butter or cream cheese instead of potato mash and served with bangers or used to top a cottage pie, or it can be finely chopped as a rice of cous cous alternative. Courgettes spiralized to replace spaghetti etc. We have lots of imaginative cooks and bakers here on the forum who have found low carb alternatives to many recipes.
Anyway, I hope I have been able to put your mind at rest a bit. Do wash your hands before testing and make sure to take your Metformin in the middle of a substantial meal ... the time of day is not really relevant but protecting your digestive tract against upset is important.... My gut feeling is that this is probably what caused your wobble this morning. Many of us use apps to log our foods and BG readings and calculate carbs and even calories although I have found that cutting out the carbs means I don't have to worry about calories, and even keep tract of physical activity.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress and feel free to ask whatever questions come to mind. Some one here will almost always know the answer.


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

rebrascora said:


> Hi Jo and welcome.
> 
> Firstly there is no need to panic. Your HbA1c reading at 50 is only just over the threshold for diabetes, which is 48, so it would be unusual for you to have symptoms at that level ..... other than perhaps sugar withdrawal symptoms if you have previous been consuming a lot of sweet stuff and have suddenly cut back. My reading was 112 when it caused me symptoms .... which were unquenchable thirst and consequent weeing but otherwise I didn't actually feel all that bad and there are some members whose readings were higher still, so your 50 is really nothing to worry about.
> 
> ...



hi Barbra thankyou for your very informational post, I really appreciate any advice, this all started a while back I had pre-diabetes at 48mmol and then 3 weeks later I started having symptoms of blurry vision, shaking, moody ness, sweating and the feeling of going to pass out, to which the did a second Hbc1 test and it was 50mmol to which they then said I was diabetic type 2.

I had been feeling these symptoms every day for about a week oh and also nausea, to which they then put me on Metformin.

anyway from your advice I’m going to 1 wash my hands and take notes of my blood sugars and see what happens, but what is scaring me the most is the symptoms I’m getting weather I eat or not eat and even though I’m trying to eat healthier I still feel like rubbish.

can you also tell me what is the purpose of Metformin please , thanks for any advice x

oh yeah I also get confused and I feel my speech goes funny, I also have heart  failure x


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## rebrascora (Nov 23, 2019)

I just checked your profile and I see that you are 46 which makes me wonder if your symptoms might possibly be linked to the menopause or be hormonal (could you possibly be pregnant?) rather than symptoms of your BG. I have suffered with them for the past 5 years and just started on HRT patches 2 months ago and I can tell you they are a revelation..... soooo wish I had asked about it earlier instead of battling on in silence. Apologies if this is not the case but it is extremely unusual to have significant symptoms of diabetes at such a low level and in my opinion the menopause can be a trigger for these other things like diabetes.

Metformin works by helping the insulin open the cells to utilize the glucose in the blood. It was described to me as the cells having a lock and insulin is the key to let the glucose in but the locks have become rusty with Type 2 diabetics (insulin resistance) and Metformin oils the locks and enables the insulin to open the door and let the glucose in. If the glucose can't enter the cells where it is used as energy, it is stuck in the blood stream causing problems because it makes the blood gloopy and causes the fine capillary blood vessels to get clogged up.... those fine capillaries are most vulnerable in your eyes and also your feet, so they put those areas at risk and also the cells don't get enough glucose so you feel tired and lack energy. The Metformin helps the insulin to take the glucose out of your blood and get it into the cells where it is broken down. It doesn't produce extra insulin it just makes the insulin that your body produces more effective. Your body has safety mechanisms to increase and decrease insulin production and also produce (and discourage) the release of glucose into your blood stream as well as removal of excess glucose via the kidneys if levels get too high. It is a constant balance between food being eaten and digested, insulin production and the cells of the body using that glucose. By eating low carb you give your body a bit of a break from this chaotic balancing act and together with the loss of some body fat and an increase in activity levels it helps to "reboot" the system.

I hope that makes sense. It is a very simplified version of a very complex process, so hopefully someone will correct me if I have misrepresented the situation.


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## Jo7 (Nov 23, 2019)

Hiya thanks for your response, I’m defo not pregnant had my tubes clamped years ago and my periods are still bang on monthly so I don’t know, it’s just all a bit confusing to me and this is what is making me feel so panicky having the symptoms but my HbAc1 level only 50mmol it’s very confusing x
Oh and I do have the thirst as well and a lot of peeing x


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## Drummer (Nov 24, 2019)

It could be that you are reacting to the changes you have made quite quickly - I had some real wobbly moments in the first three or four months after diagnosis.
Perhaps checking your supermarket shopping receipts if you have them to see just how many carbs you were getting through in the average week  could help give you a starting point.
That Hba1c of 50 is not that high (compared to some) so cutting back on starchy stuff - bread and potatoes are usually easy targets, and right down of sugary foods and drinks might be all you need to do to get back into the normal range - which is below 42.
Watch out for things labelled low fat - usually they are loaded with carbs to make then 'taste nice' - but we do need fats (surprise surprise) to use as fuel when cutting back on carbs. Type twos like me - those really sensitive to carbs have to really cut back on them, but I still manage to eat well - and the food is so nourishing and sustaining I only need to eat twice a day. An added bonus is losing weight and then size - I am three years from diagnosis and making things to wear - now the cold weather has arrived I find that things which fitted last year, just, are now flapping about like tents - even though I have lost hardly any weight, I have lost size, or volume - and some of my clothes are sliding south again - I have been wearing braces this last month...


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## Jo7 (Nov 24, 2019)

Ok brilliant I will check what you’ve said , thanks for getting back to me x


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