# Good Morning lovely people



## Rosielee (Dec 12, 2014)

Hi   Ive been loitering on this forum for a while now and acted on some advice ive been reading. I was diagnosed as type 2 in September. My a1c was 51 and my cholesterol was 6.6. I think ive been pretty borderline for a while now as i have been tested regularly for over a year, but strangely enough never been told about diabetes, what to do about my readings etc. Only told to keep going back every few months for a repeat. Many members in my family are also type 2.
I began reading up on the lchf diet and started this soon after diagnosis. I wouldnt say that i was high fat though, i just started using butter (although i very rarely eat bread) and i have double cream when i eat berries etc. Ive also been cooking in olive oil.
Ive not touched a cake, biscuit, cereal, pasta or pastry for the past 3 months. Ive been baking cakes from lchf recipes i have found using ground almonds and coconut. Ive also lost 1 stone 6lb, my bmi has now gone from 26 to 24 and ive also lost 10cm from my waist since September. I dont want to lose much more weight, maybe about another 4-6lb just to take me to 8.5 stone would be good. Im only 5ft 1" so feel this will be enough for me.
I have a bg monitor and test first thing in mornings, before and 2 hours after lunch and dinner and before bed and ive managed to lower all my levels to between 4 and 7.7. Actually i very rarely go over 7 now.
Ive had my repeat a1c and cholesterol this week, and just phoned for my results. The a1c has not been checked as yet so they were unable to give me the figure for this but my cholesterol was 5.8. The reception was unable to give me the breakdown for the cholesterol but i was told it is being reviewed.
I did not wish to start taking statins when i had my first visit with the diabetes nurse in October and said i would try to manage it by diet, which i feel i have done and really thought that it would come in a lot lower than that. I know that without the breakdown it would be hard to say what was actually high and i intend to get that, hopefully next week. What im wondering is how long does the cholesterol take to go down. My surgery like it to be 4 and under apparently. Thank you so much for listening.


----------



## KookyCat (Dec 12, 2014)

Hi Rosielee
I don't really know much about cholesterol but it's positive that it's come down a bit and as you say the split will be the important thing.  Hopefully someone will come along with more cholesterol experience than me soon.  Well done on the blood sugars though, that's good stuff


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 12, 2014)

KookyCat said:


> Hi Rosielee
> I don't really know much about cholesterol but it's positive that it's come down a bit and as you say the split will be the important thing.  Hopefully someone will come along with more cholesterol experience than me soon.  Well done on the blood sugars though, that's good stuff



Thank you KookyCat. I know nothing about cholesterol so guessing I'm sort of in limbo til I either get the breakdown or I'm called in. Whichever comes first. 
Disappointed my a1c results weren't in yet either. Gosh I'm so impatient!!


----------



## KookyCat (Dec 12, 2014)

Rosielee said:


> Thank you KookyCat. I know nothing about cholesterol so guessing I'm sort of in limbo til I either get the breakdown or I'm called in. Whichever comes first.
> Disappointed my a1c results weren't in yet either. Gosh I'm so impatient!!



I'm impatient too, they did the wrong blood test on one of my appointments and I nearly chewed off my consultants ear because I didn't get my HBA1c   hopefully your a1c will show a reduction then you'll have something to celebrate


----------



## Mark T (Dec 12, 2014)

Welcome to the forum Rosielee 

What I read elsewhere seemed to suggest the cholesterol levels stabalised once you keep you weight and diet fairly constant.  Whilst you are doing lchf and loosing weight then lots of triglicerides with chol are being shipped from your fat cells to be converted into energy.  However, everyone is individual.

For non-diabetics they like chol to be less then 5, but for diabetics they like it to be below 4 because we are have a higher risk of heart problems.

However, that higher risk is proportional to your HbA1c, so if your is fairly low it's not so much of any issue.  My GP certainly doesn't seem to get to agitated with my chol being a tad about 4 when I've got a HbA1c of less then 6%


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 12, 2014)

Mark T said:


> Welcome to the forum Rosielee
> 
> What I read elsewhere seemed to suggest the cholesterol levels stabalised once you keep you weight and diet fairly constant.  Whilst you are doing lchf and loosing weight then lots of triglicerides with chol are being shipped from your fat cells to be converted into energy.  However, everyone is individual.
> 
> ...



Hi Mark T. Thank you for the welcome and explaining that to me. I think I'm just having a bit of a panic as I was sort of expecting it to be normal, as my meter readings have been really good and I've lost the weight by eating correctly. Still waiting on the a1c results which will probably be Monday now. I need to have more patience and small steps and all that. At least it's going in the right direction. Thank you again


----------



## Pumper_Sue (Dec 15, 2014)

Hi Rosie, please do your research regarding cholesterol, make your own mind up and do not feel forced to take them.
Ps welcome to the forum


----------



## HOBIE (Dec 15, 2014)

Hello Rosielee !  I like the title of your post !!  Welcome to the forum


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 15, 2014)

Pumper_Sue said:


> Hi Rosie, please do your research regarding cholesterol, make your own mind up and do not feel forced to take them.
> Ps welcome to the forum



Thank you Sue for the welcome and advice. I did feel a bit disappointed as really thought the cholesterol result would be lower but as ive been reading, im still losing weight so this is probably having an effect on it.
Ive just spoke to the GP surgery and they have advised that it would be reviewed in my next diabetes nurse clinic and i should hear from them regarding an appt if its needed.
Better news though, they also gave me my a1c result and its 41. Down 10 from diagnosis 3 months ago. Yipee. Thats cheered me up. All my hard work is paying off.


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 15, 2014)

HOBIE said:


> Hello Rosielee !  I like the title of your post !!  Welcome to the forum



Thank you Hobie. As you can guess i love me tea.


----------



## Lindarose (Dec 15, 2014)

Hi Rosielee Great you've joined us on here and very very well done with hba1c What a result!


----------



## Bloden (Dec 15, 2014)

Hiya Rosielee. Well done on the A1c.


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 16, 2014)

Lindarose said:


> Hi Rosielee Great you've joined us on here and very very well done with hba1c What a result!





Bloden said:


> Hiya Rosielee. Well done on the A1c.



Thank you Lindarose and Bloden.  I just hope I can keep it at that level.


----------



## Northerner (Dec 16, 2014)

Rosielee said:


> Thank you Lindarose and Bloden.  I just hope I can keep it at that level.



Hi Rosielee, a warm welcome from me also  It sounds to me like you are ding really well at getting to grips with things and turning things right around - well done! A great HbA1c, and I'm sure you can work on that cholesterol and get it to a point where they stop bothering you about it  Cholesterol can vary quite a bit - mine was once 6.2, but then 4.6 a few months later. I hadn't done anything different in particular, and my usual level is mid-4s. I turned down the option of statins, but as Sue says, the thing is to do your research, find out your breakdown, and give it a bit more time (well, I would!) - don't feel pressured unless you are absolutely sure they would be beneficial for you.

Your fingerprick tests reflect excellent control, so I'm sure you can maintain that HbA1c, or improve it!


----------



## Rosielee (Dec 16, 2014)

Thank you Northerner. I'm going to try my best but will admit I'm a bit worried about Christmas with all the food that will be on offer. But right now I'm thinking it's just one day out of 365 so if I do lapse it won't be such a big problem (as long as it stays at 1 day)
I've decided not to worry about the cholesterol for the time being. It's getting lower and I've not heard anything yet from the GP or the diabetes nurse. I did tell her 3 months ago when my cholesterol was 6.6 that I will lower it with diet and I don't really want to take pills. She agreed to let me try before taking statins.  I will just see when I have my next bloods in 3 months.


----------

