When I was officially diagnosed with insulin resistance, the visit went something like this:
Me: Yes, so I was told to see you because I’m diabetic.
Him: No, you’re not diabetic, you’re pre diabetic Now I want you to go to the diabeties education classes, and start eating the diet they tell you there, and keep taking the metformin (diabeties med, at the maximum dosage they’re allowed to prescribe), and get a blood meter and start testing your sugars. I’ll see you in a year.
Which I interpreted as “You’re not a diabetic (yet) but your treatment and lifestyle should be exactly like one.” Diabetes-in-all-but-name so to speak.
Has anyone else had the same experience?
Hi Laura:
My Father-in-Law has been told that he is pre-diabiatic. He is not on medication, but he tests his blood sugar and has to watch what he eats. I’m no doctor, but if you are also taking medication…it sounds to me that you have diabetes. There is an article in the tudiabets “News” section, titled: “Stop…or you will go blind” or something like that. The beleive the author states that there is no such thing as being prediabetic. Take care.
Oh I do my best to keep my sugars under 6.5. I’m taking this very seriously!
No, thank goodness. When my internist first noticed “a slight problem,” she said to just keep a check on what I eat and to lose weight and she’d see me in a month for a follow up. Knowing that my fraternal grandmother was diabetic and had lost her leg and then her life to the disease, I wasn’t satisfied with “just keep[ing] a check” on things. I took my lab report home, bought my own meter and supplies, and tested after every meal, snack I ever ate for weeks! OH MY GOD!!! I was having meter readings of 175 or better on some meals and snacks!!! I ordered several books from amazon.com (many were used and/or on sale) and started eating low and very low carb meals. I also bought some “walk away the pounds” dvd’s (these are videos of exercise that I can do in my cubicle too) and within a week, my numbers were down in the 90’s. After two weeks, my numbers were down in the 80’s. You don’t need the Metformin and I personally wouldn’t take it but that’s your choice. There are a gazillion low-carb cookbooks out there and you don’t have to spend a fortune on food to do this. I kept a food journal of everything I ate and the numbers that resulted from it. If the numbers were too high, I didn’t eat it any more. So far, tortilla chips, bread (which I don’t eat alot of anyway), and white rice give me pretty high numbers. And hormones and periods cause the numbers to go haywire. YOU have to take charge of your body. YOU have to control this before you really need meds. It can be done. I’m proof. My first HbA1c was 5.5 (which ain’t bad) but this next one will be higher I’m afraid. I’ve kinda let things go and I shouldn’t have but I will get down to a 5.0 by the end of this year. It can be done. You can do it as well.
For me, I need the metformin. I eat very low carb, and I can just barely keep my levels within my goals. Without the metformin, I know I’d be higher. I’m hoping I can reduce the meds eventually, but I’ll need a lot more exercise to try and lessen my insulin resistence.
It’s great that you can maintain without the meds!
after I had my daughter (I had gestational diabetes) I was told my sugars were high but not high enough. I was told to watch my diet and excersice. I was never informed about anything about prediabetes. I was told I had a good change of developing diabetes later in life but never was I told how serious it was. they didnt says I have one foot in the door. I think if they had told me how seriuos it was I would have acted differently. now I am diabetic (about 2 months) not that I am angry about it. I feel like it was bound to happen. I am doing fine.
both my brother and sister have been told the same thing. I tell them to take better care of themselves but they dont. they say its not prediabetes YET. what? hello yes it is!!! they dont listen.
My nurse practitioner does not believe in prediabetes. She thinks any amount of elevated BG should be treated as diabetes. My A1C was 7.2. The first endo I saw told me that I had nothing wrong with me (not even impaired glucose tolerance) because my fasting and 2 hour BG were within normal parameters. The fact that my BG was 180 after 20g carbs didn’t faze him a bit because it came down quickly to under 120. The dietician told me to eat 16 carb exchanges a day and not to worry if I go up to 140 after every meal. Since my fasting BG is in the 80s this is a large swing and makes me feel lousy. Luckily, my NP agreed to the antibody tests and I was confirmed with Type 1. I shudder to think what would have happened to my remaining Beta cells if I had believed some of the professionals who told me that my sugars were not high enough to be diabetes.
Yes I was treated differently! I was put on Metformin to treat PCOS and IR, a year and a half ago. I was never told to monitor my BG and I was only vaguely given guidelines about diet. Then everyone acted so surprised when I had an elevated A1C. I don’t think there is a such thing as pre-diabetes. I think if you are insulin resistant you should be treated as though you have diabetes, because it seems that you do!