Out of curiosity, in what part of the world are you located? Your BG (Blood Glucose) result appears to be in mmol/L units. Are you in the U.K.?
18.2 mmol/L is equivalent to around 328 mg/dl (the units we use in the U.S.). If a person without diabetes tested their fasting BG I’d expect it to be under 6.0 mmol/L … probably between 4.0 and 4.5?
A GP who doesn’t really explain much but instead tells you not to worry too much about it is not that uncommon, unfortunately. From their perspective, you’re still breathing, it takes time for the meds to kick in, and the “best thing” is to not upset the patient.
The people who tend to post in this forum are not likely to be very supportive of that approach, as you may have already noticed.
When you are doing nothing at all to control your BG, your body tends to ratchet it up higher and higher over time. Now that you know … or at least have good reason to believe … that you are a T2, you can adjust your diet so that you are not asking your body to deal with a relatively high level of carbohydrates which raise your BG.
My guess is that your BG will not suddenly drop down to “more normal” levels, but will instead slowly drift down over a period of a few days to maybe a week? (Just guessing). The important thing is to start limiting the total grams of carb which you consume during a day.
The reason your doctor suggested avoiding sweets is less because that is the one and only answer and more because “sweets” are sort of the low hanging fruit when it comes to reducing your carb intake. Most people have no idea at all how concentrated a dose of carbs is in most of the typical sweet stuff they eat.
Read the number of grams of carbohydrate on the nutritional information labels of the foods you typically eat. I think it may surprise you.
An analogy I think I currently sorta like is that getting advice about diabetes from a physician who does not have it is a bit like taking driving lessons from a driving instructor who has always ridden in the passenger seat.
It doesn’t mean the instructor doesn’t know what they are doing or that you shouldn’t pay any attention to them. But I do feel there is a different perspective which comes from actually sitting in the driver’s seat.
David_dns makes an excellent point. After you adjust to your new reality it can seem sort of normal after a while. The danger there is to tell your self that it is not so bad and then ease up on your focus.
Because of this human tendency I feel that this advice from Terry4 is extremely important
At this time diabetes cannot be cured, it can be beaten into submission but it will always be there ready to spring back into action creating havoc in your life. There are times in every diabetic’s life when they let their guard down, that is normal, the important thing is to not give up. We must always get back up and continue the fight.
Every poster before me has offered excellent advice. The best I can add is this. Please feel welcome, you are with friend here.
The doctor told you to stay away from refined sugar. That may be a place to start, but if your fasting blood sugar is as high as you’ve mentioned and just dropping refined sugar doesn’t drop it much, you’ll likely need to reduce a lot of other carbohydrates, too.
When I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2011, my FBG was 289 mg/dl (16 mmol/l in your units) and my A1c was 11.5. My doctor gave me a sample diet to follow. It didn’t give a specific number of carbs, but it did suggest meals. Breakfast, for example, was 2 servings bread, 1 serving milk, 1 serving fruit, 1 serving protein. I followed that for two days - and each day my BG shot up to 548 (30.4 mmol/l). Needless to say, I scrapped that diet pronto. But you can see that carbs in “normal” foods like bread, milk, and fruit can also be a problem to a diabetic. For some more than others.
I suggest that you might use an online source of carbohydrate content information for the foods you are considering eating. I used the FitDay website when I started. I’ve noticed a lot of others seem to use Calorie King. I’m now on a moderate carb diet with 120-150 grams of carb most days… But before I was put on insulin I had to eat far less than that.
Your health is so much more important than worrying about possibly offending a doctor. Do what you need to get the info and resources you need. It sounds like the local diabetes clinic you mentioned may be a good place to start! It seems like your doctor has given you less than the absolute minimum you need to make a difference.
I think that he didn’t want to overwhelm me (I also suffer from depression and anxiety). I am going to make some calls tommorow to see where I can get the help that my body appears to be craving.
I felt the same way. It is not your fault. Things will be ok. You will have to learn your body and how it responds and then choose what is best for you. Above all, you can master your knowledge and help others. Welcome to a place where you can learn and be inspired.
I was in shock too. If you lose weight and avoid wheat, corn, and rice that turn into sugar, all sugars and things like mango that are too sweet you will be OK but it is hard to lose weight. But the diet alone will cut your blood sugar levels-I was at 324 and diet alone cut it in half. It is like a glucose free diet but you kind of have to modify a few things more. Pretty much everything can be modified. There really is a lot you can eat. But mostly lose weight.
Also the depression and anxiety are from the disease at least in me. A lot of diabetics have this relative to controls. I take apple vinegar 2 tablespoons if I start to feel bad. Know that anyone can worry a lot and think it is justified. In social psych they said first you feel bad then you think of a reason. I also take zoloft and after a week found it does not raise my blood sugar a lot, but I still need the vinegar.
One piece of advice I give is to reward yourself at the end of the week. Create an obtainable goal and then stick to it. Then reward yourself at the end of the week. Start reading the nutrition labels of everything you eat. You cannot skip meals. Actually they recommend 3 meals and 2 snacks a day at smaller portions. Park further away … Take the stairs … And most important is that stress will play with your numbers.
Hey @Veggiegal81 - glad you took my advise to come onboard here! Hopefully with having gone to the Diabetic Clinic here in town (we both live in the same small town - I met her when I was recovering from surgery - where BG\s went abit wonky when I was told to shut down insulin pump for a 5 hour surgery … you can read about it here .
