Newbie

Ok, trying this in hopes of ending the fear and isolation in my head. About 3 weeks ago, was diagnosed type 2. My mother had it and I swore I never would. Wrong. So I thought since I had "beat" it years ago by losing weight, that this would be a piece of cake, but no, not this time, having trouble getting my sugars down, had a low blood sugar "crash" yesterday, very scary,and now a burning sensation in my stomach that I think is from my meds. I need friends, and someone to pull me out of my miry pit. Just not very happy with this all.

Hi Kamap: I really think the hardest part about diabetes is the emotional aspect. And you saw your mom with it, and hoped you could avoid it, and didn't. It's really depressing. Many/most of us go through the stages of grieving when we are first diagnosed, and grieving takes far longer than most of us care to admit. No magic pill here, but you will find friends and support here, and people who truly understand.

Thank you so much

One of my best friends has T2 now and simply expected because it runs on both sides of her family no matter what weight, some relatives are thinner, some a little overweight. Doesn’t matter, it’s genetic. She had some digestive problems at first on metformin that is better now, but remember, not every health issue that pops up is related to diabetes so if the burning persists talk to your doctor about it. It may take time finding what works for you med and diet wise and it will definitely take time to accept the diagnosis. Give yourself time, educate yourself, and welcome to TuD, I hope you find the support and info you need!

It will take time and effort to work through your grief. A diabetes diagnosis, whether T2 or T1, is a significant change in your health. Please know that many have traveled this path before you and we can tell you that a good life is possible, even with the challenges that diabetes brings.

Don't give up on yourself! You can do this. You will make progress dealing with the emotional aspects of diabetes if you make good choices. One of those good choices is learning all you can about your diabetes. I'm reminded of the saying, "Keep you friends close and your enemies closer." Learning as much as you can about diabetes will enable you figure out how to minimize the effects of diabetes while living a life that brings joy and meaning.

One of the big things that I learned about grief is the false expectation that it's possible to be happy almost always. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Even people without significant health challenges find life hard sometimes. Disappointments with friends, family, and jobs still trouble almost everyone. When I came to accept that even people untroubled by grief did not have things perfect, it made things a little easier for me.

I realize that "happy-talk" can sometimes irritate, cause more grief, but I don't want to bring that to you. I do want to plant a seed of hope. You can fight this. You can overcome this!

Take care.

P.S. - See a doctor for the stomach pain. That's not normal.

Thank you so much and im calling my dr Monday

Well, K, I could say “I’m sorry”, but it is not anything that you did. It is depressing; I try not to let it occupy my thoughts continually. I am coming up on my 9 year anniversary of diagnosis and I still get sad that I have to live like this. I go through times of working real,hard and getting my numbers down and times of ignoring it. The latter does not make me feel any better, in fact usually worse of course, but the former is such hard conscious work. I am on meds and try to stick to a low carb diet and try to be active everyday. Hang in there, these people really care and can give you advice and encouragement. Feel free to vent when you need to. Cheers.

Thanks

I appreciate it. Yeah Igot fed up abit yesterday, but i know I can't do that.

I used to be very active when I was younger and developing Type 2 Diabetes never came to mind. Despite the high level of activity, I still gained some weight especially when I gave up sports. I grew from to 300+ pounds and was diagnosed with T2 Diabetes in 2011. Expect the unexpected. Well maybe other people have seen it coming because it's obvious but I didn't. It's sad but thought I had no choice but deal with what is given so trying my best to cope each day. I had a gastric bypass surgery in 2013, December and everything's doing good so far. You can do it.

Thank you, glad things are going well for you.

Hello, I was diagnosed with t2 the hard way. A good stay at ICU. I had good years and bad years. Some years surrounded by people but in isolation. Some good years with good A1C but the meds impacted me greatly. I had plenty of lows as a t2 on metformin a few years back. I learned to get ahead of them. I checked my levels all the time. Since I bike a lot, I do have to watch the numbers. I don't follow the twice a day rule. That does not give me enough information to stay ahead of things. Give yourself some time to adjust. Eventually the pre-diagnosis you starts coming back as you learn your way your body behaves now. Its the slow and steady race not a sprint remember that. Take care , see you around.

That’s good to know, thank you

http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/58/4/773.full.pdf+html

I'm sorry to hear you feel bad about things. I've always felt that low BG "crashes" are very emotionally draining, the character of the buzz is really unpleasant to my mind. I used to consider it a sign, thinking "gosh, I'm really bummed out, I'd better check my BG..." I find that finding other things to do has always helped me consider my identity as a "guitar player" or "runner" instead of a "person with diabetes." It also gives me focus to help me beat it. "We are playing a gig, I'm going to get my BG in line...".

Re T2, the most interesting article I've seen, although it's very scientific is: "From the Triumvirate to the Ominous Octet" which goes into tremendous detail about the complexity of T2. I always throw it at people who post stupid crap about diabetes whenever they do it.

Kamap.

I was Dx'ed only a few weeks before you, so I have also experienced the miry pit.
The thing that turned me around was realizing two things from reading TU. 1) Everybody's D is different, and optimal treatment differs from person to person. 2) Well managed diabetics are more knowledgeable about optimal BG management for them than their physicians. That statement isn't true for complications, nor am I suggesting that you take medical advice except from a professional. I am saying that any good medical professional is always looking for new knowledge about how to treat a patient, and that source of knowledge can be you.

Pricking my fingers to draw blood was initially very depressing. It is certainly an ..acquired.. taste. I like it now because it because it helps me understand what's going on in my body from hour to hour. Even if you have a prescription for only one or two tests a day, I think you should consider spending at least several days testing 6-8 times a day, with before/after meal pairs being very important. One extra vial of test strips at list price might not be prohibitively expensive, even if a steady diet of them would be. The information you gather could both affect your treatment and be an argument for a better test strip prescription.

--ZZ

I agree that DeFronzo's article is well worth reading. I think that he's overoptimistic, though, about the drugs he wants to use for for the different parts of the 'Ominous Octet'. These drugs are not native hormones, like insulin, so they are not as specific and cause side effects in many people.

--ZZ

The problem is that we oversimplify T2. The simple message we all hear is that T2 is a disease caused by obesity and that you can prevent or cure T2 by simply losing weight. That is just not true. DeFronzo argues that there are in fact many T2 defects, they occur in different clusters with different levels of seriousness. And that the "treatment" of these defects may differ. It is wrong to suggest that just because a treatment involves a "natural human hormone" that it is side effect free. Insulin has side effects and all insulin products in the US these days are synthetic.

What DeFronzo argues in his article is that an early triple oral medication treatment for T2 is substantially more durable than current regimes and his initial results of and ADA funded trial seem to back that up. DeFronzo then says that when the medication stops working you don't mess around with other combinations, you just start insulin.

I agree we oversimplify T2.

Insulin has side effects and all insulin products in the US these days are synthetic.

The amino acid substitutions (or myristic acid adduct, in the case of detemir) in modern insulin don't affect the epitopes (shape) of the part of the insulin molecule that binds to the receptor. They do affect other things, like how well insulin molecules stick to each other. That's why I said 'natural'. That means insulin only acts on insulin receptors. Insulin can be dangerous because of its sharp dose-response curve, but I would argue that's not a 'side-effect', it's too much of the 'main effect'.

The small molecules in oral meds affect more than their putative targets,
and that's the sense I mean 'side-effects'.

DeFronzo argues that there are in fact many T2 defects, they occur in different clusters with different levels of seriousness. And that the "treatment" of these defects may differ.

I absolutely agree. I further agree that the treatments he suggest provide incremental improvements over current standard treatments.
On the other hand, Figs 15 and 16 show transient or almost transient effects of therapy, and although the TZDs (Fig. 17) show a steady effect, they mostly seem to be off the market because of side effects.

I expect that there are many situations where these drugs are clinically valuable. But I still think DeFronzo is overoptimistic.

--ZZ

I'm sorry. I overlooked your main point.

The simple message we all hear is that T2 is a disease caused by obesity and that you can prevent or cure T2 by simply losing weight. That is just not true.

Absolutely correct.

-ZZ