Newly diagnosed and adrift a few days

Type 1 and LADA New to Type 1 Diabetes
1

Hello all. I’m glad I found this place and hope to gain a lot of info here.

I went into the Dr. on Thursday with a laundry list of worrisome symptoms and left with the “so your life is ruined” pamphlet (unhelpful), a prescription for Metformin and a Wednesday appointment.
The thing is I went in because I am unable to eat more than a few bites of anything, and I assume that fact would influence what I eat. Also I still feel like crap and they never did address my symptoms.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance

2

You may wish to look at the following URL

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

3

Peter, your life is not ruined. You will find many kind and helpful people here at TuD. For starters, check out the new member guide - click here - and get to know your new family here. We are a strong, tight, and compassionate bunch here. I’ve had type 1 for 41 years, and nothing has helped me more than TuDiabetes. You will come here when you are confused, angry, happy, proud, in despair, or if you need a friend or a suggestion. We all take care of each other here. Please tell me if there is any specific info you are looking for, and I will help you. Welcome.

4

Thanks Marie that’s great.
I’m just wondering why I can’t seem to eat. Everything I’ve read implies eating too much is the only direction that swings. Is it some side issue?

5

Hello Peter,

Welcome to tudiabetes. I remember the day I learned that I was diabetic. I struggled in the beginning. After about a year of little or no help from the doctor, I decided to embark on a campaign of knowledge. Long story short… after two years of learning all I could, I found that the answer was right in front of me the entire time. That is to say, if we live our lives the way our bodies were designed to live, we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place. Let me clarify, since adopting a primarily natural foods based diet and getting moderate daily exercise, my symptoms have reversed so significantly, that I no longer need Metformin. My diet consists of mostly raw, natural fruits, nuts, whole grains, and vegetables. My exercise routine consists of at least an hour of brisk walking a day. Since starting this regimen, my weight dropped right along with my blood sugar. December 13, 2007, I quit taking Metformin and my blood glucose has been fine ever since. In retrospect, becoming diabetic has been one of the best things to happen to me. It woke me up to the fact that I need to give my body what it needs to do it’s job in staying healthy.

I felt like crap for years. In fact, I became depressed and suicidal, in the beginning. During my recovery, I learned an awful lot about how proper nutrition can not only help blood glucose regulation, it can help our moods and overall well being as well.

If I were you, I would focus on the highest nutrition, lowest carb calorie diet I could find. Here are a few that I pick and choose from… Dr. John McDougall’s, Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s, and Dr. Neal Barnard’s. If you sort of blend those three, and fine tune them to your own personal needs and lifestyle, you’ll be amazed at what you can eat and still maintain good glucose control.

Here is a basic daily diet template that I follow: Craig’s diet template

I’m not saying that it’s right for everyone, but the main idea is to keep manufactured, refined, processed carbs to a minimum and focus mainly on the high nutrient, raw natural foods. The reason has to do with lowering your insulin resistance and getting healthy. More on that later.

There’s a lot to learn, but if you’re patient and willing to take the time, there’s plenty of help available right here.

Craig

6

Hi Peter,
Welcome to the family. I am so glad you joined us. You are indeed home and we really are a very loving and supportive family There is truly nothing we can’t get through together.
I would ask if you had blood work done? I am assuming you did. So what I would suggest is asking the doctor to sit down with you and go over it ALL. There are several reasons why you may have lost your ability to eat. There just isn’t enough information to go on here to guess what it might be. The best bet is to ask the doctor and don’t leave the exam room until you have your questions answered. Please write down what you want to ask and pull out your sheet of paper and keep it in front of you while the doctor is in the room. Keep asking questions until you understand what the doctor is saying He may have felt you had enough to deal with getting your diagnosis and is waiting to go over everything else when you come back.
Remember that Judith told .you baby steps. And remember that Marie told you we all take care of each other. You are not alone Peter. You have gotten good advice already. We are here for you and with you. You truly are home Peter. Welcome

7

Hi Peter,

I’m new to tuDiabetes and a newly diagnosed type 2. I found out January 26th and immediately went into info gathering mode. I am amazed at the mixture of information out there. Some very hopeful and positive and some so confusing I’m scared to move. I immediately cut out 90% of the carbs I’d been eating and 95% of the sugar. It has been a huge adjustment but I decided this was a wake up call for me. My BGs are down already from what they were the first week, and I’m hopeful about that.

To be honest, I had no idea how many carbs I was eating (no binging… just normal meals) until I had to remove them from my meal planning. Amazing really. I feel like I’ve lost a long time friend… I really do. But getting started on turning this around had me energized and active.

But I find, each evening, as darkness falls, so do my spirits. When I get home from work and get settled,I leash up Spencer, my golden retriever and we go for a walk. I need to lose weight and was trying to before the diagnosis, but now I’m on a roll and know that my health and life really depend on it. But the last two evenings, I cry quietly as I walk. How did I get here? Is it my weight? Is it the diet? No one in my family is diabetic so there is no info there. I think I rode the wave of ‘take action’ and I think that wave has crashed on the beach… I feel pretty alone and scared. I’m doing all that I can and HATE not understanding and knowing what to do.

I know this will shift, but I saw your discussion and wanted to add my two cents.

I am sorry your doctor did not ‘see’ you that day… he/she should have given you more info and, at the very least, sent you off feeling like you were heard and they would help figure out why you feel so bad. Can you change doctors? Do you live in a city with options?

Hang in there, that is my plan.
Michelle

8

Dear Michelle.

Good girl you cut out the carbs is the best first step to lower the blood sugars.

How did we get here? I think we will find out in due time when science lets us know in due time in its unpredictable way, we may all end up surprised.

In the meanwhile it is useless to torment ourselves of what we could have done. But to think seriously of what to do now.

Cutting carbs for a diabetic is just common sense. Also cutting caloreis slightly could be good as long as this does not rebound and cause uncontrollable hunger.

Then getting the appropriate medication, diet and exercise regime is a must. Do no dismiss insulin it is a valid treatment for many cases. In my case getting some early would have prevented total destruction of my pancreas possibly. There is growing evidence for this.

9

Someone on a yahoo group told me to ask my Doc to try insulin for the reasons you say, to help my pancreas relax or rest. As someoe who didn’t know she was diabetic until 2-3 weeks ago, I can say that non diabetics (or me and a few people I know) have been led to believe that once you get to insulin shots, you cannot get off it. A work friend was diagnosed, like me, 4 months ago. He has lost about 40lbs but still eats a fair amount of carbs. But when I told him I’d been diagnosed and we were talking about how to cut carbs, someone walked up to us, realized what we were saying and said “do you need insulin shots?” and when we both said no, they said “oh good”. My point of this is not to make anyone who uses insulin to feel bad. For those who are not diabetic, and don’t know someone who is, there is the idea that insulin is a last stop, or not a postive move anyway.

In reading here and diabetesworld@yahoo.com I’ve learned a different story. But even so, as I read that it might help, the emotions run to being scared.

I feel even a bit angry that the ADA isn’t more help. When I got diagnosed, I assumed I could go to their website and find out good, helpful info. But it doesn’t seem to be that way. I am not slamming them, but I falsly believed they would have more of their ducks in a row. I guess I thought they knew more about what causes it and how to best treat it.

From tudiabetes, I’ve learned how different it is for each of us so of course they cannot tell all of us how to best be treated. But I still feel a bit duped… and really, I duped me. LOL

I agree, I should not focus on what I could have done… and I appreciate the reminder. Please come back and remind me again some time. I need the help :wink:

Michelle

10

Peter:

Don’t ever feel that you have to stay “adrift.” Since you are new to the big D, you’re entitled to feel like your stuck out in the middle of the ocean in an innertube with no paddle. OK? Now, that’s enough! Throw out that lifeline we are all equipped with and we will catch it. Then, go to your endo and demand that he/she refer you to a diabetic nurse educator or a hospital-based education program. Read, Read, Read!!

Now, that’s enough homework assignments for now. Go … have some fun and forget about all of this for a while. Of course, don’t go crazy with the eating!!

We all love you as a fellow human being and a fellow member of our community. Just ask and there will be plenty of people willing to jump to your assistance. (Sometimes it’s not even due to diabetes. I’ve had help all afternoon with my computer because I’m not a techno geek or computer whiz!)

Lois La Rose
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

11

Dear Mitchell.

I do not think that it is true that injecting outside insulin will make you have to take it forever. The idea is to help you get your blood sugar in the normal range at all times i.e. 75-110 as fast as possible, this will give your pancreas a chance to recover and then you can stop and see what happens.

Do you have any idea what has caused your diabetes is it an autoimmune disease or is it because of insulin resistance?

12

I do not know… is there a test that tells me?

My numbers have come down really fast in the 2-3 weeks. My FBG was 143 when I went in on the 26. Since I’ve been using the meter, starting a week after the 143 count and cutting carbs starting that day, my am counts have been in this order, 115, 108, 111, 97, 97, 105, 116, 106, 109.

And for the past week, it has never been higher than 121 at 2 hrs after a meal. This week I’ve been checking at 1 hr and 2 hour, and the are usually close, with the 2 hr being better than the 1 hour.

So, with cutting carbs and sugar at least 90% of what I was eating and getting more exercise, these are my recent numbers. I will ask my Doctor what it might mean. I started a discussion asking what the difference is between insulin resistant and insulin deficient but no one has replied. So I don’t really know what they mean or how to judge my situation.

Michelle

13

Dear Michelle.

Your blood sugars are very good something to dream of for us old timers. So continue to do what you are doing. If it stay this good there is no real need to know on the short term.

Still it may be a good thing for the long run to find out what is happening. There are antibody tests for autoimmune causes of diabetes and there is a way to check how much insulin your pancreas is still producing.

If you are producing a lot of insulin it could be a sign that you are insulin resistant and there is a drug called metformin that helps some people a lot.

If you are producing little insulin, that makes a case for supplementary insulin to keep your own pancreas working.

The worst case in diabetes is high insulin resistance and a dead pancreas. You are very far from that unhappy state and it would be good to stay far forever or at least for a very long time.

Good job for finding out about your problem in time.

14

Thanks Anthony, I will write these test down to address with my doctor. She is very supportive and I am so grateful for that. I am glad I pushed for the tests… I am also tackling the sleep apnea.

Your answers have calmed some of my fear.

thank you!!
Michelle

15

Hi Michelle,

The tests you want to ask for are a C-peptide test (to determine how much insulin you’re producing) & a GAD antibody test (to see if your pancreas is under attack). Ask for a referral to an endo. This will help determine what treatment you need.

Your numbers are great–congratulations on your success!

Agree with you on the ADA. They are a powerful group with funding from the pharm industry. I’ll let you connect the dots:) They’re insistent on pushing a diet that’s too high carb & A1c goals that aren’t stringent enough. Unfortunately, the ADA stuff is about all most diabetics are told by doctors, dieticians, CDEs. We have to do our own research & demand better.

16

Thank you Gerri, I’ve written them down. I will also ask her about seeing and endo doc.

Ah, the pharm companies… that explains a LOT… sigh… so they work for them and not for us… how sad.

Michelle

17

Exactly. Follow the money. We’re the goose that laid the golden egg for the pharm industry. Keeps us eating high carb=more drugs.

18

Dear Gerri.

Thanks for filling in the details re tests since I never had them done in my case I do not have good first hand knowledge of them.

My endo and the ADA believe in much to high A1c. I may be a simpleton but I was brainwashed into believing that capitalism would behave in the best interests of all of the stakeholders which for big pharma includes us.

It is a bit like Greenspan saying that he never could have conceived that the Executives would not behave in the best interest of the shareholders.

I was told by a young Wall street kid about 5 years ago on a plane back from super expensive BC steelhead fishing that the evil that was happening on Wall Street would be hell to pay and would cause another American revolution.

Your founding fathers were probably not simpletons when they gave a constitutional right to bare arms. They understood the evil that will occur when vested interests get too powerful and intrenched over several hundred years.

In Canada revolutions are not practical once the army burns down your house you are dead by the next winter. So we have to put out with any s==t the govt dished out.

19

I’ve gained a lot of knowledge very quickly from tudiabetes among other sources. I think what surprised me was the initial stern warning tone with absolutely no advice on what to do. I didn’t have a dr. of my own so i went to an urgent care place and that dr. said “you have diabetes” and proceeded to list all the meds “most” diabetics end up on such as BP, cholesterol meds etc. etc. i was told to get a regular dr. pronto and an appointment but NO advice on what dietary changes might make me feel better in the meantime, NO tester or anything positive at all. He seemed to be relying on the metformin to do it all.
then at the follow-up i did get a tester but again no target numbers or any context whatsoever. I’m getting that here and I really appreciate it.
So is that a typical beginning?
thanks again.

20

Peter,
Yes I think this is a not untypical first appointment, especially with a new doctor. Mine was a 1st appointment and I left as you did, thinking ‘a little help here!’. She did however give me a prescription for a monitor as well as metformin and an appointment 2 days later with a diabetic educator. As you, I found most of my information on the internet. Even with a series of classes, I still find the internet more helpful.In my case my starting A1c was 10.9 with a fasting bg level of 19 (in u.s. terms that is 342) With the metformin, exercise, and low carbs, that has dropped to an average level of about 6.4 (115) in the past two months. In speaking to my doctor in two subsequent visits, she has told me that none of her diabetic have patients have done as well. She finds it very frustrating. I think that may color the doctors’ views when diagnosing. If a patient is not proactive and informed, the outcome cannot be good. Also, the education class that I attended seemed to stress that you can eat whatever you want, just in modest quantites. With your tester in hand, I think that you will find that this is only technically true and is impractical advice. Check out the website’ bloodsugar 101 www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/ for some great information. P.S. I was diagnosed on Dec 4, this gives me a whole two months of experience.