Unfortunately, yours seems to follow what others have experienced.
Too many doctors are nonchalant about diabetes, esp Type 2. Is this because it’s far too common now? Even worse that it’s epidemic & doctors aren’t up to speed. Have a couple of Type 2 friends & their doctors didn’t encourage them to test frequently. They test a couple times a month, go for A1cs, their doctors tell them to keep taking meds & that’s it. They don’t even realize their A1cs aren’t good at all.
My first endo kept telling me not to worry when I asked questions. Asked him if he was going to worry for me!
Susan’s right. We have to be proactive, learn for ourselves, seek out doctors who are in accord with our goals & take care of ourselves.
I think the combination of busy doctors, recalcitrant patients and “a pill for everything” culture have conspired against those of us who really want to understand what’s going on and correct for it. That “don’t worry” crack is indicative, curiosity is not always worry. Doctors seem threatened by inquisitive patients.
The only problem with learning on my own is knowing when i’m heading into tinfoil hat territory.
other than that i can’t possibly have too much information. if i had enough money and fingers i’d test hourly until i stabilized my BG at an acceptable level. I still want to know what’s really going on with my pancreas - is it damaged or am i not using insulin properly or is something else going on? That didn’t seem to be important to the doctors so far. I’m going to see an endo, i don’t need a referral with my insurance.
Thanks Gerri and Susan - it’s unfortunate my experience was typical.
Very unfortunate. Also sad hearing from Tu D members who’ve had doctors frighten them with horror stories. A couple of people here have talked about their diagnosis as young children with doctors who told them they would die soon. Great bedside manner with little kids & their terrified parents. Others who had fight for the right to get a referral to an endo, or were made to feel being diabetic was their fault.
Agree–most healthcare professionals don’t appreciate patients who challenge their authority by asking questions & wanting real answers. They prefer compliant patients who swallow the pills & the party line.
My experience with diabetic ed classes wasn’t a good one, but sure there are better ones. The classes consisted of reading a book & having the nurse read it to us chapter by chapter. The dietician’s part was displaying plastic models of different food, handing out paper plates & having us make a meal. Of course, it was all ADA high carb propaganda & I was outta there. I’ve learned far more here than I did from my ed class & CDE.
When you have C-peptide & GAD antibody test results, you’ll have an idea of what’s going on & what treatment is best. Glad you’re seeing an endo. Having your thyroid levels tested is a good idea, too.
Until then, limit your carbs, count your carbs. Easy advice to give, but please try not to stress yourself. Stress plays havoc on BG.
Believe me, I know how frustrating it is. And, info overload can be daunting, not to mention all the misinformation. Some of the worst of the latter is from the ADA.
Don’t think you need worry about heading into tinfoil hat territory. You’re too intelligent with a critical mind to venture down the snake oil road.
Hi Peter,
I have been following our discussion on here, but haven’t seen anywhere about how you are doing now. So, how are things going over these past few days? Are you feeling any better? I am really hoping that knowing how much actual loving support you get on here has made it a little easier to find your way through the forest. Each of us has gone down these roads and for some it has been rougher than others, but we all understand. I think for me the hardest is going through doctors whose practices the hospitals have bought, Then all they do is just follow the narrow guidelines set out by them and allowing for no individual care at all. Please do not hesitate to keep lookiing until you find a doc that fits with you well.
I have not had good experiences with dieticians or CDE’s either, but I already had two type 1 kids so it wasn’t a stretch for me to include me. I know there are good ones out there and hope you find one of those. As Gerri said, you are obviously too intelligent to fall for bad stuff and already have a good idea of what you want and need. So you should be pretty good with that. Please come back and let us know how you are doing and keep us updated. You have a very large family here that truly cares about you.
Hi Peter.
A new diagnosis is bound to leave you feeling spacey and adrift. Give it time to adjust to the idea.There have been some wise and insightful comments head of me here.
You must be proactive with the doctor. You are a medical consumer and somebody (hopefully you have insurance) is paying a lot of money for his services. You have the simple right to having alll of your question answered. Write them down; don’t leave until they’re answered.
Do not settle for feeling less than optimal. There is every possibility that you will be back to feeling like your old self soon.
Good luck. We are here for you.
I am feeling much better, thanks. It’s not going to be much of a lifestyle adjustment really, just adding a vegetable to the plate to crowd the other stuff. from the materials i’ve borrowed and found online i suspect the real challenge will be finding nutrition info that’s relevant to me.
this is basically my plan, lifted from Nina Planck.
everything else is just a numbers game isn’t it?
• Eat breakfast every day
• Get a lot more sleep (surprisingly the hardest challenge)
• Exercise (take the stairs & walk everywhere)
• Take smaller portions
• Eat real meat, poultry or fish every day (think deck of cards)
• Eat whole dairy foods as often as you like
• Eat real eggs as often as you like
• Eat a lot of vegetables at every meal (more than you think)
• Eat as many whole grains as you need (the size of your fist)
• Eat nuts, chocolate & coconut (if you like them)
• Eat a lot of omega-3 fats from wild fish (daily flaxseed oil for vegetarians)
• Don’t eat industrial vegetable oils
• Reduce or eliminate white flour, white rice & sugar
• Don’t eat junk food, diet food, or foods engineered to be low-fat
I did not know whether I was insulin resistant or insulin deficient in the beginning. Turns out, I might have been both, but in retrospect, it doesn’t much matter. The diet and exercise treatment is the same. If that treatment isn’t bringing your numbers down, you need insulin. If it is, you don’t. It’s really that simple.
Since your plan is working well, why concern yourself about whether you’re resistant or deficient? Stick with the healthy, low carb, high nutrition meals, keep exercising, and make this your lifestyle. This will maximize your chances of making it through the rest of your life without drugs or insulin. I’ve made the adjustment to eating well and exercising regularly. Apparently it’s just what my body needed. I stopped taking medication over year ago and my numbers are almost always at or near normal.
Hi Craig, LOL that is what my doctor said when I asked about the tests. She said if my BG is good and my A1c comes down in 3 months, that is what is important as you said, they treat them the same way. So far, I’m doing really well. My BG today has been between 81 and 98. I’m happy with that! I even went out to lunch with my two kids and my BIL and was able to pass up the sourdough french bread… I would love to have had a piece but really, it wasn’t that hard! I did eat two of my son’s french fries as I am an irish girl who is grieving her potatoes. And I was surprised at how easy it was to eat two and stop!
I just got back from a walk with Spencer my GR, he was neutered on Friday (ouch) and needs to walk for energy release and so do I!! It is 42 degrees here with some mist in the air so it was a nice brisk walk.
I am going to try a little bit of popcorn tonight and see how it effects my BG. I LOVE popcorn and was sad when I first thought I had to give it up… and I may still. But some folks say they can eat it and it doesn’t raise theirs so I want to see.
I am very very grateful my body is currently responding to the exercise and diet changes and I’ve lost 6 lbs in two weeks. Life is good tonight.
I read over and over again about people who don’t have accurate diagnoses spending months or even years trying various methods to get their blood sugars down. Yes, the diet & exercise is the same - but if you’re Type 1 or LADA or any number of other sub-categories, all the oral drugs in the world aren’t going to help you. And some could hurt you.
I think the holy grail is to be able to control things through diet & exercise. But if you’re a Type 1 or otherwise have very little natural insulin production, it doesn’t matter how well you eat or how much you exercise - you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip or insulin out of a dead pancreas. A little insulin can go a long way, and recognizing the need for insulin in these situations early on can greatly promote whatever insulin production someone might have.
I read books & papers aimed at primary care physicians, and over and over they emphasis how important an early & accurate diagnosis is. Sure, eat well & exercise, but also keep chasing those doctors around the table until they figure out just what’s going on with your body.
I agree that it matters and if I wasn’t clear, what was trying to say, when I asked her about my case, she said you are making progress, good progress with diet changes and exercise. Since that is bringing the numbers down, your pancreas is working.
I am a newby and have NO long term experience and very little knowledge, all learned recently. So I do not mean to say what others should do. If my numbers should falter, I would ask for the tests to see if things are not working. Are you suggesting that having the tests up front, when your body is responding to exercise would be worthwhile? I don’t understand how all this works yet, but if my pancreas is working, or working enough to respond to diet and exercise, wouldn’t the test show my pancreas is working? Can you tell me what the test says?
Agree with Barbra that it does matter. If someone can control whatever’s going on with diet & exercise, that’s the goal. But, & it’s a big but, you need to know what is going on to be prepared. If someone’s a Type 1 or LADA in the honeymoon phase, that person needs to be prepared & armed to deal with what’s a life threatening situation when the honeymoon’s over. My doctors told me that weren’t sure what I was because of the age I was diagnosed, my slender body, amount of exercise I get, how healthy I was, no family history, blah, blah, blah,
I used to be take to just 1-2 units of rapid acting to cover a low carb meal. I watched it creep up over the months.
Hey, if a person never needs to take injections or pills that’s awesome, but knowledge is power.
So how do I word my request for these tests. This is what I have so far:
Also, when I was in for my last office visit, I asked about the tests C-peptide test (to determine how much insulin I’m producing) & a GAD antibody test (for my pancreas).
In reading the research, it suggests that knowing If I am producing a lot of insulin, would tell me that it could be a sign that I am insulin resistant. And that there is a drug called metformin that helps some people a lot, but I also hear it makes a lot of people sick ;-( So I am NOT suggesting the drug necessarialy, just that I would like to know if I am insulin resistant or not.
The alternate being that If I am producing little insulin, that makes a case for supplementary insulin to keep your own pancreas working now, while it has the capability.
My reasoning is that, if I don’t have the capability to keep producing insulin …
and here I get stuck… How do I word the reasoning for these tests now, since my body is responding quite well to diet and exercise? I am still a bit foggy about the benefits to knowing the results of these tests now, to help me in the future. And if there is, then I will push to get them. She has been very thorough and supportive so I suspect that if I make my request with clear reasoning, she will agree to order them. Can you help me with how to finish the request above?
you do not have the capacity to produce enough of your own insulin to keep the BG in the normal range. You would like to supplement it with external insulin to prevent your pancreas from dying completely as this will turn the diabetes from a controllable disease into your worst nightmare.
You need 2 types of insulin: a bit of long lasting basal insulin like Lantus or Levemir and a fast acting insulin to help out with meals.
Hope your doctor is open minded. I was only allowed insulin after my pancreas was toast and this ruined my life. Mind you this was 10 years ago, research supports insulin now.
Some people do astonishingly well on metformin and some do not it is worth a try in combination with insulin if resistance is suspected.
