Zoe makes many excellent comments.
In my mess I got to 13.3, a horrible number and going down hill fast.
It took me actually 5 years to arrest the mess fully and I can share data and results:
a) diet and exercise alone when you are pre-diabetic are at much lower elevated numbers can be workable. Yes you absolutely need to do that in conjunction with Doctors help and meds.
b) at these numbers; my experience after 30 years says skip the glyburides, glimperides, ameryal, starlix et all and use rapid acting insulin - lasts 4 hours far better choice. This is for some key reasons:
- one needs to get the glucose generation from the food input (diet) reefed back. My choice/Doctor was 1200 calories. Doing so immediately puts one at risks for lows if using the oral pills ( metformin excluded.) insulin can be injected in amounts as needed while one is dieting.
- liver and dawn effect need to be checked to see if they are trying to make one into a marachino cherry. If so, metformin in sufficient doses will be needed to reef that back. Be aware that the liver can overwhelm serious diet and exercise efforts. I gained weight to 330 pounds till liver monkeyshines stopped.
- you need expert help of Doctor, Endo, dietition and get on lower carb diet-mediterranean diet but remember portion control is absolutely key.
- for me low fat diets are useless when fighting this mess and of little help. It turns out appropriate extra fat in diet slows digestion and slows digestion system racing thru the carbs.
- metering is absolutely key and right about now unless one has done this for a while and understands the gronks can be real formidable. Today I meter on wakeup, after meals and late at night when I go to bed. One may have to do more on initial startup.
The one a day, once a week are no better than licking ones fingers and sticking in the air to sense wind direction/presence.
- small timely meals are much better than irratic eating and volumes.
- for me, when I started into bailing the ship, I found it essential to go very low glycemic on breakfast and as little carbs as possible till lunch time.
This is not everything and takes time to implement. As Zoe indicated meds will be crucial getting this difficult situation ramped back and under control. This will not be an overnight sojourn.
- it can take up to 3 months or more to scavange out the excess glucose that ones body has collected and left around body.
- as my pancreas came back off the snooze after 26 yeras and decided to crank out some insulin, I inject 2 hours after meal to provide bolis boost. Usual timing for low/no insulin production is before or right at meal.
- exercise will help start getting excess glucose stored over the years/time burnt off and out.
-usually at these high numbers, the excess glucose over time has overwhelmed the pancreas and the islets have cut back on insulin production.
- Sometimes a Basil insulin like Lantus may also be helpful as well.
One can fix this and get numbers back. Best wishes and goodluck.
