It's So Noisy at the Fair: The Diabetic Thread

Crossed the threshold a month ago--no surprise after three decades of eating whatever felt good.

There've got to be others on here too. I want this to be somewhere where I can come and ask any questions. The internet's helpful but erratic. And my doctor is terrible. (She's literally the only doctor still taking patients in my small town, and to get a new one I'd have to cut her loose first--risky.)

My frame of mind, after the initial shock, is good. My reading on the blood test that uncovered this was 9.6; after two weeks of drastically altering my diet, it was down to 9.0. Follow two more weeks of that, plus two pills a day, my home readings have been 7.8, 6.4, 6.3, and 5.9. I had another blood test on Monday, which produced a reading of 10.1, but I know that's a months-long average, so I'm taking the home readings to be more current. (Typical example of my doctor's incompetence is the e-mail that accompanied the latest lab reading: "Your average blood sugar is coming down, it is 10.1, this is good carry on." It would have been a lot of trouble to actually check that, evidently.)

Anyway, looking for positivity, and please, no gruesome tales of the worst that can happen (visions that dominated my thoughts the first few days after finding out). Spoke to a friend of my dad's, in his 80s now, and he's been managing it for 30 years.

my dad got diagnosed a few years ago (he's in his 70s) ... he is doing pretty well for a man who can no longer eat donuts, and he was very fond of donuts.

Oh man--my Achilles heal (pastries in general), as witness a couple of Tim Hortons threads on here.

Um, heel.

I got diagnosed several years ago after a lifetime of eating like a college freshman. I immediately cut out soft drinks, cut way back on pasta and beer and ice cream, and quit making homemade bread. The last was the saddest if not the hardest part. I've been treating it with metformin and glipizide and my A1C hangs around 6.3 to 6.5, fasting sugar around 105-110. The most heartening thing has been eye exams over the past years, where the optometrist says he wouldn't be able to tell I had diabetes from a close look at the eyes, no damage at all. Ironically, diabetes sort of gave me my second career as a bartender, when I started studying spirits and cocktail science after m/l quitting beer.

ILX0r unperson to thread!

That's encouraging, WmC. My vision's always been an issue--glasses since grade 4, tri-focals for the past decade--so I don't know what will happen there. I figure I've probably had this for the past 1-2 years, though, and I don't think there's been anything unusual during this time-frame (I've been tested for glaucoma).

"A lifetime of eating like a college freshman"--well said. For me, besides the pastries, it was guzzling fruit juice every summer, pasta and rice, periodic chocolate binges, bread and bagels, and the usual love of cheeseburgers/fries/pizza.

With all the changes the past few weeks, one bit of good news is that I'm less than a pound away from dropping under 170 for what I'm pretty sure will be the first time this century.

Takes me three tries to get a reading every time I do one of these finger pricks. I'm only doing one a week, otherwise this would get expensive fast.

diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 2 years ago. big diet changes (no more soft drinks / fruit juice, way less carbs and far less sweet stuff) and around 10 miles of very brisk walking every day reversed it. all that walking means i can sometimes eat a bit more of the stuff i love but need to cut out than i'd be able to otherwise.

diagnosed type 2 in March
A1C was 8.9 and now after metformin, diet & exercise my last test was 6.1 so I’m getting there

daily fasting finger tests are usually in the 110-120 range

finger tests feel fucking pointless tho tbh without measuring pre and post meals but doc doesn’t seem to see the need so

(my eyesight is a bit of a battle still, as that was what led to my diagnosis, i had a vein occlusion behind my eye brought on by diabetes & high blood pressure that is now being treated w injections but it’s unclear if i’m to do this forever or if it will “clear up”)

i’m working hard at building new eating habits, trying not to long for things i can’t eat anymore. enjoying new vegetables and i look forward to daily walks which i never ever thought would happen. did successfully make a sugar-free cheesecake and shortbread which at least scratches my baking itch & helps me through my first holiday without a houseful of pies and cakes.

i think the worst part is all the conflicting info online & bored doctors leaving you to your own devices which was def my experience as well.

the most helpful mindset for me has been, perfection is not the goal. the goal is just, you know, “better”. even a little bit better is good. don’t eat things you don’t like, don’t punish yourself. it’s not prison, it’s just a new lifestyle. how you feel is what matters the most. and: don’t let numbers ruin your day.

idk. it’s a learning process

Diagnosed Type 2 in 2003 or so. It came on suddenly; I went to the doctor because I had lost a lot of weight in a matter of a couple of weeks (from 205-210 I dropped to about 175), was dying of thirst all the time, and almost passed out in a couple of meetings at work (TBF they were very boring meetings).

For many years I struggled, because I don't like to exercise — I fucking hate to exercise, honestly — and I like to eat what I like to eat. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but a low-carb diet is out of the fucking question. I do try to eat less bread, less pasta, and less meat than I might if I was feeling super self-indulgent, and that's helped a little bit. Switching from Coke to Coke Zero, and from Snapple to unsweetened iced tea (Pure Leaf or Arizona) has helped, too. I was never a big drinker, so giving up alcohol immediately upon diagnosis (my first doctor told me it would interfere with my medication) was no sacrifice at all.

A couple of months ago I had a genuine breakthrough. I'd been taking 1000 mg of Metformin with breakfast and 20 units of injectable Toujeo insulin with dinner, and my numbers were OK but not great. So I asked my doctor if we could add 25 mg of Jardiance to that, and we did, and all of a sudden my numbers are normal to even below normal. When I test in the morning my glucose is in the 60-75 range, sometimes below that. As I said on another thread recently, it's gotten to the point where sometimes I need to eat carby garbage for dinner in order to make sure I don't wake up with the shaking sweats. But in general, I'm feeling pretty good and optimistic.

All very helpful, thank you.

i think the worst part is all the conflicting info online & bored doctors leaving you to your own devices

Big yes on both counts. As I said above, my doctor is useless.

Because I only want good news, I do my one self-reading a week at 9:30 in the evening, three hours after dinner. I know a morning reading will be higher, so I don't do one. Right now, because this is all new, I'm inordinately focused on these readings--I'm sure that will pass soon enough.

My eyesight has been as issue since grade 4; I hope this doesn't hasten bad stuff, but I was probably headed in that direction regardless.

I will ask my doctor about Jardiance, but I suspect I already know what the answer will be: "Let me look that up in my book."

re readings: it helped me not to think of them as an accusation (which i did for the longest time). this will sound corny but now i try to treat it as a compass? like, this reading is where you are ~right now~ and just make your course corrections accordingly. let it help you

sorry that sounds so dumb out loud

sounds like good thinking to me

it’s just, like i found my first 6 months so stressful bc of fluctuating readings, plus my blood pressure was high & i was struggling with those as well and it just felt like every test result & reading was just there to tell me i sucked

i couldn’t cope but the stress of that feeling was also helping to keep those readings out of whack

it’s so easy to drown in the microfocus & lose sight of the bigger picture. how you ARE getting better, you ARE making changes, you can just get up out of your chair & still live life regardless of whether your reading was high or low.

give yourself permission to fluctuate, to course correct, and to just try to do our goddamn best. that’s all we need to do.

Type 1 over here. Got diagnosed about 5 years ago, it sucks.

xp yes it's important to realise there is a very direct link between stress hormones and blood sugar level! That's one of their main immediate effects.

Went to the doctor on Wednesday; he actually wants me to get my numbers up a little (aiming for a morning glucose number around 90 rather than 60-75) so I've cut my dose of Toujeo in half, from 20 units to 10. Which means I no longer get to/have to eat cookies after dinner but I am waking up in the target range.

Good to hear. I'll be doing another three-month reading on Tuesday; my last one, my fourth, was down to 7.5 from 10.1. My home readings have levelled off in the ~5.5 range. I'll have to fight against complacency; I do find myself eating the occasional extra Keto cookie and such now that the initial panic has subsided. The one thing that's going great is weight loss; down to 164 this morning.

all encouraging news, good stuff!!

The one thing that's going great is weight loss; down to 164 this morning.

Nice! Once I got my medication dialed in properly, and made the accompanying mental adjustments, weight control was and has remained pretty easy. I've weighed roughly 175 (at 6'2") for 20+ years.

One thing I'm just becoming aware of--who even thinks about these things until you have to?--is the extra sugar in regular 2% milk. It's like all the fruit juice I've been guzzling the past 20 summers: "Isn't that great for my health that I don't drink pop?" As soon as I finish the milk I have on hand, I'll probably switch over to Joyya (knowing full well I'll over-pay for it).

my fourth A1c test today since March 2022 diagnoses (initial was 8 - and subsequent results were 6.1 and 6)

today I’m at 5.7 which was a welcome surprise

i expected it to higher but honestly i am still learning what does/doesn’t affect it, still a bit mystifying tbh

i thought maybe since I wasn’t able to exercise at all the past couple of months due to back problems that that might put me higher, plus christmas brought inevitable carbs that I couldn’t avoid & felt like my diet got a bit lazier

anyway, with these results it feels encouraging to finally get something like a win, and i am taking it as a sign to keep doing what i’m doing

will f/up w doc to see what they say

Good job. I was worried about Christmas too, but got through with good levels (5.3 - 5.5 at home; last three-month was 7.2 but before the holiday) and my weight's down to 162 some mornings, the lowest it's been in three decades. And I'm not as panicky about everything I eat now.

hi-five :D

the not-panicky about eating the wrong thing is huge, it’s like you want to go back & hug yourself for all freaking out you did, i can totally relate to that

Yeah, getting over food panic was a major step for me. I try to eat healthy but I refuse to eat joyless flavorless food just because it's theoretically better for me.

Perhaps it will help to consider a diabetes anti-role model: Lemmy. When he got diagnosed (which included spending a week in a coma), he took his pills, but other than that his only lifestyle change was switching from Jack Daniels & Coke to Jack Daniels & Diet Coke. I don't think he even gave up speed.

lmao <3 u Lemmy

As long as I can still shoot speed, I'm happy.

I feel like I haven't given up anything in terms of regular meals--or at least I'm loving everything I'm eating, and not thinking about the pizza/cheeseburgers I've given up. With snacks, I've given up a little. The Keto/Good Fats/Good Eats stuff I'm buying does lose a bit, but I've found one really good yogurt (Two Good vanilla) that tastes great and only has 3g of carbohydrates per 1/3 cup.

I've been eating a lot of Healthy Choice microwave dinners — they're meat and vegetables with maybe a little bit of pasta, with optional sauce/gravy that I almost always skip.

There a couple of those I like, and I always add extra vegetables. I cook lots of fish and chicken, and I found a Thai soup I really like.

Had my last two bi-weekly blood tests, won't go back for three months now. In view of how engaged my doctor is--not at all--I'll be on my own till the spring.

Readings are good: 6.7 then 6.5 for the three-month levels, 5.2 at home last night (lowest yet). Had my first cheeseburger in almost three months to celebrate, probably the worst thing I could do--but added chick peas to my nightly salad as penance.

lol yeah my doctors office called after my lab results came in & they’re like “yep everything looks stable ok bye”

last 3-month visit i waited in the exam room for 30 minutes for a pointless 5 min “keep doing what you’re doing” consultation

so i guess no visit at all is an improvement

My doctor's receptionist retired a couple of weeks ago, and she was an intermediary I had some rapport with. Typical: I didn't realize that when we'd been communicating via e-mail, it was her address, not the office's. ("I've just retired...please contact Dr. _______ at the office.) Wouldn't be shocked if my doctor doesn't even have an e-mail address attached to the office.

Buses cancelled where I was today, so a lot of absent students; it was pizza day, and there was extra for any teachers who wanted some. So I had my first pizza since getting the diagnosis in October. Plain cheese, two small slices--I was fine with that, though there was a little guilt about not limiting myself to one. I probably should have self-tested tonight to see if there was a spike, but it would have been nine hours later, so I doubt it would have shown up anyway. Plus I only like good news.

sometimes not knowing is more manageable than knowing & not being able to do anything abt it.

i had a work dinner last week at a thai restaurant. except the catch that i didn’t learn, that no one knew until we all got there, was that my boss was ordering for everyone! for 25 of us. unhinged. random dishes would get passed around unannounced so it was like a game of telephone trying to establish what any dishes were - not great for me but worse for ppl with serious food allergies

i just ate like 12 random scoops of various curry & like a teaspoon of rice …. and then made a protein bowl when i got home.

not ideal

if i could have ordered an actual dish for myself like i had expected, it would have been fine! grr

Yeah, I wasn't totally happy with the restaurant (pub, really) my sister chose for her birthday last night--the fish was good, but nothing in the way of vegetables except salad. But you don't want to end up being a drag when it's her night (what I ate was fine)...I've been eating this Thai soup once a week and the food-label numbers are really good.

Just to be clear, I wasn't ambushed like you; we both thought the mains were okay from the online menu, and I think just assumed there'd be a vegetable option on the side.

i had a work dinner last week at a thai restaurant. except the catch that i didn’t learn, that no one knew until we all got there, was that my boss was ordering for everyone! for 25 of us. unhinged. random dishes would get passed around unannounced so it was like a game of telephone trying to establish what any dishes were - not great for me but worse for ppl with serious food allergies

Ugh, this sounds like a nightmare. "Welcome to the mandatory meal! Here's your slice of cake!" "Uh, thanks...?"

yeah it was quite stressful

Well, the one thing I've learned over the last 20 years is that one bad meal won't kill you. There are definitely times when I've eaten really poorly and felt it (I remember once at work having a bowl of macaroni and cheese, with bread crumbs on top, for lunch and being basically in a coma for the rest of the afternoon) but I can always stabilize my system pretty well by the next day. I've even had days where my sugar spiked for no reason at all — I was eating healthy, getting an acceptable amount of exercise, and it just shot into the 300s for no reason at all, like my pancreas had just decided to take the day off. So, you know, do your best. It'll work out.

Which is actually something I've been wondering: if your level spikes and then returns to normal, is it like it never happened, or does every spike weaken your system a little more. (And I'm not even sure what I mean by "system.")

No question mark, but there is a question in there.

Based on my own experience, while diabetes does weaken your system over time, the process can be very gradual (like "river water wearing down a stone" gradual), especially if you are doing your best to be healthy. If you're disregarding the disease and eating pizza and snack cakes all day, drinking a lot, etc., etc., then sure, it'll progress faster than it otherwise might — that's just logical. But getting the right medication, eating as healthy as you can whenever you can, exercising (without even being a nut about it), all helps a surprising amount.

Mr. Jaq who has been trying to manage type 2 with oral meds for quite awhile (with occasional very long spates of denial and bursts of keto) is now on a small amount of insulin overnight. Hoping he takes it seriously and is consistent with it. Kudos to all y'all for dealing with it.

keto as an idea offers some useful recipes for me like when i am experimenting w desserts or baking or looking for a no carb option here or there but there is no way i’d ever go down that road as a whole lifestyle

rolling the dice on ketosis seems so scary to me & anecdotally v hard to achieve without encountering some p serious complications?

After a day of Peg-Lyte and more or less fasting--if you know what I mean, you'll know what I mean--had a reading of 4.9, first one under 5.0.

with occasional very long spates of denial--this is what I worry about most. With me it would be complacency, brought on by good readings like that one, more than denial.

Which is actually something I've been wondering: if your level spikes and then returns to normal, is it like it never happened, or does every spike weaken your system a little more. (And I'm not even sure what I mean by "system.")

― clemenza, Saturday, February 18, 2023 6:08 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

as a type 1, the thing the doctor checks these days (which they can now monitor) is 'time in range' and therefore it seems like the spikes don't matter as much? i'm guessing type 2 would be the same

I had my first eye exam in three years this month and the optometrist said it's still not possible to tell from the close up pics of my eyes that I'm diabetic, so good result there. And my PCP checks sensation in my feet at every quarterly visit. Otherwise my A1C still hangs around 6.3-6.5, fasting sugar around 110, and the doc is not too worried about it. Steady diet of metformin and glipizide as usual. (Actually she may have taken her eye off my diabetes recently as she made a big error in my thyroid meds, raising my dose when she should have lowered it, and she's been focused on those getting those numbers back in line the last 2 visits.)

(xpost) Thanks, that's how I've been approaching this--home-testing once a week, and picking an opportune moment. I figure if that number's good, then the whole week's good.

Thanks for the link Wm - Well hello this thread. Like clemenza I knew I'd end up here eventually, but what triggered it was a perfect storm of other shit - a fall causing a knee scrape that got weirdly infected, which I took antibiotics for which trggered a UTI, which they gave me too-weak 2nd antibotics for, so I ended up in hospital yesterday with a kidney infection.

My finger prick tests were as high as 18 yesterday morning (fasting), and didnt drop below 15 all day. I still dont understand all the accucheck tests vs actual blood tests stuff. I guess I will see my GP asap next week and get started!

Are those A1C levels? Because, uh, holy shit.

Best of luck.

Those do seem high for Accu-chek--maybe it's a different calibration or something? If you feel fine, though, I'm sure it's something you can bring down.

I went through a month where because my weight stayed low, I wasn't concerned about blood sugar. But it did slowly creep up, from a low of 4.9 to back over 6.0. The next week, though, it was back to 5.0. Complacency continues to be a concern--I find I snack a lot, have a bigger breakfast out once or twice a week, and am back to the occasional cheeseburger or piece of pizza--and I thought about asking the doctor for more of the appetite suppressant I was using at the beginning and then stopped. I'm hungry constantly. Otherwise, though, still doing well.

yeah I am still untreated at this point. I *do* feel very sick, but I think thats the kidney infection. Only symptoms prior really was INTENSE thirst/peeing cycles that were getting me up twice a night. Water has never tasted so good.Thats calmed down a bit since I had IV saline yesterday.

Only symptoms prior really was INTENSE thirst/peeing cycles that were getting me up twice a night. Water has never tasted so good.

That was my first symptom. That and passing out in meetings at work after lunch, and losing something like 20 pounds in about six weeks.

I still dont understand all the accucheck tests vs actual blood tests stuff.

I think--correct me if I'm wrong--the finger-prick at home is a snapshot of that moment, whereas the more formal blood test is a three-month average.

Which helped me not be so panicky at the beginning. My blood test started high, around 10.0, but my home tests right from the beginning were progressively lower, so I was confident they'd converge eventually.

Yeah previous tests were around 9. I'm not sure why it was so high yesterday. Combo of stress and fasting and illness I guess?

That's great then--it was a blip. Make changes, and you'll bring both numbers down (the three-month more gradually).

I assume the numbers trayce mentioned are blood glucose readings in mmol/L, which are the units they use outside the US. multiply by 18 to get mg/dL

get well soon, trayce!

Trayce, I read your post on 77 and it reminds me a lot of my weekend from hell in 2019 when I learned I also had type 2. I was soooooooooo thirsty. And peeing every 20 minutes, and the pee smelled like maple syrup. When I tried to eat, every food tasted like eating a 9volt battery. I finally got in to see a doctor. My A1C was 14 and my blood glucose reading during my first visit was 355. My eyes were fucked up for months and I kept having to buy new glasses prescriptions until they settled down again.

Four years in, I'm being far more lax with my diet and exercise than a lot of the other people in this thread lol. Maybe Jardiance covers up too many sins when it comes to A1C, but I'm steadily between 5.5-6.5 at every doctor visit now and my waking sugar levels are right around 100-120 each morning.

Four years in, I'm being far more lax with my diet and exercise than a lot of the other people in this thread lol. Maybe Jardiance covers up too many sins when it comes to A1C, but I'm steadily between 5.5-6.5 at every doctor visit now and my waking sugar levels are right around 100-120 each morning.

I haven't really confessed my eating habits in detail because I didn't want to upset anyone who's got it tougher, but yeah, I'm waking up somewhere between 80-90 and still managing to eat bagels, hamburgers, pizza, and even a few cookies or a Snickers bar once a day. Jardiance has been a fucking miracle.

Going to ask my primary care doc about Jardiance, and about semaglutide (Ozempic et al) at my next checkup in a couple of weeks. I've been relying on metformin, glipizide and willpower for several years now and the willpower part is starting to wear me down mentally and emotionally. Part of me wants to take the just-stop-eating route (semaglutide) but I fucking love good food and drink. So if Jardiance can be a fucking miracle for me too and still allow a place for food in my life, sign me up.

There's a clinic in Tupelo that does semaglutide for anyone, barely any screening involved, $66 per weekly shot, cash and carry.

Fully sweetened soda is probably what got me into this position in the first place (I was a Coke and Mountain Dew fiend for decades), and that's the main thing I'm almost entirely eradicated from my diet and probably why my regular diet isn't throwing off my levels too much. Even if you pre-diabetic or not diabetic at all, STOP DRINKING SODAS.

WmC, my mom tried Jardiance for a while and her body didn't like it very much, so it's not a solution for everyone. But if it works for you, it REALLY works. Hope you can try it.

Mr. Jaq has been on ozempic for a month or so. The appetite reduction hasn't been much noticed but it also causes your liver to make/release less glucose and your pancreas to make more insulin. He's been able to taper back his injected insulin, drop the starch-blocker (still taking metformin) and his blood sugar readings have become more stable. His next A1C will indicate just how stable I guess.

Sugar being the cause of type 2 is actually not true!

I’m pre diabetic but I haven’t been taking my metformin rx. I can never remember to take it with meals because I eat so erratically, and it often makes me feel nauseous.

One of psych meds fucks with my blood sugar levels too.

My partner's type 2 as well and been on Metformin quite a few years, and he doesnt watch what he eats AT ALL, but his bloods are remission level. He mustve had it mild - maybe prediabetes (though he never said thats what it was), because he never had any symptoms.

fingerstick test at the GP today was 18 again FFS. But tbh this was only a couple hours after a meal of fish and some basmati rice so it mightve boosted things a bit.

But on the metformin finally (1000mg). I'm getting hit from all sides I also have to start taking blood pressure and cholesterol meds.

For someone who was beanpole thin til my 40s and never ate sugar or junk food, this is all really annoying. I tell you its good to live in my country though. We have a National Diabetes scheme that subsidises glucose meters and strips, our meds of course are all low-price thanks to the PBS scheme (govt subsidised medicine).

I don't know if this is medically advisable, probably not, but as I mention above, I only home-test now after I've had a good couple of days, and I only test around 10 at night, a couple of hours after my evening snack. I want the best possible result, and it usually gets me what I want. Tonight was 5.2.

Also, I think fish is a good thing. I've cut back on rice, but eat lots of fish.

(Canada's got good supports in place too.)

I'm fortunate enough to have excellent prescription coverage through my health insurance, and anything "preventative" is no-copay. Would be nice to not worry about the cost of things, but always in the back of my mind somewhere I know that if I ever got laid off from this job I'd be fucked.

Trayce, I got loaded up w choloesterol & BP meds too, it sucked! First time i ever needed a goddamn carry bag for my prescriptions

i’m a year in and it’s become manageable
my BP is pretty goddamn great & my cholesterol is back in normal range

i never went for anything more than metformin & i think i’m doing good, have been in 6.5 range for the past 2 a1c tests, but i do worry that i’m going to level off and i would like very much to try to get lower so i try not to get complacent & keep my daily exercise going etc

while also not stressing about it too hard

a delicate balance that i haven’t exactly mastered but i’m getting there

only downside of aging is that my stupid body is falling apart so i’m like pulling my hamstring getting out of bed or blowing a knee muscle walking up stairs

who knew just walking around could be so life threatening lol

I threw my back out getting into bed one night. If I can't sleep without being careful, stick a fork in me.

First time i ever needed a goddamn carry bag for my prescriptions

LOL yes I felt like I was toting a lunch sack.

So the GP called me today after speaking to the Endocrinology dept at my local hospital and given my numbers has decided to up the metformin dose and add Sitagliptin to it. Its probably just for initial "woah horsey lets rein this right in" management, it will prob change if I improve.

First night on met was kinda unpleasant, I slept really bad and was sweaty with a racng heart. But I woke up feeling better than in quite some time.

So its been a bit of a circus with my meds. The metformin wasnt agreeing with me, I wish she hadnt put me immediately on 1000 and then made me up it to 2000 the next night - I had 2 nights of racing heart, sweats and pukeahontas.

In addition, my kidney infection means I was on antibiotics but those started fucking with my liver, so now Ive had to swap THAT out too.

ANYWAY. My A1C it turns out had only been about 9, but the spike sincewas prob all the stress and infections. Since beingon Xelevia and being really strict with my eating, I've lost some weight and my daily bloods, while still too high, are steadily coming down (from 15 to 13 fasting, and as low as 10 just after lunch yeterday).

I'll try a lower dose of metformin once I'm off all the antibiotics and fingers crossed it doesnt give me crap at night because it made a huge diff the 2 days I was on it.

I'm cool with eating oats, grainy bread, lentils and chickpeas but I can NOT dealwith brown rice. It is gross, it reminds me of barley.

9.0 is basically where I started, and I moved down below the six-month goal in half that time. That's not a bad place to start. I'm eating chick peas for the first time in my life (add them to salad). I was already eating brown rice, but switched to basmati, and only two or three times a month.

gosh i eat basmati at least twice a week i thought it was ok cos low GI.

I consulted a dietician once, early on, and everything else I've adopted concerning diet I've gleaned piecemeal from--yikes--the internet. And my understanding is that any kind of rice is generally not ideal; okay occasionally, or okay in smaller quantities. The basmati I have has 33 g of carbohydrates/1 g of sugar per 45 grams.

After pizza, cheeseburgers, and baked goods, I probably miss rice more than anything.

I have rice probably twice a week now. Basmati mostly. Brown rice suuuuucks. My wife and I talked about it at one point and came to the conclusion that a life extended by eating brown rice is no life at all.

personally i think GI is bullshit

carbs are carbs imo and i treat them accordingly-eat sparingly, balance w fat & protein as much as possible, eat mostly veg & if i am carbing i go wholegrain

but everyone does this shit differently
find the way that works for you & your levels & your sanity

carbs are carbs

The way I approach it too, although I do deduct the fibre, which as I understand it--and please correct me if this is wrong--they are not converted into sugar.

yeah that’s the gist
i do that too here and there but i also am wary of it

net carbs seems to be magic keto math and idk enough to say it’s ~not~ true but i think it can also lead you into eating more carbs per serving than you maybe should.
ymmv tho

Brown rice just has the fiber already present. Eat your white rice with a source of fiber and you’re good.

There’s a really great diabetic registered dietitian on TikTok I follow: @diabetesnutritionist

that’s good to know! there’s so much varying info around.

So, I've had a real roller coaster of issues because of bad (liver/kidney) reactions to antibiotics, but now I'm back on Metformin 1g and Xelevia. Have been scrupulously eating only multigrain carbs, loads of legumes, veg, no sugar/white bread, even avoided alcohol aside from 1 day where I had 4 drinks. Lost a little weight.

Sugars still hovering around 10/12 fasting, even after all this. I guess it will take a while? I'm so annoyed. Its only been 2 weeks I guess?

Christ I'm sick of lentils. And I like lentils!

Sorry you're having a tough go. Not that I know, but it sounds like the other thing is interfering, and that when you get past that, the sugar-level will stabilize?

Got to work this morning and realized I forgot my Metformin pill. So it'll be just like I'm all hopped up on cinnamon swirls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A494YWDurQA

I tried to get on Jardiance based on my reading/research (and unperson and clemenza's anecdotal recs) and my doctor was amenable but my insurance won't cover it and I can't afford $700/month or whatever, so it's still meformin/glipizide for now. A1C was up from 6.2 to 6.3 this quarter, doctor said "I can't fuss at you for anything, carry on." We're off to Asheville for a few days on Friday and I will eat and drink my fill.

I discovered I was diabetic in January 2017.
I was hospitalised with dangerously high blood sugars and severe dehydration. Luckily treatment worked and I was home after a couple of days and back at work within a fortnight.
Initially they thought I was Type 1 but after some testing they decided I was actually Type 2 and my 'incident' was a combination with another event maybe pancreatitis.
I was part of a local NHS diabetic clinic and I was on insulin and metformin for a while and then I gradually stopped using the insulin on my doctor's guidance. I struggled a little when it was only Metformin at first.
Then I lost a ton of weight and was eventually taken off Metformin and discharged from the clinic as I was in remission.
After a couple of years I piled a lot of weight back on and had to start taking Metformin again as my blood sugars were going in the wrong direction.
Just over a year ago I started to see worryingly high sugar numbers and went to the diabetic nurse at my local surgery and he put me on Jardiance. My blood sugar is now totally fine and I don't even have to be ultra careful with my diet any more.
It's been a bit of a journey

WmC, check out Good Rx, they have good coupons, and I just checked jardiance and there’s some type of copay card you can sign up for if you’re eligible

Yeah, it looks like there might be a couple of low cost/no cost Jardiance options through Good Rx.

Also, I just learned there is a med called Synjardi that combines your Jardiance and Metformin into a single pill.

Sorry, "Synjardi" rather.

Goddamn spell correct

SYNJARDY

I asked my GP about the newer meds like Jardiance and (yeah yeah I know) Ozempic and she... wasnt dismissive but here I am on metformin anyway.

I'm unhappy with how slowly my numbers are coming down but yesterday and today were promising, 8 last night, 9 this morning. I admit I'm doing almost zero exercise so that isn't helping at all. I WFH and its the middle of winter, lemme alone lol.

I figure the only way I'll ever go on walks is if I get a dog and have to do it out of necessity.

Trayce: how are you making out?

I'll get my first blood test since mid-March next week. Fairly confident: home readings since then have been 5.3, 5.3, 5.4, 5.8, 6.1, 4.9, 5.2, 5.7, and 5.2 tonight. I always test around 10:00 p.m., a couple of hours after a snack. I've gradually brought a bit more bread and pasta back into my diet, and I cheat on snacks (too many more than what I actually have), but mostly remain mindful and within boundaries. When I see my doctor after the test, I'll ask about some of these drugs that have been mentioned.

Seeing a new doctor on the 13th, first appointment since moving cross-country. My numbers have been pretty good, so I feel like it'll go fine, I just need him to write me new prescriptions for all my various drugs.

Thanks for asking Clem :) I'm doing ok! My blood sugars have steadily come down, and I'm now averaging 7-8 MMol on my morning pre-breakfast check. Still a little too high but way better than 15-22!

I've had a couple of booze blowouts in the last week after weeks abstaining, so I'm feeling a bit erghh in the guts, but otherwise doing ok, sticking to a good diet with only one or 2 sneaky hot chip sessions :)

Still yet to see the diabetes clinic (who I gues will go over lifestyle stuff mostly). Also need to go to the optometrist and podiatrist, but am lazy.

You can probably skip the podiatrist unless your feets are giving you very evident problems. An eval from your regular doc just to make sure your toes aren't turning black will do.

Yeah my GP was over-enthusiastic and threw EVERYTHING at me at once - NDSS scheme signup, referal to the podi, diabetes clinic, scrips for diabetes, BP and cholestorol + the strong antibiotics for the infection (all of which at once gave me the most insanely bad LFTs).

Good to hear. I had my orthotics doctor (same as a podiatrist?) check my feet once, no issues; I'll check back once a year.

3-month A1C test today - still holding firm at 5.7 (going on 6 months or more now)

happy with that number as I’d been mildly paranoid that i’d spike up this time around as i’d fallen off the wagon a bit

That's solid, good to hear.

new HbA1c test yesterday - 7.8 :) Still not perfect but much better than before, which I think was 9+? For my first 2 months on meds/better diet I like to think thats a pretty good start. I see the diabetes clinic next week, guess I'll find out wether its good/could be better etc.

And it occurs to me that only 2 of the last 3 months were treated anyway, so that blows the average up a bit. My daily pre-breakfast fingerprick tests are now often down around 6.5-7, and now I see the effects of blowout clearly - one night I had pizza and some hot chips and it went back to 12 :( But it seems to recover quickly which, good I guess?

That's all good, exactly what happened to me. Your first numbers are high, you adjust, and they go down quickly. Scared straight, I think they call it.

Yep, that's how it worked for me...I just realized, 20 years ago now. I was diagnosed in mid-2003.

aw yiss!! that’s great news Trayce! - those lower readings are a good confidence boost that things might finally be working <3

Spoke with a specialist at the Diabetes clinic at my hospital, and woot, theyre making me go on Ozempic. Apparently it'll do good for my poor old abused liver and pancreas too.

The weight loss is an added bonus, should it happen - I was losing weight slowly anyway, I'm down 5kg from when I first got sick and thats with hardly any exersise, just the diet change.

Getting pushed into taking a semaglutide (esp because I’m fat, and weight loss always seems like any doctor’s #1 concern) is what’s putting me off going and getting tested for diabetes. Some of the side effects sound brutal (and chronic, even after you stop taking it). As soon as I heard gastroparesis was a potential side effect, I was like HELL no. I’d rather be fat.

Hm the hospital specialist mentioned nothing aside from gastro issues same as metformin? :/

I read some claim about suicidal ideation but it was literally one case, which could be anything really.

Three-month reading of 5.7, exactly the same as my last one in March. I was hoping to creep down a bit more, but that's okay. I'll continue with Metformin--I was going to ask about some of the drugs mentioned here, but with no problems, I can't see any reason to.

And with my doctor, the faster I can get in and out, the better.

If you're at 5.7 on metformin only, that's the dream.

I had a lazy 6 months and mine went back up to 6.5, even with the Jardiance, so there's apparently a threshold to how careless you can be with your diet. I have to be a little more mindful than I've been lately.

i’m the same as clemenza, metformin only & holding at 5.7

Just did my first Ozempic injection. I'm not even sure I did it right , I carefully did all the steps as the clinic showed me. Was a bit more painful than I thought - I've never had to jab myself before.

Now I am just hoping I dont get the hideous pukearama that many ppl apparently do. Fingers crossed!

good luck trayce! crossing fingers for u

Actual injections? I'd be terrible at that. As I posted above--one of the reasons I only do home-testing every other week now--it routinely takes me three tries to get the finger-prick right. "Sample too small" comes back all the time, even though, to my mind, the sample is clearly not too small.

Yeah actual injections, though at least its a pen all ready-dosed so you're not using a syringe, but still owwie.

this morning I definitely feel completely unhungry, but thankfuly no nausea.

Speaking of finger prick testing, damn the accuchek is shit. I get an error inserting almost every strip and have to retry multiple times. I also bought another brand tester, but I've got used to the Accuchek's nice app.

i haven’t had any problems w my fingerprick setup, except remembering to adjust the needle depth to get better blood flow depending on which finger i stick, since thumb & index have thicker skin

i do it most mornings except sometimes i skip weekends because i get tired of doing it lol

Getting pushed into taking a semaglutide (esp because I’m fat, and weight loss always seems like any doctor’s #1 concern) is what’s putting me off going and getting tested for diabetes. Some of the side effects sound brutal (and chronic, even after you stop taking it). As soon as I heard gastroparesis was a potential side effect, I was like HELL no. I’d rather be fat.

― just1n3, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 3:26 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hm the hospital specialist mentioned nothing aside from gastro issues same as metformin? :/

I read some claim about suicidal ideation but it was literally one case, which could be anything really.

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, July 18, 2023 4:47 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

if this is helpful… gastroparesis is not quite a side effect as much as an intended effect. hopefully any doctor who recommends trying this would explain that nausea and early satiety should be expected, particularly with larger meals. suicidal ideation I have not heard of and per quick review does not seem to be something that has been widely reported

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/27/will-the-ozempic-era-change-how-we-think-about-being-fat-and-being-thin

I’m sure you all have read this, but if not…I thought this was a pretty good lay perspective on ozempic and related drugs (though this is more focused on treatment of obesity, or “obesity”)

Yeah Ive done a lot of reading and I mean I'm not taking this thing for weight loss (I only need to lose about 10kg anyway). It seems ppl who overeat/eat v large meals might be the ones who suffer, and thats def not me - esp since I started having GERD issues. I just cant eat that much food!

The big one for me is gonna be forcing myself to exercise more and by more, I mean AT ALL. Since WFH, Ive become utterly sedentary and a real shut in. I'm lucky if I leave the house at all twice a week let alone walk anywhere much and I have to change that. I was never an active person, but I always walked everywhere.

I have started exercising — I walk around a little bit every day, but now I'm also working with resistance bands (basically a giant rubber band with handgrips on each end) and periodically glancing in the direction of a kettlebell that sits accusingly in the closet.

I'm going to be switching from Toujeo to Lantus this week, because that's what my insurance will pay for, and my doctor wants me to increase my dose of Metformin from 1000 mg in the morning to 1000 in the morning and 1000 in the evening, which is what he says most of his patients take. Gonna be interesting to see how that goes.

1000 x 2/day has been my dosage since I started it, no problems.

If the ozempic doesnt shift me from stubbornly staying around 6-7, I might have to do the same. Well with my GP's say so of course.

After my earlier post I did a post prandial 10 min fast lunch walk, which Ive read is a great way to use the body to chew up the excess glucose. I'm going to start doing that after every lunch if I can manage it.

Weird side effect from ozempic I wasnt expecting - alcohol does not agree with me AT ALL. I was only able to manage 3 stadard drinks and then I felt really off/nauseous. And apparently its A Thing!

It might be temporary who knows, and I'm thankful Ive had no nausea aside from that. I spose its a good thing, anyway.

only 3 lol <3

hahah shaddup :) My average drinking sesh is 5-6 :P

My friend has a similar reaction from metformin, so he stops taking it a day or two before drinking.

That...does not seem wise. Luckily metfo doesnt do that to me. And I mean I need to drink way less anyways. But I'd like to be able to go ham at least one day on the weekend with 5 or 6 drinks yeesh.

I basically quite drinking at 30, when I got into teachers college, so happily that hasn't been an issue for me.

Ugh, having what I assume is a pseudohypo episode today. Hands are shaking and feel irrationally crabby and quite confused, and I'm used to this feeling - Ive had low blood sugar episodes all my life (without being diabetic before, how that works ive no idea).

Checked my glucose - 5.0 not low at all? lol. I guess maybe the ozempic is fully kicking in?

This is a story up here...not trying to be alarmist, just informational; I'm sure stories like this appear regularly. (The CBC is a good news source, for what that's worth.)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/health-canada-review-diabetes-weight-loss-1.6921759

I wonder how many of those are due to people who were using it for weight loss and not getting results or had other terrible issues with dysmorphia. I mean I'm not a doctor so who knows.

Don't know, and ditto. I've got the news on in the background, looked it up after that.

Have not yet doubled my metformin dose but started the new insulin last night and my morning number was significantly lower than the previous day, almost in worrisome territory. We'll see if this holds.

My numbers are staying down too, 3 tests in lst 24 hours all around 5! But I havent pushed it by eating anything bad yet so we'll see.

I finally went to the dr today to get the initial testing done. The driving force for finally going was a symptom that only trayce and veg will understand iykyk :/

I looked up my last tests from 2020
A1c 5.8
EAG 120
Fasting glucose 130

Those results are good - fingers crossed they still are! Though then that leaves you wondering what else it could be :(

I'm struggling a bit on the ozempic - it definitely helps the sugars but I'm having a lot of heartburn, have to really watch what I eat (its like having a mild stomach stapling!), and (and I dont know if this is due to the shot) I now have constant really bad aching joints. Like, I always did anyway but it feels worse lately.

And pain in my kidney/upper ab area flared up the other day and now I'm worried my kidney is still spacking out on me uugggh. I have an ultrasound next week, and I'm not "sick", just feel very old and creaky. This sucks.

ugh that sounds rough Trayce. it sucks to have to grapple with side effects on top of everything else. sending hugs

Got my results
A1c 11.5, good cholesterol too low, bad cholesterol too high, elevated liver enzymes

Dr said at that level, it’s really only ozempic or insulin. However, it’s $1000 a month unless I convince my insurer that ozempic is my only option.

The good news is that what I thought was depression the last few years is probably diabetes.

urg sorry justin3
hopefully you can work something out & get back into safer territory

i didn’t know that depression & diabetes shared symptoms? or maybe more likely i’m not up on everything t2 entails

Sorry about that, but I'm sure you'll find this thread helpful and encouraging.

I was 5.7 at home tonight. I was more nervous doing this one than I have been in many months. First one in 15 days, and it just feels like I've been slacking off a bit--meeting up with friends, eating out, barbecuing, etc. When I cheat, I always tell myself I'll make up for it tomorrow, but I don't always follow through. Anyway, still steady in the 5.0-6.0 range.

Dr said at that level, it’s really only ozempic or insulin.

When I was first diagnosed, my A1C was crazy high (13). I did insulin & metformin for a few months until it was back under control, and then my dr switched me to Jardiance & metformin.

If you go on insulin, it may only be temporary if you respond well to it.

Welp, last night my bf had a really bad hypo attack. Its weird - he's never had one before, often been cheeky with not eating/having booze, never any repercussions. His fingerprick test dropped from 3 to 2 despite chowing on lollies and sugar water, he was a shaky sweaty delirious mess. Anyway we couldnt get it to get better. Ambulance came, they couldnt either, so they have taken him to hospital. I couldnt go with cos the kids are here today, but fuckn yay. I am hoping he'll be ok I havent heard from him yet.

My dad (who was Type 1) used to chug orange juice when he had an attack like that.

yeah the irony is due to us both being beetusy, all the drinks in the house are sugar free lol. The ambos said thats a common thing when they attend hypos.

But I tried everything else my limited knowledge knew - cups of sugar water, a handful of glucose gummy bears, a bit of bread. It was weird it didnt budge the numbers one bit. Now I'm worried.

shit trayce - sending good thoughts, that’s so scary!

...I spoke too soon he just txted me, his bloods have bounced back now (too far the other way haha, stands to reason with what we did).

No more drinking sessions on empty tummies!

My sister deals with the same thing quite often - I really worry about her passing out while she’s alone. But she also has Graves’ disease which complicates things. Is your bf on insulin or something else?

I messaged my sis to tell her about my diagnosis and that I was getting on ozempic and she had never heard of it - odd, because she’s been diabetic since age 12 AND she’s a big fan of the kardashians. I explained what it was and that it was either that or insulin and she was like “avoid insulin at all costs”.

Anyway I spoke with my PA today and she went to bat for me and got ozempic approved with my insurer.

Thats good news J I hope it will work well for you!

B ended up being overnight in hospo but is better now aside from a cold it seems he picked up while in there.

can recommend this as a good pasta option if like me you fucking DESPISE all the chickpea/lentil/nonsense pastas

https://www.aldentepasta.com/shop/carba-nada.html

eats very close to normal pasta, if slightly firmer & you can eat a pretty decent helping of it
24g net carbs, 16g protein - semolina flour, egg yolks, wheat protein etc

readily available here in Sac at at least two large grocery chains

terrible name though lol ugh

I saw yr FB post about it hehe. I thought we were ok to eat pasta in modest quantities as long as balanced with aprotein? I thought rice was the no no.

Actually looking at its ingredients I think thats precisely why it works! It seems to have boosted protein :)

Lol veg, ignore my Instagram comment, now I’ve seen the answer!

Rice and beans/lentils form a complete protein iirc?

Yeah when I do have rice I make sure its basmati and i eat it with chickpeas, lentils, eggs, tofu or chicken anyway.

I used to eat PILES of rice though. I'm training myself to go "a couple of spoonfuls is ENOUGH dammit".

Xp to veg, re depression symptoms:

So for about the 3.5yrs I’ve been feeling like I have what I call “benign depression” - like, emotionally I feel fine but my body is just so tired and mentally I’ve felt sort of shut down, like I can’t engage with anything too thoughtful or deep. Until I moved to chicago, I spent literally all my time in bed, unless I had to go to work. Sitting on the couch was too taxing. Things improved after moving (I move from bed to couch at night, I go grocery shopping, I go out on the weekends) but the fatigue is still there, I just feel a bit more motivated to push through it. But dr thinks it might be diabetes causing it. I hope that’s the case because I’ve been putting off having to mess with my psych meds again (a super slooooow and frustrating process).

oh ok that’s interesting!

Trayce;

I saw a thing online yesterday that might make you happy - when you cook and then cool rice, it creates resistant starch, which lowers its glycemic index quite significantly. So if you want to keep enjoying rice, just cook it the day before you want to eat it! (You can reheat it, it doesn’t reverse the process). Apparently this also goes for potatoes and some other starches I can’t remember.

I started ozempic a week ago. No side effects at this dose. It really does switch off the food noise in your head. I have a terrible addiction to sweet drinks and I was really stressed about the process of quitting but I was immediately able to cut down to half a can of coke a day (that’s mostly for the headache I get every day from quitting the caffeine in coke).

Look for some sugar-free iced tea if you can:

https://assets.shop.loblaws.ca/products/20324399/b1/en/side/20324399_side_a06.png

That's Canadian, but you might be able to get something similar. No sugar, no carbohydrates, no calories.

That's great about the rice--will try that.

(Oops--the photo is of the regular, not the sugar-free.)

x-post

The cooling / reheating rice thing also works for dried pasta, fwiw. For both, you'll obvs get the best effects the more you rinse and drain the excess starches.

Usually stick to ILM and didn't realize there was a Diabetes thread on here.

Tried Ozempic not long after it hit the market-- I have a cousin who's pretty high-up at Novo Nordisk. Attempted to titrate up to the minimum therapeutic dose, but I ended up doing only 50% of that dose every other week-- so, essentially, 1/4 of what was the established clinical minimum effective dose-- and it made me so violently ill and nauseous that I contacted my Endo to discontinue after 8 weeks. Dropped 14 lbs, and my blood sugar was never over 110.

So, it *worked*, but the cost to quality of life and overall health did not make it worth it for me. Godspeed to folks who can tolerate it well, though.

I drink SO MUCH unsweetened iced tea. Pure Leaf is my favorite but Gold Peak is pretty good too.

I’m not American so the cold tea thing is unpalatable to me. I love sweet and milky English breakfast in winter but I use Lakanto for that because it tastes exactly like real sugar - I absolutely hate the taste of artificial sweeteners and stevia.

many x-posts

I didn't really like brown rice either, but I found that cooking it in an instapot pressure cooker (rather than my regular rice cooker) significantly improved the taste. YMMV obv.

B-b-but what about cauliflower rice?

it’s good but i think i’d rather just eat chunks of cauliflower

Justine I'm so glad the ozempic's been ok for you so far!
I'm still on the 0.25 dose and my guts seem to be settling down. Wether that's because I'm intentionally cautious with portion control now I'm not sure. My sugars arent quite as under control as I'd like but I'm speaking to the diabetes clinic again on tuesday and they might just tell me to up the metformin (I'm only taking 1000mg)

Yes I'd read about the cooled carbs/resistant starch thing too! As it happens I often eat rice after its been cooked and fridged anyway, so thats good. I guess I could try Doongara rice too but I do like basmati the most.

B is fine now after his weird hypo incident and we really dont know why that happened. I mean the cause was there (booze after no food all day) but hes done that before to no ill effect? OH well. Bodies , hey.

glad he’s ok Trayce - scary thing to happen!

Oh! BTW after your pasta find upthread Veg I went looking and found we have one here too:

https://cdn0.woolworths.media/content/wowproductimages/medium/117547.jpg

oh good!

Diabetes humor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsMqZFvvIxQ

I bought some Chapman's no-sugar-added ice cream:

https://voila.ca/images-v3/2d92d19c-0354-49c0-8a91-5260ed0bf531/6bb107e2-bd28-4504-9777-4bcf884302c5/500x500.jpg

Does that seem reasonable for someone with Type II (and levels that seem to be stable in the 5.5-6.0 range)?

seems like it would be ok! caveat: as long as sugar alcohol doesn’t have an adverse effect on your digestion

i generally avoid myself as they reliably give me anything from bloating/cramps to full on diarrhea

My problem with all the sugarfree/low fat snacks is they all use gross shit like sorbitol or stevia and idc what anyone says I can TELL. I dont like the taste :(

Even monkfruit sugar has a bit of a funny aftertaste.

yeah same

the only one i can handle (in small amounts) is erythritol

Yeah I think thats the monkfruit one. I can do a flat spoonful in a cuppa thats about it. A good thing anyway, that shiz is pricey!

I think maybe I have PTSD from my highschool best friend whose family all guzzled old-school diet coke and ate nothing but nugs.

I’m supposed to be testing my fasting blood sugar every morning but the first time I did it, it was 273dl/mg which didn’t seem right, but my monitor didn’t come with any control solution so I couldn’t be sure. The solution finally arrived, the monitor is apparently working correctly, so I tested today and it was 274 :/

Yeah thats quite high :( dont worry, it can go up cos of stress, cos of starchy food... and the meds will take a while, it took me like at least 3 weeks on the metformin.

yeah trayce otm - it’s scary at first bc the numbers feel like a judgement or some kind of failure etc but try to remember they’re only data points for a moment in tume, you’re starting to do the things that are needed to help get your #’s down but it can take time. chin up, keep at it

Yeah I guess I knew it would still be high but my diet has been so drastically different the last 3 weeks I thought it wouldn’t be *that* high.

When I googled the number the results were like “that is super bad” but lol I feel the same as I always feel, which is “normal” at this point.

I don't know what that 274 number means...the only one I understand is the finger-prick number.

I tried the ice cream last night--thought it was quite good. I just have to discipline myself to stop after seven or eight spoonfuls.

it's the same test, divide the reading in mg/dl by 18 to convert to mmol/L

Meaning 274 = 15.2 for a finger-prick?

for a blood sugar measurement, yeah

Best home-reading in a month, 5.3. I've cheated here and there...these things are very unpredictable.

Past couple days I've felt a little "off" at various points during the day (particularly the morning), and my natural assumption for these situations now is "huh I bet my sugar's low." But then I tested (finger-prick) and it was just fine, so maybe I'm just coming down with a bug.

The instinct to immediately assume every little thing is diabetes-related is something I'm still learning to navigate.

yeah same, the added complications of pms & perimenopause blood sugar spikes & hot flashes & shit is like, ok it could literally be ANYTHING

Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, who commercializes Wegovy / Ozempic in the US, has reached 300B on the stock exchange, relatively close to the national GDP (380B). The pharmaceutical sector contributes to a third of Denmark's GDP, pushing up the balance of payments and the value of the Danish Krone compared to the euro, thus forcing their central bank to a range of actions to avoid currency inflation. Some commentators are making comparisons to Finland's Nokia in terms of structural importance and impact of hypothetical downfall.

Ugh I increased my metformin to 1500 last night, and stupidly also decided I'd have a few drinks. This morning I am SO SO NAUSEOUS.

And in more rage enducing news, my Ozempic needs refilling and the local pharmacy has none and says the shortage means its been v low in stock. Worried I wont find any before I need it on monday. Thanks, instabitches.

Shit, all the weirdos looking for miracle cures are now saying Metformin might curb your chances of getting Long Covid if you get Covid, so I hope there's not a run on it making it harder to get.

jfc people wear a fuckin mask and wash your hands!

Oh, and get vaccinated duh

The TGA here wont approve off-script use of Ozempic at least (you cant get it for nything but diabeets) but its still hard to get :(

Feel like I'm really beating myself up/being too hard on myself with all this lately. Vexing over my glucose levels too often, fretting if I eat a spoon of rice or have that extra vodka. I know its not healthy and I am trying to let it stress me less but ugh.

I have been put into this pilot program being run out of Royal Melb Hospital where they are getting onto ppl newly diagnosed with T2, to give them loads of extra support (educators, regular checkups/bloods, dieticians, exercise support etc) with the aim of seeing if intense work + weight loss will put it in remission. I'm greatful for the program - it costs me nothing but the time for the apppointments! - but now I feel this pressure to constantly be Dudley Do-Right as a result :(

I’ve been really struggling the last couple weeks too. Food has been stressing me out so much, so I’ve been living off protein bars and protein shakes instead of thinking about it. I caught a respiratory virus of some kind and I think that just sapped all my energy. I haven’t had a cold in years and I haven’t had Covid yet (despite jordan bringing it home from Finland last year), so I’d forgotten how miserable it is.

Some good news: I’m down from 274 to 163.

HI DERE! My A1C this year crept up to the top end of prediabetic. Doctor told me to lose weight before she even saw the result. Been riding a bike every day and doing intermittent fasting and am indeed losing, hoping I can keep it up. Trying to watch what I eat, it’s kind of depressing to look at packaging and see what’s really in everything. Also learning about glycemic is index and glycemic load, there is one website at the University of Sydney started by the woman who wrote the book on this stuff I have been looking at: https://glycemicindex.com/

My friend who is in a similar boat wears an armband that measures his GMI.

Glucose Management Indicator

Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller. Also have her book, The Low GI Handbook.

Last night I went to see some jazz at a newish place called Canary Club way down on Broome near Essex and Delancey and stared daggers at the order of french fries at the next table while I drank my water. Music was great though.

Although actually the intermittent fasting seems to be suppressing my nighttime appetite. I read something about hormonal entrainment and the growth hormone with a funny name that starts with g for growth.

I guess most people just call the growth hormone the Growth Hormone or just GH.

I'm so impressed by the Rapid Remission program I'm in, even if its meant an endless parade of appointments right when I can least fit it in cos of work crazy. Saw a dietician today, and he was so nice and so helpful and encouraging. Now I have some cocrete goals for kj, protien and carb intake, when and how to get away with a cheeky food, and what to expect. I feel very blessed that our country does things like this at no cost to me.

can you share the stuff you found most helpful?

i was given a free consult w a dietitian through my doctor & they never returned my calls grr

Giving me specific daily amounts of carbs/protein/kj to aim for (which is likely to be weight/age specific but he said 5000kj, 80-100g protien and no more than 130g carbs), getting me to go into detail about what I've been eating, being able to ask if its ok if i occasionally have rice or sneak a bit of pizza, how to mitigate it all etc and him just telling me I'm doing everything right - except not getting enough protien lol he says I should be aiming for 80-100 or more a day, Im not vegetarian but I dont eat any red mean really so I guess I need to up my tuna and salmon intake.

The basic takeaway also was "try a bit of a no no food, and measure yr BG before and after - if it doesnt spike more than 3 mmol/L then its probably ok".
So if you're 6 and it goes to 9 thats ok. If youre 6 and it goes to 11 or 12 you know that was taking the piss. But its ok if that only happens once in a while.

Sorry thats in the AU measures, 6 = 108 in the othe scale right?

BTW 500kj is low. I'm aiming for weight plateau or loss, not maintenance. Thats part of this study I think, the science seems to be there that controlled rapid weight loss can knock it on the head?

5000kj not 500 lol. 5

I went up to the next dosage of ozempic and still no side effects, so that’s pretty good. I’ve really gotta get more non starchy veggies into my diet, though.

Trayce, protein powders are a good way to get some extra protein in - the hard part is finding one that has a tolerable taste.

i got some unflavored plant protein that’s ok, hard to find any at an affordable price though. i scored mine at grocery outlet but haven’t seen it there since.

I don’t mind this one:
MOMOF4TRANSFORM MO4T Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate Powder, Naturally Sweetened with Monk Fruit, 1.6 Pounds, 24 Serving. Natural Chocolate Flavor https://a.co/d/2eHpczY

I add some peanut butter or PB2 to it and it’s pretty decent.

My holy grail is a greek yog thats a combo of high protein, low fat and actually THICK. There's a few regular-fat ones that are deliciously creamy, but most of the low fat ones either have thickeners in them which I don't want, or they are... weirdly grainy and watery? Jalna looking at u.

Chobani's low fat's the best I've managed to get but their yog is really quite sour. My fave is this Icelandic stuff called Siggi's but its become very hard to find.

i like Fage greek yogurt over here, it’s not as sour. kinda spendy but i get it on sale sometimes
but yeah siggis is nice too! v spendy tho

my protein/fat fallback is adding peanut butter to my yogurt or oatmeal or muesli

and i eat like 7500 eggs & avocados lol

i do salami cheese snacks a bit but then i back off bc blood pressure

I used to eat Siggi's all the time in NJ but haven't been able to find it in Montana.

Greek yogurt supposed to be good for you, but lots of fat.

But came to say now I am thinking about Instant Steel Cut Oatmeal.

Like does the Instant cancel out the Steel Cut?

i doubt that it cancels it out completely? maybe less robust in terms of whole carbs
i imagine its like instant oats vs rolled oats
but i am just guessing.

mr veg makes a big pot of regular steelcut oats overnight in the slowcooker & for the rest of the week we reheat leftovers

I got a decent quarterly report card on Tuesday, A1C down a tenth to 6.2. It's been solidly between 6.2 and 6.6 for several years now, and since I don't have any bad reactions to my meds, I have full sensitivity in my feet, and my eye exams show no sign of damage/degradation, my doctor is fine with me being in that range. She did pat me on the gut this week and say "what are we going to do about that?" though. I said "hell if I know, food is delicious."

lol hell yeah!

Disappointed. From 11/11/22 to 8/31/23, I had 29 home readings between 4.9 and 6.1; my last two have been 6.4 and 6.5. I don't know if I'm splitting hairs or if something's changed...I feel like more or less doing everything the same.

I used to eat Siggi's all the time in NJ but haven't been able to find it in Montana.

They do a plain one - I managed to find some the other day and it is really good. Sadly not low fat but I think I'm resigned that low fat yog is just garbage anyway.

The Ozempic is making me struggle to eat. Not sick exactly, just completely lost interest in food. And I'm a foodie! Its quite unnerrving.

sounds terrifying imo lol

Thanks, Trayce. The fat/no fat yogurt thing is a conundrum, and in general. Some fat is okay theoretically because of the way it interacts with carbs, but then there are Chet Atkins diet types who just load up on it. Something I just read says no more than 20% of your calories should come from unsaturated fat, but I dunno still seems kind of high.

Sorry, saturated fat.

i try to walk somewhere down the middle btw non fat tastelessness vs keto full fat craziness

and try to favor fats like avocado, peanut butter etc

but i’m not putting butter in my coffee or making cakes out of cream cheese lol

In general I wouldnt say an old school Atkins diet is good for diabetics, because as you say they go a bit ham on the fats and Type 2 is all about trying to lose weight and even out the insulin resistance.

Keto diets seem a bit better. I'm not following any "diet", I just cut out the things they said were bad immediately (white bread, any white rice aside from basmati, sugar, fried potato) and reduced my portion sizes strictly (easier now on the meds due to aforementioned appetite loss). I think portion size control is a major one for me anyway. I've lost 10kg since I first started getting ill just before being diagosed. And that was in June, so thats not too bad.

xpost yes, I am still eating a lot of dairy fo the protein! Lo fat cheese mostly, plus some yog and eggs. And yeah going for olive oil esp when I mightve used butter before (except like, on a sandwhich lol I'm not gonna spread oil on my sammich).

But yeah no one can sit here and tell me 4 bacon rashers layered with cheese on a grill is a good thing to eat.

yeah overall balance & reduced portion sizes has worked p well for me

Thirded

Type 2 is all about trying to lose weight and even out the insulin resistance

Not for everyone, mind you. I'm 6'2" and weigh ~165. I'm trying to up my protein intake but also balance out my carbs just enough so that I don't get the shakes between meals. As it is, I often wake up literally weak with hunger in the morning; going 12-13 hours without food (dinner at 6 PM, breakfast at 7 AM) is a real fucking problem. Back in NJ there were a few times before I left that I'd wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning, eat a cup of peanuts and raisins, and go back to sleep for another 3 hours.

I've started exercising lately, using a resistance band and small weights (10 pound hand weights, 15 pound kettlebell) and doing standing pushups off the wall, squats, stuff like that. I'm not trying to get big, obviously, just tightening my muscles up a bit. The hardest part so far is getting to the point where it's habitual, or even where it's something I want to do rather than something I have to remind myself to do every day.

Struggling a bit lately. Increased Ozempic dose has completely destroyed my appetite/ability to want food. Like, so completely, I have to *force* myself to eat anything. As a result I am headachy and tired all the time (well, I assume thats why). And the clinic/hospital team want me to go up to the full dose!? Farrrk no. My sugars are sitting around 6, so I dont see the need. But I hope this settles, or I get to go back off this shit at some point because this really sucks.

Day to day, the diabetes doesn't affect my life much, except in what I eat. So mostly I just post blood-prick numbers here. After two bumps in a row back to the mid-sixes, I was definitely nervous doing a test tonight (first one in 19 days--kept putting it off). Back down to 5.8, so that was a relief. I'm due for a three-month in the next week or two, so we'll see where that's at.

Isnt mid sixes still ok? I'm around there and I'm happy with that!

I think it's fine, it's just that I had gotten things as low as 4.9, and spent months in the 5.0s, so back into the sixes was a step back and in the wrong direction if that continued. But that's just relative to me; I think mid-sixes is a perfectly good place to be.

Also: I over-worry everything.

Oh for a value of trending upward, yeah that makes sense.

Latest HbA1c - 5.3 awww yis.

But unfortunately, Im continuing to have other baffling increases in my liver enzymes despite having cut right back on alcohol (to once a week, tho admittedly on that once a week I still have a few more than I should) and cutting my paracetamol consumption down. The doc really doesnt know why. Could be the ozempic, or the statins, or gall bladder issues or fuck only knows. I'm so tired of all the blood tests and ultrasounds. Can I just be less broken pls.

<3 hang in there. congrats on the 5.3 tho, that’s great news

That's really low--good job.

Had a stupid workplace thing a couple days ago where I was putting away hollow blocks in a kindergarten class and let one drop on my thumb. A little pain, very discolored at the base of the nail. Because of the diabetes, I decided during the night that for sure this meant amputation (I wouldn't even look at it till the next morning), but the doctor I saw the next day said I'll lose the nail, it'll come back, and that'll be it. No pain at all now, but still discolored four days later.

I'm never sure if I should continue to extra-worry these things because of the diabetes.

6.0 last night. I'd been holding off because I've had this sinus thing, and I figured any kind of sickness might affect a reading. As always, I'm just blindly guessing.

Spoke to my endocrinologist last week who agreed with my GP that the Statins were prob the cause of the weird liver enzymes so told me to stop taking them - my cholestorol is ridiculously normal again now anyway and was not that high to begin with.

Placebo or not I cant say but I am feeling better, all the nagging joint aches I'd been having have gone, so maybe statins were messing me up?

Something I was thinking about yesterday. My three-month reading was 5.8; it was 5.7 in July, 5.7 in March. So my home tests bounce around a bit, but the three-months have levelled off there for half-a-year.

I was 10.1 last November. I'm starting to wonder if I was somewhere between 6-10 for the three-four-five years before being diagnosed. I didn't go to 10.1 all of a sudden--that must have taken time. Just not sure how much time. If I'm right, that's calming in a way. Life was normal before the diagnosis, reinforcing the idea that it's just a number. Keep it under control, but 6-7-8, it's all the same.

I had my 3 month checkup a couple days ago and was surprised I was at 6, thought it’d be much higher.

Thats awesome J! Well done! x

I've hit a plateau where weight isnt dropping much, sugars are good but not quite low enough. I cant eat less, I'm already only doing 2k calories a day, but the diabetes nurse today suggested meal replacement shakes like wtf no. Theyre full of artificial sweetners and weird crap.

I know booze is the last sticking point, and its not one that'll disappear. so I dunno.

It’s good but not through much effort on my part. I’ve been eating like shit - too high a deficit and way too much sugar when I do bother to eat. But I got a full blood panel done because I don’t feel anything different than before all this, and almost everything is great. For someone who eats as badly as I do, and never sees the sun, my vit d and b are great, calcium is great, iron is great, etc etc. But I feel like shit. I’m pretty bummed, since I thought the diabetes diagnosis was gonna be a turning point.

Trayce, that sounds so sketchy - a diabetes specialist shouldn’t be recommending meal replacement shakes if you’re eating at a normal level. I could understand it if you were underweight and needed to add the shakes to your existing diet, or at a weight that was so high it was negatively affecting your health directly, but otherwise that is the kind of nutrition advice that triggers disordered eating.

yeah agreed

I'm not eating terribly well tbrh. Some days I'm lucky if I manage one proper meal. I just never get hungry.

Something I was thinking about yesterday. My three-month reading was 5.8; it was 5.7 in July, 5.7 in March. So my home tests bounce around a bit, but the three-months have levelled off there for half-a-year.

can I ask you: the “three month” reading you’re referring to must be the hemoglobin A1c? the daily readings I assume are glucose readings in mmol/L? if so these are two completely separate units

You can also do a GMI which is an instantaneous measure similar to A1c.

huh…I work exclusively in the hospital these days so obviously I’m out of step with these sorts of things… I just looked that up and had honestly never heard of that! the usefulness of a daily A1c surrogate seems a bit dubious to me, gonna read some more about that

Kevin: I don't know...I thought my three-month averages were literally that, an average of all those home tests I do every couple of weeks. Maybe they are completely different.

i dont know the science

over time it has seemed to me that they are def 2 different things

home glucose testing is (to me) just so that you learn how lows & highs feel physiologically to keep you mindful of it, i really do think doctors recommend it pedagogically as sort of busywork so that ppl don’t ignore their symptoms

but it isn’t as good of a long term indicator bc it is incredibly variable

and then the a1c hemoglobin is the longterm indicator, measuring something different over a longer time period
basically the practical uh truth of what is actually going on, is the medication /diet/ etc ~working~

lol the other day I was just taking the piss, I ate a bowl of pasta and then a small bowl of reggular-sugar icecream (made from coconut whats worse) and boy did my levels shoot up. HIghest theve been since before I was treating this haha but they went back down overnight. I really need to stop being cavalier, but this weird sugar craving I never ever used to have, is creeping up. Prob from me cutting back on booze I reckon.

i find that sugar-free/zero sugar stuff that still tastes sweet makes me crave sugar more

Had this tonight:

https://i.postimg.cc/HxZ3DM0x/pasta.jpg

Maybe not the real thing, but was just fine. Here's the nutrition label:

https://www.gtanutrition.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NuPasta-Angel-Hair-210g-nutrition-facts.jpg

Compared to standard pasta, that's pretty great. Went online to order some and (odd) everything was out of stock. They're located in Markham, just outside Toronto, so I'm going to phone and see about picking up an order in person over the holidays. A little pricey a package at a time.

i didn’t love the texture myself but yeah they are quite popular!
( i am a bit of a “texture queen” tho lol and am easily turned off)

Yeah the Vetta pasta I mentioned upthread Ive really gone off. They no longer sell it in spaghetti only in spirals and penne and you have to cook the everloving shit out of it and it tastes like wet cardboard. Blech. And honestly the amount of protein is negligible for the purpose so I'm not sure theres much point. I'm just gonna stick to occasional-treat small serves of normal pasta offset with a good protein like fish.

By the time I added sauce, vegetables, and fish, I didn't mind it at all. It's a trade-off, I know. But I was looking at the regular pasta, and it literally had 10x the carbohydrates. My fondness for pasta is no doubt a big part of what got me into this mess in the first place.

yeah same

meanwhile i’m finally warming up to homemade cauliflower rice and cauliflower mash

Pasta and rice are go tos for me because theyre easy tbrh. Sigh. I need to get back on that horse and cook up some lentils and chickpeas and make some salads.

3 monthly Hb1AC test today: 4.8 mufukkas! Aw yis!
Im actually suprised given the festive season's rather lax crappy eating and booze!

Wow, that's great--I've never had a 3-month lower than 5.7. My last two at home have been 5.0 and 5.3.

great job trayce, that’s fantastic

I have to admit, I've been eating very little, so I dont know if that added to things? But yeah, endo says I could probably go off some or all of the meds in 12 months if I stay this way.

bravo girly!

Got a CGM attached to my arm for 2 weeks kindly donated by my endo team at the hospital, so I can live-monitor my levels for 2 weeks to see how my diet/exercise combo is going. I feel like a Borg now, with this bluetooth blot stuck to my arm!

I've been meaning to post here -- last week I had my lowest A1C result in the 10(?) years since I was diagnosed with the Type2 -- 6.1. I didn't make any special effort -- just lucky afaict. I guess I just ate a little more healthily after the holidays.

Way to go. My weight has been creeping back up--from a low of 143 back up to 153-155 most mornings--so I was worried when I did my first home-test in three weeks. Still 6.0; I've been 5.0-6.0 for a year-plus now. I want to move both in the other direction, obviously, but not really at the cost of panic-monitoring everything like I did the first few months after diagnosis.

I've been having low blood sugar incidents lately, waking up at 3 AM and having to stagger to the kitchen and eat a banana or a fistful of peanuts and raisins and then go back to sleep for another two or three hours. It's been happening about once a week and I'm not super thrilled about it!

I’ve been eating like absolute shit for the last 4.5mo since my last bloodwork so I was dreading it. But I guess the Ozempic is really doing the heavy lifting (I’m still on a minimal dose) or the Seroquel I used to take was really fucking up my stuff (or a combo) because my a1c has dropped again: 11 in august, 6 in November, now it’s 5.7!

i have been able to keep myself at 5.7 to 5.9 for the past couple of years with Metformin and diet/exercise. It crept up a little at xmas and i think i’ll still be there for my next test but i figure as long as that stays pretty level, i’m ok - it’s hard not to stress abt daily #’s so remembering to pull out to a longer view helps me

i still wake up with higher fasting #’s from dawn syndrome but it’s not fucking with my overall number so idk what else i can do except keep everything else in check as much as possible

glad everyone is doing ok mostly though!

The range in these last few post is so narrow: 6.1, 6.0, 5.7, 5.7-5.9.

i think we’re all doing pretty great - group high-fives all round!

High-fives all around, with a couple of low-sixes mixed in...

I would blow the curve for everyone if I posted my numbers.

we’ve all been there - no judgement <3

had my 3-monthly A1C test and
am back to 5.7 so i feel reassured

my last one went up to 5.9 after a year at 5.7 which isnt technically a big deal but quietly felt like some kind of small failure psychologically

anyway we back

I don't know why I called this the diabetic thread, rather than the diabetes thread.

I'm right there with you...maybe. I did my first home-test in three weeks the other night with some apprehension--I've put 10 of the 25 pounds I lost back on--but it came in at 5.7. I've really let the three-month timeline slide, though. I'm going to go in tomorrow morning for my first A1C since November. I always home-test under optimum conditions, so we'll see.

5.9. There's been a gradual uptick the past year, but still good:

03/13/23 - 5.7
07/19/23 - 5.7
11/06/23 - 5.8
04/12/24 - 5.9

I've been advised to supplement my Vitamin D intake, which doesn't surprise me; I've all but cut out dairy the past 18 months, just almond/cashew/soy milk with cereal and some yogurt.