Well, and there’s a range. Some people can achieve good control without meds and also without severely restricting carbs. (Although, IMO, nobody can do it without at least moderately restricting carbs.) Some people can achieve good control without meds as long as they severely restrict carbs. And then some people just can’t achieve good control without meds, no matter how they eat.
Yup, very true, although I have personally known Type 1s who eat horribly unhealthy diets and maintain it with rapid-acting insulin. I have a cousin like that. Eats all kinds of crap but really knows his body & insulin needs and balances it all out. Very slim, and has his blood sugars in perfect control.
It’s all a balance - food/exercise/meds. Just have to find the right ones for each person.
A1C was 8.5 and the doc wants to shoot for 6.5. I personally want to get it in the 5.9 range…below 6 anyway.
Total cholesterol was 159 which amazes me since I have been eating terribly (before diagnosis). 5.5 ration hdl 29, ldl 96.6. Triglycerides 167.
All in all I expect all of these to get better with my new diet and exercise regimen.
In two weeks I go to a 5 hour diabetes class. My wife is going, too.
Encouraging, right?
My blood sugar last night was 101 2 hours after dinner. I ate nothing else and it was 157 in the morning. WTF? and it went up all day, ultimately to 177. I have heard that if blood glucose gets too low in the night the liver will dump a bunch into your system, resulting in high readings. Maybe I need to have a late night snack?
Again - I am working with my doc for actual advice. What we are looking for here is anecdotal experiences.
Not too bad! Hubby’s last Monday at disgnosis was 11.3. I know a lot of people with diabetes who would kill for an 8.5.
Best. Idea. Ever. If one person has diabetes, the whole family is affected by it. Hopefully, it will help her to be a strong support for you. I have to bip my son on the head every time he looks at my husband’s or daughter’s BG and goes, “Oooo. That’s baaaad.” But he does carry extra snacks for her in case she goes low, so he’s not a bad kid. 
Just curious: do you have any ketostix? It’s unusual for a type 2 to have ketones, but it does happen.
OK I just took my reading 2 hours after eating. First reading was my highest ever, 208!:eek:
So I took it again…119. So once more for a tie-breaker…116.
Is my meter broken or what? The first one dip “sip” strangely. Can a sample be bad enough to be that off, but good enough not to produce an error?
ETA - D’oh, can’t edit title spelling!
Did you wash your hands before you tested? Sometimes if there’s a tiny smidge of food contaminating the sample, it will make the reading all wacky.
I had a full physical exam yesterday and got the results from blood work I had done last week. Since I’m the one who’s on the super-low carbohydrate diet and eat a LOT of meat (mainly steak, sausage, bacon, ground beef and dark meat chicken, so needless to say, I don’t belong to PETA), I thought I’d share the most recent results with anyone who might be interested.
My blood pressure yesterday was 109/69 (as noted earlier, I was taken off my “lifelong” BP medicine about a year and a half ago and have not had elevated BP numbers since. I also put kosher salt on my steak and burgers, and eat salty meat such as ham, sausage and bacon).
My A1C was 5.7 (was 8.9 when I was diagnosed in March 2007).
My Total Cholesterol was 120 (I’ll get separate breakdowns next visit. I forgot to ask).
My triglyceride level was 156 (slightly elevated but the doctor is not worried).
I’m doing ok. I was sure I was, but it’s always nice to have confirmation. Low carb isn’t for everyone, but I’m sure glad it was an option for me. And by the way, I agree that diabetes isn’t curable. It’s preventable, but not curable. It can only be managed. I have no doubt that if I started eating “normally” again, all those numbers would very quickly revert to what they were before. That thought is what keeps me from cheating.
Grats, Equi! Great numbers!
newscrasher: I second MsWhatsit’s comment about washing your hands. My doc actually told me I didn’t need to wash my hands before every reading, but after getting a few wonky ones I now make sure to wash each & every time.
Given the vastly different readings you got, I’m guessing there was something on your finger the first time.
As far as it going up overnight, I had that happen a lot before I got on Lantus. There’s two things that cause it:
1 - The Dawn Phenomenon: a lot of us have livers that try to prepare us for the morning by dumping a lot of glucose into our blood so we have adequate amounts of energy to get out of bed and start the day. Perfectly normal. It’s not a big deal to wake up higher than you went to bed, but it should be within whatever range your doc wants it to be.
I’ve heard that a bedtime snack can help with the dawn phenomenon, so maybe you want to try that.
2 - The Somogyi Effect: Some people’s blood sugars can get dangerously low while sleeping, resulting in the liver dumping glucose to make up for it. Typically this is only an issue for people on Insulin, who have to counter-intuitively give themselves LESS insulin to counteract the effect and even out their blood sugars.
Thanks Athena! Two things I forgot to add, just for general interest. I said, regarding my most recent blood work…
Looking at the blood work numbers from right before I was diagnosed almost 2 years ago, the same blood work that told my doctor my A1C was 8.9, my Total Cholesterol number then was 155, so it’s steadily getting better.
Even more dramatic, my triglyceride number then was 297, and that’s why my doctor isn’t worried even though it’s still slightly elevated now.
It seems counter intuitive that cholesterol and triglyceride numbers should improve, since we’re so often told that all the things I eat are the things that cause high numbers in the first place, but this is what I assumed would happen and it’s nice to have confirmation.
So I am pretty sure I get a pretty hefty Dawn Phenomenon. My BG reading last night was 106 before I went to bed and this morning it was 156. I walked briskly for 30 minutes on the treadmill and it went to 145. Still high.
As I write this :smack: I forgot to take my Metformin!! It is still early so no problem but being the weekend I almost forgot to take it.
QUESTION: Does Metformin work instantly, as in you take it today and it lowers your blood sugar today (I know - by making you more sensitive to insulin) or does it take time to become effective?
For the past 2 weeks I have been eating very low carb and excersing, but my blood sugar remains 145-165 throughout the day and then settles down in the morning?
I am also eating several smaller meals throughout the day. Seems like they are just causing me to spike several times a day, resulting in overall higher BG.
Again any experiences you can share are appreciated. I have a diabetes “class” and meet with a dietician next week.
Metformin takes 4-6 weeks to fully take effect. That said, anecdotally, most people see some improvement within a few weeks. I don’t see much difference if I forget to take my Metformin. Then again, I didn’t see much of an improvement on Metformin alone, so I’m not sure my experiences are very relevant.
Metformin’s primary effect is that it regulates the amount of glucose your liver spits out. It also decreases insulin resistance, as you mention. So it kinda works on both sides of the scale.
As far as eating - pretty much any eating will spike your blood sugar. The whole idea is to get your fasting and between-meal levels low enough that the spikes don’t go about 140 or so (or whatever your doctor tells you is acceptable). Generally it takes a while to figure out a food/med/exercise plan that achieves this goal.
Overall, you sound like you’re doing great! 165 is a decent number considering you’ve just been diagnosed - “loose” control is usually defined as <180, so you’re already there.
I’m just going to come right out with my big TMI (girly TMI coming in the next line, you’ve been warned) and say that the yeast infection that will not die is unfortunately still with me. I have now been on two weeks of Diflucan and 3 weeks of itroconazole, a much more powerful oral antifungal, and no change whatsoever in yeasties. I am frustrated and frankly starting to get kind of upset, because I have never had an infection like this that just won’t go away. I have been dealing with this since before New Year’s. My GP doesn’t think it’s blood sugar related because my blood sugar is in the “loose control” range that Athena just mentioned. But in that case, why won’t it go away? She told me that if it’s still not gone after the full course of itroconazole, which will end in about a week here, come back in and she’ll do a new exam and we’ll talk.
I do have an endocrinologist appointment for Feb. 24. The office staff there was kind of snippy when I called in to make the appointment, but hopefully the actual doctor is helpful.
Try garlic pills maybe? They helped me.
Athena confirmed what hubby’s doctor told us. She started him on Lantus at dx: she said Metformin takes a good month to start working, and she didn’t want to start him on it until his blood work was back. His BG needed to be brought down ASAP, though, which is why he’s on Lantus. He hates needles.
Well I am one month in and I think I am doing well. My initial A1C was 8.5 and at a class they took it again. In one month I moved it to 7.2. Still room to improve but I am encouraged by what I am seeing.
I am on 500 Metformin. I was taking it in the morning but switched to night time to help combat my Dawn Phenomenon.
I am adhering to a very low carb, Atkins-like diet. I am also running, lifting weights, and using the Wii fit (FUN!)
I regularly have AM readings between 115 and 135. At twho hours post-prandial I am confident in a 126-136. If I wait another hour I am in the 105-115 range.
I have a question. Does your body get used to a certain blood glucose level? Cause as I got my glucose to go lower, I felt like hell. It was all the symptoms of low-blood sugar. I would test and it would be a reasonably good reading - never low. I just wonder if having good blood sugar takes some getting used too. I am feeling much better now!
I hope all my fellow Diabet-ers are doing well!
Yes, definitely. If you’ve been running consistently high for a while, then being in the normal range can give you symptoms of hypoglycemia, even though you’re really fine. (Similarly, diabetics who have frequently low-sugar episodes can sometimes stop having symptoms of hypoglycemia, which can be kind of scary.)
Just a little update to my prior posts, the yeast infection from hell finally cleared up with the application of boric acid capsules. I do plan to mention the whole thing to my endocrinologist when I see her on Tuesday, however.
Great news, newscrasher. I have to say, I’m a little jealous; I wish I had numbers like that.
That said, I’m doing pretty good. I still have spikes in the 160-190+ range if I eat more than 20-25 carbs at one time, but if I stay below that I’m typically between 130-160. My fasting numbers are usually between 90 and 110, with occasional ups & downs (was 78 today, for no reason I can discern. Conversely a week or so ago it was 126, once again with no real difference in food/exercise/meds the day before.)
I go to Joslin two weeks from tomorrow and am super looking forward to having them confirm/deny my current diagnosis, and get some additional meds/insulin to help with the post-prandial spikes.
So glad that I found this post! I’ve not had a chance to read all the responses yet, but wanted to make a quick post myself.
Apparently, I have something called “metabolic syndrome,” which is pre-diabetes as well as an indicator for heart disease and possible stroke. The diabetes is what concerns me the most right now, though. Okay, my blood glucose came back 128 this time, up from 116 in September. My A1C was 6.2, up from 6.1. Both readings are, of course, above the “normal” levels, some well above (yeah, that 128 is NOT good). But are they in actual diabetes territory yet? I read up on it a bit, and it looks like diet and exercise are what is most recommended. I’ve also got hypothyroidism - low thyroid and take 200 mcg. of levothyroid each day.
I’ll be back later today to finish reading the thread. This looks like exactly what I need to read, though. Thanks so much!