type 2 diabetes for me

hi,
I just found out I have type 2 diabetes this past Friday. I am 37 years old. I am not sure what it all means at this point. I know I am very scared and confused and freaking out more than a little bit. The doctor put me on some pill twice a day - men something or other. So I have been taking those since Friday night. I bought some diabetes vitamins that come in a pre-packaged thing. Bought fish oil and coconut oil pills as well. All supposedly supposed to be good for helping. Ordered some books and spent the rest of the weekend in bed. A friend suggested I join a support group so here I am.
Any suggestions, info, knowledge etc. for the newbie would be more than greatly appreciated.
Not sure what else to say. Thanks in advance.

By Kristy

Hi Kristy and welcome.

Slowly you'll start to learn stuff. IMO, at first it's most important to learn about *you* and what this means to you, not to anyone else. Start to memorize things about yourself-- that your medication is called metformin, for instance. Most of us here have been put on that med at one time or another, many of us are still on it-- it's probably the most common type 2 medication.

Find out what your fasting blood sugar was when you had your blood drawn at the lab, and what your A1c level was, and keep those numbers in the back of your mind for later comparison.

Save your money with the diabetes vitamins and other supplements-- worthless. Fish oil might be good for overall health, but it won't do a blasted thing for or about your glucose level. Same with any vitamin, and I have no idea about coconut oil pills-- that's a new one to me. It's a good idea to take a quality multi vitamin with minerals every day, but that's just for overall health, not directly to influence your blood glucose levels. Mega doses of any vitamin and most supplements (IMO, all of them, but there are others who would argue with me, I'm sure) do nothing but line the pockets of the manufacturers.

Did the doc recommend for you to get a home glucose monitor? It's really important to test your glucose a couple of times a day so you can see how you're doing. The books you bought will teach you about what numbers are in the normal range. The meters are usually free (ask your pharmacist, or go online and google free glucose monitor) but the test strips are pricey-- if you have insurance, you can get them taken care of as a prescription and you just have to pay your co-pay.

Are you going to be going to a nutritionist? Not a bad idea, if you have insurance, or if you can afford it. For now, start to make dietary changes-- cut out any refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and white flour foods. Go easy on bread, cereal, pasta and crackers, even the whole grain kinds. Don't drink your carbs (no regular soda, energy drinks, sweet tea, and cool your jets about milk). Take a walk every day if you can, or do some other exercise.

When does your doctor want to see you again?

Judy D.

shakes, first major bout

Yesterday I had my first bout of the shakes. We had our usual Sunday morning routine but by the time we got home from church and grocery shopping, I was beginning to feel very strongly that I needed to grab anything and eat. That progresses in minutes to "I HAVE to get something to eat and N O W!" I felt shaky inside and out as well as panicky about getting food. I had a quick lunch and it settled down. Never want to repeat that episode. Looking back, I know that at some point I should have checked my sugar, but getting food in me was a panic and checking numbers never crossed my mind. After that, I carried a bottle of juice and a banana with me the rest of the day since I had to be away. How would others have handled this situation and what should I do in the future? Any ideas?
God bless,
ott

Do you take insulin or a medication to make your pancreas release more insulin? If so, your meter needs to be nearby and regularly used. It's way better to "see 'er coming", as they say, than to try to rein those horses in once they're galloping away with you.

It's important, too, to eat on time. Any delay of an hour or more especially might result in shakiness. Remember, it's not safe to drive or operate machinery if you get like that, so no driving yourself home or anything. Test, treat, re-test, and proceed only when it's safe to do so.

Carry glucose tablets. 3 or 4 of those, chewed up with a few swigs of water, would have made you feel better. You can buy them in portable rolls like big lifesavers-- check in your pharmacy.

If this becomes a pattern with you, remember the advantages of planned snacking, using a part of your daily calories to plan snacks for mid-morning and mid-afternoon and maybe bedtime.

~BK~

Melforman causes weight loss

Melforman causes weight loss because of the constant going. With this drug.. one learns where all the restrooms are located.>

I thought I'd correct the spelling, before we go any farther.

Anyhoo, hmmm. This kind of diarrhea and nausea is a very common side effect of metformin, which is why it's almost always initially prescribed in the smallest 500 mg dose. Only after a month or so, when the patient can show he's tolerating it okay, the dosage can be increased in 500 mg increments-- it may take 4 months or so to get to the maximum dose (2000-2500 mg a day), if needed.

Metformin's weight loss side effect is not universal, and when it does occur long term, it's not so much that you can't eat or you can't stop going to the bathroom that causes it, it's from better glucose control. Metformin works on the liver to keep it from dumping stored glucose into the bloodstream so readily and also helps our cells be more sensitive to what insulin we have available.

Anyone having bothersome diarrhea or nausea should always report this to the doc, if it persists past about 10 days beyond any dosage increase. Most everyone can adjust to the med, especially if they take the ER or XR (extended release) form and they take it with food, but some cannot.

Anyone living their life ruled by where-is-the-nearest-bathroom definitely needs the doc to take a good look-see at what's going on and make dosage changes or cut out the med completely. Pooping your brains out is no way to live. I'm just sayin'.

~BK~

Differences between Medtronic and DexCom Technology??

This is just pure curiosity. I changed from Medtronic CGMS to DexCom CGMS recently. I've been told that the Dex works via different technology from that used by the Medtronic system. Does anyone know how the two systems work and what the differences between them are?

Hi, Rosemary -

That is a great question and I am also interested in seeing the answers, as
I am about to try them both. One side-effect of the Dex system I have been
warned about is its interaction with acetaminophen (Tylenol), but they
probably already warned you about that.

I am also curious to find out why you decided to switch. Would you mind
letting me know, either here or directly?

Thank you.

Warm regards,

-jeff toll-free: 1-888-967-3386

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were sensational. Thank you ever so much!"

I'm also interested in the differences in how both systems work. I have
used the Minimed CGMS for a couple of years with pretty good results until
recently. By switching to Dexcom, I'm hoping that I can again obtain
reliable readings. Since others are not experiencing the discrepancies I'm
now getting with Minimed, I'm starting to believe the negative changes could
be related to my body's reactions to Minimeds sensor agents. Hopefully,
Dexcom will work differently and give me some reliable results for another
couple of years. Who knows? I might have to switch technologies every
couple of years to keep my body from getting too used to the chemicals or
whatever. I guess that's just the nature of these autoimmune diseases like
Type 1. I've recently had to switch from Novolog to Humalog for similar
reasons (my body started reacting to the Novolog, resulting in lipoatrophy).

nmLisa

Greetings

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member who just learned that I have Type 2 Diabetes, but
apparently have had it for years without knowing. Long story about that.

That's "water under the bridge." I started immediately working on this
with the 2X daily glucose testing, cutting down on the carbs and calories.
Diabetes runs in our family, so I know what it does to the body.,

I am already seeing results and feeling much better with less fatigue and
some weight loss.
This week, I go back to the doctor to discuss the results of the fasting test,
to determine if I need any medications.

I am still learning all the right terms , so excuse any wrong or unclear terms here.

This morning, AM glucose reading before breakfast was 113, which
is much lower than it has been since I started all this last week.
Was having diabetic symptoms like pain in my ankles thinking it was tendinitis
all this time. That pain stopped the same night on the day that I began this
journey to achieve good health.

Question: Does untreated Diabetes cause weight gain? I know it can
cause weight loss for some people.

Cath

diabetes education

A lot of 'diabetes education' is based on fear. I guess the doctors, health care gurus, whomever, think that unless they first scare people to death with talk of awful complications, no one will take anything they say about diet, exercise, medication, insulin seriously. Which is odd because there is evidence that the first thing people do when frightened is either fight (who?) or flight (how do you run away from a disease?) or go into denial. Now that's helpful, isn't it?

I wish they would keep the talk about complications more realistic. An untreated Type 1 diabetic is at great risk of immediate complications - death. The other complications they talk about - all of them - take years to develop (in both Type 1 and Type 2 patients). Most of the studies involve people who went years with type 2 before they were every diagnosed or treated or people with type 1 who were born more than 30 years ago. Keep in mind that the blood glucose meter was not available until 1973! Type 1 diabetics had their urine tested once a week at the doctors office and 'guessed' at the amount of insulin to take. It's a wonder any of them survived.

If you have type 2 diabetes it makes sense to watch your diet, exercise, lose weight and take medication to keep your numbers at a reasonable level. If oral medications aren't doing the job, insulin is just another medication. And if you are 'too scared to take insulin' think of all the little kids - some only months old - who get 4 or 5 insulin injections every day for their type 1 diabetes and just consider yourself lucky.

Swollen feet

Hi Becky,
The generic medication you are taking is called Gabapentin, Neurontin is
the name brand. One of the side effects is peripheral edema (swelling/water
retention). Please talk to your doctor about this.. My PCP put me on it
for Fibromyalgia pain and while it did help somewhat, I gained 10 lbs in
two weeks, so was taken off it, thank God. This is definitely a "consult
your doctor" problem.

Lauren 54, Florida

Becky wrote:
"okay we are dealing with swollen feet. Bg is great but the pain med now
two weeks into it is not working and feet and toes seem to be swollen like
retaining a lot of water(that is what it looks like but may not be what it is
as I am kind of clueless on this one). What are we dealing with here? The
pain med is gep something or other the Dr. said it was neurontin and I got
the med from a suggestion via the forum any other ideas we can ask the Dr.
about or should we just let him choose this time and see if his choice is a
better fit?"