Hello! I'm finally joining the group after following everybody's posts for about 2 months. My name is Toni and I have been Type 2 for several years (with numbers too low to scare me much). I just retired from 30+ years of teaching. I am now determined to change things around and take charge of my health for the next chapter of my life! I am on Metformin and am hoping with my most recent A1C of 5.4 I can reduce my dosage and maybe one day "treat" this disease with diet and exercise alone. I have about 70 pounds to lose. This seems like a great group. I have learned a lot just by following everyone else's posts. Maybe I can start contributing now. Thanks for the info, advice, and encouragement.

I thought I had introduced myself to this group a long time ago ... but probably just jumped right in without doing so. Therefore, please allow me to do so now.

I love Winni-the-Pooh and the whole Christopher Robin's thing ... so Piglet and he are my profile picture. There are real pictures on my page if you want to see what this fat old lady with Type II who lives in New York State, USA looks like now and on the day she was married.

The highest my AIc ever came in at is 7.5 about 12 years ago ... I'm not even certain if they every tested me for it before then. I've been able to keep it at about 6.2 to 6.5 once I started to take it more seriously and educated myself better on the bodies response to food and how it works. When I was given the sugar water test, my BG shot up to 220 on that super sweet drink, but the doctor classified me as Insulin Resistant. Have I crossed the line to full blown? Yep, it's here to stay.

In my family, this desease runs amok on my mom's side of the line. She had it, and all her children got it. I was the last one to be diagnosed with it.

One of my biggest challenges is that I wake up with higher glucose numbers than I have after dinner and before gong to bed. During the day, it doesn't go hypo but it does drop down to below 100 quite often.

Like many people with Insulin Resistance, I got heavier with time. I can recall that sometimes when we kids were all together with mom that we would use her glucose meter to run a check on ourselves for random sugar readings. Mine was always the lowest but it did start to creep up. I recall the day that it reached 101 for the first time. I was about 30 pounds overweight at that time, and had been having a really hard time of dropping any pounds, plus my figure was starting to really fill out at the waist line a lot. The doctor never associated my figure change with Insuline uptake, and we were all kind of shaped like little apples.

Of course, I didn't make all the changes in my diet that I should have done and thus I kept gaining weight and my medications kept increasing. Finally I got a new doctor and told him I wanted to be very selective about the medication I was on because I kept reading about meds I'd been on before being linked to severe health issues ... like Actos. He has kept me on Metformin but I now take 2000 mg a day of it.

I am working on my weight, nutrition, physical condition, and life habits. I'm also working on bringing down that morning reading to a better level. It seems that when I stop eating at supper time that my readings are much higher in the morning than if I have something to eat close to bedtime, or even in the middle of the night ... but that wreaks havoc with my weight loss attempts.

Any tips on things that worked for others would be appreciated. Also just sharing with other people on here who live with Diabetes II and are trying to reach the same type of goals I am striving for.

See you on the threads.
Niki

@tngram2seven ...Hi Toni, thank you for the welcome. Now that we know both of us are interested in this topic, maybe we'll see one another on one of the Discussion topics. The only one that seems to get regular activity is the one about reporting your glucose reading.

Anyone can start a thread discussion and I see several people have put disscussions out there about different topics, but I haven't seen much, if any activity, on them. Perhaps a Group thread just doesn't get the exposure as the topical discussions do. I belong to one such thread ... it's under the category of Motivation and Support and is named "Need to Lose 100 LBS _ Robins Thread".

The focus of that thread is weight loss, not diabetes management ... so I am really hoping this group gets more action on it.

Boy, aren't most of our stories similar?!?
Niki

Hi everyone,

My name is Liz and I was just diagnosed with T2 last week. I guess I've known for a much longer time but I've been avoiding the dr like a plague. I have some issues with my legs and that brought me to the dr and well .. here I am.

I'm currently taking 1500 metformin and will be starting Farxiga 5mg tomorrow. The dr says if I lose weight that I should be able to control what's going on. I'm actually going to a free clinic so even though they are helping me out it is pretty minimal. I don't have a way to track my blood sugar on a daily basis and I wasn't given any sort of guidance other than 'Mediterranean diet is probably good for you'. But i'm a smart person and with the power of the internet and google I think i've come up with a pretty good plan for myself. I'm hoping I can get some good info from this thread and maybe some friends and tips along the way so I don't feel so .. alone .. I guess.

Anyway.. hi

Hi, I am Lori. I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on metformin. I see a dietician tomorrow. Type 2 runs in my family. I don't feel prepared to make more changes. I don't have a home meter, I just have lab tests for glucose. I have been feeling less fatigued during the day and I think it may be the metformin. I get tired after meals.

lorib642 wrote: »

Hi, I am Lori. I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and put on metformin. I see a dietician tomorrow. Type 2 runs in my family. I don't feel prepared to make more changes. I don't have a home meter, I just have lab tests for glucose. I have been feeling less fatigued during the day and I think it may be the metformin. I get tired after meals.

Hi, Lori. I read that you do not have a Glucose meter, is that correct? Your doctor or nurse practitioner should have got one for you. It is a handy kit to have around, and small enough for you to put inside your purse, as well. Call them and see if you can have one. Whether or not you are ready to make more changes in your life is irrelevant. It is either you take control of this health problem, or it will gradually Kill you. Sorry, but it is the truth. Push yourself a little bit to do something at home. Lying down/napping is not too good for you. Good luck, Lori.

Hi, Lori and Rita - This is a good group! I am glad you have joined. I find it so surprising that others have posted that their doctors don't start them on home monitoring when they are first diagnosed. Docs always seem so eager to start medication, but sometimes they don't give seem to want us involved in our own health. Pills help but they are just a part of the "solution"The more we know about our individual situation with food the more empowered we are. How soon do you go back to the doctor, Lori?

I don't understand how a doctor can tell a diabetic that they do not need a meter . I am happy to see you and your doctor will discuss more at your next appt. Possitive encouragement is very important for everyone. Hi, tngram2seven. Hi, Chars.

I go back in the beginning of January. I have been seeing a dietician for weight loss so I went to her for info on diabetes. She gave me a lot of info, but she is not a certified diabetes educator. Depending on my next labs I may see someone else. She did give me some macro goals which helps.

Good morning. lately, I noticed that trying to stay on a constant 1,200 caloric diet is very stressful for me. Since women need 1800 cal. to maintain their weight, then I don't see any harm in a 1600 cal. diet. Just what is the differance? I wanted to go outside, but I just heard gunshots nearby. That puts the kabash on that thought. --

Jim, glad to see you here. This has been my year to get serious about my Type2 as well. It has helped me feel empowered. Being proactive has been paying off. My A1c is staying low, weight is slowly dropping and I'm stronger physically. Hang in there and give yourself time to adjust. -Toni

Hi, I'm Julia. I'm 53 and I've just been diagnosed a couple of days ago. I guess I'm still in the mentally overwhelmed stage. My (much older) brother was diagnosed 15 or 20 years ago, and so I've always tried to keep in my mind that if I didn't really get my act together, I'd probably end up in the same place. I started having afternoon shakiness every day back in 2007 and went with South Beach Diet to get healthy and lose weight. (SBD is eating lots of colorful veggies, sane amounts of lean meats, a couple servings of lower GI fruits, and a couple servings of only whole grain foods/lower GI starchy veggies like sweet potatoes each day, plus nuts and other healthy fats, spread out between 3 meals and at least 2 snacks. No sugar, no white flour, no junk food.) I immediately started feeling better, no shakiness and lots of other minor health issues gone. Plus I lost 70 lb along the way. I maintained that for a year or two, but then gradually just drifted back to mostly bad eating habits. I've tried on and off in the past 2 or 3 years to get my rear in gear, but consistency is NOT my strong point. MFP has helped me be more accountable...if I don't miss and not log my food. And now this.

My doctor seems to be confident I can avoid meds/insulin for years if I eat right and exercise regularly (my A1C was 6.6). I need to do this! From SBD before and just general research through the years, I know how to eat right, but I'm not sure if there are special issues that the diabetes adds to the mix. I have appointments with a diabetic educator and a dietitian over the next week or so, but how to even start?

Thanks for the welcome, Toni. I'm surprised you didn't feel well on SBD; some of my SBD friends are diabetic and they did well. But then again, each person is different. I have been sick with a severe cold/flu bug ever since I was diagnosed, and most of each day, just getting around enough to make a meal for dh and me is about all I've been up to. I have got to get going on the exercise, I know, but weakness and dizziness have been wicked. Is there a "best" time to exercise? I am totally clueless about when blood sugar levels tend to be worst or when the exercise will do the most good or anything. I usually latch on and research and feel like I've got a handle on a topic before long, but everything I read seems to be either vague or contradictory to other sites, and I'm trying to read only reputable sites (ADA's, Mayo, WebMD, etc.) I'm glad only 2 more days till the diabetic educator. I figured out how to use the meter, but that's about it.

Hi:
I'm 64 type 2. My hardest meal seems to be breakfast. I have high cholesterol, diverticulitis, so trying to figure out breakfast is a big challenge. For a long time I was eating 1/2 cup rolled oats with a cup of cottage cheese. But my numbers go into the 180 2 hours after. I can't eat eggs every day because of Cholesterol and I can eat nuts of any kind because I have been hospitalized twice in the last year with Diverticulitis. I'm 6 ft. tall and weight 252 pounds. I suffer from the dawn effect often waking up with numbers in the 180's 250. I currently take 10 mg of Glipizide am/pm and 500 mg Metformin with the evening meal. I'm tired all the time and at the point I hate to eat because of what it going too do to my numbers. I know I mad right now and just venting but seriously if anyone has an idea for breakfast I'm all ears. Thanks for letting me vent.

Welcome gentlemen! It sounds like you are trying to improve your health. MFP has really helped me. This group used to post more but there seems to be just a few of us regularly active right now. I do a 1200 cal diet and try to get my protein up to 70 and keep my carbs at 150 or lower. Ourpapa - I eat greek yogurt for breakfast every AM. It is high in protein and not bad in carbs. I can eat in 1 minute and get out the door to the gym. It sticks with me until about 10:00 or even until lunch. I eat the kind with fruit in the bottom. You could get plain and mix in fresh fruit and sweetener. That might lower the carbs a bit. I have found I can't eat oatmeal or any other cereal and keep my carbs as low as I'd like. - Toni