Welcome to the group.

I think second guessing and blaming yourself is fairly common. There is some sense that you did not exercise enough or diet better. I think culturally diabetes is viewed as a self-inflicted injury which probably feeds the self doubt. Plenty of us have self image problems due to family messaging or lifetime struggles with weight.

Stay strong. We are here to support and not judge.

Tell us what you are doing with diet and meds.

It took forever for me to see my BG numbers start coming down, so don't be discouraged. I claim the doctors think you won't actually stick to a diet or do anything, and so they want to add/adjust meds. This is a discouraging approach because you don't have any agency.

Are you monitoring BG?

Christy_Michelle2025 wrote: »

@ 2t9nty, Oddly my doctor didn’t prescribe Strips or Glucose machine to monitor my BG. She called me on the phone to give me the news from my bloodwork. I have a follow up in 3 weeks. She did start me on a medication. GLP-1. I’ve struggled with my weight the last 4 years since I hit my 50s. I used to be able to watch my calories and the weight fell off. Now my metabolism is very different. I have been very consistent with tracking, watching my carbs, lower calorie and have lost weight the last 10 days.

Would your doctor be able to refer you to a Diabetes Educator? If your insurance covers GLP-1 it may also cover an educator and maybe a dietitian. If you can see an educator, that may help. It helped me understand the basics.

I was diagnosed a little over three months ago, it's been real. I started in a GLP-1 right away (a sample pen) but insurance declined it initially, I appealed but it was approved a couple weeks after I ran out. I started again about 7-8 days ago.

I also made several lifestyle changes including increasing my exercise (I was already active but I added a couple strength training sessions to help preserve muscle while I lose and yoga to help with stress), reduced simple carbs, increased fiber, increased protein, reduced alcohol (I had a drink on New Year's Eve and on Christmas so I can't say I quit), increased water consumed, and also started a lowish dose of Metformin.

My A1C went from 7.5 to 6.2 since I was diagnosed. Hopefully it will further improve as I get closer to my pre-quarantine weight and continue making lifestyle improvements. I am starting to find the dietary changes a little challenging and I've had some tension in my family and friends. They also are having a little trouble adapting to how I eat now and don't fully approve of the meds (I wasn't on anything except a prescription topical retinal before). It can be a lot, but the upside is my family is starting to eat healthier now too.