Newly diagnoised and need advice

[booklady]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

I called our insurance today and I do not need a referral to see a specialist so that is what I am going to do . I have to wait until my husband is home from work because I do not know his password for the insurance web site and then I can find one in our network and make an appt tomorrow.
I had only taken the drugs for four days and I felt a bit icky yesterday but much better today.
I was on 50 mcg once a day. I had to take it before breakfast. I had bad panic attacks and was very irritable and it was awful. My throat started to feel funny and full where my thryoid was and that was only after four days. I will feel better talking to a specialist and seeing what my options are.
I am glad to be feeling normal again !!!!
Stephie

[2big4mysize]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

do you have the autoimmune thyroid disease Hashimoto's? if you were not tested fo it besure to mention the throat sweeling to your new doc.

[booklady]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

That is the thing, he just told me you have low thyroid take this and you are diabetc, take this and you have high cholesterol take this and I was so freaked out I did not ask questions. I called on friday and asked them to send me my lab results so I can get more information, they sure be here by tomorrow.
I promise I will talk to the specialist about that. I want more tests and tests on my adrenals and cortisol levels too as I have felt I had thyroid issues for at least six years but the tests would never comfirm it and I have a lot of belly fat.
I have never had this throat thing before and I still have it but I am not sure what is causing it as I am also having a lot of allergies and post nasel drip but it just happened to start a day or two into taking the meds. It very well could be from the allergies as I do feel that yucky post nasel stuff in the back of my throat that I have to keep swallowing . He gave me flonase for that when I went back in, so he had me potentially on four drugs and I am not taking any and checking my blood and it has been fine. so, I will keep on eye twice a day on my blood and write it down and go see the thyroid doc and keep strict on my eating plan and then go from there.
Very frustrating I can tell you !!
Stephie

[2big4mysize]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

easy way to know if the throart issue is your thyyroid is do the butterfly test.

How to Do a Thyroid Neck Self-Check

[booklady]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

Very interesting. I will see if I have a mirror anywhere in the house, lol. I do not use a hand mirror but maybe our daughter has one. I am really interested to try it, if she doesn't have one, I will pick up one from the dollar store, thanks !!
Stephie

[ChrisCro]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

I was recently diagnosed diabetic (Type 2) and only got my test results 3 weeks after that, as it's "the system" here in Croatia.

And it's a gynecologist who prescribed metformin... haha! Well, actually not "prescribed" as such, I have to see "my" doctor (which I don't have because I never go to the doctor... duh!) so that he can prescribe it.

But I am one who absolutely hates taking drugs, except homeopathy and herbal remedies when needed (and doing fine on them).

So after a lot of research and a bit of thinking, I decided to skip the medicine and go straight on a low-carb WoE. After all, if I've been diabetic and didn't know about it for years, what's a couple of months going to change as far as drugs are concerned? I might as well try to get better by changing my WoL...

I just find it very difficult to trust doctors when I see how quickly they put people on drugs with bad side effects without thinking twice about it. It seems to be the only thing they know about!

I also remember my grandfather, who was diabetic but not on meds, a long time ago - the doctor would do bloodwork the day after Christmas or New Year or Easter, when my granddad would obviously have indulged a bit too much, and then, bing! baaaaaaaad results!!

I am not a specialist ;-) but obviously you are "only" pre-diabetic and before jumping on the meds, perhaps it would have been worth trying with the diet first - that is, if your doctor had not scared you and tried to convince you that you need meds and surgery and all the like. Especially if he knows (??) that diabetes AND thyroid meds don't got that well together...

The more it goes, the less I trust most of the medical profession, and I have yet to find here a trustworthy doctor... gulp!

So I guess it all comes down to following one's instinct after all??

Anyway, I wish you the best for now, hoping all goes well and that you find what suits you better to get rid of that sugar in your blood!

[booklady]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

HI , I really enjoyed hearing from you !!
Oh no, I stopped the meds four days in because my blood was never that high. I have read and read and I just do not think I am a full blown diabetic quite yet. I do feel I am on the edge and if I do not stick to my plan and get this weight off I will be, but I am not yet diabetic.
I have never trusted doctors and the fact that I got so scared I just blindly did what he told me to do was out of charactor for me.
So, I do still check my blood and will for a bit longer but just to humor my kids and to show my doctor at some point.
I know the longer I am on the plan the better my blood will get and in time it will get back in the competely normal range. I am in for the long haul so it is just a matter of time.
I think so many of us do have doubt when we are diagnoised but get scared and do what we are told. Our oldest daughter is pretty freaked out with me that I do not want to take the meds but I told her I will keep checking my blood and if I feel I need the meds I will take them, but I tell her that to calm her down. I will not need the meds if I continue to eat like this and get my weight off.
LIke you the first few days on meds I read everything I could get my hands on and our daughter in law who has been in school for nursing ( RN) but orginally in high school planned to be a doctor and started working at hospitials and even has her paramedics license and worked in the field for a while thought my tests showed prediabetic too and she even called a nurse friend who works with diabetics and she was puzzled as to why I had been given drugs at this point. So, I stopped them that day. I do not regret it at all !!
I am committed to being healthy and it is just a matter of time before I am completely back in the normal range again.
We have to really take charge of our own health and not blindly do what we are told without researching and asking questions. It is our lives, not thiers and we have to invest in ourselves to keep ourselves healthy. Sometimes it takes something like this to get us on track, but we have to take charge of our own health because the doctors are so overworked they just want to hand us meds and pat us on the heads and send us on our way.
Not gonna happen, I am going to cure myself with dedication and hard work.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, it made me feel even better about my decisions and choices !!
Stephie

[ChrisCro]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

We used to trust the doctors a lot - after all, they went to varsity for soooooooooo long, they must have been some kind of semi-gods!!

And so it was. Until our neighbour doctor "missed" to diagnose my dad's heart attack, which he treated as being a tendinitis. That was in 1985, and until this day he will not admit he made a mistake. Fine. It was a miracle that my father survived his heart op 5 months later, which left him with 1/3 of the heart gone and replaced by some teflon stuff (1st time in the world then...).

It went on with a few other things as well, other doctors, other hospitals, etc. and other members of my family.

We turned to homeopathy, plants, osteopathy and we are quite alright with it all! Had I watched myself though, I wouldn't have become diabetic - my mistake.

I decided to give low carb a chance since, as I said, I've been living with diabetes and not knowing about it for quite a few years, most probably, and we wouldn't have found out if I hadn't been pregnant, since no other symptom was pointing at it directly. I face a new problem every day here, so you bet that irritability and fatigue can just be blamed on that!

I feel a lot more responsible for myself now than just a month ago... It's a new WoL, and a new WoE, far from what I'm used to, but I'd rather control that and eliminate the problem before it eliminates me )

So keep us posted on your results and on how you'll perhaps educate your doctor! lol!

Cheers!

[ChrisCro]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

A little update - I went to the village doctor for the first time yesterday.
I guess I kinda scared him, lol, as I handed him the hospital stuff and told him straight he should not bother with prescribing what the hospital idiots had written... )

Hum ))

I told him I was on a low carb diet, felt very very ok and didn't fancy eating much more carbs (still on induction then OWL, etc, but not planning on getting over the top again... )

He told me "yes, you should lose weight, the only way is by not eating to be full, you must stop before you get full, always!"

Right...

It's going to be a loooooooooong and hard road to convince him that eating "a lot of fibers" (ie brown bread, brown rice, etc.) will NOT do me any good! ) but I'm having so blood work and we'll see how it evolves...

Then hopefully in a few months he'll see that I'm not "dead" from too much "proteins and no vegetable" (????), well, the usual misconception...

Anyway - hope all's find with you so far )

Keep updating us )

Cheers!

[bykerdruid]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

There are so many here who's story could be my own...just the names have been changed.

I posted on a thread I started about my plummeting BG. I wish I'd gone back on Atkins three years ago (actually kicking myself for getting "off" it 7 years ago!) and my BG would have been fine and I wouldn't have had to take all those blasted meds. Live and learn, as they say.

If you have any doubts about Atkins helping diabetes, doubt no more. But if you are on meds, continue to take them until the doctor takes you off. Meds and life threatening diseases such as diabetes should be taken very seriously. I'm lucky, so far no damaged organs that I know of, but my eyes are getting blurry and I've got a bit of neuropathy. Man, all those diabetic diets out there and all the years they had it WRONG! Diabetes is the body's inability to process SUGAR. How to solve that? STOP EATING SUGAR or starches that rapidly turn to sugar. And Atkins is all about breaking the sugar addiction in Induction. Can we say "duh"? LOL

Just my two cents. Stay on meds until the doc takes you off, but keep with this WOE and he'll end up having to take you off them...I nearly gaurantee it. I know it's hard to convince them, but nothing will like results! I can't wait to show my doc my new BG levels!

[ChrisCro]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

Luckily for me I didn't start any meds, so it didn't artificially lower anything or changed anything since the first tests, etc.

Just (finally) bought my "machine of torture" ie glucometer and I'm half-way to where I should be, only 3 weeks after starting Atkins (and not doing it completely right for the first few days from lack of reading The Book, lol!, so actually more like 2 weeks, really...)

So, so far, so good, not much change on the scale, but a lot of people told me I'd lost at least 5 or 6 kg (while the scale says 2...) ))

Let's keep up the good work ))

[bykerdruid]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

Here's a couple of tips on that glucometer. You've probably been instructed on the basics, but a couple of things my diabetic instructor said (had to take the class for insurance to pay for supplies) that may or may not be in the basic instructions. It hurts much less if you hold your hand down low, either below your waist or below knee level if your sitting. You only need to set the depth of the needle as low as you can draw blood by squeezing down on your finger. Less depth, less pain. It's no biggie for me, barely stings and I don't find it to be torture.

And don't put all your faith in the scales. Inches matter. And losing inches makes you look like you're losing pounds. Less of you to see. So, if the scales aren't moving, grab a tape measure. Start recording your inches. And take a pic of now so you can SEE the progress. Which reminds me, I need to do both today before I lose too much to have a before reference! LOL

[ChrisCro]

Re: Newly diagnoised and need advice

Thanks for the tips!

I'd probably find it a lot harder without the lancing device, if I had to use a needle "alone"! It's pretty painless... )

And my insurance here doesn't pay for anything, gulp! I need to find a place to buy the test strips where it's affordable )