Next week’s blood sugar tests and appointments

I kept to the new tablet routine and testing of my bloods, with my metformin, by levels did start to drop but only to a low of 20 which was still far from been anywhere near what I needed then to be. With my still high levels of sugar I did not feel any better day to day, and my dizzy spells where just as bad as always.

I mentioned that I also had to test my key tones, this test is not from blood but urine and I have to do this once a day when I first get up. This test is not needed for all who have diabetes but as I had seemed to also be losing weight I was told that this was important.

To explain what key tones are about is a little more complicated, but as always I’ll try to make it as simple as possible. The body needs sugar or really glucose which it converts for energy we need for day to day life. Due to the way diabetes stops the normal conversion of this in the body, at times the only way energy can be made is not from the sugar taken in via food, or even the own body reserves sent out by the liver, but from the stared fat and in worse case your muscles.

Therefore in very simple terms your own body can eat away at its fat and muscles, although this may be seen on 1st hand as a good way to lose weight, in fact it is potentially deadly, as at the same time it produces toxins which cannot be treated directly.

Now for the good news lol, my daily tests have shown that I have not developed any key tone readings so all safe for now on that score.

So now back to the appointments, during the week I received a appointment for my feet for the forthcoming week and a 2nd for a eye screening the week after this.

I was again surprised at the speed of these appointments been made, to be honest I was expecting them to arrive but the dates to be made for months away, I was becoming more impressed by the health service I was receiving than I had wished for.

I will leave things there for now and my next post will tell you about the following week’s feet appointment and blood sugar test results.

Specialist appointments and blood sugar tests

The process of getting my blood sugar levels is quite simple, 1st I have to clean my hands so that there are no external sugars to alter the readings.

I have to insert a test strip into the monitor and make sure the batch numbers match, after this the monitor shows a symbol to indicate it’s ready for the blood sample.

I then have to load a pen with a lancet which then punchers a hole in the skin of one of my fingers, this produces a small drop of blood which I place on the test strip; the monitor then counts down from 5 to 1, and then gives the result.

For a person without diabetes this reading should be between 4 and 6, and as you guess this is the range I am aiming for on each test.

My results came and I was shocked to find my level was 24, no wonder why I was feeling unwell this been 4 times the max it should have be.

I had been instructed that for the first weeks I was to take just 1 metformin, and increase this by 1 each week until I reached 3, this 1st should be with my main meal of the day, which I decided would be dinner, so I had 10 hours to go before I took my 1st metformin.

I then went through the test procedure before I went to bed, I did not know what to expect from just 1 metformin, and suppose I was hoping for something spectacular, this was not the case and my reading as now at 28.

Now to explain why I needed the specialist appointments, due to the way diabetes can affect the blood flow both hands and more often feet can be harmed, the lesser can be just numbness but the worst can be the need of amputation. This is why I was made an appointment will the foot specialist, so they would test my feet to see if I had started any loss of feelings in them.

The appointment with the eye specialist is needed due to the small blood vessels which again can be damaged by the high sugar levels this can lead to blared vision and worst case blindness.

I will leave things there for now and my next post will tell you about the following weeks appointment and blood sugar test results.

It all kicked in

When I returned to the doctors, I was surprised that my appointment was not with my doctor but a specialist diabetes nurse.

She was as you would expect very informative and carried out more blood tests, alongside weight, feet checking, which was all new to me lol.

One of the first things she made clear was the difference in type 1 and 2 diabetes, although 90% of the ill effects of having diabetes are shared by both types, the reason for the 2 groups is how your body is producing insulin, a type 1 means your body has stopped making its own and type 2 means you body still produces some insulin, but for some reason it’s not sufficient to keep things as they should be.

Later I will discuss this in more detail but for now I will continue with all that kicked in for me once I was diagnosed.

Although she is now my specialist diabetes nurse, there had to be other appointments made also with others whom would now be what she called my team, 1 was with a foot specialist and a 2nd with a eye specialist.

The reason for me having to have these extra appointments was that both your eyes and feet are at risk more than normal if you have diabetes.

There are a lot of complicated medical terms that come your way when you are diagnosed with diabetes, but you will find I will not keep on about these, but will keep it all simple like myself.
I was given a blood sugar monitor and shown how to use this correctly along with the other supplies like lancets and test strips that go alongside the use of the monitor; I was also given key tone test strips ( again later I will explain this in a little more detail as to what and why I needed these ). The last item given to me was a medical disposal bin, this was to put any of the used items into.

The monitor would keep a record of my blood sugar results, and show me how the medication I was to take is affecting this; simply put the range of a person without diabetes would be from 4 - 6 at all times.

I was also started on medication this was aspirin, statin’s and directly for the diabetes metformin.

As you may guess all this from 1 appointment was a little too much to take in.
So I will leave things there for now and my next post will tell you what I found when I did my 1st blood sugar tests and also I will explain why I needed the specialist appointments and other medication.

Self diagnosis

I noticed something was wrong when I could not seem to quench my thirst, this in turn lead to me having to go to the bathroom a lot lol.

At times I started to become dizzy, as this started to become more regular I began to wonder if I had what was then started to be advertised as the silent killer.

Like so many others I have been told I waited a few more months hoping it was just some bug that would go away by itself before I decided it was time to see my doctor.

I made a appointment and told the doctor all my symptoms, I was surprised that he then asked me what I thought it was ( I have never been one to go to the doctor the last time I think was around 10 years earlier).

I gave him my opinion and he said we will just have to see when we get the results of your blood tests. I was hoping for a quick yes or no there and then, but like all things I had to make an appointment for a week later.

Well no point in me dragging it out as you guess the results were positive and I was diagnosed with type 2 diagnosis.

I’ll continue with what all kicked in tomorrow when I next update.