Anybody have type 2 diabetes??

[Skybuster]

Tough news. But being diabetic is not the worst news you could have had. I have been working with mine for 20 years. I'm still not great with it, but the advice in this thread pretty much covers it. Lose weight, watch what you eat, don't binge eat, monitor your blood, and get educated. After that you can lead a very happy life.

One extra piece of warning, Perhaps you will be different, but my numbers usually run around 7-9. When I get really good and pull them down to a perfect 5, I feel nauseous. This is because I have trained my body to like the high sugar levels, not because 5 is bad. I need to get consistently good, keep the fives to train my body to like that level. So if you don't feel good, check your blood, you might be doing great.

Good luck and battle hard.

[wrang]

Hi guys,I am a doctor and love this forum. I am a newbie hunter and finding all sorts of incredibly helpful info on here,
I may not be able to give much advise on hunting tips, but i will try to give a "brief" and generic advise Re diabetes.

1. diet and exercise are your best plan of attack.
lots of different ways to doing it, but ask your doctor to set you up with a dietitian or a "diabetes nurse", almost all of Alberta clinics have access to one or two, and the service is covered by Alberta Health. the diabetes nurse and/or dietitan would give you the greatest detailed plan that would suit your situation, and will hold you accountable to the plan through regular and vigorous follow up, they will regularly give feedback to your doctor about your progress. working with a team of 2 or 3 is better than just working with your doctor alone.

2. Exercise; you need to work up slowly and gradually towards peaking your heart rate to a point where you are sweating, and that's when you want to keep going. start by a walk/light jog, 2 minutes walk with 1 min light jog for total 45 minutes, then after a couple of weeks, jog/run for 20-30 minutes. do this 3 times/a week. (assuming no current heart condition).
after 2-3 weeks, you shoudl start to see your physical stamina building up and you can do continuous light jogs for 20 minutes, I use this advise with my patients who hasn't exercised in a while and they find themselves able to do regular 20-25 minutes light jogs 3 times a week very easily.

3. Diet; a big one; eat smaller more frequent meals, never skip breakfast. at least 4 meals a day.
your main meals (lunch and supper), 1/2 the plate should be vegetables; 1/4 protein, 1/4 carbs. this is a guide and a start, build your meals around this.
In no way this is a plan but a place to start.
what type of carbs and what type of proteins, this is a different topic, but please ask if you need help with it.

4. Medications; if your doctor decided you need them, then take them as prescribed. and once you start loosing weight (if you have an above average Body mass index), you will notice that you will need less medications, and a lot of people don't need medications once they lose enough weight or if their diet become balanced enough and they exercise enough.
If you are a type I diabetic (dependent on insulin shots), that's a different story as you are more likely to need the shots for a much longer time.
Metformin is the first line of treatment, if it is enough, a second drug would be added, and we normally never substitute it without a good reason.

5. make sure you get a 3 month blood wok done on regular basis, that's the indicator if your diabetes is responding to the treatment. and see your doctor to review the result and adjust the treatment plan accordingly.

6. See an optometrist once a year. This is a must, and such assessments are covered by Alberta health.

7. Smoking and diabetes are like gas and fire, shouldn't be combined.

8. And finally; diabetics have a different way of experiencing pain, so if you ever have any pain above the belly button and up (indigestion, jaw pain, shoulder pain or shortness of breath or the obvious chest pain or tightness), go and see a doctor immediately, for example; indigestion in diabetics can be a sign of a heart attack.

hope this helps you build a plan to manage your diabetes. In noway this is a "how to treat diabetes", but just an overview of what are the different angles for controlling it and preventing it's complications.

all the best,
please feel free to ask any questions,

cheers

[Skybuster]

Thanks for posting wrang. Your comments and suggestions are bang on with what my doctors have been telling me over the past 20 years. And my experiences have proven out at least a couple of those.

[Scott h]

Originally Posted by Don Andersen

Been Type 2 for a number of years. Control is mostly about life style choices. Excercise and diet will have a profound effect.
I keep my #'s about 6.5..

Regards,

Don

You nailed it right on the head. Diet and exercise and follow your numbers. You will have a full healthy life if you keep up doing what you are doing. For those that don't they can expect a host of very unpleasant issues popping up. For the majority of type 2 diabetics the choice is theirs to make.

[Scott h]

Originally Posted by Sitting Bull

I got my results in on Friday. I am now on meds for it, as well as cholesterol. As well they gave me the monitor. My average is 19.5 mmol/L.
What can I realistically expect life to be like? I am a bit overwhelmed with all this and not sure where to start. Was sent home with a bit of info, but still.
Thanks .
Guy.

Get a nutritionist and a gym pass along with a trainer. Type 2 does not have to effect your quality of life but you will have to work at it.
Good luck to you

[Sitting Bull]

Wow guys, thanks so much for the words of encouragement. It means a lot to me. As well, Wrang thats for the detailed post.
Here is my update for the week. I feel real good already. I feel less bloated as well may have lost a couple pounds. I have cut out all chips and such, eliminated the 2 liters of fruit juices per night and started eating vegetables, salads .
Deserts and all that stuff are gone. In other words I have begun my journey. I am excited and cannot wait to all the small victories along the way.
Thanks again.
Guy.

[KegRiver]

I realize this is an old thread but it has a lot of good information in it.

One thing not mentioned is symptoms, for those who may be undiagnosed as I was a week ago.

My intention here is not to tell a long story but to offer a heads up to my fellow outdoorsman and women.

Back around 2004 I started having trouble seeing print, a natural eyesight deterioration due to aging. A few years later I found that at times my vision would become blurred. At first it was a few times a year and generally lasted for only a few hours.
I wrote it off as part of the age deterioration of my eyesight. It wasn't.

Then a couple of years ago I found that when my feet got cold I had a devil of a time getting them warm and when they did warm they would feel like they were on fire. I again wrote this off as part of getting older. It wasn't

In between the two I found I lacked energy badly. Some days it felt like work to even go fishing. Again I wrote it off as being part of aging. Again, it wasn't.

The condensed version of what happened next is, this winter I got the flu.
Then a cold, then a lung infection.
Eventually all the symptoms from those ailments abated but I still felt terrible.

I was thirsty all the time even though I was drinking around three liters of water per day. On top of that my mouth was always desperately dry and my vision so blurred I couldn't make out what was on TV. And I was peeing every couple of hours, day and night.

I wrote all this off as the after effects of the illnesses I had just been through, It wasn't.

Eventually my wife became so concerned that she insisted I see a Doctor.

Doc looked at me and said, I don't mean to insult you but you look like crap. I'm sure I did.
He listened to my symptoms, the present ones, then he had a nurse check my blood sugar level. It was 31 mmol/L Normal is between 5 and 7.5

You have type two diabetes he proclaimed without further ado.

Turns out all of the symptoms I have listed are classic indications of the onset of diabetes.

So I started on this journey to health that lead me to this thread.

One last thing. Two days after starting medication and diet changes I was feeling like my old self, all be it, weak as a toddler, and I could see again

As others have said, diabetes, at least type two diabetes is not the end of the road. Recovery from the symptoms can be swift and treatment not bad at all.

One week on and my blood sugar is down to an average around 10 mmol/L
I am finding the diet changes not hard at all.
I am building my strength with small amounts of exercise. But I still run out of energy pretty quickly, however each day I feel stronger and more energetic.

[flyguyd]

As long as you behave and play by the diabetes rules , the disease is pretty manageable.
Eventuall you will even get used to all the finger pokes and needles in the belly....lol