OK, up until December 3rd, I lived in my denial little world of still being 'healthy' at this weight. I went to the doctor to find out that my 3 months of headaches were caused by extremely high blood pressure (never had BP issues before) 230/130.
And, I had an under active thyroid AND my blood sugars were high - 143.
So, they started me on BP meds. That came under control quickly. The thyroid is getting close (was 43, now is 15, needs to be under 3 and near 1 is better), but my blood sugars the next time was 209.
My doctor thinks a lot is messed up because of my thyroid, so he's not wanting to 'call it' with diabetes yet. He's checking my thyroid in 6 weeks (about 3.5 more weeks) to see if it's now OK. and in three months (now about 2.2 months) to see if my blood sugars are OK. In the mean time he told me to exercise and eat low carbs, which I had already started a week earlier.
Question is though - I had gestational diabetes 5 plus years ago and I had to test my blood sugars 7 times a day and I went from having 200 plus walking blood sugars to about 70 within three weeks by controlling my diet/carbs.
So, I'm wondering, should I be doing that, testing after meals now so I know how I'm doing and what works for me and what doesn't? I have eliminated bread and rice and simple sugars. I have in small proportions potato (was not a problem for me when I had gestational diabetes) and the Barilla Plus Past (which is high fiber and high protein, but I don't know how my body reacts to that).
I know the doctor is giving me time to get it sorted out and waiting to see if my thyroid is the culprit, but wouldn't it help to have more guidance (test readings). I looked at buying them, but WOWZERS! Expensive! Last time insurance covered that expense. Should I ask my doctor to say I need them, temporarily while I get this all sorted out? What would you all do?
BTW... my kidneys are functioning fine and everything else seems OK. And my hope is that with eating a better diet and losing all this weight will allow me to go meds free (except for the thyroid).
I don't know much about thyroid but do know that eating healthier and lowering carbs has mightily improved both my BGL readings and my BP. "Expensive"? Do you mean the test strips or a lab test?
I don't know much about thyroid but do know that eating healthier and lowering carbs has mightily improved both my BGL readings and my BP. "Expensive"? Do you mean the test strips or a lab test?
I mean the test strips. They are like a dollar a piece. and to really know what my triggers are, I should test an hour after every meal, so a minimum of 4 times a day while I figure it out. WHen I was pregnant with gestational diabetes, it was 7 times a day - at rising, 1 and 2 hours after each of my 3 meals. That's when I learned (at teh time) I couldn't eat any bread of any sort. No rice or brown rice, but could eat potatoes. Then I couldn't manage pasta, but there wasn't this new high fiber/ high protein pasta then.
I don't have the blood pressure problem, actually, mine tends to run low which is because of my hypothyroidism. I do know that thyroid problems can play with blood sugars a little but it seems it makes them go too low instead of high. My last TSH test was 1.15 and I feel so much better. I am also a type 2 diabetic which was diagnosed after the thyroid got more under control. I agree that should should test yourself before/after meals just to have an idea what your body is doing with certain foods. Cutting out bread, rice, pasta, etc is such a good idea for blood sugars plus it aids with weight loss.
Tests strips are very expensive but what I do when I am testing different foods and such is buy the ones from Walmart (Relion brand) because they are less than a dollar per strip. I wish you the best.
Get the strips, and just pace it out so you aren't testing so often.
Maybe morning fasting, and then random 1 or 2 hrs after a meal.
And start doing diabetic exchanges for your calorie level. Aim more for whole foods, low gi foods. It won't hurt you, and if you need to go there because you are diabetic, you'll be ahead of the learning curve.
Thanks everyone. I already am eating a low Glycemic diet, but I want to know where I'm at. I would hate to be eating something that is tripping the sugars and not know it. Or avoiding something that is actually fine!
It's actually been incredibly easy to give up the simple carbs. What's not so easy is finding enough low fat/cholesterol alternatives. I don't like most dairy products (milk, yogurt, cottage cheese), so that gets limiting. Otherwise it's meats, beans and nuts - which I'm eating too.
Does insurance even cover test strips, I wonder? They must!
I just relooked at my blood sugar results too. The December 12th ones were 134. The January 11th ones were 209 (getting worse as my hyphothyroidism is getting better). I started exercising Jan 3rd and eating low carb Jan. 12th when I saw the lab results. They won't be checked again until mid April.
A lot of insurances will cover tests strips but usually for a 30 day prescription. The thing is the doctor has to put on the prescription how many times a day you test. What could happen is that they put you test once a day and then you pay your co-pay and you will probably be paying more than a dollar per strip. So it's very important that the doctor write the prescription for much more than once a day.
Yes, get your doc to write a prescription for the strips with refills.
Ruth, you lost me there! I don't know what that means. I looked these up on wikipedia. I'm assuming these numbers are pre-prandial as they were done after fasting 8 hours (overnight). Basically, these are 'equivalent' to my waking glucose levels (plus the hour to get to the lab, of course).
And, I remembered wrong... I've been doing low carb since Jan 3rd too... it's been so easy I forgot it's been a MONTH.
HA1C is a test done with fasting bloodwork at the lab. It shows you what the average reading was each 24 hours over a three month period. They are usually expressed in metric. Readings between 6.0 and 7.0 are considered controlled diabetic.
To convert American readings to the ones used by the rest of us, divide by 18.
Does that mean you give a vial of blood EVERY DAY for 3 months at a lab? Good grief I would die. Took them 4 pokes with three of them digging and digging to get one decent vein.
I'm hoping testing every day at home on a test strip would be good enough!
Nope! The single test every three months establishes your HA1C the same as if you tested hourly for 24 hours for three months and then averaged it. Your red blood cells have a "memory"!
Thanks! My son took it in late November, the day I got my hair chopped off (24").
I'm not quite sure I get it or not. maybe that's why he chose 3 months to retest?
All I know is that when I ahd gestational diabetes, with diet, I was able to get my fasting glucose level down to about 70 on the dot after about 3 weeks. And with testing 7 times a day, I only had high blood sugars when I was experimenting with what worked and what didn't (the first week or so). Otherwise, everything was going well. But that was with pregnancy. A whole different thing altogether.
I'll have to read up more. His feeling was taht I could possibly get this under control without having to take meds.
Last edited by berryblondeboys; 02-04-2011 at 02:52 PM.
You are right, your gestational diabetes is different from what you are experiencing now. But related. You are wise to work at weight loss and I think it would be helpful to test too, but not too many times a day.
You could do fasting and after lunch one day, and after breakfast and supper the next. And doing pre-meal levels may not be as important right now. If you really want to see how you react to certain foods, the 2 hour post meal value will be more important.
Remember too, that exercise will help all of that. Hope you are feeling better with the thyroid meds too.
Since the sugars got worse, you might want to bug Doc into prescribing strips for several tests a day, and or an oral med to get it into line. A wait and see approach for diagnosis is reasonable, but not for action!
Since the sugars got worse, you might want to bug Doc into prescribing strips for several tests a day, and or an oral med to get it into line. A wait and see approach for diagnosis is reasonable, but not for action!
We're trying the diet approach first to see if I can get things in line on my own. And since my thyroid is/was still a big question mark, it's still hard to know. Which is why I think test strips would help me in knowing if what I'm doing is working or not.
I haven't had any rice, bread, simple sugars since January 3rd. I've had a bit of barilla plus pasta which is supposedly better and small amounts of potatoes that at least with GD, didn't raise my blood sugars, but who knows in a nonpregnancy state.
My situation
